1. Improving performance without even kicking a ball - Mental Toughness Training.
Ask any coach if mental strength is important to success in football and you get a predictable response. If you then ask how much time they spend coaching players to develop this critical skill or helping them to become mentally stronger then the answers vary from “what are you on about” to “er none mate”. Occasionally, the more progressive ones might say “Hmm. Interesting, I’ll think about that.” This article is aimed at the few in the latter category who are interested in working on something which is fundamentally important but pretty much ignored in our beautiful game.
OK, so right now you are probably thinking the rest of this is just another technical journal from a Sports Psychologist or worse still, some mumbo jumbo from a psychic who claims to have the answer to every manager’s problems. Well just bear with me, especially if you just can’t understand why you are not getting consistently good performances from the team and players you devote all your time to.
You will notice I referred to mental strength as a skill. Getting you head right for a game, maintaining concentration, controlling aggression, choking (on a penalty kick for example) etc. are all aspects of performance which can absolutely be trained and honed with practice. Here is a simple definition followed by an example to get you thinking;
Mental strength (or toughness) is the ability to consistently perform at your best!
A leading US sports research body asked 3 groups of basketball players (of equal ability) to conduct an experiment. Group A practiced shooting for 1 hr a day for a month on court, Group B just sat quietly at home for the same period and mentally practised by visualising shot after shot and Group C, deliberately did nothing. In the resultant test ‘live’ on court, Group A increased their success rate by 25% and not surprisingly, Group C got much worse. Group B however, increased by 23%! This proves that skill execution can be improved without physical practice and is a good example of how mental strengths training can help develop better performance. And the really great news is that this additional practice area does not need to eat into normal training schedules.
Furthermore, it’s not the preserve of Clinical Psychologists, hypnotherapists or similar such specialists but available to everyone who is prepared to self-invest or get help from one of the emerging breed of mental toughness coaches who are more available than you might think. That said this stuff has been around for quite some time at elite sporting levels. Ask Clive Woodward how his team won the Rugby World Cup in 2003 and he will pretty quickly mention TCUP (thinking correctly under pressure) as one of the key mental strength training areas he drilled into his squad. Golf is another sport where all the top players have been practicing mental skills for years in pursuit of greater performance under pressure. So why hasn’t our beautiful game smelt the coffee yet?
“But we are not in the US and we do have the time, money for, or know anything this stuff.”
“Mention the need to improve attitude, resilience, temperament etc. to my players and they think I’m about to drop them.”
Paradoxically, the whole philosophy behind progressive mental skills training is aimed at helping talented and motivated players to get from being ‘good’ to ‘very good’ or ‘great’. As such,

2. positioning the techniques and training programmes should in the context of development; to help them perform at their best, all of the time.
Mental Skills coaches are a qualified breed of specialists who work alongside managers and trainers. Many are from the business world where performance coaching is much most established and they often do it out of passion; they just love helping athletes and sports people raise their game. (That sounds familiar doesn’t it!) Their agenda is set by the gaffa but always with buy in from the players and what is stressed upfront is that the approach is educational (as opposed clinical/therapeutic) and always individualised. As you would expect (as with most learning) the younger you start the more you benefit and of course, like all training, it takes time and commitment.
So whilst you are still trying to decide whether or not this is all bull shit, here are a few sound bites from a mental toughness coach who just loves football.
 Nerves and anxiety lead to muscle tension – this is often why penalties are poorly executed.
 Physical and Mental tiredness go hand in hand – awareness of ones ‘state’ helps to re- focus the mind on the job. This can radically reduce mistakes in the last 20 minutes of a game.
 One mistake leads to another within a few seconds- whilst pre-occupied by a rubbish pass or scuffed shot, the subconscious feelings of anger/frustration/disappointment prevent composure and re-focus. The key skill is the awareness ability to ‘let it go’ immediately.
 Self-talk improves concentration – and in turn performance. “I think I am good therefore I will play good.”
 Setting performance and process goals (eg win every header/complete every pass/every shot on target) - motivates a player to achieve challenging personal targets for the benefit of the team. Conversely, simply having winning (an outcome goal) as the only measure of success so often leads to fear of failure.
 Only tough players perform consistently well – they are the ones who reflect, try new things in training, take feedback seriously and see improvement and development as the best measure of success.
Here is a practical example of a mental strength issue which I observed whilst watching a recent a Youth Academy game.
The centre back, who is playing well, receives a knock to his ankle as the ball goes out of play for a goal kick. (We are mid-way through the 2nd half and his team are 1 - 0 up but under pressure). The ref. asks him if he is OK? The player looks at his manager and bench and says. “Yeah, I’m fine”. He is thinking ‘I’ve worked hard to get in to this team and I don’t wanna be dragged now. I’ll run this off.’ Play goes on and one minute later, our spirited centre back concedes a free kick from a clumsy tackle just outside the box near the touch line. A goal is scored from the resultant cross following a six yard box tap in. With the game all square, the opponents then go on to nick a win 2-1 in the last few minutes.
Noting unusual in this scenario is there? Kids give fouls away trying to win the ball all day long. In this instance, the usually confident, well organised and vocal centre back (who is still hurting), followed

3. the other defenders in holding a line which was far too deep to defend the free kick. This was the reason the coach gave for conceding the equaliser.
The mentally tough player however would probably have done the following;
Firstly, he would have taken up the refs. invitation for assistance and told the attending physio. that he was fine and just recovering his breath and winding the clock down a bit. Mentally, he would be thinking, “I am knackered now so I need to re-focus on my job”. Having recovered physically and certainly mentally, he would have regained concentration and stood the attacker up as opposed to diving in recklessly. He would be running pain free and even if he had given away the foul, he would have correctly marshalled a higher defensive line thus avoiding the six yard box scramble. As is obvious, the key moment in the game which led to the equaliser would have been avoided.
Dare I say, coaches, trainers, physio’s don’t look at things in this way. It’s not what they are trained to do, and besides they are far too busy with the bigger picture to look for the clues. Mental Skills coaches however see these things very easily and clearly!
In summary, mental toughness is a skill which can be very effectively taught. It makes a material impact on footballing performance and if progressive coaches and talented footballers are prepared to open their mind, improved and more consistent performance player and team performances will follow.
If you are still not convinced, ponder this; Roger Federer was a talented but mid-ranking tennis tour player at the age of 21. He had a dodgy temperament and admits to having had an anger problem on court. His coach introduced him to mental toughness training and his game started to improve dramatically. He became World No1 by the time he was 22! I rest my case.
Martin Noakes 07711 234 557, familynoakes@aol.com
Certified Mental Skills Coach