Think Positive Thoughts

The human mind is still such an enigma for people all over the world.  With thoughts constantly running around our heads, it can be easy for people to get ridiculous ideas and blindly believe in them, or to continue to dwell upon their negative thoughts.  Such thoughts can greatly hamper a person’s overall health and well being, in addition to their play on the soccer field.  Therefore, young soccer players who wish to develop to the best of their potential should attempt to only focus on the positive aspects of their game in order to best feel confident when they play soccer.

Positive thinking will make you gain belief in your abilities as a player.  When you go for a shot, do not worry about the opposing goalie’s daring saves or that you might miss the goal altogether.  Visualize the ball powering cleanly into the net and let loose.  You’ll be surprised how often your shot will resemble what your concocted in your head.

Now, do take this information with a grain of salt. This isn’t some sort of mind over matter exercise. How many times do we watch soccer players attempt the audacious and spectacular 40-yard effort to simply watch it sail over the crossbar for a goal kick?  Use your visual mind cues to formulate a reasonable understanding of what magic you can perform on the soccer field.

When players begin to learn nifty foot tricks to better their dribbling game, it will take a while for them to really get the move down to the point that they will fool a defender.  When trying to bring out a new trick into a game, be sure to spend some time really perfecting the move.  Then when you bring it out in the game, you know you can manage the feat.  Visualize your opponent falling for your scissor move, and blow past them.

Positive thinking also plays a part in your overall activity in the game.  Soccer players and teams as a whole need to have a positive vibe.  Momentum is a huge factor in sports and teams with the home field advantage can often use the positive energy from their home fans to take the game up a notch.  

Likewise, when a team is floundering about and losing focus, player after player will mess up and give away the ball.
The team needs to believe in themselves throughout an entire game.  What’s so awesome about soccer is that without timeouts, there is no rest and break time to re-group, so the ability of players to fight through some adversity becomes critical to a team’s success.

Once again a positive head can work wonders in these types of situations.  Someone on your team has to make a play to help the players regroup.  Perhaps it’s a stern but legal tackle that rekindles the belief in your side, or maybe you might just find the willpower to muscle past someone and score a brilliant goal against the run of play.  However it happens, use a positive mindset to not only inspire yourself, but your team, to victory!