Soccer Players – Football is feeling. Not Sure? Read on.
Want to get ahead and really help your soccer career reach the next level? Read Dan Abrahams columns on SoccerToday.
A global sports psychologist and author specializing in soccer, Dan Abrahams is based in England and works with professional soccer players in the English Premier League (EPL). Abrahams has helped hundreds of soccer players – many who play in the English Premier League (EPL). From working with players at Crystal Palace to QPR, Fulham, and West Ham among others, Abrahams makes a huge difference. Abrahams has authored several books and has a Soccer Academy as well.
“Learn to think, train and play like the best soccer players
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Here is SoccerToday’s columnist Abrahams on how consistency is the key to success.
Soccer Players: Football is emotion – a sensation that rips through your body. It is a vibe, an air, a bodily instinct.
Dan Abrahams – The Fragility of Feelings
What impacts a player’s performance? Your feelings of confidence and your feelings of energy.
Your external sensations – the speed of your boots, the sharpness in your movement, the penetration of the runs you make, your ability to find space and use that space – are all heavily influenced by how you feel going into the game.
Take a little time to reflect back on a game when you plated at your best, or close to your best. No doubt you were confident, but where did that confidence come from? Where did you experience that sensation of confidence?
When you remember back to those moments on the pitch, I think you will realize that the confidence was spread throughout your body.
From head to toe, confidence flows and surges through your muscles and your joints.
- The feeling of confidence flows through your feet — lightness — like you are treading on hot coals and don’t want to burn yourself.
- The feeling of confidence through your head – focus – eyes quickly shifting between the ball, your teammates, the opposition and
the space . - The feeling of confidence in your chest – strength – desire, determination and discipline.
- The feeling of confidence impacts every motion executed and every thought perceived.
Just like confidence, energy is also a feeling. Being relentless is a feeling. Urging yourself on is a feeling. Pushing yourself forward in that last lung-busting ten minutes is driven by a feeling …
A footballer feels dynamic, feels strong, feels vigorous, feels confident – or not.
Energy my be built from fitness but it is reinforced by the thoughts that you have and the actions you take on a moment-by-moment and hour-by-hour basis.
Get little sleep and you will find yourself de-energized. East the wrong foods and you will feel like your lack of energy as well.
Confidence and energy are feelings that are collected from many sources. They are influenced by how
It is an intentional balancing act.
Next: Tricks to Raising Your Bar and Finding Your Markers
This article is an excerpt from Soccer Tough II
Read: DAN ABRAHAMS ON THE IMPORTANT OF SOCCER PLAYERS BEING CONSISTENT
