“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz

Most elite performers have established pre-performance routines they consistently partake in before competition to improve their athletic skills.

To be a better competitor in the football mental game, you have to be consistent about your mental and physical exercise habits.

If you want to perform consistently, it is important to incorporate athletic skills into your daily routine and become consistent at utilizing them.

This consistency will help create an environment for you to perform at your best and to focus optimally. Once you have learned the strategies, the goal is to become a more reflective and self-directed performer. You will need to begin to record and monitor your performances and to learn from your experiences. You will need to refine and adjust your skills as necessary to find the right recipe to obtain consistent performances.

When you are consistently working on your athletic skill development, it directs your attention to what’s important. If you are focusing on the process and what you need to do in that moment, there is no room for unwanted or distracting thoughts to creep in.

Feeling in control of your performance, establishing consistency, and seeing yourself succeed is going to increase your football confidence to perform at your best.

Most top athletes and coaches believe that football mental toughness plays as crucial of a role as physical attributes and learned skills in the make-up of champions.

When physical skills are evenly matched – as they tend to be in competitive games – the competitor with greater control over his or her mind will usually emerge as the victor.

Mental strength is not going to compensate for lack of skill, but in close contests it can make the difference between winning and losing.

We all have things which we are inherently good at, things which we seem to pick up easier than other activities. Yet many athletes go through their entire career without truly realizing the things they excel at. Or they spend too many years wasting their energy on trying to overcome their weaknesses. This often leads them into attempting to become someone they are inherently not ever going to be!

Successful athletes play to their strengths, they focus on tasks where they can make a difference.

This is not to say that you should start ignoring your flaws, being positive and focusing on your strengths whilst making an attempt to insure that your weakness become manageable is a key feature in improving your game.

Working around your strengths is about seeing opportunities rather than problems, learning to be lucky consistently moving from analysis to action (taking a proactive approach rather than a reactive approach) and generally just doing better in the game.

You should focus on your strengths and direct it to innovative new ideas and plans. Try to manage your football mind by ensuring that you slow down and think about what you are doing.

Nobody is perfect, we are all flawed in one way or another. But we are all unique and all carry a host of skills and attributes which have the potential to become powerful tools in our arsenals… we just have to realize it!

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