Pre-game nerves can be a really big deal – so much so, that some soccer players come to dread them.
When pre-game nerves show up up before a big soccer game, they have the power to completely derail your focus and concentration before the kickoff even happens. Pre-game nerves tend to show show up right when you least want them to and they fill you with doubt and a self-defeating mindset.
Increasing your mental toughness and training the mental part of your soccer game is how to get past pre-game nerves. Learning to anticipate and prepare for pre-game nerves is how you overcome them and play with composure and focus under pressure. Let’s talk about how to do that.
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Pre-game nerves are normal and predictable
Nerves are the enemy, or so we are taught to believe. The thing about pre-game nerves is that they show up LIKE CLOCKWORK. They are part of the game. They are not the enemy, doubt is the enemy.
Nerves are not inherently bad: it’s NOT A BAD THING to feel nervous before a soccer match. Why? Because being nervous simply means that you are invested and that you care! If you didn’t care, then you wouldn’t be experiencing pre-game nerves and butterflies.
What IS bad though is the doubt that pre-game nerves tend to bring with them. Mental toughness coach Steve Knight writes in his book WinningSTATE Women’s Soccer, “if we can’t skillfully ride the adrenaline {of pre-game nerves} and control what’s going on in our head, to put it nicely, we underachieve. In extreme cases we turn into spaghetti , get desperate, melt down emotionally, make poor decisions, and hand the game to our opponents.”
So here’s the best thing about pre-game nerves: they are extremely predictable. They show up repeatedly, in the same moments, over and over again. Ever thought about that before?
They are easy to anticipate, they don’t have the element of surprise on their side. They show up consistently whenever you are feeling pressure to perform or working to meet high expectations. Pre-game nerves will continue to show up for the rest of your life in these moments – and if you resist them and push them away then they will actually gain more power over you than if you decided to accept them as part of the game and make peace with their presence.
As we mentioned, nerves mean you care, and since you are going to continue to care, you won’t be able to make nerves go away. But that’s OK. The best way to overcome them is to anticipate them, PREPARE for them and make a plan for how to deal with them. Here’s how.
Mental toughness to overcome pre-game nerves
To be able to consistently get past pre-game nerves and perform well under pressure, you need mental toughness. Mental toughness is a necessity to overcoming nerves for many reasons. First, you have to be mentally tough enough to be able to do the hard work of self-reflecting on WHY & WHEN you feel pressure to perform. Aka – being able to figure out what types of situations trigger your pre-game nerves so that you can anticipate and adequately prepare.
Knowing that nerves are predictable is a HUGE game-changer. And it is why mentally tough soccer players make friends with their nerves instead of running from them. When pre-game nerves show up (as anticipated), instead of resisting and pretending they don’t exist, simply say “Hello nerves, welcome to the party. So glad you are here, must mean it’s time to play the beautiful game!”
{Related read: The 3 key pieces to building mental toughness in soccer}
In order to see pre-game nerves in this new light, you NEED mental toughness in soccer. Mental toughness is a necessity when it comes to staying level headed and responding to the situation instead of reacting. Responding would be when we focus on controlling what we can control (our actions, our self-talk) and reacting would be what we referred to above: melting down emotionally and making poor decisions.
"Anticipate the nerves and respond with a level head. Face the pressure head on."
The way to make nerves and pre-game anxiety dissipate is to accept them, welcome them (aka make friends with them) and then work really hard to expand your mental performance skills so that you have the tools to self-regulate and play with confidence, consistency and composure – WITH THE NERVES PRESENT.
When you are able to still play with composure WITH NERVES PRESENT, this is a mentally tough player.
Mentally tough players are able to stay calm and composed under pressure by focusing on what they can control. And what they can control is the 4 points below.
Grow your confidence through preparedness.
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4 tips for getting past pre-game nerves
Pre-game nerves aren’t going away anytime soon, true, but they don’t have to knock you off your game.
You are always in control of your response. YOU GET TO CHOOSE how you respond to pre-game nerves, instead of simply REACTING. As a soccer player, it’s your job to stay level headed when nerves show up and to RESPOND to the situation and focusing on controlling what you can control.
Building the mental toughness to help you get past pre-game nerves doesn’t just magically happen. This skill is not going to arrive on a silver platter, you are going to have to work for it and do a lot of soccer mental training. You have to train the mental side of your game in order to be able to do this, if you only concentrate on the physical, technical and tactical pieces of your game (which most of us are guilty of doing) pre-game nerves will continue to get the best of you and fill your pre-kickoff moments with doubt and self-defeating mentalities.
Here are a couple of examples of ways to respond with mental toughness before a game when pre-game nerves start firing:
#1 - Use neutral thinking
This process comes from Trevor Moawad (Russell Wilson’s mental skills coach) and is all about focusing on the process and using judgement free thinking. To use neutral thinking, you want to take out the negative from the situation (the doubt and self-defeating mentalities) and redirect your thoughts to neutrally identify the TRUTH of the moment. Then ask yourself, “what is the next thing I need to do?”
For pre-games nerves, you could use neutral thinking this way:
What is happening right now? – Answer: Kickoff is happening, the ref is about to blow the whistle
and then, to keep yourself focused on the game in front of you, and away from the doubt, ask yourself:
and then, to keep yourself focused on the game in front of you, and away from the doubt, ask yourself:
What is the next thing I need to do? – Answer: keep my head on a swivel, open up and create space for my teammates, get behind the ball on a loss of possession, take my first touch away from pressure. Etc.
#2 - Visualize mastery experienceS
When pre-game nerves show up, they bring doubt. The way to overcome doubt overtime, is to develop a deep, underlying, unshakeable belief in yourself. This very stable confidence is known as self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is gained through mastery experiences, a mastery experience is a ‘been there, done that’ experience that PROVES that you can do something.
For pre-game nerves, you can use mastery experiences to help you overcome doubt: either by remembering and visualizing times in which you performed well under pressure, OR by remembering and visualizing times when you had success of pushing THROUGH the nerves and played your game, despite them threatening to instill you full of doubt.
#3 - Do breathing exercises
Breath-work has many, many benefits for soccer players, but in the context of dealing with pre-game nerves we will just talk about two. First and foremost, increasing oxygen inflow and carbon dioxide outflow has calming affects on your body and mind. Exhaling is the holy grail of being able to help yourself perform under pressure when you feel pre-game nerves start up. If you’ve ever done a breath-work exercise when you’re stressed, you can usually FEEL the immediate effects, right?
Second, when you do a breathing exercise, what you are essentially doing is controlling your breathing. Controlling your in and out breaths allows you to feel more in control of other things as well – in this case, your RESPONSE to the stress of pre-game nerves. Try this simple box breathing exercise: breathe in slow and deep for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts, breathe out slow and deep for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts. Repeat.
#4 - Start a consistent game-day routine
One really good way to grow the mental side of your game is to develop a consistent pre-game routine. Building healthy habits around game day preparation is great when it comes to being mentally prepared to take the field. Pre-game routines can include anything and everything that works for YOU when it comes to staying focused and keeping your mind clear of distraction.
Examples of good mental preparation habits include: visualization, good sleep, prepping game gear and food, reviewing mastery experiences, going for a walk, meditation, listening to music with positive energy and NO SOCIAL MEDIA (comparison via social media is a HUGE mental distraction and absolutely detrimental to getting into optimal headspace before games).
Reframe pre-game nerves in a new light
As soccer players we have a fundamental DISLIKE for pre-game nerves, but in order to stay focused and composed and play well under pressure, we need to accept them, make friends with them, and then choose to work WITH them and not against them.
One of the most powerful ways that mentally tough players get past pre-game nerves in soccer is that they have learned to completely reframe the situation. Mentally tough players know that pre-game nerves are never going to go away, so they’ve decided to make friends with them instead and HARNESS their presence.
Basically, this means they’ve learned to reframe the situation to the point where they don’t mind the nerves because they know it means it’s time to play! “Hello nerves, old friend. Nice of you to join me, I expected to see you here. Must mean it’s time to play ball and DOMINATE this game. Letttttt’s go!”
When you can anticipate and prepare for pre-game nerves, you will be expecting them and because of that they automatically lose some of their power. When you can anticipate something, it’s never as threatening as it was before. This is a mentally tough mindset, this is mental toughness in soccer.
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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