FOOTBALL
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Sports Psychology and Peak Performance
"Developing the Mind of a
Champion"
Dr.
Goldberg is the sports psychology and mental toughness consultant for
the UConn Huskies and has worked with a number of college and high
school football teams and hundreds of individual athletes on both sides
of the ball. He is the author of Sports Slump Busting and 14 Steps to
Mental Toughness, a 7-CD mental Toughness Training Program for athletes
across all sports.
You’d never think of
competing without first preparing physically…so why leave
your mental toughness preparation to chance!
A few years back I worked with a
Division III college football program that had lost 15 games in a row.
Their losing streak threatened to go into a third season unless they
could quickly figure out a way to turn their bad play around. What
really frustrated the coaching staff was that this year’s
squad had the talent to win, but consistently found a way to steal
defeat from the jaws of victory. The problem: The players expected to
lose. They had stopped believing in themselves and each other. Even
when they were ahead late in a game, just one bad break would get them
thinking, “here we go again…we always blow it. I
knew this was going to happen.” This line of thinking would
erode their confidence, kill their intensity and tighten them up so
they’d lose once again. They were finally able to snap that
losing streak by putting into play some of the sports psychology and
mental toughness techniques I made available to them.
A very talented receiver with
unbelievable hands found himself and his teammates in a position to
pull off a big win over a tough conference rival. With a four point
lead, possession of the football and just three minutes left in the
game, all their team had to do was get one more first down and then run
out the clock for the win. On fourth down and six, this receiver ran a
short slant pattern across the middle and found himself wide open. In
the long split second before the quarterback delivered a perfect strike
to him, he began to think, “All I have to do is catch this
ball and we win…what if I drop it…then
I’ll really be the goat?” Since you can’t
think and play good football (Thinking tightens your muscles, undercuts
your confidence and distracts you from focusing on the things that will
help you make the play), the receiver watched in horror as an easily
catchable ball went right through his hands, bounced off his chest and
fell hopelessly to the ground! The other team took possession, drove
the ball 53 yards and scored the winning touchdown just as time
expired.
Late in the NFC championship
football game against the Atlanta Falcon’s, Minnesota field
goal kicker Gary Anderson came out onto the field with a chance to seal
a victory and send the dominant Vikings into a Super Bowl showdown with
the Denver Broncos. Anderson was “Mr. Consistency”
under pressure and had successfully nailed his 37 previous kicks.
Whether it was the pressure, the defensive rush or the atmospheric
conditions, unbelievably Anderson missed the kick leaving the door wide
open for the Falcons who quickly took advantage of the miss to score a
huge upset. What happened to such a good kicker? . There’s no
question that your focus of concentration before and during a play will
determine how that play turns out. My best guess is that Anderson lost
his focus and started concentrating on the wrong things like, how big
the kick was, what if he missed, what if it got blocked, etc. How else
can you explain such a great kicker missing a very makeable kick?
Let’s face it. Your mind is that powerful. Do you have yours
working for you?
While you need speed, strength
and endurance to play good football, these little vignettes clearly
illustrate that you also have to have your head on straight as well.
That is, you have to be mentally tough. This means that you have to
have the abilities to: Concentrate on what’s important, one
down at a time and block out everything else (the crowd, your
opponents, the coaches, media, weather, etc.); Quickly bounce back from
bad calls, mistakes and bad breaks; Think like a winner and maintain a
positive attitude; Manage stress by staying calm and loose under
pressure; maintain self-confidence; Avoid getting psyched-out or
intimidated; and Keep your motivation & intensity up.
How many football games can you
remember playing in where yours or your opponent’s head got
in the way sabotaging the performance? Slumps, losing streaks, choking
or consistently losing winnable games are all clear examples of the
incredible disruptive power of the mind in trashing athletic
performance. So where do you fit in here? What kind of head do you have
on your shoulders? Are you mentally tough or a mental midget? Did you
know that the techniques and strategies in sports psychology can help
you develop the mind of a champion and lift the level of your game?
For example, several of the
players on the University of Connecticut football team had trouble
letting go of their mistakes. They so badly wanted to make a
contribution to the team that when they messed up, they’d get
really down on themselves. They would then hang onto this mistake for
the rest of the quarter or sometimes even longer. (If you want to play
great football, then you have to learn to keep your mind and focus of
concentration in the “now” of the performance.
Mistakes are in the “past.” You have to learn to
recognize when your mentally in the “past” and
quickly bring your focus back to the “now.”) If you
demand perfection of yourself and can’t forgive your mistakes
you’ll start making plenty more of them and your game will
quickly spiral down to the “outhouse.” Dwelling on
mistakes will only kill your confidence and get you trying too hard on
the next play. Trust me! You can’t play good football by
trying too hard. To be at your best you have to be loose, relaxed and
let the game come to you. These UConn players were able to quickly
learn and master several sports psychology techniques to help them
quickly let go of their mistakes. These included developing a
“mistake ritual”, “letting- go”
cues and several refocusing techniques.
Want to know the biggest cause
of choking in football? Would you like to have the competitive edge
over your competition? Then learn to avoid the biggest mental trap that
football players and teams regularly fall into; Focusing on
uncontrollables, the “UC’s”. There are
many things that are directly out of your control when you play
football. UC’s are the field and playing conditions; the
temperature; your opponent’s size, strength and skill level;
the crowd; your teammates and how well they play; the coaches and how
much playing time you get; your mistakes and anything in the past; the
game’s outcome and anything in the future; sickness or
injury, etc.
When you focus on an
uncontrollable you’ll get uptight, lose your confidence and
play way below your potential. If you want to play mentally tough
football, then you need to learn to recognize the UC’s and
quickly shift your focus away from them to those elements that you can
control.
Remember sports psychology
isn’t just for rocket scientists. If you truly want to lift
the level of your football you need to get smart! Start to work on your
mind. Use sports psychology tools to help you get there.
Don’t leave such an important part of performance to chance.
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