GAME BODY MIND OFF THE PITCH NEWS

Aggression Can Set You Apart

So you think you’re aggressive huh? How would your peers rate you on aggressiveness? Better yet, how would you rate yourself on your level of aggression? Since, it all starts with you - where do you stand?

What aggression looks like?

Aggression – is your attitude and competitive nature. Aggressiveness is a mindset that the best players in the world just have. Being aggressive means that you are in the mix of play at every chance you get. You desire to receive and distribute the ball. When you don’t have the ball you pressure your opponent like crazy to win back possession.

Mia Hamm is one of those players that optimizes aggression. She did not become one of the most dangerous strikers in the world by being passive. Mia put everything she could into the game and always came ready to play mentally.

To be aggressive requires a certain mindset. Simply put, it is nothing more than deciding that you are going play with high energy, passion and determination. Go – Go – Go is the rate that you play and never stop. When you fall, you get up and you dig in harder.

Improving Your Aggression

No matter how aggressive you think you are, there is always room to improve. Playing with aggression for 90 minutes requires a lot of stamina both physically and mentally. However, you have to make up your mind to be aggressive. If you are the aggressor with in your own 1 on 1 positional battle, chances are that you will wear down your opponent but, he who has the greater mental muscle most often wins.

To improve your aggression you need to first evaluate where you think you are on the aggression scale. Go ahead, assign yourself a rating 1-10 and take action to turn up your aggression knob up.

Ideas for Action:

1. Determine who you think is the most aggressive player in the world then try to match that players level of aggression.
2. Before playing listen to aggressive music to help get you into an aggressive mental state (that’s what I did).
3. Visualize your self as a Cheetah chasing down its prey. Can you feel the energy?
4. Do 50 push-ups before a match as fast as you can to get your blood pumping (worked for me).
5. Watch a movie like Braveheart before play to get pumped up. Better yet, watch film of yourself playing at your peak performance then beat that performance.

As part of FFC’s series on, “24 Key Elements To Being A Great Footballer” we are discussing each key element in 24 successive blog posts every Monday, Wednesday & Friday over an 8 week period inside the respective Game, Body and Mind sections. For more information about the 24 Key Elements get our Players Assessment Kit here. Be sure to also subscribe to FFC by email or RSS - just visit the subscribe button in the top right corner of the page.

What ideas, input, experiences or resources can you share?

Why Communication Is Key?

How much do you communicate to your teammates on the pitch?  Do you provide direction when pressure is on coming?  For example, “Watch your back Bill, man coming from your left.  Look at James up top - he’s got Seth to support him - play to his feet”.  This type of communication helps teammates immensely and should be a significant part of your game.

What does communication look like?

Communication – is how well you listen to, instruct, guide and help teammates verbally.

ON THE PITCH

Communication is used to carry out instructions and tactical changes. This has become common practice in modern-day football. Forms of communication used during the match are: vocal anchors, gestures and signals.

Each type can be assigned to an individual, a unit and/or the whole team. Preordained commands/signs or gestures have been used to play offside and press opponents as a team. Often the spine of the team (center forward, center midfield, center back and goalkeeper) would use these forms of communication to keep the balance of the team formation.

OFF THE PITCH

Managers and coaching staff are able to influence the squads’ communication skills by interacting with the players. Often used at the Half-time interval and before/after a training session/match. This can be with an individual, small group or the entire squad. Resulting in an improvement to the working environment and overall harmony that aids the day-to-day running of any large football club.

5 Ideas for action:

1. Look at Captains of National teams and big clubs, how the use the technics of communication available on the pitch
2. Listen to interview and make a note when you feel the player or coach has a good media profile of the pitch
3. Ask advice from players/coaches who you respect
4. Attend courses provided by local or national sporting bodies on this subject
5. On the pitch, this tool is as important as any other skill, never neglect it and always look for new ways or new languages to enhance this tecnique

As part of FFC’s series on, “24 Key Elements To Being A Great Footballer” we are discussing each key element in 24 successive blog posts every Monday, Wednesday & Friday over an 8 week period inside the respective Game, Body and Mind sections. For more information about the 24 Key Elements get our Players Assessment Kit here. Be sure to also subscribe to FFC by email or RSS - just visit the subscribe button in the top right corner of the page.

What ideas, input, experiences or resources can you share?

Resources:

Football Communication

Communication Coaching

Switch On Your Confidence

Who controls your thoughts? You guessed it - YOU DO! Do you believe in your abilities or do you doubt them? Think about it a bit.

How can you expect to succeed if you don’t believe in yourself? Having confidence in your own abilities plays a major role in your ability to succeed. So, what is confidence really?

Confidence

Confidence – is your personal belief in your ability to do something, your emotional state of mind.

What confidence looks like?

If you think you cannot do something chances are you won’t. If you think you can do something chances are you can. If you do not believe in your own ability to achieve a goal you are creating your own competition. Why would you do that?

If you have to play against an opponent you must know that you will out compete them. Once you allow doubt into your mind you give your opponent a teammate and now you are playing against them and yourself. Now, the probability of success when you play 2 against 1 are that you will lose most of the time. It sounds so simple right? Believe it or not, it is that simple.

Make Up Your Mind To Achieve

Once you make your mind up that you have the ability to achieve something you will. Maybe it takes a few times but, if you do not believe in yourself, achieving success is much harder than it needs to be.

Confidence is a mindset. Think of it as a light switch that you have the power to turn on or off. If you are not confident in your own ability - ask yourself why? What makes you unequipped to achieve success? How can you change the elements in your thoughts that create timidness?

Professor Raj Persaud said, “true self-confidence comes from an attitude where you “promise yourself, no matter how difficult the problem life throws at you, that you will try as hard as you can to help yourself. You acknowledge that sometimes your efforts to help yourself may not result in success, as often being properly rewarded is not in your control.”

“If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won before you have started.” - Marcus Tullius Cicero. (Quotes Sourced from Wikipedia)

Ideas for Action:

1. Start every activity by believing in your ability to succeed.
2. Spend time visualizing what your success looks like. Then BE Successful.
3. Make up your Mind and understand that BEING SUCCESSFUL IS A STATE OF MIND.
4. Hang out with positive people and ignore negative people.
5. Read about confident athletes and practice their strategies to maintain confidence.

What ideas, input, experiences or resources can you share about confidence?

As part of FFC’s series on, “24 Key Elements To Being A Great Footballer” we are discussing each key element in 24 successive blog posts every Monday, Wednesday & Friday over an 8 week period inside the respective Game, Body and Mind sections. For more information about the 24 Key Elements get our Players Assessment Kit here. Be sure to also subscribe to FFC by email or RSS - just visit the subscribe button in the top right corner of the page.

How Tough Are You Mentally?

It’s a challenging question isn’t it? Yet, it’s what separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls. Your mental toughness is as important as your physical conditioning and technical skill and in the big games - it’s often what makes champions. Looking at it closely, what makes up Your Mind? As a player let’s take a look.

Your Mind Consists Of:

1. Communication – how well you listen to, instruct, guide and help teammates verbally.
2. Confidence – your personal belief in your abilities.
3. Aggression – your attitude and competitive nature.
4. Understanding – how well you know and study the game.
5. Reading the Game – your thought process and ability to impact the game tactically.
6. Awareness – your vision and foresight to capitalize or reduce pressure in the game.
7. Preparation – your ability to concentrate and perform consistently at high levels.
8. Composure – your capability to recover mentally from performance lapses or manage high stress situations.

Get Stuck In & Share Your Thoughts

Now, while we work to lead the discussion we need your participation and open mind. What do you think about these key elements? Where do you think you stack up? If you’d like to find out where you stand click here. Share your thoughts below and make sure to subscribe to the blog so you get everything right in your inbox or RSS feed reader.

Applying Our Collective Football Knowledge

Do you think you know it all? Some people do but, I sure don’t. I personally have so much to learn it’s crazy and so do you. However, you may not know it yet. Thus, is the purpose of this post.

Many footballers on FFC are here to get better. Others are here to reach the next level. Still, others are here to help the next generation of footballers and are seeking information too. True footballers always study the game.

So, wouldn’t it be cool to be a student of the game while at the same time teaching others? This may sound nuts but, it’s actually simpler than you think. Do some research, do some more research then write about what you found via your personal FFC blog. Make sure to provide a few links in case the reader wants to read more.

What exactly should you blog about? Really, anything you want it’s your blog and it’s your voice. But, just in case you need some ideas - here are a few things to consider, which I was thinking of looking into:

Game - Tactics & Training Techniques

• The Importance Of First Touch - Video
• Art Of The Second Ball
• Anticipation - A Key To Success

Body - Nutrition & Fitness

• Vegetables That Actually Improve Endurance & Focus
• Aerobic Interval Training
• Tips On What To Eat Prior To Games

Mind - Psychological Matters

• The Most Important Play - The Next One
• How Focus = Success
• Mind Training For Success
  

This is just an example of what could be done. Further, if there were numerous coaches, players, fitness trainers, wellness experts, nutritionists and sports psychologists all contributing to community at their leisure and inline with personal passions, great things are bound to happen.

What do you say? You gonna Get Stuck In?

Playing Headstrong

Playing with your head is both a mental and technical skill. Strong players, play headstrong by using their mind and head to gain maximum advantage over their opponent. During the first and last 10 minutes of a half are usually when many mental lapses take place.

This is another content test….please join the rest of the Footballers here.

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