Football psychology for your mental skills

Football psychology for your mental skills is to help you at every stage of your career.

From the early years right through to when you retire. And beyond.

It’s about everything inside you - your mindset. And everything outside your control - the crowd, social media, the temptations and home life. They don’t exist separately they both flow into each other. We can unpick them.

Basically I’m training your brain to be fitter for football. This is about:
. Your growth mindset for the sport. Being a better version of yourself
. You handling your responses - the way everyone can be looking at you,     commentating on you (fans, coaches, social media)
. You not bringing your ‘work’ home, or letting home life impact your game
. The pressure. Either dialling it down, or learning to live with it, in some cases even  learning to love it.

Challenges professional footballers face:
. Being consistent, staying on top
. Lack of confidence
. A lack of energy, leaving you drained and demotivate
. Feelings of isolation if you are new to the country, or changed within the UK and   have lost your family support network
. Feelings of dread like something bad is going to happen
. Feelings of fear and anxiety that don’t go away
. Loss of appetite, insomnia and an inability to concentrate or enjoy life
. You feel like self-destructing: you gamble, drink, take drugs, crave sex.
. Poor performance on the pitch and you don’t know why
. Phobias, panic attacks and anxiety disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive  disorder (OCD)
. You’re being destroyed on social media.

I use the words, “feel” and ‘feelings” a lot. Why? Because a lot of our work will be around changing your self-talk. We can become what we tell ourselves, so let’s make it positive.

Football psychology to develop your mental skills. For your football, for your life. 

You don’t live on the pitch. On the pitch you want to be the best footballer you can possibly be - and beyond. But there’s also life. It happens, and we can work together so any bad tenant of brain space is evicted. It’s just you with your best mindset on match day. That’s why we focus on:
Humility: Being confident, but knowing your weaknesses and using them for growth. Never feeling you lost, you only have learnings - you’re admitting you vulnerability, sharing and seeking help. The growing. Remember the Vince Lombardi saying, “We Never Lost, We Just Ran Out of Time”. One of Sir Alex Ferguson’s all-time favourite sayings 

Self-talk: Footballers can outline negative ways they speak to themselves, and come up with positive alternatives. 

Visualisation: You and me can rehearse your performance in your mind to build confidence and perform better under pressure. We can build confidence – knowing what to think about before and during a match. Get the focus right, concentration – blocking out distractions and focusing on what’s important. Build the intensity and keep it - play at your best for the duration of a match. Make better decisions - quickly and clearly. Consistency – playing to your best in training and matches.
Injury. Football psychology for your mental skills can help deal with the fear of injury. For example, will I get my health back? My career,? What about my contracts?

Insecurity. Many footballers are employed on short, insecure contracts, which can make you feel like you have little control over your future. 

Online abuse. A survey found that 28% of footballers reported that online abuse was a negative factor in their mental well-being. 

Alcohol use. 17% of footballers reported that alcohol use was a non-industry hazard that impacted their well-being. 

Gambling. 15% of footballers reported that gambling was a non-industry hazard that impacted their well-being. 

How do I work?

By training I’m a Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist. Put simply we work together to change your thinking for the better. Give you the resilience to develop and keep a winning mindset.

We’re both looking at your thinking. Agreeing that you are not your thoughts. You can change any mental approach for the better.

Hypnotherapy is simply a way to get you to relax, then it’s easier to learn new better habits and hard wire them.

There’s a saying that, “The last thing you’re taught is the first thing you forget”. I’m working to get new better patterns of behaviour deep into your sub-conscious, so they become ingrained and stay there as improved performance.

Frequently Asked Questions from footballers

What is hypnosis?
It simply a way on relaxing. Focusing your attention. A bit like when you hear sportsman say they’re, “In The Zone”.

What is hypnotherapy?
Using hypnosis to help you calm your mind, solve a problem, or remove/‘dial down’ a worry, a bad pattern of behaviour, or a negative thought. Or, build resilience, confidence, or belief. In effect remove negatives, boost your positive mind set.

Will it work?
In most cases most of the time, yes. To what degree depends on you. Your belief in the process.

How many sessions will I need?
Tough one. It depends how you take to hypnotherapy. Usually you notice a difference after six or seven sessions.

Isn’t it all rubbish you see on a night out?
Good - and valid - question. That’s hypnosis used for entertainment. I’m using it in a clinical way to remove a fear, phobia, or boost your self-belief. Make you a better more resilient version of yourself.

What’s the difference then between you and a coach?
A coach tends to work on your technique and tactics. I’m working on your footballing mindset. Brain re-training. The confidence to do what a coach asks you to do and what you need to do on matchday.

Frequently Asked Questions from footballers

Name the footballers you’ve worked with?
My profession is discreet. I can’t give names (GDPR). But I can tell you that I’ve worked with players at every stage of their career.
Starting at the beginning. Being rejected at a trial and picking yourself up again. Not losing heart. The homesickness when you sign for a club miles away - you may have come from overseas and miss your family. Likewise if you get a sports scholarship to, say, play in the States and you miss home.
Playing career. You’ve got to the highest level, now how do you stay there? Everyone’s watching. Your team’s depending on you. Your family’s depending on you. Everyone in the ground’s an expert - and the millions on social media.
Coming to the end. You choose to bow out at the top. You don’t choose to stop: injury stops you, you’re dropping down the leagues, no one wants you.
When it’s over. The cheering’s stopped. Now what? Being happy with who you are.

What’s it like working with me?
Hopefully calming. That’s why I’m called The Gentle Mind. When you’re calm it’s easier to learn new ways of thinking. Make better decisions. It’s not about being softer, less aggressive. It’s about knowing how to do the right thing at the right time more often. A bold statement by me (gulp), but think of Carlo Ancelotti’s “Quiet Leadership: Winning Hearts, Minds and Matches”.

So how will you make me a better footballer?
No idea until we talk. I don’t know what your challenge is. Some of the most common themes are:
. Being a better, more focused version of you
. Learning to let things go, easily move on
. Looking forward to facing opponents
. Not worrying when your form goes
. Thriving when the pressures on
. Taking it off the training ground onto match day
. Not bringing personal problems and home life on the pitch.

An example to share. Anger versus aggression. Understanding the difference.
Aggression affects a number of different situations on the pitch. Alongside strength, it determines how likely you are to win a shoulder to shoulder challenge, or win a 50/50 header. Now, the risk is aggression comes with a risk however, it can make you more likely to concede dangerous free kicks and penalties. Be hot headed. Aggression doesn’t have to be anger, or a loss of control. It simply needs a greater focus.

Who am I?
I’m James Thomas. A Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist. It's a form of football psychology for your mental skills.

I work with professional footballers at all stages of their career - even years after it ended.

In a wider context I also work with other sports people. Here are some examples:
. Racing drivers trying to get into Formula One
. Ultra runners who’ve lost confidence running down alpine slopes
. Snooker players looking to get bigger breaks, feel less stressed as a break builds
. Golfers who’ve ‘lost’ their swing and/or putt.

How do we work together?
Quietly, calmly, discreetly and hopefully face-to-face.

If you fancy a chat please email me at jamesthomas@thegentlemind.co.uk or call me on 07787563099.

I called my company The Gentle Mind because I believe you are a better version of yourself when you’re calmer. You can think your way out of situations. And understand you are not your thoughts - you can let them go.