It's a Mental Game, Too
By Albert Gamarra, MS, and R. Keeth Matheny
Imagine a season filled with ups and downs, dramas and conflicts. At the culmination of this long season, you find your team tied in overtime with nine seconds left on the clock and just 12 yards away from the greatest season in your team’s (club’s) history. You’ve been awarded a penalty kick and as your player readies outside of the box, both teams are now on one knee holding hands and praying. Your 17-year-old captain stands over the ball with an air of confidence, waiting to shoot.

“Don’t worry, coach,” the captain says. “I can make this in my sleep. I’ve been practicing this moment in my mind for years.” 

Her face reflects concentration, but there’s a slight smile as she strides confidently to the spot. She goes through the same pre-kick routine you have seen literally thousands of times in practice (not including the countless weekend and off-season kicks). She nods deliberately to the referee for the whistle and focuses slowly on the flow of a comfortable swing. You hold your breath as the ball sails perfectly into the upper 90 and into the net, thankful for the emphasis you placed on developing your players’ mental toughness.

Coaches can play a crucial role in the development of this and other related mental skills. Most coaches are well aware of the importance of the mental side of soccer. However, few coaches emphasize the development of mental skills, mainly because they are not familiar with techniques for developing those skills. A lack of techniques for mastering the mental side of soccer can significantly block your players’ chances of excellence.

As the gap between the elite teams at all levels and their less talented competitors grows smaller, more focus on technical and mental training is becoming apparent. Excellence results from physical technique and mental skills. Technique comes from quality instruction and quality practice.

Mental skills, like physical ones, are trained over time with practice. Just as a coach uses practice and coaching points to develop a physical profile of greatness, a mental trainer uses mental practice and coaching points to develop a mental profile of greatness. Provided the physical strength and technical skills are there, the mental profile becomes the determinant of success. A mental profile of greatness has emerged through my discussion with successful players and coaches. The main characteristics in this profile:
  • High quality practice 
  • Imagery/mental practice
  • Owning the zone
  • Confidence
  • commitment 
• • • • •

The quality of a man’s life is a full measure of that man’s personal commitment to excellence.
— Vince Lombardi, former NFL coach
• • • • •

Commitment
As with every athlete, great soccer players develop through hard work and good practice. And like every athlete, they must have a high level of commitment to becoming a champion. Coaches can do a great deal to raise an athlete’s commitment level. Have the athlete visualize the ultimate goal he/she is trying to achieve, then work backwards to where he/she is now. Ask the player to list the skills of great players, then lead the discussion toward skills from this article and other materials you have obtained while coaching. Then have the player rate his/her current ability levels in the top 10 skills you both have rated as most important.

After identifying these, set specific goals for each skill and a plan of action for attaining these goals. This will serve as a contract between you and the athlete. The athlete will feel ownership in the training and it will focus and increase his/her commitment level. Post the skills and goals and refer to them regularly. Make sure to give progress reports and frequent feedback.

High quality practice
Practice does not make perfect; practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect.
A player who respects the game will work on the quality of effort in practice every day. High quality practice begins with having a daily mission, working on a specific goal. An example might be working on keeping the head down while following through on a shot.

However, this goal must be specific and measurable. So a good example would be: “Today I am going to kiss my knee on 9 of 10 practice shots.” The player should be encouraged to state this mission to some teammates and coaches so they will hold him/her accountable.

Have a purpose not only for each day of practice but also for each act during practice (i.e., each throw-in, shot or pass). The player always should know what he/she is working on with every shot. Never do meaningless repetition and avoid just going through the motions. Ten good focused kicks are better than 100 going-through-the-motion shots. Make sure that your players stay focused during practice and that they don’t start a shot until they are focused on what they are doing. 

A second skill of high quality practice is awareness. Awareness is concentrating on the feel and the technique to the point that your player knows what is right and wrong in every shot. Encourage the player to concentrate on the process – the swing, the feel – and let the outcome take care of itself.

A final skill in high quality practice is pressure. As a coach you must seek ways to put pressure on their practice shots and you must encourage them to add their own pressure. Try challenges, players rushing kicks and even players yelling or distracting each other. Some coaches even have a team sprint session riding on whether the player makes a shot. This technique is good if used appropriately and in moderation. Simply getting the athlete to make a commitment to high quality practice will help immensely.

• • • • •

Practice without improvement is meaningless. — Chuck Knox, former NFL coach
• • • • •

Imagery/mental practice
From darts to archery to pistol shooting, imagery has been proven to be a very successful tool in enhancing performance. Imagery can have two important uses for players: (a) enhancing performance and (b) mental practice. Imagery can enhance performance by “triggering” the mental blueprints for the skill. These blueprints are the stored versions of the physical skills. Athletes can use imagery in the split seconds before each shot to “prime” this blueprint. Imagery also can be used for mental practice. Players have very limited practice stamina. They can only do so much physical practice each day. Mental practice enables them to gain unlimited additional practice and thus, a significant advantage.

Most of our players already have had some exposure to imagery through camps, clinics or books. Imagery is a skill like any other, and you must practice it and work on the fundamentals to make it most effective. The fundamentals of imagery are vividness and controllability. Vividness is the clarity or sharpness of the image, like the contrast, tint and color settings on a television. Controllability is the degree to which the athlete has control over his/her images. Players must constantly work on these two fundamentals in their imagery. Here is a list of basic tips for good imagery:
  • Multiply Elaborate images to include as many stimuli and senses (sights, smells, feelings and sounds) as possible.
  • Internalize See the actions from within rather than as an observer.
  • Success It is self created imagery, so make sure it is extremely positive and amazingly successful.
  • Specific Encourage use of imagery to practice in the settings of the next performance and to practice overcoming difficult situations. (i.e. game-winning penalty kicks, free kicks, 1 v. 1 defense or offense, etc.).

Having introduced your players to imagery, start giving them imagery homework regularly. Include kicks from all angles and distances, and in pressure situations. Have them include future opponents poor officiating, negative fans, etc. Imagery is a great way to dramatically increase your players’ performance.

Owning the zone
Many athletes refer to their best performances as being “in a zone.” This zone is their ideal frame of mind and excitement level for performance. Owning the zone is controlling yourself enough to always be in the zone for performance. Here are the steps for owning the zone:
  • Awareness The player must first know the exact feelings associated with the zone. How excited are they? How focused are they? What are they saying to themselves? How did they prepare for the game? Have the player keep a journal of these answers for each performance and practice.  Then relate the answers with how well they played. Simply look at the answers for each individual player’s excitement level, focus, preparation, and self-talk during his/her best performances. This information is the definition of their zone.
  • Pregame routine Use the answer to what kind of preparation gets them to their zone in order to build a pregame routine. For example, if going for a short jog while listening to their favorite music leads to their best performances, then have them make that a permanent part of their pre-game routine.
  • Pre-shot routine A pre-shot routine will give the kicker a set of thoughts and behaviors that he always does before shooting. This will enable them to ready his\her mind and make his entire performance automatic. Personalize each routine, but be sure to include the elements of release, focus, image, and trust. Release is a deep breath and smile to clear the mind. Focus is a concentrated effort to bring all the attention to the present moment and on to a small target (e.g., a patch on the ball). Image is imaging a successful shot just prior to shooting, in order to prime one’s mental blueprint. Trust is letting the body do the motion on automatic pilot.
  • Control what you can Look back at every player’s journal. Help the players avoid the thoughts and behaviors that lead to their poor performances and keep their focus only on the thoughts and behaviors that lead to their best performances.

• • • • •

Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you are right — Henry Ford
• • • • •

Confidence
Confidence stems partially from the skills we have already discussed. If your athletes are putting in the quality practice, using imagery and mental practice, and are in control of their zone, then they will be confident. Confidence is so crucial though, it is worth the time to work on additional sources for confidence. Here are three simple additional sources.
  • Mental highlight film Always encourage your players to constantly relive their best performances and to forget their poor performances. Of course before simply forgetting the poor performances, we want the players to learn from them. The key is to remember only long enough to learn and then to forget.
  • Positive feedback Both the coach and the players must strive to say positive things about the players’ performance. Negative comments will take a heavy toll on a player’s confidence if he/she is not almost drowned in positive feedback.
  • Walk the walk Body language can have a significant impact on confidence. If your player can look, walk, talk and think confidently, he/she eventually will become more confident. Encourage the player to walk the walk.

Share the material in this article with your players and coaches. Use the materials you are comfortable teaching and expect a learning process. You can help your players develop much more quickly if you can get them to work on the mental skills in the off season. During the off season encourage your players to seek help in developing mental skills by attending camps that emphasize the mental part of soccer or by working with a qualified mental trainer.

Editor’s note: Albert Gamarra has been involved with youth soccer as a player and coach for 22 years. His playing years were spent in Miami with the Florida Youth Soccer Association. After completing his high school career at Miami Killian Senior High as an all-state selection, he moved to Gainesville, Fla., to attend the University of Florida. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in sport psychology.
He began his coaching career in  Gainesville, assisting with youth teams and the Bucholz High School. team In 1994 he moved to Tucson, Ariz., and continued his coaching, assisting at Sahuaro High School. In Tucson he has made numerous presentations on the mental aspects of soccer. Gamarra credits his high level of soccer knowledge to his father, and also his former coach and mentor Dennis Hackett.

References
  • Ravizza, K. & Hanson, T. (1994) Heads up baseball: Playing the game one pitch at a time. Masters Press.
  • Vealey, R. S. & Walter, S. M. (1992) In J. M. Williams (ed.) Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance. (p. 200-219), Mayfield.
  • Williams, J. M. & Krane, V. (1992) In J. M. Williams (ed.) Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance. (p. 200-219), Mayfield.


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