Soccer Psychology, What’s In The Head Is More Important Than What Is On The Feet
The game of soccer isn’t just playing the ball with your feet or with your head. The use of soccer psychology means that you can utilize mental tactics to get inside of the opponents head and cause the opponents to perform with less capable and dynamic play. This ability is soccer psychology.
If a player or a team does not play at their desired level, their chances of winning a match are minimized. Not playing at the desired level often is a psychological factor not a physical one. In any league, from the English Premier League to the lowest level recreational league the spectator can observe mistakes happening on the field. It is incumbent for the player who makes the mistake to ignore the mistake made and continue play. If the player dwells on the mistake, they will not play up to the highest level that they are capable of.
To play at this highest level, individual players must recognize their strong and weak points are during play. It is incumbent that the individual players perform during the match and emphasize the strong points while minimizing the weak points. Once a player dwells on a mistake made by the exposure of their weak points, that player will begin to press and overcompensate for the weak points. This pressing or over extension will further expose the weak points of their game and produce further mistakes and the level of their play will be reduced.
Contrary to many parent’s concepts, soccer is a physical game. Soccer players are routinely kicked, pushed, pulled, slid into and generally manhandled. The referee will be on the pitch to insure that this physical activity is within the rules of “fair play”, however there is still plenty of fair physical contact. It is up to the player to mentally prepare for this physical contact. If a player is consistently subject to discreet shirt pulling or shoulder charges, that player must put the physical play out of their mind and continue to play. Few things provide a mental boost than to be fouled, continue on with the ball and hear the referee shout out “play on”.
Defensive players continually attempt to demoralize offensive players during a match. During one high school state tournament the blue team had a striker that scored an average of 2 goals per game. The white coach was concerned about this player and discussed him at length in the pre-game meeting. The white stopper looked up and said, “No problem coach, I’ve got him”. Blue had the ball to start the first half. The white stopper was on the center circle. The blue striker received the ball and the stopper knocked him down with a hard foul. The referee called the foul and cautioned the stopper. The stopper reached down to help the striker up and said “hi, I’m Rob and you’ll see a lot of me tonight”. At the end of the match, white had won 2 – 0. The striker was ineffective all through the match. He was always looking for the stopper instead of playing at his optimum. The stopper used psychology to take the striker out of the match instead of physical play.
While soccer psychology works for the individual player, the entire team is affected by using soccer psychology. The players must buy into the concept that they are members of a team and individual play is part of the team effort. This team effort and the utilization of all every player on the pitch will provide team success as a whole. This team concept insures that the “stud” players do not need feel pressure to win every game by themselves. The stud player when confronted by a number of opponents must know they have the ability to release the ball to another team mate who has no opponents nearby and can help contribute to the team. Soccer psychology is utilized to both create and reinforce the team concept. This team concept provides any team the opportunity to succeed on the pitch.
Soccer is a free flowing, creative game. The application of soccer psychology insures that the players on the team are allowed to make mistakes without self criticism or doubt. One of the biggest factors in soccer psychology is that the players are part of a team and that mistakes are allowed. When an individual player makes a mistake, that player knows that there will be a teammate available to help correct the mistake. Proper application of soccer psychology will insure that the team as a whole will accept mistakes and that the team as a whole will remediate the mistakes without criticism by the player who made the mistake or the team being critical of the mistake.
Soccer psychology is an important part of the game. The team must know that they can play at their optimum level and that mistakes can be made. This confidence emanates from the team and can either consciously or subconsciously affect the other team, both individually and as a whole. The ability to apply aspects of soccer psychology to the opponents will cause the opponents to play at less than their optimum level thus insuring success for the team applying the soccer psychology.
