The world of football is funny.
As a player you can have days where you’re completely unstoppable, and then other days where you can’t even control the ball…
One thing that players often forget is how much of the game is actually “MENTAL”. Of course talent is important and players do need a certain level of ability to play at a high-level. But what happens in places where all the players are talented? When everyone has ability, what makes certain players “special”?
The only real differentiating factor when you play at a high level is your “mind”. How you approach the game, the habits you have on and off the field, your level of self-belief and confidence… all of these things separate the good players from the special ones. But despite this, very few players take the mental part of their game seriously.
Consider this.
The best players are actually not that good… but mentally, they are great. They have the most important attribute of all: Confidence.
The hardest thing to give any player is confidence. Not the false kind of confidence where a player is delusional and tells themselves that they are much better than they are when their performances don’t reflect that.
We’re talking about real confidence. The confidence that not only makes a player believe he’s good enough, but actually makes them “know” that they are.
Different players cultivate and create this confidence in different ways. There are some players that seem to have it abundantly. Players like Zlatan Ibrahimović.
But then there’s the rest of us. The players whose confidence comes and goes. For us, we need to build our confidence. And the question is, how do you do that?
Where confidence comes from?
Real confidence can only come from continuous practice. If you’ve passed the ball a thousand times, the 1001th time you pass it, you won’t doubt yourself as much as you did the first time. That is confidence, and the more you practice the more confident you get.
But aside from practice, players can also train their mind. Visualization, saying affirmations, having a pre-match routine… these are only a few examples of techniques you can use. Every player is different, but if you’re a player who’s struggling with consistency and confidence, the solution isn’t always that you need to train more, it could be that you just need to train smarter and cultivate your mind.
This blog is written and created by True Talents of Africa. The TTA Football Academy program is a specialized highly intensive football program designed to turn students from ‘students’, to ‘student-athletes’. The program enables talented football players to pursue football at an elite level without subtracting from their education whilst granting them greater opportunities to play internationally.
If you would like more info on playing opportunities for yourself or your son, you can join our next masterclass.