“It’s a frustrating game because the situations so drastically change at different times over the course of the week, the game, the season. It feels like brain surgery at times.” Tom Brady
The common denominator between all winners is a mindset.
The mindset can make the difference between victory and loss on the football field.
However, there are two football mindsets that contribute to athletic success.
• The training or practice mindset
• A trusting or performance mindset.
Training or Practice Mindset
A practice mindset is one that strives to improve at all times and never has a cap on growth.
An athlete with a practice mindset never thinks, “I’m good enough; I don’t think I’ll practice anymore.” A practice mindset is one skill that has proven to be very effective in football psychology to promote mastery and growth in all aspects of an athlete’s career.
Taking the mindset, “I’m just practicing this so I can get good at it,” forces you to self-reflect and learn from the experience. You lose your fear of failure.
Therefore, not only you will feel less stressed, but you will also continue to master mental game skills and gain more football confidence.
Trusting or Performance Mindset
An athlete with a performance mindset focuses less on the result, and more on the process.
When you focus on performance, you think from a different perspective.
Performance orientation ensures you give something rather than get something. It opens your view and perspective.
Performance focused asks: What behaviors are required along the way? What’s actually in my mind at the line? Which words? With what attitude do I face setbacks? What’s it look like to respond rather than react?
Performance orientation is thinking big and acting small. You keep the mission top of your mind, but stay focused on key tasks in the process. The road to the end result passes through thousands of micro-moments.
How to Adopt the Right Mindset
There are several key pillars necessary to sustain an optimal performance mindset. Below are four to get you started.
• Football mental toughness
• Focus and awareness
• Meditation
• Mental imagery
Football mental toughness is the ability to bounce back from setbacks. It’s about developing a mindset that allows you to perform under pressure, and cope with a turbulent and ever-changing sporting environment.
Focus and awareness are about knowing what is required to achieve success. It is about adopting a laser-like focus on what is important. You need the awareness to know if what you are doing is getting you what you want. Or is it pulling you away from what you want?
Meditation enhances focus. Meditation will help you strengthen your focus on the present task and keep you in the moment. It will help you and eliminate distractions that may interfere with your performance.
Mental imagery is using all of your senses (e.g., see, feel, hear, taste, smell) to rehearse your performance in your mind.
To perform well on the football field, you must be present at the moment and avoid distractions, adapt to stress, and find value in adversity and recognize that a football mindset is fundamental to your performance.
We all struggle with fears and perfectionism, but the path to becoming successful is to first adopt the right mindset, learn the skills and practice. With the right mindset, you can shift from a vicious cycle of fear to a confident athlete.
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