Learn From Dan Abrahams To Become A Professional Soccer Player

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Dan Abrahams is a sport psychologist that specializes in soccer. In many other sports, psychology is readily accepted. In soccer, psychology has a difficult relationship. There are several reasons for this difficult relationship, some of them include;

• As a team sport, soccer is less individualistic. While solo sports tend to have multiple coaches (tennis, golf), team sports have 1 coach.
• Soccer requires a lot of creativity; of all team sports, soccer requires the most creativity. This is great but also means that soccer players are stubborn and do not take a lot of information from other people.
• Old sports like Soccer have problems trying to incorporate new ideas.

Soccer Is Also A mental Game

This is a shame as soccer is a physical sport as well as a mental game. Dan Abrahams delved into soccer mindsets and found differences between champions and the rest. Abrahams noted;   

Perhaps the most impressive thing about champions – in all sports – is their ability to slide the scale of relaxation as they learn and compete. They know when to turn up the volume of intensity and stretch their comfort zone, but they equally know when they should slow down and loosen up.

Painting A Picture

You can be your own best friend or your own worst enemy. Abrahams notes that every soccer player has an image of themselves as a soccer player. This image can be positive and something to be aspired to, or an image that can bring you down. By profiling the next level you can build yourself up to become the next level. Abrahams notes;      

The development of skill is mediated by your soccer image – the picture you house in your mind of yourself as a footballer. Your ability to play well, in each and every game, also depends on this internal image. It’s a powerful indicator of what you can achieve in soccer today and tomorrow.

Evaluate Yourself

By evaluating yourself, you know what to work on and improve yourself on. Grade yourself on the following 5 components from 0 to 10.

• 1. Technical
• 2. Tactical
• 3. Physical
• 4. Psychological
• 5. Social;

Abrahams advises picking 3 items to concentrate on for every month and think about aspects that can be improved. These items can be first touch, left foot, or better coaching on the pitch. How many soccer players do you know that focus on their specific skills at every session and mark themselves? Focussing on specific aspects of your game is a sign of a champion. As Abrahams noted;

“Champions narrow down their focus – they know they can’t work on everything at once”    

Intentional Practice

Intentional practice is practice on purpose. Practice without intention can limit your progress as a soccer player. IThis kind of practice can be achieved by focussing on these segments.

Improve Your Brain

As our brain is intently focussed on improving our brain improves and makes new connections. Holding the image of your soccer image in your mind, create new connections for your brain. When your brain forms new connections, your soccer skills will improve.    

“Essentially, the internal structure of your brain is a physical representation of your soccer ability. Your soccer brain is your soccer game! When you learn a new skill you create new connections – your brain literally changes its structure.”

“Information crosses these connections at approximately 268 miles per hour allowing us to think and act effectively , and move and behave appropriately. Improving and developing your football is a simple process of creating new connections between cells in your brain.”

2 Of The Most Important Feelings, You Can Control

Dan Abrahams focussed on 2 feelings that can bring your soccer game to the next level. These 2 feelings are confidence and energy. Abrahams notes;

“ Having worked with hundred of soccer players, I belief there are two primary feelings that impact and influence a player’s performance – your feelings of confidence and your feelings of energy”

Both energy and confidence can be managed and kept up at any time and during any game. Abrahams writes that both confidence and energy should be viewed as bars. Just as you can see when playing a fictional character in a computer game, energy and confidence bars. Keeping these bars high can be done with simple tricks. Abrahams notes;

I’d like you to imagine you have two bars into your next match – a confidence bar and an energy bar. As part of your match preparation, you need to know what you need to do to raise your confidence and energy bars to their highest possible point. You need to know the habits and actions that are going to help you feel as confident as possible and energised as possible. ”

How to increase confidence and energy?

Abrahams gives practical and simple examples to increase both confidence and energy.

• Confidence is gained by focussing on your best plays in soccer every day. Think about your strong points. Watch video clips of your favorite player(s). Be intentional while you are training.
• Energy can be increased by going to the gym regularly. Sleep well, and have enough carbs 2 hours before playing. Stay mentally free and get away from soccer.

What Is Your Target?

What is your target? Where do you focus on? Abrahams makes a good point about where to focus on. Most soccer players lack focus. The focus of most is on things that are hard or impossible to control. Targets like winning and doing your best, are mostly out of your control. Abrahams mentions,

 “Outcome and performance targets are poor ones to have come matchday”  

Everybody wants to win and do their best. You as a soccer player have to be specific and focus on simple things within your reach. These simple things are known as your script. Just as an actor read out a script, you should have a script to follow. The lines of your script are the items your focus should be on.

“The process is the how of performance. It refers to the characteristics, attitudes, behaviors, actions, and ways of thinking that drive performance”

An example of a script could be as following

 Winger Script

Brave with runs – take players on

Send balls into the danger area

Find the far post as often as possible”

Abrahams gives some exercises to increase your confidence levels. Imagine your best plays in soccer and write down the emotions you feel. Write down 3 words that best fit your performance. Then choose your animal and combine it with your 3 chosen words. An example could be like this.

The example should be like this with cheetah, explosive, fast, creative.

I am an explosive cheetah. That is who I am and that is what I do. I run fast past the opponent and find the second post. Getting past defenders and giving other players a chance is what I do. My creativity is my weapon.  I am an explosive cheetah. That is who I am and that is what I do.

“Your goal for a game of soccer is to go and execute your script – performance and outcome will take care of themselves”

2 Controllers To Use

To control your energy and confidence and to follow your script, you have 2 weapons that can help you. These 2 controllers are

1 Body Language

Your body posture has a huge influence on your confidence and energy. Correct body posture will increase confidence and energy. Research from Carney and Cuddy found that body posture can change your mental state. This is not new, earlier research found that from a health perspective posture can keep you healthy; research from the ’70s found that 

The individual, however, can decide whether the way he carries himself in the upright position is one of Active Alerted, Balanced Posture; or the opposite, an inactive unbalanced slumping one. Posture therefore in the upright position is entirely an individual attitude of mind.

Abrahams agrees with this statement;

Your head (head up, always looking, always taking information in, vocal at the right times, looking alert, acting focused) – shoulders up (holding yourself tall, in a ready position) – Knees (a powerful kick, a strong run, an aggressive challenge) – Toes (staying alert by being on your toes, executing skills)

2 Self-Talk

Your inner speech is as important as your body language. In fact, your self-talk is needed to keep your confidence up. Abrahams points out that champions talk to themselves. This inner voice is something you can control. Abrahams elaborates;

Your self-talk is a series of words, sentences and phrases that remain private to you, but which guide you through your everyday life. It’s that inner voice that sends you left or right. It’s the one that tells you to stop or to go. It’s that dialogue that works somewhere between thinking and doing and helps you act on the decisions you mentally make. Your self-talk controller is the perfect accompaniment to your body controller – together they are a powerful antidote to inner turmoil and outer failure. There is a difference between your thinking and your self-talk. Your thoughts hap- pen to you, you do your self-talk.

Scare Your Opponent

Imagine you are a defender and you have to mark a striker. Would you like to mark a striker with his head up shoulders straight, knee straight and on his toes, or would you like to mark a striker who is hunchbacked, looking down and with his heels on the ground? One of the most empowering postures is the superman pose. Hands-on your side, head up, stands upright.

Both posture and self-talk can be used to keep your energy and confidence up and allows you to focus on your script.

A Picture Tells More Than A 1000 Words

A long jumper will before he jumps, picture an image in his mind of himself performing the perfect jump. A 100-meter sprinter will imagine his perfect strides, keeping his shoulders stabile. While a speed skater will focus on his technique and creating a perfect push of his skates. Soccer players don’t really imagine a lot before a game. There is a lot of focus and concentration in the locker room, but there seems to be a lack of focus on specifics. By having a script, it allows you to focus and concentrate on specific tasks that are within your control and reach. Abrahams points out that your mind doesn’t see a difference between what you are imagining and what is real. This also means that every time you are visualizing a skill that you are practicing. Abrahams suggests to focus on three components during these visualizations, you guessed it; 1. your energy and confidence levels, 2. Your match-script, and, 3 your controllers ( posture and self-talk).    

All great athletes, all great champions, picture events before they play and perform. The internal images that flash up before their mind’s eye provide them with a sense of readiness and a sense of certainty and assurance.

Control Your Hormones, Control Your Game

Ever felt empty the moment the game started? Are you performing better at practice than the match? There can be several reasons for this, but one major influence is the hormones that are lacking or raging in your body. Abrahams focusses on 4 different hormones that could have a decisive impact on your game.

1. Endorphins, a hormone that can reduce pain and are associated with happiness.
2. Testosterone, a hormone that is associated with risk-taking and competitiveness
3. Dopamine, a hormone that is associated with focus and concentration
4. Cortisol, a hormone that is associated with stress and anxiety

Balancing these hormones are crucial to keeping your energy, confidence, focus, and attention up.

Relax, Relax, and Relax

Soccer is a creative game, creativity cannot be forced. Abrahams writes in his book;

Hear this and repeat this to yourself – you cannot force your performance. The more you try to, the worse it will get. The more you try to, the more stressed you will become. The more you try to, the tighter you will play.

Relax during match day, from the time you wake up until 2 hours before the match take your mind off soccer. Don’t think about soccer. Adrenaline is a hormone that makes you feel great but deprives you of energy. By relaxing and taking your mind off soccer, you are conserving your energy. Within the last 2 hours of the beginning of the match the focus should be targeted of confidence & energy, your script and your posture & self-talk.

ANA And ANT

ANA stands for Ambient Neural Activity and is one of the reasons why you lose focus. The ANA makes the mind wanders off. To make it worst ANA is often seen together with ANTs. The human brain seems to have a habit to make thoughts worse. ANTs stands for Automatic Negative Thought’s, and makes the wandering worse. The human brain, when stressed, goes against your best interest. When you are getting tired, your brain wants to give up. Every time you get one goal down, your brain wants to give up. When a referee makes a bad decision, your brain wants to give up. ANTs are pretty much unstoppable, they pop up as soon as something happens. The athlete who can shift the ANT from taking over is one step ahead. You can train yourself to shift an ANT to focus immediately on your script, shifting your focus away.  Abrahams notes;    

 I want you to become world class at squashing ANTs. This means SPOTTING them, stopping them, and then shifting them quicker and quicker and quicker. It means going through this squashing process in the time it takes me to snap my finger or clap my hand. Never, ever, let an ANT settle. 

Conscience VS Unconscience

Great players have great instincts. Players like Romario, Maradona, and Batistuta seem to just do. They don’t seem to think, but just let their subconscious do the work. Abrahams wants you to let your sub-conscience mind play and roam free, but use your conscience to make sure it happens. Abrahams rule for conscience vs unconscious ratio is 20-80. By using 20 percent of your conscience mind, you can let your unconscious mind roam. You can train your conscious mind to let your sub-conscience mind do the work. By focusing on your controllable factors like energy, posture, your script, and self-talk, you can be in the best possible position to get the most out of your natural and trained abilities. You don’t need your conscious mind to control a ball or dribble with a ball, those should come from your sub-conscience mind, but keep your focus on your script and stop ANA and ANTs from ruining your game is a conscience decision. Abrahams notes;

Maybe the best way to describe how I want you to play is consciously unconscious. I want you to utilise your conscious mind to get the very most from your unconscious performance.

Pressure Makes Diamonds

One problem with many soccer players is to play well under pressure. You can see this in trial matches for youth players. Often times these children play incredibly well at their own club, but during their trial match for a top club, they are nowhere to be seen. Abrahams find the answer in the German term “nervenstaerke” which simply means strong nerves. Dan Abrahams argues that the reason why the Germans almost never lose on penalties is the management of their fear and anxiety. Abrahams writes;

Nervenstaerke is about managing yourself.

Nervenstaerke

One way to manage yourself is to ask yourself this question “What is the very worst that is going to happen?” This simple question can calm your nerves and can rationalize your thought. The answer to these simple questions can be just as simple. You might lose, play bad or score an own goal. This will bring some temporary disappointment and anger. After the anger and disappointment disappear, life will go on.   

To have strong nerves, you will have to train your nerves before the game. During the game you will react, the reaction, however, can be a major distraction to your play or a little bump in the road.

Imagine being a striker and missing a big opportunity, do you quickly recover yourself, head up, body straight, self-talk (focussing on energy, and posture), and your script. Or do you focus on your miss, hang your head down and lose your confidence? The minute you let ANTs take over your game is finished.   

Are You Ready To Be A Professional

Apart from a few specially gifted talents, there is a large pool of soccer players that have about the same potential. One big reason between players who make it and players who don’t is their confidence and belief. Abrahams points out that many soccer players are not ready mentally to the player at a higher level. To see if you are ready, you can create a scale of yourself. Mark yourself at your current level from 0-100 and compare that to the level you want to achieve. By having a realistic soccer image you know what to work on and when whether you are ready to be successful at a higher level. The trick is, to be honest, and though with yourself. The trick to being honest with yourself is to judge yourself according to your controllable actions, not the overall results. Controllable actions could be

• How was my posture during the game?
• How was my energy level?
• Did I follow my script?
• Did I quickly get rid off my ANT?

If you cant give yourself at least 80 out of 100, you have work to do. From a mental perspective, you can’t force a win or amazing skills. You can only guarantee your best mental game.

Abrahams Tips For Penalties

If you’re walking towards the penalty spot, affirm in your mind (using your self- talk) what you are trying to achieve. “I’m trying to score. I’m going to pick a spot to aim at. I’m going to strike the ball cleanly.” Walk tall and upright. Place the ball on the spot with authority, decisively and with confidence. Start your run up with a single focus – getting a great strike on the ball and directing it towards your target. Your controllers can help you score that winning penalty. They can help you stay calm when the heat is on.

Nervenstaerke requires a mind that, when playing in conscious mode, is fully immersed in the script. Not the outcome and not the performance. These just create unhelpful thoughts – they create ANTs

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