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ARTICLE BY MRS. RADOSŁAWA TRIFONOVA SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST
If you are a footballer who intends to enter the professional level, we recommend that you read the article several times and thoroughly analyze it, and then immediately implement the received tips because only in this way you can get a real benefit!
Just reading it without following any advice won't do you any good!
BELOW YOU WILL RECEIVE, AMONG OTHERS, 2 SPECIALIZED TECHNIQUES TO CONTROL YOUR MIND!
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SO HOW WE BUILD OUR CONFIDENT THINKING?
I’m going to give you two powerful techniques right now. These techniques are linked together, are related and can be used separately or combined. Used these techniques I want you to become a great thinker of your soccer.
You may think and fell that you’re a positive thinker and that you have a strong soccer image. Maybe you do. But stop and think for a few minutes. I reckon everyone can afford to think a little better every day, even positive thinkers. I think that you can afford to spend time becoming more aware of your thoughts, because if you can become an even more effective thinker, and if you can build an even stronger soccer image, then you’ll be the best soccer player you can be. Hey, you may even surprise yourself.
You may discover you’re not quite as positive as you can be. You may discover a few new, simple techniques to improve your soccer but before that, let’s me ask you some questions.
When you think about your soccer what do you tend to think about? When you think about your last match what is held in your mind? Do you think about your best moments or do you think about your mistakes? Do you think about the chances you made or the chances you missed? Do you think about the passes you completed or the passes you gave away? Do you think about the tackles you won or the tackles where your opponent out muscled you?
I ask these questions because I have quite a few people say to me “but I think about the bad stuff because I need to be realistic.”
The problem with this attitude is that you will constantly bombard your soccer image with the bad stuff. By being “realistic” and remembering the mistakes you made and the poor parts of your performance you have no chance of building your confidence.
Techniques deals with getting the right balance between thinking about your strengths and your weaknesses. But right now let’s get on and teach you technique one.
Technique 1: Stop listening to yourself, start talking to Yourself
I can’t remember where I first heard this statement but it’s true. Trust me, it’s true.
We tend to let our negative thoughts dominate our attitudes and behaviours.
Champions are champions because they choose to ignore this rubbish the brain comes up with. In fact they drown out their negative self-talk. They stop listening to themselves and constantly talk to themselves. They take control of how they’re thinking.
I’m going to hand you over now to one of the best strikers Didier Drogba. This is what he says about his preparation: “I think about what I’m going to do to escape my marker. I close my eyes and try to imagine it. I actually think about the way I’m going to score my goal. Most of the time when you get it in your head that you’re going to score a certain kind of goal, it happens.”
He’s strong, powerful and skilful. He moves well, more often than not works very hard and has an exceptional eye for goal. But he knows instinctively if he wants to feel confident he has to spend time every day picturing how he wants to play. Like all top athletes he pictures success every single day. And this is what I want you to start doing. Why? Because the brain cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. This is an amazing fact about the brain. Academic sport psychologists and neuroscientists have demonstrated that when you imagine playing soccer the brain actually thinks you’re playing.
So sit back on your sofa and start picturing how you want to play in your next game. You don’t have to see the pictures like you’d watch a movie in front of you. Lots of people find it very difficult to “see” pictures in their mind vividly. If you’re one of those people then don’t worry, don’t panic. Just try to get some kind of image. Try to get some “sensation” of playing. This is enough. This is absolutely enough to trick the brain that you’re actually playing. And if you do this you’ll be in good company.
Technique 2 - Magnify strengths and flip weaknesses
People who are successful in life out-work, out-prepare and out-think the opposition.
And it is the “out-think” part that I’m absolutely fascinated by.
Part of thinking successfully is the ability to magnify strengths and deal with weaknesses. It is vital that you spend time thinking about your strengths. This is a challenge: the ability to think about your strengths more often than not to build your soccer image, belief and confidence. But this must be balanced with an understanding and recognition of your weaknesses. This is what I say to my clients: “You must dwell on your strengths but acknowledge your weaknesses.”
When you think about your soccer you must spend at least 80% of your time thinking about your strengths, what you do well, what works. But 20% of the time you must analyse what needs to go better. And then you have to flip the weakness.
What do I mean by “flip”? Once you have figured out what you’re weak at you then need to see the weakness in a different light. Let me give you an example:
You think about your last game. You decide you gave the ball away too much. You decide that your weakness is your passing. Now you flip it. You need to say to yourself: “Great, I’m going to work hard on passing. I’m going to work so hard that it’s going to become a strength. How exciting is that, my passing will be a strength.”
You must acknowledge weaknesses and then flip them. Knowing and understanding and then getting excited about working on them.. that’s powerful. With that attitude you will inevitably improve.
How confident you’re is largely determined by your self-belief. Your self-belief is dictated by your soccer image. Your soccer image is mediated by how you think.
If you think effectively off the field you will feel more confident on the field.
You shape your brain by how you think.
Do you have any questions?
Ask in the comment and we will pass on the most interesting ones to the author
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