Week Number = 6
Date = 24th April 2014
Aim of the Week = The aim is to reduce the anxiety by introducing the progressive muscular relaxation into your training programme.
Progressive Muscular Relaxation Technique
Hello X. In the fifth week of our training programme we will look at the technique to reduce your anxiety levels before the match. I will introduce to you the progressive muscular relaxation technique that you could practice before every football game. So far we were mostly concentrating on improving your self confidence but this week we will look at reducing the anxiety as that's one thing that you also find difficult to cope with before the football games.
Introduction of the Technique
Progressive muscle relaxation is the technique used for learning to monitor and control the state of muscular tension.
Progressive Muscular Relaxation & Exercise for You
This technique is not as easy as it seems as you've got to relax all the different muscle groups at different times. I will introduce to you the typical progressive muscular relaxation technique.
Firstly you need to lie down and relax your entire body. If you hear any kind of noises don't try to block them out but focus on your breathing (inhale then exhale slowly). Close your eyes, take it easy and relax.
Then, tense the muscles of your right lower leg and foot by pointing your toe. Hold the tension for 5-6 seconds and then relax. You should be able to feel the tension in the foot and the calf and then totally relax. When you relaxed you should feel the warmth in the muscles. Repeat this procedure again on the right leg, and then twice on the left.
After tensing and relaxing the lower leg, and foot, tense for 5 seconds and relax the thigh and buttocks region, twice for each leg. Tense the buttocks and thighs by pushing down with your buttocks.
Tense and relax the forearm and hand by making a fist. Do this twice for each arm. Then, tense and relax the bicep of each arm twice by bending at the elbow and pretending you are doing a chin up.
Tense the back muscles by arching the back up for 5 seconds and relax. Tense and relax the back twice.
Tense the stomach and chest muscles by breathing in and relax by breathing out. Do this twice. Tense the neck and shoulders by pulling your shoulders together and then release them and relax.
Tense the face and forehead by gritting your teeth and pulling your eyebrows together and then relax. Do this twice as well. Mentally scan your body for any tension and release it. Focus on the relaxed feelings in your muscles, and the calming thoughts of your mind set.
Finally, after you've done this exercise, slowly flex, stretch, inhale and open your eyes before sit up.
This is a typical progressive muscular relaxation exercise which may seem quite confusing and hard to do, but in fact when you do it you'll see that it's not that hard. What I want you to do this week is to try and perform this exercise. Give yourself as many chances as you want to do it correctly as I know that there is a lot of things to do. If you want you may get someone to read you the instructions whilst you seated down and relaxed and ready to do this exercise. Good luck!
Athlete's Feedback
"Hi coach. When I first looked at this post I was quite unsure whether you are being serious or not when you said that you want me to do this exercise. There is a lot of little bits to do during this exercise and I thought that I will not manage to do it. However, after a series of attempts I finally managed to do this exercise correctly and I must admit that after I've done I felt really good. Normally I am feeling stressed before, during and after the match or training. With this exercise I managed to relax and concentrate more on the training. Even though it took me some time to get this exercise done properly I am feeling happy about it and I may look at it whenever I'm feeling stressed.
Thank you coach"
Thursday 24 April 2014
Thursday 17 April 2014
Training Programme 4 - ROUTINES
Week Number = 5
Date = 17th April 2014
Aim of the Session = In this session the aim is to introduce the technique of routines so that you could enhance your confidence even more.
Routines Technique
Hello X. This week we will look at the technique of using routines in order to enhance and develop your confidence even more. By this time we have already done quite a lot of stuff on developing your self confidence but I think that if I introduce to you this technique as well you will have more options and therefore your self confidence would hopefully be high during every situation in football.
Introduction of the Technique
Routines are a set of actions that you follow in order to improve your performance, enhance motivation, or, in this case, develop our self confidence.
Routines
Routines are often developed consciously, but also you may come across a routine that has been developed unconsciously. Routines mostly occur with performance. For example, in your game preparations you may find some routines that you always do that help you with the performance. The routines that we want to concentrate will be to do with your self confidence. I think that in order to do that we could put together all the techniques that I introduced to you before. Goal-setting, self-talk and imagery could made a routine and therefore I think it'll be easier to get all them into one.
Exercises for You
This exercise will require a little bit of thinking from you but I am sure that you'll do it just fine.
I want you to describe the things that you usually do before, during or after a competitive football game that help with your confidence. You can say about the things you always used to do, but you can also include the things that you have learned recently, meaning that you can write about the goal setting, self-talk or imagery techniques if you still use before competitive football games. I want you to do them under the following headings:
What?
When?
Why?
Benefits?
Please think careful and remember, I only want you to write about the routines you do in order to build your self confidence, not improve your skills.
Good luck X!
Athlete's Feedback
Recently I went and talked to X about the task I gave him to complete about the routine technique. We talked for a bit, and he gave me a feedback on how he completed that exercise.
"Coach, I am very happy with all the techniques so far in this training programme. I find all of them very useful and it's very good that whilst doing the routine technique I can connect it with the goal-setting, self-talk and imagery techniques that I have done before during that programme.
To be completely honest with you I had to think hard about any self confidence routines that I did before starting this training programme with you and I must say that I couldn't think of any. I can see now that my lack of confidence didn't came from nothing. I never did anything to boost my confidence and I feel quite bad about it. I am 18 years old and have been playing football since I was probably 9 so if I never practiced anything to build my confidence during this time must be bad. However, now I've been introduced some of the techniques that I find very useful and over the past few weeks I have developed some routines that help me with my self confidence.
Firstly I still have that long term goal that I am working towards, which was to score at least one goal during the season and to concede the lowest number of goals in the league. At the moment I still haven't scored a goal but the number of goals we've conceded is pretty low and I am happy about it. This long-term goal gives me a confidence and motivation because I really want to achieve it.
A routine that I found I am doing before every game is that I am using the self-talk technique to motivate myself and give myself high confidence for the game. I talk to myself in my head saying that I can play good and if I make any mistakes I think to myself about how to resolve that problem and how to perform better. This is a routine that I follow all the time during the competitive situation and I am really grateful for you for introducing the self-talk to me.
I want to continue and build more routines but at this moment of time I don't have any others as it's still only a few weeks into the training programme but hopefully at the end of the season I will have some routines that will keep my self confidence high.
Thank you coach."
Date = 17th April 2014
Aim of the Session = In this session the aim is to introduce the technique of routines so that you could enhance your confidence even more.
Routines Technique
Hello X. This week we will look at the technique of using routines in order to enhance and develop your confidence even more. By this time we have already done quite a lot of stuff on developing your self confidence but I think that if I introduce to you this technique as well you will have more options and therefore your self confidence would hopefully be high during every situation in football.
Introduction of the Technique
Routines are a set of actions that you follow in order to improve your performance, enhance motivation, or, in this case, develop our self confidence.
Routines
Routines are often developed consciously, but also you may come across a routine that has been developed unconsciously. Routines mostly occur with performance. For example, in your game preparations you may find some routines that you always do that help you with the performance. The routines that we want to concentrate will be to do with your self confidence. I think that in order to do that we could put together all the techniques that I introduced to you before. Goal-setting, self-talk and imagery could made a routine and therefore I think it'll be easier to get all them into one.
Exercises for You
This exercise will require a little bit of thinking from you but I am sure that you'll do it just fine.
I want you to describe the things that you usually do before, during or after a competitive football game that help with your confidence. You can say about the things you always used to do, but you can also include the things that you have learned recently, meaning that you can write about the goal setting, self-talk or imagery techniques if you still use before competitive football games. I want you to do them under the following headings:
What?
When?
Why?
Benefits?
Please think careful and remember, I only want you to write about the routines you do in order to build your self confidence, not improve your skills.
Good luck X!
Athlete's Feedback
Recently I went and talked to X about the task I gave him to complete about the routine technique. We talked for a bit, and he gave me a feedback on how he completed that exercise.
"Coach, I am very happy with all the techniques so far in this training programme. I find all of them very useful and it's very good that whilst doing the routine technique I can connect it with the goal-setting, self-talk and imagery techniques that I have done before during that programme.
To be completely honest with you I had to think hard about any self confidence routines that I did before starting this training programme with you and I must say that I couldn't think of any. I can see now that my lack of confidence didn't came from nothing. I never did anything to boost my confidence and I feel quite bad about it. I am 18 years old and have been playing football since I was probably 9 so if I never practiced anything to build my confidence during this time must be bad. However, now I've been introduced some of the techniques that I find very useful and over the past few weeks I have developed some routines that help me with my self confidence.
Firstly I still have that long term goal that I am working towards, which was to score at least one goal during the season and to concede the lowest number of goals in the league. At the moment I still haven't scored a goal but the number of goals we've conceded is pretty low and I am happy about it. This long-term goal gives me a confidence and motivation because I really want to achieve it.
A routine that I found I am doing before every game is that I am using the self-talk technique to motivate myself and give myself high confidence for the game. I talk to myself in my head saying that I can play good and if I make any mistakes I think to myself about how to resolve that problem and how to perform better. This is a routine that I follow all the time during the competitive situation and I am really grateful for you for introducing the self-talk to me.
I want to continue and build more routines but at this moment of time I don't have any others as it's still only a few weeks into the training programme but hopefully at the end of the season I will have some routines that will keep my self confidence high.
Thank you coach."
Thursday 10 April 2014
Training Programme 3 - IMAGERY
Week Number = 4
Date = 10th April 2014
Aim of the Week = To introduce the imagery technique in order to work on your self-confidence.
Imagery Technique
Good morning X. I want to continue today with another training programme. This time I will introduce to you the imagery technique which hopefully will be another step in improving your self-confidence. In the previous weeks we have done the goal setting and self-talk techniques and you worked on them very well, therefore I am hoping that this week you will have no problems with the imagery technique.
Introduction of the Technique
Imagery is when you start to imagine a set of different situations that you are in, for example playing in a football game, in your mind.
Types of Imagery
There are five categories of imagery that help with achieving what you want to achieve.
You will find motivational-specific which basically means that you may see yourself winning a match or picking up trophy and it's good if you want to improve on your motivation and effort, but we don't need to concentrate on that as your motivation and effort is high.
Other imagery types are the motivational general arousal (it reflects on feelings of relaxation, stress, anxiety or arousal), the cognitive specific (seeing yourself performing certain skills, it helps when you want to improve performance) and the cognitive general (images of strategy and game plans).
The type of imagery that you want to concentrate on is the motivational general mastery. This is based on seeing yourself coping in difficult circumstances and mastering challenging situations. This imagery type is important when you want to develop your self confidence, and that's why it's needed for you.
Exercises for You
During this week I want you to practice this very easy exercise every day so that we can see if the imagery technique is useful for building your self confidence.
What I want you to do X is very simple. You will need to make yourself comfortable in a chair. I want you to take in a long slow breath that you will hold for three seconds, then relax and breath out slowly. I want you to repeat it twice and close your eyes.
After you've done that think of a situation where your confidence is very low. For example, the last few moments before start of the game. I want you to think of everything that is there before the match starts;the venue at which you play, the pitch at which you play, your manager on the sideline, your teammates around you, the opposite team, the referee, in simple words; everything that is there around you. I want you to picture that.
I want you to run the image through your mind until your concentration wavers. Then count from one to three and open your eyes.
After you have done it several days I want to go out and, if possible, play a game of football. I want to see whether this imagery technique would help you in feeling more confident when you play competitive football.
After you've done that please send me a feedback as I won't have time to see you personally this week. Good luck X!
Athlete's Feedback
"Hello coach, thank you for spending your time and giving me another training programme this week. I must admit that I have never practiced the imagery technique before and I really wanted to try it because it looked very interesting to me.
Firstly, I must say that this was probably the easiest exercise so far and I could do that pretty much all the time. It helped me relax and whilst I was thinking about the situation in which my confidence is low I imagined myself as a very confident player. I managed to get a game during this week so I practiced that imagery technique straight before the game and a few days earlier for everyday. I must say that at the start of the game I felt quite confident. I was still having the pictures in my head of me being confident and it worked. Before the kick-off I wasn't scared that I may fail but instead I wanted to go out there a play a good game of football. After some time my confidence started to drop off a bit because not everything went in the right direction but I like that technique and I think that if I practice it more over the next few weeks I may get used to it and my confidence may build up automatically.
Thank you coach"
Date = 10th April 2014
Aim of the Week = To introduce the imagery technique in order to work on your self-confidence.
Imagery Technique
Good morning X. I want to continue today with another training programme. This time I will introduce to you the imagery technique which hopefully will be another step in improving your self-confidence. In the previous weeks we have done the goal setting and self-talk techniques and you worked on them very well, therefore I am hoping that this week you will have no problems with the imagery technique.
Introduction of the Technique
Imagery is when you start to imagine a set of different situations that you are in, for example playing in a football game, in your mind.
Types of Imagery
There are five categories of imagery that help with achieving what you want to achieve.
You will find motivational-specific which basically means that you may see yourself winning a match or picking up trophy and it's good if you want to improve on your motivation and effort, but we don't need to concentrate on that as your motivation and effort is high.
Other imagery types are the motivational general arousal (it reflects on feelings of relaxation, stress, anxiety or arousal), the cognitive specific (seeing yourself performing certain skills, it helps when you want to improve performance) and the cognitive general (images of strategy and game plans).
The type of imagery that you want to concentrate on is the motivational general mastery. This is based on seeing yourself coping in difficult circumstances and mastering challenging situations. This imagery type is important when you want to develop your self confidence, and that's why it's needed for you.
Exercises for You
During this week I want you to practice this very easy exercise every day so that we can see if the imagery technique is useful for building your self confidence.
What I want you to do X is very simple. You will need to make yourself comfortable in a chair. I want you to take in a long slow breath that you will hold for three seconds, then relax and breath out slowly. I want you to repeat it twice and close your eyes.
After you've done that think of a situation where your confidence is very low. For example, the last few moments before start of the game. I want you to think of everything that is there before the match starts;the venue at which you play, the pitch at which you play, your manager on the sideline, your teammates around you, the opposite team, the referee, in simple words; everything that is there around you. I want you to picture that.
I want you to run the image through your mind until your concentration wavers. Then count from one to three and open your eyes.
After you have done it several days I want to go out and, if possible, play a game of football. I want to see whether this imagery technique would help you in feeling more confident when you play competitive football.
After you've done that please send me a feedback as I won't have time to see you personally this week. Good luck X!
Athlete's Feedback
"Hello coach, thank you for spending your time and giving me another training programme this week. I must admit that I have never practiced the imagery technique before and I really wanted to try it because it looked very interesting to me.
Firstly, I must say that this was probably the easiest exercise so far and I could do that pretty much all the time. It helped me relax and whilst I was thinking about the situation in which my confidence is low I imagined myself as a very confident player. I managed to get a game during this week so I practiced that imagery technique straight before the game and a few days earlier for everyday. I must say that at the start of the game I felt quite confident. I was still having the pictures in my head of me being confident and it worked. Before the kick-off I wasn't scared that I may fail but instead I wanted to go out there a play a good game of football. After some time my confidence started to drop off a bit because not everything went in the right direction but I like that technique and I think that if I practice it more over the next few weeks I may get used to it and my confidence may build up automatically.
Thank you coach"
Thursday 3 April 2014
Training Programme 2 - SELF-TALK
Week Number = 3
Date = 3rd April 2014
Aim of the Week = To introduce and develop your self-talk technique in order to enhance your confidence.
Self-Talk Technique
Hello X, to start off with I must say that I was very pleased with how you have done the task set for you in training programme 1. This week we will move on and concentrate on the self-talk technique so that hopefully you will build your confidence by using this technique. Your self confidence is quite low therefore I think that this technique will allow us to make it improve.
Introduction of the Technique
Self-talk basically means that you are talking to yourself, either loudly or silently, in order to motivate yourself before the competition.
Types of Self-Talk
There are 3 types of self-talk technique that will probably come across during your football.
The first is the Inner Critic. This is the inner voice that will judge you as inadequate. You will probably come across that if you make a mistake in a game and you start blaming yourself or thinking that you are not good enough.
After that you may come across the Inner Defender. This is the inner voice that will judge, criticize and blame others around you. It will be a way of not filling guilty about your mistakes but is it really good?
Finally, the most important is the Inner Guide. This inner voice is the most important and you should mostly concentrate on that as it will make you seek the best out of any problems, meaning that if things aren't going well for you you will start motivating yourself by thinking that you can perform better, rather than blaming yourself and others on the pitch.
Exercises for you
Positive self-talk will affirm to you that you possess the skills, abilities, positive attitudes and beliefs that are the building blocks of success.
For next week I want you to do the following. I want you to make your own list of 4 positive self-talk statements and read them to yourself every night before you go to bed and every morning as you wake up. Through repeated use, they will become embedded in your subconscious and have a profound influence on your sporting performance.
Good luck!
Athletes Feedback
After some time I have met with X and we discussed the task that I have set him to do. I wanted to find out how he did he do, whether it was easy or not, and what does he think of it. In order to find that I asked X to give me a feedback.
"Hello coach, I have done the task that you have set me and now I would like to share with you how it went.
Firstly I wanted to say that I quite like the self-talk technique and it could be useful for me in the future. The 4 self-talk statements were well picked by me and I have also followed your instructions of reading them to myself every night and every morning. I have chosen the following statements:
No one will get past me in defence
I will not give up, even if things aren't going well
I will always give 100% effort
I will feel more confident on the ball
I was reading them to myself and I must admit that I went training yesterday and I still had them in my head. I haven't yet got a chance of playing a competitive football this week but I think that during the game I will still think about that and I will say it to myself quite often.
Overall, I am happy with the self-talk technique and I'm looking forward for next week."
Date = 3rd April 2014
Aim of the Week = To introduce and develop your self-talk technique in order to enhance your confidence.
Self-Talk Technique
Hello X, to start off with I must say that I was very pleased with how you have done the task set for you in training programme 1. This week we will move on and concentrate on the self-talk technique so that hopefully you will build your confidence by using this technique. Your self confidence is quite low therefore I think that this technique will allow us to make it improve.
Introduction of the Technique
Self-talk basically means that you are talking to yourself, either loudly or silently, in order to motivate yourself before the competition.
Types of Self-Talk
There are 3 types of self-talk technique that will probably come across during your football.
The first is the Inner Critic. This is the inner voice that will judge you as inadequate. You will probably come across that if you make a mistake in a game and you start blaming yourself or thinking that you are not good enough.
After that you may come across the Inner Defender. This is the inner voice that will judge, criticize and blame others around you. It will be a way of not filling guilty about your mistakes but is it really good?
Finally, the most important is the Inner Guide. This inner voice is the most important and you should mostly concentrate on that as it will make you seek the best out of any problems, meaning that if things aren't going well for you you will start motivating yourself by thinking that you can perform better, rather than blaming yourself and others on the pitch.
Exercises for you
Positive self-talk will affirm to you that you possess the skills, abilities, positive attitudes and beliefs that are the building blocks of success.
For next week I want you to do the following. I want you to make your own list of 4 positive self-talk statements and read them to yourself every night before you go to bed and every morning as you wake up. Through repeated use, they will become embedded in your subconscious and have a profound influence on your sporting performance.
Good luck!
Athletes Feedback
After some time I have met with X and we discussed the task that I have set him to do. I wanted to find out how he did he do, whether it was easy or not, and what does he think of it. In order to find that I asked X to give me a feedback.
"Hello coach, I have done the task that you have set me and now I would like to share with you how it went.
Firstly I wanted to say that I quite like the self-talk technique and it could be useful for me in the future. The 4 self-talk statements were well picked by me and I have also followed your instructions of reading them to myself every night and every morning. I have chosen the following statements:
No one will get past me in defence
I will not give up, even if things aren't going well
I will always give 100% effort
I will feel more confident on the ball
I was reading them to myself and I must admit that I went training yesterday and I still had them in my head. I haven't yet got a chance of playing a competitive football this week but I think that during the game I will still think about that and I will say it to myself quite often.
Overall, I am happy with the self-talk technique and I'm looking forward for next week."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)