June 11, 2024: Tryouts, ID camp or playoffs coming up? Summertime can bring any or all of these high pressure events, and something I’ve been very dedicated to doing these past several years is helping players create a focused mental prep plan beforehand so that they can LOCK-IN and play their best soccer in these moments. Today I decided to pull together a general outline of how I do this and send it out to all of you so that you can give it a go as well!
Now this plan will need to be tweaked and changed depending on the player and the situation, but it’s a pretty solid starting point. Note that this is not a mental prep routine (which if you have one, you should definitely still do!), this is more of a specific plan of attack, a tailored mindset, for a specific event.
This plan also does NOT dive into the the how-tos of confidence building, but WILL absolutely 100% help you feel more confident because preparedness is one of the bedrocks of building true, deep confidence and belief in yourself and your abilities.
This plan is designed to help you play your best by taking your focus OFF of the outcome and putting it onto the small controllable pieces, the things you can do on the field that will help actually enhance your performance. Because when we are overly focused on results, our brain doesn’t have room to process what’s happening right in front of us, which ultimately is what we need to be doing if we want to maximize our potential. Reach out if you have any questions on anything in the plan, always happy to guide or provide more info!
Till next week,
Mental Prep Plan
(tryouts, ID camps, post-season, finals, etc.)
Event:
Date:
Overall goal/desired outcome:
(Step 1) What is your OBJECTIVE for yourself, how will you do everything you can to play your part in helping you meet your goal?
- IMPORTANT: the goal above is most likely something you only have PARTIAL control over. So now we need to think about the pieces of this that you have FULL control over, the things you can do that would positively influence that outcome. These controllable things will be what you want to focus your attention on (not the goal).
- Think about it this way – what is the value of this event as this relates to your long term vision for yourself, and how will you MAKE SURE that regardless of outcome, you move forward toward becoming the player and person you want to be?
HOW TO DO THIS: Set an objective for yourself that you can fully 100% control, not something related to whether you get on the team, win, etc.
ID Camp example: My objective is to get the most out of this camp that I can, to make sure I leave with as much new knowledge and skill as possible
Tryouts example: My objective is to give everything I’ve got, to go 100% and leave everything I have on the field, I don’t need to reserve my energy for anything, I’m going all in
Big game example: My objective is to be as resilient as I can, meaning no matter what happens I will keep going and giving my all in every moment, even when something hard happens
(Step 2) Identify and ditch the EXPECTATIONS that you do not have control over
- There are two types of expectations that we can have. First there are healthy striving expectations, which I also like to say are HIGH expectations IF you define them this way: High expectations are things that you alone have 100% FULL CONTROL OVER whether you meet them, nobody can stop you, doesn’t matter if you win or lose, you can still meet these expectations.
- Second, we can have expectations of ourself that are not actually things we have FULL control over. I call these the ‘old’ expectations. Example, expectations of perfection or expectations of getting scouted, getting noticed, winning every game, not messing up, etc. These can be GOALS sure, but not expectations. And the reason for that is because it’s unrealistic to DEMAND from yourself a result (example: playing perfect and not making mistakes) that you cannot fully control!!! You have partial control yes, but you are not fully in control of whether mistakes happen (other people are involved), and when you DEMAND from yourself something that you don’t actually have FULL control over, you are now allowing other people to determine how you feel about yourself, you are putting them in charge of your confidence. This is a problem.
HOW TO DO THIS: Figure out what 'old' expectations you have hanging out in your mind. This requires you to get real with yourself and be honest.
ID Camp example: The expectation that I need to ditch, the expectation that I don’t have full control over whether it happens or not, is that I will be the best one on the field and get a bunch of praise from the coaches. I want to work to lessen my dependance on this happening in order to feel good about how I did. Getting external validation about performance – this would be bonus and awesome if it happened, but it is not my expectation of the event. This cannot be my expectation because I do not have full control over what the coaches say, or how good the other players are. The only thing I have control over is how I show up and play, so that is what I am going to focus on.
(Step 3) REDEFINE SUCCESS for yourself, set those NEW, HIGH expectations (things you have full control over) and then be diligent about staying attached to them and keeping them in your mind
- All that you can do is all that YOU can do, and success comes from doing THAT. From giving everything you’ve got in the spaces you can fully control.
- Your job every time you hit that field is to move yourself forward toward becoming the player and person you want to be in the future (you can do this EVERY time, it’s 100% within your control). You want to make sure that your high expectations are supporting this so that regardless of outcome, you are still gaining, growing and moving forward. Regardless of outcome, there is still VALUE to this moment, it’s your job to find it and capture it.
- Let’s say you are in front of the goal. You’re high expectations of yourself should be along the lines of: I expect myself to… have movement off the ball, to communicate, to pick my head up, to choose my shot placement, to focus on technique with how my foot touches the ball, to followup my shot, etc. THESE are high expectations because these are things you can fully control. Let’s say you do all this, you think you have a better chance of scoring or a worse chance? BETTER. Let’s say you do all this but the keeper is on fire and makes a fantastic save. OF COURSE you will feel disappointed and frustrated, but the difference is that you KNOW that you did everything you could do. So while you feel disappointed that it didn’t go in, you don’t feel like a bad person. You know that it was well executed – WHICH IS SUCCESS. It is success because it moves you forward toward you becoming the player you want to be.
HOW TO DO THIS: Identify at least 3 high expectations you have of yourself at the event and then get detailed about what this looks like. These new expectations are how you will measure success, this is how you will grade yourself at this event - NOT on the above old expectations. These must all be things that again, you have complete and total control over.
Big game example:
- Excellent leadership (encouraging teammates, assertive & supportive communication)
- Excellent work ethic (putting in max physical effort on transition, challenging for every 50/50 ball)
- Excellent teamwork (360 awareness of where everyone is at, creating opportunity with combinations and 1-2s)
- Excellent mental state (keeping my focus on finding solutions, adapting and adjusting to changes)
While the above three are the most important, here are some additional things that I would highly consider adding into your plan:
(Step 4) MASTERY EXPERIENCES, aka, been-there-done-that experiences.
What are some examples of times that you did well in high pressure situations? Examples of times you were able to stay focused on your controllable objectives and high expectations, regardless of environment? Listing these times out is a huge confidence builder. Because here’s the truth: if you’ve done it before you can do it again.
(Step 5) Plans for potential DISTRACTIONS to you meeting your objective (anything that might take you by surprise or throw you off).
What you want to do here is make a list of all the things that could happen that could throw you off (examples are bad ref calls, overly aggressive opponent, comparing yourself to others, hot weather, scouts watching, etc.) Then make a plan for how you are going to deal with each one: How will you coach yourself through this if it happens? What will you say, how will you act, what intentional self-talk will you use? Having a plan in place is crucial and will make it much easier for you to take your focus off of the problem and put it on the solution when these things pop up. When you already know what you’ll do in certain situations, it lowers the pressure and makes it more manageable.
(Step 6) Lastly, understand that it’s 100% guaranteed that PRESSURE & adversity are going to be a part of your soccer journey. Don’t ignore that fact, be real about it and address it – pressure is a piece of this, challenge is a piece of this.
Because when we can recognize that, instead of trying to ignore pressure or get it to go away, we can work to form a new relationship with it. It’s a part of the game, so your job is to learn to operate with pressure present. One way you can do that is remind yourself that pressure is not all bad, in fact some pressure is very, very useful. If there was zero pressure we wouldn’t be as focused because we wouldn’t care! Also, nerves are essentially adrenaline and boosts of energy, that if used in the right way, can actually give you a huge physical boost when you start playing. So nerves don’t have to be a bad thing either, it’s all about how you interpret them.
MOST IMPORTANT THING - Consistently check-in with yourself on all of the above.
Write up your plan, print out a copy, keep it with you all week leading up to the event. Keep going over things, keep reminding yourself of your objective, which expectations you are ditching, which new ones you are staying tuned into. Remind yourself that you’ve done this before, remind yourself that you have plans in place for potential distractions, remind yourself that you are ready!
Remind yourself that yes, while this event feels super big, it all comes down to the fact that it’s just soccer. And you love soccer, you’re good at soccer, you KNOW HOW TO PLAY SOCCER.
So, bring on the soccer, you got this.
💎 What I’m digging: Who will make the USWNT Olympic roster under new head coach Emma Hayes??!! I’m so excited for this team right now.
👩🏽💻 What I’m reading: Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One by Dr. Joe Dispenza
🎧 What I’m listening to: Do NOT miss Roger Federer’s Dartmouth commencement speech, I’m keeping this one for future reference
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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