April 8, 2025: As soccer players, we all know we play our best when we aren’t thinking too much. When we are just trusting ourselves, adjusting, and things feel like they are second nature. This is called BEING IN THE ZONE and as athletes we LOVE when we have games like this because we feel free, creative, joyful and powerful. We play some of our very best soccer here.
There's a reason we call this playing 'out of your mind' - it's because when players play this way, they ARE NOT OVERTHINKING....
They are literally playing OUT of their MIND.
They aren’t in their head, micromanaging and overanalyzing, they are instead shutting down the over-thinker and just letting their skill and experience guide them.
They are letting their training take over, trusting that their body knows how to react and handle the ball. They know they’ve put in 1000’s of hours and know the game inside and out, which allows them to trust their decision making and problem solving skills. To not think too much.
When you are ‘in the zone’, everything is just clicking, you feel confident, gritty and resilient and are playing some darn good soccer. (Notice I did not say PERFECT soccer because yes we still make mistakes in this place, but we don’t get hung up on anything. We just move through it and immediately transfer our attention to whatever is next).
For players that have experienced this elusive out-of-your-mind place before, it can be very disappointing to not be able to conjure it up on demand whenever they want. It can feel frustrating when you KNOW what it’s like, but are struggling to figure out how to get back there (which often leads to more overthinking and pushing ourself further from this place we want to be, ironically).
So - how do we go from OVER thinking to NO thinking? The bridge in the middle is actually another type of thinking, INTENTIONAL THINKING.
Here’s the reason this ‘intentional thinking’ piece is so important: ideally the long term goal is the no-thinking, fully-trusting place where you don’t have to think too hard and things are just second nature. But you will never be able to jump straight from overthinking to there. Sometimes it happens randomly when things align, I get that, but what I’m talking about here is to be able to consciously and intentionally create the conditions where ‘out of your mind’ play CAN be something you have more control over.
Intentional thinking is the BRIDGE that gets us from being 'in our head' to getting 'out of our head.' It is how we unlock our game.
Intentional thinking is all about coaching ourselves and being purposeful with the words that we choose to use:
- It means to choose to TALK to yourself instead of LISTEN to yourself (or to the over-thinker more accurately)
- It means to choose to think about what YOU want to think about, not letting your brain go on automatic and do whatever it wants
- It means to decide to only let in things that are good, useful and constructive
Being intentional with your self-talk and your thinking means that you are purposefully picking what is going on in your head. These pieces of intentional thinking are what lead to more resilient play, which is a cornerstone of out-of-your-mind play.
Here are just a few examples of what intentional thinking might look like:
- On-field coaching: giving yourself instructions about what you should be doing right now (pick your head up, find space, tell your teammates what you see, close the space, etc.) or asking questions to divert your attention to the next action (which channel is best? can I go forward? what’s behind me? etc.)
- Off-field confidence building tools: taking the time off the field to purposefully reflect, journal and cultivate your thoughts, because our confidence is an average of all the thoughts in our head at any given point in time. One example is to list out your mastery experiences, which are memories of times you’ve done things well. They are been-there done-that moments that are proof to ourselves that we can do something again.
- Practice patience and self-compassion: in-game or after-game, coaching yourself through mistakes by non-judgmentally addressing what changes you need to make, but then also being kind to yourself by acknowledging that you are working hard, getting better and improving all the time.
We can’t just snap our fingers and get ‘in the zone’, we have to take action to bridge the gap first. INTENTIONAL thinking is the ‘how’ of how to play out-of-your-mind. It is the access point to that second nature where we don’t have to think too hard, we just PLAY! We UNLOCK as athletes.
So instead of just showing up to games and hoping that you’ll be able to play your best soccer, take action with intentional self-talk.
Instead of just hoping you’ll play well, take the steps to make it happen.
Till next Tuesday,
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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