Mental Sharpness

Start slowly and build your pace on the bike over 10 minutes. Hold your stretches for 10-15 seconds and relax into them. If your body starts to shake or you feel uncomfortable then come out of the stretch.

Always begin with soft and light movements including hopping and skipping. Focus on your coordination and balance. Quality not quantity - don't sacrifice standards.

Accelerate all the way through and keep driving past the finish line. Don't stop suddenly and put the ankles and ligaments under pressure.

This issue is very much to do with motivation, although it might not appear so at first sight! We know from research that players see achievement in the game in two different ways and are therefore motivated in different ways to experience that sense of achievement. Some players see achievement as working their socks offs and trying to be the best they can be. These are known as effort players by sport psychologists and believe that ability equates to effort, and ‘the harder you try, the more able you feel’. Other players see achievement as being superior to others. These are known by sport psychologists as ego players who judge their ability relative to other players and have to demonstrate superior ability or outperform others to be satisfied. It sounds like the player you are describing is an ego player as wants everyone to see he can dribble better than any other players. In order to get him to be more of a ‘team player’, then you need to get him focused more on how he can produce more effort for the team. Sit down with him and outline to him that his dribbling is fantastic, but that is not what you are looking for from him all the time in the game. Agree a couple of very clear team goals with him and his contribution to the team goals. ‘Mentally’ walk him through some scenarios where you can get him to understand that success for players in the team isn’t just about being a ‘flair player’ but giving 100% effort and putting the team needs before his. Remember to be patient with him as he will be seeing the world in a very different way from you!

Keith Power- Mental Sharpness

Players are often told to ‘concentrate’ by their coach or team mate. After a poor performance a player can often be heard to say that they ‘‘lost’ concentration or that they weren’t focused that day. So what is concentration? I would describe good concentration as keeping your attention fixed on the right thing at the right time, and ‘lost’ concentration is when the focus of your attention becomes less than 100% on what you need to be focused on or when it shifts to other things. The really important thing to understand is that there are different types of concentration focus needed for different situations in a game. So for example, when you’re marking a player at a set-piece you need to be totally focused on that task (which is called narrow external focus). If you are a defender looking for passing options you need to be totally focused on looking for other players all over the pitch (which is called wide external focus). The final type of concentration is called internal focus, which is when you will be mentally thinking about how you are playing during a game. To improve your concentration, the first thing you need to do is to understand what ‘type’ of concentration errors you are making and as a general rule, work hard in training to address these. So for example, if you ‘switch off’ in games, mentally work hard to stay switched on by really focusing on where you are on the pitch and where other players are. A really good exercise that I use with top Premiership players is for them to practice the different types of concentration focus before they train. They start by standing behind the goal and looking at the whole pitch for 30 seconds (external wide focus), then they narrow their focus by looking at a knot on the net for 30 seconds (external narrow focus), then they think how that felt (internal focus), and then back out to the whole pitch again and then to the knot again. They do this for four or five times. Finally, don’t forget that concentration is a skill and something you can learn to improve. The more you practise it, the better it’ll become!

Keith Power- Mental Sharpness

It sounds to me like your players are focusing too much the result and not enough upon how to get the result – the process. If the players only see success as winning and losing as failure, it’s not surprising this is affecting training and games. The really top players and teams I work with always focus on the performance process rather than on ‘winning’. Great players and teams focus on the things that make up performance, like understanding their role in the team, getting fitter, eating and drinking the right things, thinking positively and working hard in training and games. You can get great confidence from these areas because you have control over them. You don’t always have control over the result! Focus on the process for winning NOT on winning in itself. Also reviewing the team performance is really important. At the beginning of the training session following your weekend game, whether you win, draw or lose, spend 10 minutes reviewing the game with them in a really positive manner. Ask them what was good in the game and where they feel they need to improve for the next game. A few golden rules for reviewing. Firstly, never review immediately after a game as emotions are too high. Secondly really emphasise the good things the team and individuals did – build from success not failure. Finally, from the review have two or three goals the team need to focus on for the week ahead. That way they will be focused on the right things and they’ll be positive, confident, and motivated for training and the game ahead.

Keith Power- Mental Sharpness

At all levels of sport, the mental side of performance is crucial to both team and individual success. The good news is that is not something you’ve either got or haven’t, you can improve your mental skills, just like you can improve your fitness or your technical skills – through practice! In fact research has shown that the difference between the good and the great performers is down to psychological factors like confidence, concentration, resilience, commitment and motivation. Today many football clubs and players work with sports psychologists to improve their mindset and to be able to perform at a higher and more consistent level and to be able to perform when the pressure is on. A simple exercise for improving your confidence is to think after games and training about all the good things you did and also picking out one or two things you could have improved on, and thinking about how you would deal with them differently in the future. That way you are thinking positively about a recent performance and learning how to be successful next time round – two big boosts for your confidence!

Keith Power- Mental Sharpness