PSYCHOLOGICAL CO-ACTIVE - DAN ABRAHAMS PART 1

 As I've mentioned many times before there's 4 co-actives of performance:

1. Tactical
2. Psychological
3. Technical
4. Physical

I've actually listed them in order of what I think is most important, especially for local/amateur football, with psychological being my number 2 behind tactical.

My reasoning you ask?

Tactics teach the player what to do and when.

Psychological is the mental state the player is in that will dictate what decisions seem safe and makeable.

Technical is the actual skill required to carry out the decision as guided by the tactic.

Physical is almost a by-product of the first 3 because the better you are at handling them, the less actual physical capacity you need but that is a VERY general way of putting it but we focus on physical easily over the half of the time we train even though it's the least important aspect to focus on and we rarely if ever focus on the psychological aspect.

I suppose coaches more rely on the individual player to take care of the psychological aspect but like everything else if you're not taught how best to do this then you'll ignore it and overcompensate by doing more 400's, essentially limiting performance bandwidth every time this happens.

In the last 18 months or so I've moved to Twitter for my research and at some point early on I came across Daniel Abrahams, a sport psychologist, author and coach from the UK, who posts multiple times a day with very actionable posts  (give the guy a follow!) of which I'll do 3 blog pots of 15 points on this week, starting today.

They will be a mix of coaching and player specific points that leave a lot room for you to decode and interpret on your own.

Personally has been the biggest flaw in my game forever as I get extremely psychologically aroused during games and at times training, while not always being able to shut it off in those times when needed and with hopefully jumping into coaching this year, I definitely need to get that in check although last year when I did a fill coaching job for 1 game it seemed I was able to use some of these tips below to regulate that far better where players did mention things to that affect post game.

1. Culture – Award points for idea's and extra points for idea’s executed to incentivize ambition while separating the outcome from the process where a pass might be intercepted but it was still the right pass to make so you reward the process irrespective of outcome.
2. Big Game Coaching – Ask yourself what are the players thinking about before this game? What is their narrative, their inner story, their feeling? How can i help them experience helpful thoughts/feelings of readiness?
3. Sport Ships – Every activity in training provides an opportunity for players to develop leadership and relationships.
4. Focus – Focus your mind on what you can control, be able to deal with distractions quickly and to build concentration that filters the irrelevant information while pinpointing the relevant information.
5. Coach to Player Questions – How do you feel you can best contribute to the team? When I sense your performance is dropping what message would you like from me. What do you love about this sport? What actions help you sense feelings of high performance?
6. Difficult Players – Embrace their individuality. Ask them what they think they contribute to the team. Ask permission to hold them accountable for their projected contribution. Ask them what they need from you. Challenge them when they fail to contribute. Keep an open dialogue.
7. Player Expectations – You’re not going to play an 8 - 9/10 all the time so you must except that and also that sometimes a 6/10 game isn’t so bad either and that your focus might have been out of a whack a little (personal success v team success etc)
8. Game Day – Turn "I must win" into "I’d like to win". Turn "I have to perform" into "It’ll be great to perform". Rigid/fixed thoughts can feel like the thoughts you are supposed to have but can hinder you more than help you so focus on winning the battle against yourself before anything else.
9. Player Optimism – Reflect on strengths. Eradicate extreme thoughts around performance (must/have to etc). Have strategies to deal with negative emotions. Have strategies to deal with poor performance or high performance opposition. Offer social support
10. Game Day Preparation – Players should make their own objectives for the game, making them as specific and as controllable as possible, and phrasing them positively.
11. Player Self Belief – Have them identify their playing/character strengths. Help them use body language purposefully/intentionally. Help them rationise language, musts v have to and identify short term process goals for quick wins.
12. Effort – Is less of a choice when players lack self belief, are uncertain of their responsibilities, experience anxiety, can't shift their attention and/or feel threatened by coaches. Effort becomes a choice with mental skills and a positive environment.
13. Leaders – Will lead according to their unique characteristics through action, instruction, energy and personal encouragement so have everyone one of your players choose 2 of them to focus on.
14. Control - You can mostly control behaviour, emotion, body language, attitude and attention. Self control can be improved through self reflection, self awareness, mental skills and environment.
15. Mindset v Performance – athletes are usually way too tough on their performance but far too lenient on their mindset so make the switch. Be tolerant of your performance because a lot if it is out of your control but be brutal with your own mentality.