the tuesday transition - issue 48
April 18, 2023: As a soccer player, here’s something I always experienced a lot of: DISTRACTIONS.
What do I mean when I say distractions? I mean things that impede focus and concentration and prevent you from playing your best soccer. I mean anything that messes with you mentally and moves you AWAY from your optimal performance zone, anything that requires you to waste precious mental energy.
Let’s say you have a big tournament or showcase coming up, or tryouts or a College ID camp. You are feeling the looming pressure of the event and want to make sure you perform well in front of the coaches and scouts. Mental distractions on the field are the last thing you want to deal with, right?! You want to be able to FULLY FOCUS on the task at hand and play your best. But like clockwork, those distractions creep in and start to rattle you and put unhelpful thoughts into your head and mess with your composure.
Here are some of the things that players regularly get distracted by at a big event, things that impede focus & concentration:
- constantly worrying about the scouts & coaches on the sidelines
- PRESSURE! and expectations
- regularly comparing themselves to other players out there
- getting hung up on mistakes that trigger overthinking and self-doubt
- worrying that they didn’t get enough playing time to be seen
- obsessing over the ‘bigness’ of the event, this being their one shot
- hoping that every time they do something good, someone important was watching
Mentally preparing for a big event is how you beat this. Identifying potential problems and distractions ahead of time (like I did in the list above), and then making a plan for how you will deal with them, is crucial. When you identify potential distractions ahead of time, you take the surprise element out, meaning you reduce the chance of getting blindsided by anything coming up that you aren’t prepared for.
This puts the power in YOUR hands. When you get real with yourself about potential problems BEFOREHAND, you are WAY more prepared to deal with them when they come up.
The best part about mentally preparing is that it is something that you CAN control – always. Mentally preparing before a showcase, tournament or tryout is using your mental energy wisely and spending it on YOU, not wasting it overthinking about things you can’t control.
Here’s a good mock mental prep plan for a showcase event:
1 – IDENTIFY POTENTIAL DISTRACTIONS: and figure out a plan so that you can stay focused on your goals even when distractions happen.
2 – DEALING WITH PRESSURE: it’s 100% guaranteed that pressure and expectations are going to show up. Accept that. Remind yourself that pressure is a piece of this and that is OK, because when you work under pressure you can learn to manage it and use it for good. You can come to peace with it being there and actually even learn to enjoy it and thrive from it.
3 – DO NOT GET SWEPT UP INTO THE EVENT: the scouts don’t want to see a perfect player, they want a see a player that works hard, keeps going, recovers and moves on quickly. Remind yourself about this when you get distracted by clipboards.
4 – SELF AWARENESS CHECK IN: frequently check in with yourself to see if you are wasting mental energy on things you cannot control, or if you are instead focused on your plan and doing a good job to eliminate distractions.
5 – EXPECTATIONS: winning out and getting scouted are NOT your expectations of the event. They are bonuses, good things, goals to work toward, but not expectations. They cannot be expectations because you do not have full control over these things.
6 – REDEFINING SUCCESS: set new expectations for yourself beforehand. This is how you will measure success, this is how you will grade yourself at this event – NOT on the above (winning/scouted). These are things you have complete and total control over, EXAMPLES:
- Good leadership: defined as, encouraging teammates
- Good work ethic: defined as, putting in max effort to recover
- Good teamwork: defined as, creating combinations and 1-2s
- Good mental state: going over your plan and making sure you’re doing everything you can to eliminate distractions and use your mental energy wisely by focusing on what you can control.
When you do all this preparing beforehand, you approach the event mentally strong and ready to compete.
You aren’t going to be thrown off your game by a line of scouts with clipboards, or self-defeat by overthinking about how you’ll never be as good as someone else. Because you took the time to MENTALLY PREPARE, you are now able to eliminate distractions. You are now able to stay focused and play your best soccer. You are now able to HAVE FUN.
Till next time,
💎 What I’m digging: JULIE ERTZ IS BACK. Need I say more? ❤️❤️❤️
👩🏽💻 What I’m reading: Everybody, including Tom Brady is investing in women’s sports. It’s an exciting time to be a sports fan.
🎧 What I’m listening to: Michelle Obama on We Can Do Hard Things (with Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach). This is a must listen, full of several dozen self-awareness aha moments where I completely related to every word that was being said.
Grow your confidence through preparedness.
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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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