“Stay focused. Your start does not determine how you’re going to finish.” Herm Edwards

Keeping yourself poised in the most stressful situations on the field is important. A mishap shouldn’t get in the way of your accomplishments.

That’s why the world-renowned sports psychologist, Kenneth Ravizza, created the concept of the 3-R’s – Recognize, Regroup and Refocus.

1) Recognize your mistake and acknowledge that you cannot change what happened. Don’t concentrate on the error.

2) Regroup your thoughts and emotions so that you don’t get distracted by the wrong things.

3) Refocus on what is in front of you at the moment and what needs attention.

The 3-R’s are essentials factors for your football mental toughness. Here’s how you can master the 3-Rs of Focus.

A Positive Mindset

It is normal to have self-doubt from time to time and dwell on negative thoughts. The important thing is to be aware of these thoughts and make sure you know how to defer them.

Your football mind must be strong enough to pay attention to detail and recognize your mistakes.

One major clue to recognize that you’re stressing too much is when you find yourself acting too quickly, jumping ahead of yourself because you feel anxious and as if you need to achieve your goals immediately. You are afraid of failure, and that’s why you rush yourself.

Another way you can tell that your football mental game is declining is when your mind keeps moving towards outside thoughts frequently. The more regularly your mind shifts, the more negative your thoughts become.

The second step is to regroup your thoughts and stay positive. Your football confidence might be low after making a blunder, but you have to fight your inner thoughts and tell yourself you got this!

This step requires a lot of positive self-talk and mental preparation beforehand to learn to control your thoughts.

Developing an optimistic attitude takes a lot of time and patience, but once you have mastered it, your performance will improve significantly.

Focus on What is Important

The last step in the 3-R’s is to refocus your mind on the situation at hand.

Out on the field, it can get very overwhelming and stressful which leads to your focus altered. But it’s not the end of the world. You can slowly but surely learn to refocus and gain back your competitive edge.

In football psychology, you will discover that focus is essential to success.

When your goals and strategies are clear, and you are focusing on your objectives, distractions become few to none existing.

*Download the free mental game assessment and get started on Improving your Mental Game in Football.