better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way [Music] we need to help players take charge of their mindset give them simple tools and techniques demystify sports psychology for players give them the best opportunity to learn and develop their mindset and so i wrote that sorca tough and i was very fortunate in as much as people seem to like it um very proud that gareth bale last year said it was a book that changed his life i don't know if it did he said it you know so whoever i know he take it yeah reject that i'll take that one um and it's it's best selling in the states in its category and it's niche it doesn't sound like harry potter i'm not saying that right but it's so well and and so people seem to have enjoyed that so i've got my books i've got a golf book as well golf tough and then i wanted to further demystify things and so i wanted to what i've done is i have an online academy which is a series of animated videos for players coaches and parents it's very much about integrating psychology into the process of improvement and playing so that players coaches and parents can speak a common language around mindset and i'm sure we'll come on to some of these tools and techniques today tools and techniques i call game face and match script and squashing ants and using controllers and stuff so so so there's dad and we supported 23 college programs last fall um a bunch of clubs in america and a bunch of high schools as well but i've worked with players who've played for liverpool manchester city manchester united spurs arsenal abroad in germany france spain in america a lot members of the u.s women's national team the u.s men's national team so i've been blessed to have that opportunity and i've worked with a number of clubs in the premier league as well again some some uh on confidentiality agreements but the last one i was in the medical department at fc bournemouth for a few years before lockdown so i was blessed with the opportunity to work alongside eddie howe and i've worked with steve mclaren and various other top coaches so and then outside of of of soccer i was lead psychologist for england golf for a few years lead psychologist for england rugby alongside eddie jones going into the last world cup uh and really worked with olympians and various other sports and then work in the corporate sector as well so um there's a whole bunch of stuff there i i i shamelessly get around a little bit yes in in a sport like golf there's so much time to think but in in soccer um whilst soccer works in seconds the brain and the nervous system the brain works in milliseconds the brain trumps soccer for speed every single time and so as you play as you compete and you guys know this far better than i do the the brain is working in milliseconds it's constantly judging what's going on around you at all times and so players are throwing up thoughts and feelings emotions even every single second especially at the level of feeling you're feeling things as things unfold and so those thoughts feelings emotions can impact they can impact your anticipation your awareness your decision making your physical functioning very important things in the game for you to be able to execute your actions and your responsibilities optimally and so the brain is working milliseconds and so players i think need simple tools and techniques to be able to manage their feelings emotions and thoughts in order to for them to optimize their anticipation their awareness their decision making their physical functioning right the other side of it is as you mentioned before there sean is that look as a golfer i could yes i have to qualify for tours i have to qualify to play at a certain level there was always something for me to play i pay my entrance fee i go play right even if that's on the mini tours in football it's like if the manager or head coach decides wow i you know i'm playing this way this week and you don't really fit this game model so i'm not playing you or i you know i don't fancy you as about all kinds of things i've heard over the years from you know very prominent coaches as to why they're not picking players you think hey i'm working so hard as a player but i'm not being picked i mean i've worked get this i worked with a league one player in in england a few years ago this league one player very good player um and this is what brighton were in the championship not in the premier league at the time and this league one player was playing really well he became player of the season for that club he was touted to go to brighton a new manager came into the club he was playing at in in league one this manager wanted to miss out the middle of the park so quite long ball quite direct play he was a midfielder okay quite skillful suddenly he found himself on the bench suddenly he found himself out of favor he was player of the season yet not playing and it's those kind of things that are head messy i'll put that politely head messy um that players soccer players footballers have to deal with and so it's tough it's challenging and there's no simple solution there that i can give anybody but you've mentioned techniques and whether it's you're not playing and you're just training and you're waiting or striving to get back in the team or you are actually playing one of my most important techniques is what i call a game face now under pin underpinning game face is actually a psychological technique called individual zone of optimal functioning individual zone of optimal functioning hence why i called it a game phase because it's a little bit of a mouthful right but what a game faces individuals on zone of optimal functioning game face it's your optimal mental state your best mental state it's the personality you want to have out there on the field the pitch it's the attitude you want to portray it's a physical optimizer it's a behavioral blueprint it's an emotional manager so it does a lot a game face i'll give you an example of a game face and this is a player a very famous player and if if you think of the world's top 20 players this player would probably come in the world's top 20 he he played in the champions league a few seasons ago uh champions league final and in that going into that final rather than thinking um gotta win gotta win gotta win gotta perform gotta perform gotta perform i wanna do everything great wanna be man of the match don't wanna let my teammates down don't wanna let myself down rather than having these kind of thoughts this kind of narrative he was thinking my job on the pitch is to be relentless and dominant i'm going to be relentless and dominant non-stop nothing and no one takes me away from relentless and dominant i'm going to get up and down the pitch relentless and dominant if my cross goes into rosed relentless and dominant if i miss a chance to score relentless and dominant if we go a goal down relentless and dominant if we go a goal up relentless and dominant i'm going to be relentless and dominant non-stop and nothing and no one takes me away from relentless and dominant nothing no one every action every responsibility executed in the style of relentless and dominant relentless and dominant is this player's game face i'm going to stick to my game face no matter what i'm going to say it be it do it acted if there's a camera on me i'm going to show that camera relentless and dominant with every action every movement every run every responsibility so that game phase your optimal mental state your behavioral blueprint your attitude your personality you create that through principally through your memory when i sit down with a player and i want to help them create a game phase we start to talk about their best games success leaves clues right i always say to players one of the most important things you can be thinking about every single day is your best games you at your best because it's so easy as a player to resonate your worst or think about and reflect upon the poor things the things aren't that aren't working rather than your best games your strengths the areas that are going well so i get them to open up a catalogue of pictures inner pictures around them at their best and they might think about you might do this now and people listening in might do this they might think about them at their best their very best game and then i get them to strip things back to a couple of action-based words now the key here is they must be action based okay so you must be able to be them and do them and act them intentionally on purpose deliberately so when you take to the pitch the field you can actually act be it do it show the camera those action based works when you're warming up you're playing a small sided game you're going to play that small sided game in the style of those words you words those words might be alert alive lively sharp athletic dominant upbeat powerful cool calm relaxed every player is going to be a little bit different i get players who prefer that kind of cool and calm and relaxed i get players who prefer that sharp upbeat positive alert alive lively every player is a little bit different but they've got to reflect you at your best or perhaps you in your dream game that's actually actually exercising your imagination rather than your memory your memory is your best game your imagination is your dream game and so you got a couple of action-based words and that starts a game face and what i would say to everybody listening in is that that game face you could actually expand upon that game face you can have a model player you can have a concept like an animal or something like that so a very famous english striker that i work with has a game face of confident relentless lion a very famous winger i work with in the english premier league has a game face of brave lively relentless ronaldo brave lively relentless ronaldo so even though this player is a professional very highest level he would still say i'm modeling myself on ronaldo when i go out on the pitch i want to be brave lively relentless ronaldo action based words a model player or an animal and if you want to learn more about that then i would put people over to my books especially soccer tough and soccer tough 2 where i talk more about that and in my academy there's actual simple brought to life videos on that game face so that's a really important thing so it's great to hear i know there's a lot but pros around the and young players i mean the great thing about this is a 10 year old an eight-year-old can have a game face i've heard from coaches and eight-year-old say yeah coaches who have eight-year-olds who are positive messy and because you know young people have heroes and they can imagine they can imagine themselves into an action based word and a model player and that's the beauty of this but equally somebody worth a hundred million pounds in transfer fees can still have a game face and that gareth bale can still have a game face that is the beauty because that's how our brains work clearly it starts with creating a game face for yourself and then it's about putting that game face on a pedestal it's about getting clear in your mind that when i go train when i go practice i'm going to train in the style of my game face i'm going to practice in the style of my game phase by actually putting the game face front and center in training and practice you give yourself a better chance to wire your brain like that to marinate your body in this notion of game face doing it every day picturing it every day thinking about it every day these things are important again to be able to wire your brain in that way and then as i really kind of alluded to with this champions league player one of the best players in the world that i'm blessed to work with going into his champions league final but going into every game that he plays he puts that game face first and he matches that game face he integrates that game face into what he knows he's got to do on the pitch and i'm always talking to clients about look you've got actions and responsibilities and in many respects that's just what performance is it's a bunch of actions and it's a bunch of responsibilities that you've got to execute you know within your individual tactics within the game model it's as simple as that actions and responsibilities so when you create a narrative an inner story around my job on the pitch is to execute my actions and responsibilities in the style of my game face my job on the pitch is to execute my actions and responsibilities in the style of my game phrase such as relentless and dominant confident relentless lion upbeat positive messy whatever it is whatever it is then that narrative wires your brain creates a blueprint on your brain to give you a better chance to go and execute in the style of your game face and then if you drop down to what i would call your low performance mindset at any stage you become inhibited you become distracted you get engulfed in unhelpful emotions and helpful negative thoughts ants if you like ants is an acronym for automatic negative thoughts a and t s automatic negative thoughts you can squash those ants by getting back to those game phrases they're all sorry getting back to the game phase now this one little teaser so all of that is applicable in many respects all of what i've said is a kind of it it's a is it a technique it is and it's also an underpinning philosophy it's something that i'm immersing my clients in every single day every single day my clients get a little whatsapp message from me around what we've just discussed that there because i know brains in sport are wired towards gotta win gotta win gotta win gotta play well gotta play well gotta play wow and as you correctly mention there dylan i'm i'm trying to shift players attention away from those things that we can't control so well and more onto not the performance outcomes but the performance process and mindset yes things that we can control much more but tasks tasks we can focus on now the last thing to say here is this little teaser in terms of a technique which is [Music] uh [Music]