The Underdogs Have The Advantage


The Underdogs Have The Advantage

The-underdog-has-the-advantage

Tottenham play Middlesborough on Sunday afternoon, the underdog has the advantage.

Have you ever noticed that it's easier to play free and without fear in any competition when you're the underdog?

When you don't have any expectation to win by others?

When everyone thinks your opponent is way better you and expect them to win comfortably?

We all do it don't we. 

Pundits on the TV are a complete waste of time, they simply pick the obvious that you could pick yourself or they pick their old club. Few actually give the other side a chance.

They will talk nicely about them but still expect the better team on paper to win. Spurs fans do it all the time, we should be beating everyone it would seem, but sport isn't like that because of one element, mentality.

It's a sports cliché, even in top professional sports, that the competitor with nothing to lose is the most dangerous to play especially when they are playing at home.

In professional golf, they have taken that one step further and actually say to look out for the golfer who has a cold or a sore throat. Golf is such a mental game that if you have this underdog mental attitude from being sick you can actually have an advantage.

In cricket in the 70's and 80's a West Indian batsman, Gordon Greenidge, was a nightmare when he was injured. His mental determination was incredible and he seemed to score stacks of runs, centuries even, while playing with an injured leg.

Mental attitude can overcome immense barriers because those barriers are only mentally perceived. Take them away and you are free to perform to a level previously unattainable to you.

I want you to think about this for a second that underdog attitude is all made up in our heads, it's not real. Nothing we think about is actually real because we can think about anything we want and nobody can do anything about it, if we don't want them to.

What if you were to go out there in every competition pretending that you are the underdog?  

Pretending is just a thought like any other thought.

What if you were to take a few moments before going out to compete where you just talked yourself into a mental place where you could just play without fear? 

Without expectation?

Mistakes are made because of fear, mistakes are made because of anxiety, resulting in us panicking or refusing to make a decision until it is too late. 

If you took all that concern away then the mistakes would dry up. The only mistakes that would be made were technical ones.

Cricket is a prime example here. 

A batsman can bat and bat, but one lapse of concentration and he plays an ill-judged shot. Innings over, back to the pavilion to let another guy have a go.

Working on concentration for a cricketer is absolutely vital and it is something you can train yourself to do on a daily basis to have a significant impact over a relatively short period of time.

Football is a mental game. 

You can get your fitness to a level and go no further, you can hone your technical skills, but, if you don't have the mentality to go with it then you will never be the best you can be and you will never become one of the top players in the world.

Do players actually want to be the best they can be or are they happy earning a fat wage?

Shouldn't a player be mentally improving his game every day? Shouldn't he be improving his concentration every day, his awareness of what is around him, every day?

Surely that is basic, isn't it?

Then why isn't it happening, why does football not work mentally with players in a far more professional way?

Why is it optional, an option few take as they don't recognize their own problem, as many of you don't?

Why is it not compulsory?

Why is it not a weekly part of training?

It would improve the players immensely, make them far more valuable as an asset when it came to selling one of them.

You have all heard an expert summarizer sitting alongside a commentator telling you aside is playing without fear and taking the game to the bigger club, having a real go and causing them all sorts of problems.

Go back to when Liverpool were in their pomp, regular trophy winners and commentators would tell us teams coming to Anfield came with fear and were beaten before they had set foot on the pitch.

How has football changed mentally since then? 

Has it? 

Has it moved forward?

I'd argue it hasn't, it still operates the way it used to operate, while it has advanced in many other areas. 

Taking the fear element away can be done, it just takes some practice.

I'd recommend that every night before you go to bed, before your next game or competition, you imagine yourself turning up to the competition with that underdog mental attitude. 

That doesn't mean lacking confidence, far from it.

How would you stand?

How would you walk?

How would you talk differently?

Can you now start to see how your imagination can be a potent weapon to help you play your best, better than you have ever played before?

Those with a winning mentality know how to direct their thoughts.

Winners, win in advance.

It is illogical, that Spurs don't do everything they can to improve the mentality of the players because that is the key to any success.

We leave far too much to chance, mentally and over the last 10 years, we have paid the price. 

Titles, trophies have been there for us to win.

The skill has been there, the ability has been there, the mentality has not.