Playing Freely in Soccer
Do you or your soccer players need to “get out of your own way” when competing?
You might be thinking:
“What does it mean to get out of your own way?”
When an athlete is unable to get out of his own way, the mind is interfering with his physical talent. In a general sense, your mind sabotages your physical skills. The mental game is misfiring.
Most of the time, soccer players who can’t “get out of your own way” try way too hard, force their game, think too much, or over-analyze.
At Peak Performance Sports, we’ve conducted a massive amount of research with athletes on performing in the zone. These athletes talk about how they were able to perform without the mental handcuffs of over analysis…
Many athletes described an experience in which they felt like observers (of their own performance) allowing their performance to just happen, as if they were performing on autopilot.
Thus if you over think or over analyze your game, try to force every pass or shot, and second-guess your decisions, you are guilty of getting in your own way.
When you get out of your own way, you allow yourself to play freely without added pressure. You allow yourself to just do it and trust in your skills.
HOW TO GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY
1. Simplify Your Performance. Don’t over think your performance. Avoid filling your mind with too much information at once. Use only a few thoughts to help you perform.
2. Trust what you practice. The purpose of practice is to learn the skills and strategies to perform in competition. The purpose of competition is to let yourself play. Let go of the “how tos” (your technique or mechanics) and allow yourself to let it happen.
3. Go with the flow and don’t over-analyze your performance. Over analyzing your performance only makes matters worse. Be flexible with the situations that might happen during a game. Accept the fact that you will make mistakes. Mistakes are not ok, but you have to make them ok in your mind and move onto the next play.
4. Stop caring so much about results. A focus on results does not let you play in the moment. You have to care less and don’t attach significance to the outcome. This is what causes pressure for most soccer players. Think more about what you can do in the present moment and the results will come.
Check out our soccer specific mental training workbook program to learn more about how soccer players can perform with confidence, focus, composure, and consistency.
Soccer Confidence: Mental Toughness Strategies for a Competitive Edge – Workbook Program
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Do you perform well in practice, but find yourself under-performing in games? Do you doubt your skills and second-guess yourself under pressure? If so, mental training will help you reach your goals in soccer. Many soccer players have the skill but are held back by low confidence and lack of pregame mental preparation!
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