Air Force Special Ops Lieutenant Colonel Heath Kerns discusses how to help your team develop mental toughness and perseverance.
His discussion is targeted to American Football coaches, but many points are applicable to soccer as well. Please make sure to click on the video to start the presentation and make sure that your sound is on.
By Dr. Rob Bell
Dr. Bell is a Mental Toughness Coach and Certified Consultant of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. He consults with hundreds of athletes, coaches, and teams and has served as the mental coach for PGA tour winners, USTA Champion, and Olympic Medalists. He is also the author of several mental toughness books. For more information about Dr. Bell and his services visit https://drrobbell.com/
A team locker room is a sacred place.
Basically, what is said there, when you leave there, leave it there.
Sorry, but here’s the wrong way to win the locker room.
New Buffalo Bills Head Coach Sean McDermott felt that setting the tone of the locker room was important.
Agreed
Coach Sean McDermott is all about “culture” and leading by example. He’s a 3:30AM fitness guy.
Agreed
He is a driven, hard-nosed, accountability coach whose locker room culture begins with him.
Agreed
Coach stated that “this is a business”, so he removed the pool table and video games from the locker room.
Disagree
Players don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.
Hall of Fame coach, Bill Walsh, set up a fishing tournament amongst his players during pre-season. He stated, a “team that can laugh together, can get serious together.”
Hard nosed, two time Super-Bowl winning coach, Tom Coughlin, spent the very first day of a training camp by having a bowling tournament. He changed his tyrant approach because he “wanted his players to see him as his grandchildren did.”
Super Bowl Winning coach, Dick Vermeil was known for his “boot camp” practices and discipline, but only after he started to develop a relationship with his players did he finally reach the pinnacle.
Look, there is nothing sexier than discipline, accountability, hard-work, grit, perseverance, and a culture of excellence.
However, in order to win, coaches have to win their hearts as well. In order to do that, they need to win the locker room.
Every coach would agree that when you have players willing to fight for one another, there is nothing more powerful. Practices should be difficult and demanding, but developing team chemistry also takes place in between practices and games. You hang out so much together, that either bonds or cliques get formed in various ways.
Developing a locker room where players can unwind, relax, be themselves, and hang-out is crucial. Who wants a locker room where players simply dash out after showering and changing?
A pool table or ping-pong table encourages players an outlet to bond over a competitive activity that is not directly related to their own sport. The Cornell basketball team that made the sweet sixteen and finished 29-5 all lived together and touted their Super Mario bros. and table-tennis competitions.
Jeff Van Gundy allowed all minor decisions like where to eat, which music and movie to play on the bus up to the players. He granted them a voice in their own culture.
In all pick-up games, kids self-govern themselves. You can’t break the written and unwritten rules of the court and expect to be welcomed back. A leadership council of players should make decisions on certain disciplines that coach doesn’t have to. That creates more ownership among players and takes more off of the coach.
Teams become cohesive over the task at hand (winning), or socially (togetherness). Ultimately, task-cohesion is king. However, these task-cohesive teams are only fostered through extremely strong peer-leadership.
Social cohesion is queen. Teams full of mutual respect for one another have more trust and uphold standards within the team. Usually, the best teams have BOTH task and social cohesion. These bonds can be enhanced through scheduled sessions intended to do so.
Yes, it is a business. Winning is a habit. But, allow play to be a part of the culture. Allowing athletes to express themselves through free-play is as old as the cave-man days. We thrive on working hard toward a goal and also having fun along the journey.
I’ve been in the team locker room at the end of a season with such tears of joy from winning, because they all knew of the effort and sacrifice and bond. I’ve been in the other locker room as well, that tears flowed because the loss was so heartbreaking because of the sacrifice and bond.
If you’re in the game long enough, these moments will happen. That’s life.
The way to a winning team locker room begins way before these moments of joy or heartbreak. It begins with the culture of the team and finding ways to win the locker room.
By Dr. Rob Bell
Dr. Bell is a Mental Toughness Coach and Certified Consultant of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. He consults with hundreds of athletes, coaches, and teams and has served as the mental coach for PGA tour winners, USTA Champion, and Olympic Medalists. He is also the author of several mental toughness books. For more information about Dr. Bell and his services visit https://drrobbell.com/
No question about it, self-belief is the most important mental skill.
Belief and trust eventually become the ONLY difference between those who eventually reach continued success and those who don’t or can’t sustain it.
Confidence is King. In the game of chess, when the king dies, the game is over! So, it’s how the game is lost! If there is a loss of confidence and self-assuredness, it’s tough to get it back. We have to start a new game.
So, what’s the only way to overcome a loss of confidence?
Notice I didn’t write a lack of confidence. And that’s crucial.
A lack of self-efficacy means there’s not enough, there’s a shortage, which means WAY more work, planning, strategy, and execution is needed to fill this lack.
A loss, on the other hand, is temporary. We’ve lost, we’ll be back. We’ll have to start a new game!
I don’t have a lack of keys for my car. I’ve merely lost my keys. Having to go to the dealer or GM headquarters and get new keys manufactured would be awful. Losing my keys is no fun either, but I know I’ll find them, I just have to look in the right spots.
Jack Nicklaus once was asked why he played so poorly the week prior to winning the tournament. He answered “Oh, I slept awful last week, very poor bed. This week, I slept great!”
In the 1992 U.S. open, Ian Woosnam hit an awful shot on the par 3 twelfth hole. He immediately turned to his caddy and said: “there’s something wrong with that golf ball.” Next hole, after switching balls, he purred it right down the middle of the fairway.
Why would these greats not accept responsibility and just say “yeah, I sucked!” Because that would mean that they sucked! And they didn’t believe that. They believed the situation or external event caused the mistake.
We need to remind ourselves and others that “self-belief” is NOT the issue! And it’s true! Confidence is a feeling, not thoughts, and deep down they really believe in themselves. So, letting them know trust is NOT the issue means there’s nothing wrong with them.
We need to remove confidence as THE issue.
B. H. Liddell Hart was a military strategist who examined over 250 campaigns. He looked at what decided the outcome of battles. In almost every campaign it was never just a frontal assault! He found that most battles were won by an “indirect approach.” A flanking strategy —- A quick move that caught the enemy off guard and they were able to get behind the opposing forces.
The only way to overcome a loss of self-efficacy is the same way.
A frontal assault attacks someone’s entrenched position. It attacks one’s trust in themselves, their beliefs, their values, and the ego. It also attacks their coaches, their teammates, everything. It gets them questioning and doubting themselves.
We frontal assault someone’s self-belief by telling them, “it’s all in your head” or “you’re not confident enough” or “what’s the matter with you?” It’s easier to crush someone’s belief than it is to build it up…Here’s our infographic showing 5 ways to crush someone’s confidence.
Let them know that since it’s not a belief issue, it’s just that they are focused on the wrong things!
Focus is Queen. In the game of chess, the focus is how the game is won! We can’t move our king one space at a time and think that will win. Our queen is what wins the game! Focus!
We can’t JUST address self-confidence head on. We need an indirect approach —- when we have a loss of confidence, we need to flank it.
When we are focused on the wrong things, 99% of the time, we/they are worrying about things in the future or not letting go of the mistakes of the past. We are focused on outcomes, results, and what it may or may not mean. We are time-traveling to the future.
Our focus is OFF.
We need to return to our breath, this moment, this day. Focus on the Now!
This is especially difficult during tough times, but it’s the ONLY way to return our confidence!
But, If we are truly focused on this moment, then how does self-belief even come into play? It’s ALL about focus in the moment.
There is indeed fear in the future and people, places, and things that are out of our control! Fear lives and ferments in the future. When we look back at our mistakes and all the times we came up short, then there is actual proof how we aren’t good enough.
It gets back to our focus!
Check out Kelly Exter’s blog post on 8 ways to rebuild confidence.
When we overcome a loss in confidence, we need to pay attention to all of the things that we say to ourselves. The Voice in our head is negative and we are simply over-thinking! When I overthink, I lose my keys and get off at the wrong exit.
By Dr. Rob Bell
Dr. Bell is a Mental Toughness Coach and Certified Consultant of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. He consults with hundreds of athletes, coaches, and teams and has served as the mental coach for PGA tour winners, USTA Champion, and Olympic Medalists. He is also the author of several mental toughness books. For more information about Dr. Bell and his services visit https://drrobbell.com/
We have more knowledge today literally at our fingertips than ever before. We do not need to search our minds for an answer, or even ask our friends, it’s right there on our phone.
Knowledge is not the problem.
We know how and what to eat to be healthy, but we still have an obesity epidemic.
We know the benefits of exercise and movement, but heart disease is still at an all-time high. It’s not for a lack of knowledge.
We just choose the easier route. It’s easier to have the milkshake than it is to be in the salad bar line. It’s easier to NOT workout than it is to hit up that spin class.
In our own performance, we know what we NEED to do to become our best. We can’t claim that we don’t know what we don’t know.
Knowledge won’t increase your mental toughness.
Wisdom is what increases our mental toughness and the only way to get wisdom is through experience. That’s why mental toughness is caught more than it is taught.
Experience is built upon action, living, taking part, and being in the game. Once we experience overcoming adversity, we can rely on our life reminders.
If we don’t hold up mental toughness and continuous improvement as a priority and to be the BEST at getting BETTER than it doesn’t happen. It’s not a priority.
Here are 4 reminders to increase your mental toughness
1. Gratitude
2. Just one more
3. Faith
4. Be in the moment
Gratitude
I don’t believe in an attitude of gratitude, it’s an action of gratitude.
Gratitude is a muscle.
We need to take certain steps to exercise our gratitude! I once fell off an 80-foot cliff and I am thankful every day that I am still able-bodied!
It’s tough to be hateful and grateful at the same time.
Once we start counting all that we are thankful for, it gets tough to stop. We all have tough patches in life and we all go through slumps. That’s life.
Then, we see a child who has to receive weekly cancer treatments or someone who just had a life altering injury and can no longer walk.
When we are in that space of thankfulness, perspective, and positivity, we share it with others.
Just One More
When people look for “the secret” or the magic bullet, there really isn’t one. But, there is one technique that comes close to build your grit.
It’s called just one more.
Here’s how it works:
Whatever we are doing, we all reach that finish point. This strategy plays when we reach the end of our day, the finish of our workout, or even the completion of a task.
When we reach that point where we are “done”, then we need to push ourselves to just do one more. Write one more paragraph, make one more call, do one more rep, or one more sprint.
It will increase your mental toughness because “just one more” is how we push ourselves past our current limits and it guarantees that we finish every task strong!
Faith
There is an illusion of control in all of our lives. We think we have more control than we actually do.
The individuals on earth who actually have a precise idea about our own lack of control are in fact institutionalized. The illusion of control provides us an elixir that enables us to operate. If we thought about how little control we actually had, it would consume us, much like those souls in institutions.
Ahh, and that is what happens. We focus on things that are out of our control.
We think about other people who drag us down and we get sad. We think about our current circumstance or issue and get upset. Or we get bogged down in all of the things that we need to do.
We are the actor in our own play, but we are not the director. There are too many external variables in life and our performance that we have absolutely no control over.
Faith is what we need to overcome the temporary setbacks and defeats and negativity. Faith is the belief that “it” will work out. I can’t overextend my energy or force myself to make “it” happen, I just have to have faith and believe.
Besides, we don’t need to work harder, we just need to believe more!
Faith = Flow
When we have faith that we will be successful, we relax. When we know and have trust that our needs will be met, we relax. And when we are at ease and relaxed, we only focus on what’s in our control. Faith gets into the state of flow.
Lastly, I believe that there is a God and I know that I’m not it.
It makes no difference to me what your higher power is, because the example we set is louder than the words we speak. My own faith rests in Christianity and the grace that God and Jesus Christ promises us. That’s my faith.
And faith isn’t really faith until it’s all you’ve got.
Be in the moment
The sexy term is “mindfulness” which is just the buzzword for being in the moment.
Question for you: When you are truly in the moment, how miserable can you actually be?
All of our fear and anxiety is because we are thinking about the future or we are still rooted in the past. That which we fear is next month, next week, tomorrow, or even later today, it is NOT right now!
When we remind ourselves to focus on this moment, this breath, and just for today, we are being mindful.
In order to increase your mental toughness, we need to focus on the now. That’s it, this breath!
We can’t read the directions and expect a cake to appear.
These four reminders to boost your grit are action items. They must be exercised before adversity strikes during times of struggle and after coming out of hardships. Return to the simple tasks and exercise these four reminders…
This post was provided by InnerDrive, a mental skills training company
Is there such a thing as a perfect penalty? Probably not, but how can players give themselves the best chance of success? Great penalties are not just “luck”, it’s all about performing under pressure. So what strategies can players involved in penalty shoot outs employ to give them the edge over their opponents? What does the scientific research from sport psychology actually say about how to take the perfect penalty?
Before
Since 1982, there have been 26 penalty shootouts at the World Cup Finals, but before a penalty is even kicked, you can increase your chances of winning a shoot-out. Researchers analysed 1,343 penalty kicks from 129 penalty shoot-outs and found that the team that started first won 60.5% of them. So basically, if you win the coin toss and choose to shoot first you have a great chance of coming out on top.
This can be explained by pressure. Increased pressure is the single most significant cause of penalty failure. In the World Cup, penalties are only introduced in the knockouts stages. It’s not just a match defining moment, it’s the World Cup dreams of a nation at stake. So when players know they can take a penalty to win the shootout, the success rate rises dramatically to 92%. Whereas if a player knows that if they miss, they lose the shootout, success rates plummet to below 60%.
Clearly, those who have learnt to handle their nerves at the World Cup have an advantage. Germany provide us with a great example of that, with the nation winning 5 out of 5 in their World Cup penalty shootouts. So how do sport psychologists explain this success? They’ve found that there are two key tricks that players may have used over the years and it relates to the relationship between them and the 
goalkeeper.
The first trick is to realise that after you have placed the ball down on the spot it is a mistake to turn your back on the goalkeeper before the start of your run up. Researchershave found that those who do are more likely to miss. This is because it interrupts their preparation, allows them to focus on things they cannot control, projects their nerves and provides the goalkeeper with subtle cues as to where the penalty is going.
The second trick is not to spend too long looking at the goalkeeper before the kick. In a study of 167 penalties, researchers found that those who fixated on the goalkeeper were more anxious and missed more penalties. It is far better to focus on your target and your abilities, or something that calms you down, rather than the opposition goalkeeper.
During & After
Don’t rush your penalties. Take time to ready yourself. Research has shown that players who rush their penalties (i.e. respond to the whistle within 200 milliseconds) only score around 57% of the time. However, players who take time to ready themselves, be it only for one second, score on average over 80% of the time.
We all know England struggle in World Cup penalty shootouts. Losing a record 3 times out of 3. It has left us with a 0 % win record at the competitions finals. Worryingly, England’s players have been seen to take their penalties quicker than any other nation. England football legend Steven Gerrard stated in his autobiography ‘Why do I have to wait for the bloody whistle? Those extra couple of seconds seemed like an eternity and they definitely put me off’. If only he knew that taking his time could have calmed his nerves and increased his chances of scoring.
England aren’t alone in this perilously poor penalty pickle. Italy have also lost all 3 of their shootouts at the World Cup finals. Surprisingly, one of the most successful World Cup teams Spain, only have a 33% penalty shootout success rate. That’s lower than Brazil (75%), Argentina (80%), France (50%) and Germany (100%).
Research has shown that by changing your mind at the last minute, players experience increased stress and uncertainty which leads to poor technique and inevitably a penalty miss. It is far better to pick a spot and commit to it. Penalties that are in the bottom/top corners are rarely saved due to the difficulty for keepers to reach them.
So once we prepared well and then executed the skill of the penalty, is there anything else we can do? Well, according to research there is. One hundred and fifty-one penalties from the World Cup were analysed and researchers found that if a player celebrated their successful penalty, their opponent was far more likely to miss their next penalty. Watch how every penalty taker for Italy celebrated their goal during their penalty shoot-out win against France in the 2006 World Cup.
What Can Goalkeepers Do In A Shootout?
A goalkeeper’s kit can have a direct impact on the penalty outcome. The fewest goals were scored against goalkeepers who wore red (54%) or yellow (69%). The two worst colours? They were Blue (72%) and green (75%). Interestingly, it would seem that out of the major nations competing at this year’s World Cup, England (Yellow) and France (Yellow) will be the only team’s utilising this colour in their goalkeeper kit.
Beside their kit colour, what is the best strategy for a goalkeeper to employ in order to save a World Cup penalty? Research suggests it is for them to stand still. Analysis of 999 penalties from the Bundesliga found that 15% of players shoot down the middle. A separate study of 286 penalty kicks from the top leagues around the world found that only 2% of goalkeepers remain in the centre. It is calculated that goalkeepers are actually twice as likely to save a penalty if they stay in the middle of the goal rather than dive.
So why do goalkeepers rarely stand their ground? Psychologists refer to this behaviour as an “action bias”, which is where the value of being seen to do something is higher than that of doing nothing. If they dive and the opponent scores, the goalkeeper doesn’t attract blame, but if they stand still and the opponent scores then they do get blamed. It seems this fear of blame sub consciously overrules a perfectly good strategy.
To find out more about Sports Psychology for Football, visit our guide page.