Here’s what that means in real life:
No more playing the easy divisions just so you can dominate every match and call yourself a winner. No more staying on a team year after year where you’re the lead goal scorer or the clean-sheet keeper just because you are comfortable and enjoy being the best. No more making excuses when it comes to your individual training routine, getting your fitness up or learning to shoot better with your left foot.
No more putting off that ECNL or GA League tryout because you’re worried you won’t make the team. You might NOT make it, true, but you WILL grow. Both in your knowledge of what you need to work on to improve your game, and in your mental toughness skills.
This Post Contains:
soccer Is 90% Mental
So what are you doing to train that part of your game?
Introducing the Mindset Mastery Academy
A 10-week 1:1 mental skills mentorship experience for female soccer players
The downsides of a win-at-all-costs mindset
Building mental toughness: why it's important
Building mental toughness is really important for youth players to start doing from a very young age because of this. But if you are overly focused on winning as your #1 goal, and not on the pursuit of self-improvement, you are inhibiting your own growth and ability to develop this skill.
{Related read: The 3 KEY pieces to building mental toughness as a soccer player}
Grow your confidence through preparedness.
Subscribe to our email list to
Get your FREE Weekly Soccer Planner!
We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.
The value of losing
Mental toughness is more than handling a loss
Mental toughness happens when you have a healthy striving mentality (aka understand the value of BOTH winning and losing) AND have consistently done enough mental skills training to be able to RESPOND (intentionally choose your actions, words and thoughts) and not just react(lose control, get upset, half-ass things, blame others, give up, etc.)
- being able to regulate your attention and focus, under pressure, in any circumstance
- being able to see positive and helpful perspectives on difficult situations
- no matter the circumstance, being able to get back up and continue onward
- overcoming adversity again and again and again and again
{Related read: Resilience in soccer; How to BOUNCE BACK stronger than ever}
How to get mentally tough in soccer
You face challenges. You face road blocks, obstacles and brick walls. You get underestimated, overestimated. You lose your starting spot, you don’t get signed by your top school. You purposely try out for a really hard team, you play on tougher teams with players that are better than you. You recover and rehab after injury. You struggle, oh boy do you struggle. And then you get back up. You rebound, you bounce back. YOU OVERCOME. You become ELITE.
Hi everyone! I’m Jenn and I create content to help female soccer players and coaches maximize individual and team potential by developing healthy mindset skills. Join other subscribers and sign up for the newsletter for all my best tips and advice!
We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.