Mind Techniques for Soccer Players |
If your body was a Ferrari, it would make sense to train the driver at the wheel, to get the best out of your performance. And in soccer, that driver.. is your subconscious mind.
It can give you everything you need out there on the field - supreme skills and consistency, accuracy, power, speed, control, confidence, belief, calmness, and much more...
As the mind is controlling your body's performance during practice and games, it makes sense to train it, much like you do with your ball skills - and luckily it doesn't take as much time. It also gives you a massive secret weapon - an advantage over your opponents they wont have.
Visualization is one of the easiest and most powerful methods - this is where you mentally, realistically and regularly picture in your mind your greatest soccer skills (as if they are happening right here and now), which helps to 'program' your mind's inner computer - as this is the fuel-injected engine which can turbo-charge your future performances on the field.
Of course, in order for visualization to work correctly, the conscious mind must be in a relaxed state - and this can often be difficult for players to achieve.
One way is to create a mental 'sanctuary' in your mind, a beautiful place that will instantly relax you each time you imagine yourself there.
Once the mind is feeling relaxed, you have opened up the link to the awesomely powerful inner computer, your subconscious - and then is the time to begin visualizing your performances.
So how does visualization help performance? As your subconscious controls the body, through its massive network of 28 billion nerves - it can send physical commands to your body to achieve your highest levels of skill and performance, by sending electrical impulses around the body.
Sometimes this may even click you into the mental state known as being 'in the Zone' on the playing field (see our article on this).
The Zone, which occurs when your conscious mind's thoughts go unusually quiet, is the most powerful and instinctive performance you can possibly achieve, on the day - where all your body's systems are working to perfection on autopilot.
This occurs because once you have quietened the incessant chattering of conscious thoughts (which are are often filled with doubt, worry and fear that hinder performance and slow reactions), the subconscious can truly take control of performance - and it does this efficiently, easily and powerfully.
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