Mental toughness in soccer is something you can CREATE. It is a cultivated state of mind that any athlete can achieve and make happen for themselves. And that includes YOU.
Mental toughness is extremely important in girls soccer as female athletes face a wide variety of obstacles when it comes to the mental side of the game. Obstacles that have the potential to take the fun out of soccer, and sometimes even drive them to quit. From perfectionism and playing under the pressure of unrealistic expectations, to being overly critical of themselves and lacking confidence, if you are a girls soccer player hoping to play at elite levels, building mental toughness is a must.
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Mental toughness in soccer starts with intentional self-awareness and growth mindset. Then its expanding your mental performance skills – aka the skills that help you stay calm & composed and perform better under pressure. Lastly, consistently working hard on training these mental skills, over a long period of time (we call this mental fitness), is what ultimately leads to super strong mental toughness in soccer.
In this post we’re going to break down 3 key factors (#1 self-awareness, #2 mindset, #3 mental performance skills) and explain why they are the MUST HAVE building blocks to mental toughness in sports. In the wise words of Mia Hamm, let’s add some (mental skills) fuel to our fire:
I am building a fire, and everyday I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match
The difference between mindset, mental performance skills & mental toughness
When talking about the mental side of soccer, lots of words get thrown around, all of which seem to have similar meaning. Let’s take a second to sort them out and define things so that we’re all on the same page.
MINDSET refers to a general overview of how you think, feel and make sense of the world around you. Mindset is an overarching set of beliefs that directly impacts how you interact with anything and everything. Like mental toughness, mindset is NOT a fixed state, it is something that can be cultivated and created and changed over time. Mindset and mentality are one in the same.
MENTAL PERFORMANCE SKILLS are different than mindset & mentality. They are different because they are actual, tangible SKILLS that you can learn which help you perform under pressure in a game environment.
Mental performance skills help you stay calm, composed and focused on the soccer field. They reduce game-time stress and anxiety. They help you make good decisions, and less mistakes, in the run of play. Resiliency skills (being able to deal with adversity) also fall under the category of mental performance skills.
Mental toughness is where it all comes together
MENTAL TOUGHNESS is an athlete’s ability to use those skills to CONSCIOUSLY make decisions about how they respond to difficult situations and how they handle performance pressure.
Mental toughness happens when you have a healthy striving mentality 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.) Mental toughness is how players continue driving forward, even in the face of seemingly unsurmountable obstacles.
Soccer players with mental toughness have a strong combination of resiliency, confidence and self-regulation/discipline. Mental toughness in soccer is the ultimate goal as “your level of success in sports is directly related to your level of mental toughness,” according to sports psychologist Patrick Cohn of Peak Performance Sports.
(While mental toughness in soccer DOES include having emotional control and being able to self-regulate, it is important to note that mental toughness does NOT refer to ‘keeping things inside’ and suppressing emotions, it simply means having control over what those emotions can potentially, detrimentally, cause you to do. Example: taking a swing at an opponent and getting kicked out of the game).
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The benefits of having mental toughness in sports
Mental toughness helps athletes in many ways. On the field, during a game, it can help you:
- Go into games with confidence and belief in your ability
- Stay calm & composed
- Keep going after mistakes
- Adapt to a changing game environment or unforeseen circumstances
- Control your emotions and regulate your attention
- Keep the negative, self-defeating thoughts at bay
- Stay focused in moments of high pressure
- Have more fun and find more joy in the game!
Over the course of your soccer career, mental toughness helps you:
- Achieve high levels of athletic performance
- Maximize your potential and play to the best of your ability
- Have resiliency to bounce back after setbacks and injuries
- Take ownership of your development
- Have the patience to pursue excellence and 1% better each day
- Understand that the goal is always progress, not perfection
- Not get derailed or embarrassed by errors or missteps
- Better manage stress and hard situations
The path to achieving mental toughness in soccer starts here
Key Factor #1: Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the key to everything (like – everything in life, to be honest).
On the soccer field, you can improve technically, tactically and physically but without self-awareness, but you won’t make an ounce of progression on the mental side of the game. It is the necessary first step toward mental toughness in soccer.
This definition from positivepsychology.com explains self-awareness well: “Self-awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection.”
Being self-aware is where you start your journey toward becoming a better soccer player. It is only when you have self-awareness that you can begin to EFFECTIVELY make changes to the mental side of your game.
If you aren’t sure if you are self-aware or not, ask yourself these questions:
- Do you accept that there’s a lot you don’t know still?
- Do you admit your mistakes and try to learn from them?
- Are you able to look at things from different perspectives?
- Are you able to focus on growth & progression instead of just outcome?
- Do you have a good understanding of BOTH your strengths and weaknesses?
- Can you take feedback without getting defensive?
Self-awareness isn’t easy. It can be extremely difficult to look at yourself and objectively name your weaknesses. Most of us would prefer to look the other way and not face the facts. But reflection, and self-awareness, are necessary ‘evils’ when it comes to getting better at soccer and building mental toughness.
Why? Because you need to be able to clearly identify where you are currently at if you want to improve and change. Not where you THINK you are at, but where you ACTUALLY are at. Example: if you aren’t able to accept that you don’t know everything there is to know about the game of soccer, I’m sorry to say, but you are stuck. All forward progression is delayed until you can see that this is simply not true (and never will be).
The power of growth mindset, self-efficacy and healthy striving mentality
Key Factor #2: Mindset
Self-awareness is a prerequisite for having a good, healthy soccer mindset. A healthy striving mentality. This is because self-aware people are able understand that there is always room to grow, places to improve and new things to learn. Players that are not self-aware are not able to understand this.
If you don’t have the right mindset in soccer, you won’t be motivated or driven to spend time working on any kind of training, let alone mental skills training. And if you don’t work on your mental performance skills, you won’t be able to build mental toughness in soccer.
Growth mindset is believing your talents can be developed through hard work and relentlessly pursuing new knowledge. Healthy striving mentality is setting high, but realistic standards for yourself and putting in great effort to progress. Self-efficacy is the unshakeable belief that you can perform the specific duties and tasks needed to reach goals or overcome obstacles. All of these combine to form the mentality of a soccer player with mental toughness.
When your mindset is focused on growth and healthy striving, it makes expanding your game possible. Without it you will not succeed, you will not play at an elite level in soccer and you will not be able to experience your own greatness.
Which MENTAL SKILL is Your Strongest?!
Accountability?
Resilience?
Confidence?
Situational Awareness?
Self-regulation?
How do you get to be mentally tough in soccer?
Key Factor #3: Mental performance skills
The first two pieces, self-awareness and mindset, are ways of thinking. The third piece is a set of skills. Skills you can learn and can get better at over time.
Developing a habit of consistent mental skills training over a long period of time will help you perform better under pressure by teaching you to self-regulate your thoughts, emotions and actions. It will also help you make conscious decisions about how to respond to difficult situations, and grow your resiliency both on and off the soccer field.
Here are some examples of mental performance skills, what they do and how to start practicing them.
MEDITATION: mediation helps you stay focused on what you CHOOSE to be focused on. It helps keep your mind from wandering or going off on tangents. Here’s a good guide on how to meditate.
VISUALIZATION: visualization helps prepare you for live game situations before you even hit the field. It is a way to get in extra reps and extra practice, without physically wearing down your body. It helps you play with more confidence and composure. Here’s some tips on visualization for soccer players.
BREATH-WORK: breath-work helps you calm down and regain focus and control by tapping into a space where you are TAKING control of something that you typically don’t have control over (your breathing). Here’s a good tutorial on box breathing, a breath-work exercise great for athletes who need a quick reset.
INSTRUCTIONAL SELF-TALK: instructional self-talk is a form of positive self-talk that helps you self-regulate by directing your attention away from your feelings of anxiety & detrimental thoughts and ONTO what you should be doing right now. It’s basically a set of ‘instruction’s that you tell yourself on the field to regain focus and control. It can be position specific or not.
MOTIVATIONAL SELF-TALK: motivation self-talk is positive self-talk that is encouraging reminders that help motivate you and boost your belief in yourself during moments of high pressure. Here’s a guide on how to develop a habit of positive self-talk (both instructional and motivational).
Resiliency skills
Resiliency also falls under mental performance skills, as being able to deal with adversity and overcome obstacles is a big part of having the confidence to perform under pressure and be mentally tough. Resilience is built by experiencing setbacks and learning to work your way through them. This skill is slightly different from the others in that it is something you train & improve at as things come up, it is not a readily accessible scenario that you can practice at will (as the other skills above are).
The road from self-awareness to mental toughness
Every soccer player’s path to strong mental toughness will be different from the next person’s. As experiences and circumstances are unique, each player on their own journey will need different mental skills and different training to reach their goal.
What WILL be similar for everyone though is the need for CONSISTENCY and LONGEVITY. This is called mental fitness – consistently working on growing mental performance skills over a long period of time. It is what creates strong habits and allow you to perform better and better and have more and more resilience. It is what creates mental toughness in soccer and help’s athletes reach peak athletic performance.
The path to greatness
Mental toughness in soccer is what happens when you have the self-awareness, growth mindset AND mental performance & resiliency skills.
Self-awareness creates an environment where growth mindset is possible. Growth mindset makes you want to learn and motivates you to grow your mental performance skills. And mental performance skills training give you the tools you need to perform under pressure and handle adversity – aka have mental toughness.
It is not possible to have mental toughness in sports if you are missing one of the following key pieces:
# 1: Self-awareness
# 2: Growth mindset, healthy striving mentality & self-efficacy
# 3: Consistent mental performance skills & resiliency training
And if you have all three? Super strong mental toughness (and world domination of course).
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!
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