Spurs suffering Performance Anxiety
Hello once again brethren.
Today we are going to natter about Spurs Suffering Performance Anxiety.
But first, news that readers have tried drying...
Then crushing up egg shells...
And feeding them to the birds...
With successful results.
Even if you only have a window sill you can do this.
It is important to do these simple little...
And free...
Things with your young children...
To help teach them about recycling.
Simple little things like this can spark an interest...
And who knows...
One day that interest might be their career.
Today another gardening tip.
Split a used teabag...
Place a seed in it...
The nitrogen in tea promotes faster growth.
You can then plant them.
Small Plants
Take a glass jar with a screw top.
Undo the lid...
Place your plant in the upturned lid...
Spray the plant...
Re-screw the jar into the top.
Plants in jars recycle water...
So the plants water themselves...
A self-watering ecosystem.
Take a cork...
Drill a hole in it...
Attach a magnet...
Press a small plant into it...
Use as a fridge magnet.
More great stuff to do with your young children...
More school projects.
Right, that's the end of your indoor gardening tips for today.
Onto football.
What is needed is a calm assessment of each player...
Looking at their strengths and weaknesses...
From a sensible, calm, analytical approach...
And that includes mentality...
And mentality under pressure.
Then you have to assess whether you can improve the weaknesses...
Or, whether you can minimize the impact of the weaknesses...
Because of the strengths a player offers.
You then have to assess whether a player would be improved with different characters around him...
Or better players.
Take Hugo Lloris.
His performances have been poor.
He should have done better against Everton and at least 2 of the Liverpool goals were down to him.
Lloris has won a World Cup...
He'd return to his best with a better defensive unit in front of him.
At the moment I would be concerned about his mentality.
I think he wants to leave...
And is therefore giving his professional best...
But crucially, without the desire that takes performance to the next level.
Hence we are seeing an average keeper...
Making lot's of avoidable and costly mistakes
Dele Alli.
There is an £80m player in there.
But clubs will want him for £30m.
Therein lies a dilemma.
Now, you could go through the squad and name plenty of players...
But replacing them all isn't practical...
Especially given our obvious financial constraints.
In any squad you will have a mixture of high earners and squad members.
So you need some of the squad players...
And homegrown players.
Take the much maligned Ben Davies.
Homegrown for the Premier League...
Average wage...
A solid squad man.
Yes he has his ups and downs...
But you have to have his type in the squad...
So which ones do you have?
And how many?
You have to perm everyone into your allocated wages budget.
Your exercise is to sensibly pick a squad.
“Each and every one of those times recently they’ve been undone by individual moments, individual errors. As a manager, you can prepare all you like all week for each game but these individual errors are killing him.”
As you all know now, errors are caused by fatigue and anxiety, both controlled by the brain.
Weak brains will make mistakes, stronger brains will make less of them.
The more stronger brains you have in your squad the better.
So I ask again why we are not using professionals to train their brains.
The Anonymous Football Coach says;
"I think as coaches we have all been guilty of over overloading young players with instructions. This has really got me thinking about how we can allow our young players to thrive and have ownership of their decisions."
You do this by training their brain, something that just doesn't happen.
If you don't teach someone the conditions in which to make the best decisions...
How can you expect them to consistently make the right ones.
He makes mistake after mistake...
We have to sell him...
And buy someone else...
Starting the process all over again.
Spend millions and hope to solve a problem...
When it could be solved for under £50,000.
Illogical.
"Performance Anxiety" is what our players are suffering from.
It scrambles thinking, it creates mistakes, it slows decision making.
Constant defending will create mental fatigue...
Which will result in Performance Anxiety.
The club need to recognize that and tackle it for the long term.
If you look back to Chelsea performances, they didn't make so many mistakes.
Mourinho needs players with stronger mentalities.
Weaker mentalities drag down stronger mentalities...
They wear them down.
The solution for Mourinho is too identify the stronger mentalities...
Weed out the weaker mentalities...
And add more stronger mentalities to the existing ones.
That will be the objective in the summer...
Which will result in less of the individual mistakes that are costing us now.
Our players need actionable, practical tips and tools to help reduce their
anxiety, lower stress, and build confidence.
The brain is the biggest factor in football...
So what are we doing about it?
Keeping our fingers crossed seems to be about it.
There is a science behind how to perform well when it matters most...
Football in general are ignoring it.
We need Tottenham to innovate and lead the way...
Grab a head start.
Studies have made investigations into the vibrating heart of peak performance.
We have embraced the physical aspects...
But not the mental aspects.
Glenn Hoddle was ahead of his time...
He embraced it...
He did mental visualization training.
We can't just go on doing what we were doing...
10, 20, 30 years ago.
Knowledge of our brain has moved on...
Football has not moved with it...
Psychologically, football has it's head buried in the sand.
Physical skills only take you so far.
What holds you back?
Physically, players are completely prepared...
Mentally, they're not.
A sports psychologist, will help a player create a highly choreographed routine of mental preparation.
Harry Kane uses one before every penalty.
A psychologist will teach you to remember the sights, sounds and feelings of positive events...
The roar of the crowd, the reaction of teammates, the colours, the emotional high.
They will then focus a preliminary routine to try to get you to tap into that on autopilot, so your body goes into that same mode.
You are therefore controlling the situation...
The situation is not controlling you.
And that is the problem some of our players have...
The situation is controlling them.
What happens with the right mental conditioning is...
You no longer notice external factors like the crowd...
The worries, self-doubts, and negative thoughts decrease dramatically.
That means performance is increased...
Mistakes are reduced and...
Success, in any field, is impossible without commitment to the elements that contribute to success.
Tottenham winning matches.
Four Ps.
Pause step - forget about what has happened during the day.
"We have to pull together, we have 90 minutes, let’s be a team, help one another, stay focused on what we need to do and don’t get frustrated."
A failure to retain focus...
Allowing attention to wander...
Brings mistakes.
Put your mind in an optimal state...
And you'll give yourself the best chance of a top performance.
What work do we do on concentration and concentration levels?
It again helps to reduce mistakes...
It keeps you alert...
And helps you make the right decisions.
Pause step - forget about what has happened during the day.
Present - think about the situation in front of you, factually, not emotionally.
Plan - review your plans for the game, mentally rehearsing moves, actions.
Positive thoughts - visualise your own successful game, not the team, you.
That's where we need to get to.
That's basically all a captain needs to say before a game, but not eery game or it becomes meaningless.
Failure, on the other hand, is associated with fear.
So if anxiety is affecting our performance
Shouldn't we do something about it on an individual basis?
Fear, anxiety is self-imposed...
And self-limiting.
That is the easy way out...
Success requires conquering fear, anxiety...
It takes effort, willpower, positivity.
Put aside fear, anxiety to embrace positivity will change outcomes.
The successful take responsibility for their failure...
Not the failures of others.
Stay calm....
Use mental tools to boost confidence...
Use mental tricks to optimize performance.
Our players are ignoring proven psychological research...
And just jumping into the lions den, mentally unprepared.
We'll get better results with a better set of practices.
We will be inconsistent if we ignore controlling our jitters.
Each player has a physiological fight-or-flight response to stress.
If a player hasn't learnt how to handle it...
He will keep letting you down.
An experiment you could try at home to improve your concentration is to make some tea.
It will help train you to focus on the present...
Which could help you in all walks of life.
Don't look anywhere else...
Remain focussed on the kettle...
The tea or tea bag...
The milk...
The mug...
Everything.
Is there a smell?
How does each feel to the touch?
Mentally register their weight.
Focus on every little detail...
Shape, size, everything.
The idea is that your mind is clear of all other thoughts...
Except what you are focusing on.
As you drink your tea...
Feel the warmth of the cup in your hands...
Really taste the tea with each sip...
Take note of all the sounds around you.
When you feel your mind wandering...
Let go of thoughts...
Come back to the sensation of the warmth of the tea cup in your hands.
If you can improve your focus on a task...
Then you'll be able to do that task better.
That applies to footballers too.
It is just one small element to self-control...
And therefore self-improvement.
COYS
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