The importance of sport psychology in soccer is becoming increasingly well recognized with many professional clubs employing psychologists. Sport psychology is sometimes called mental preparation or training, mind games, or mind over matter. The aim is for the team to play soccer at peak performance in every match.

Mental training or sport psychology is no substitute for skills, and it is vital to emphasize the importance of skills, particularly when playing soccer. Since the main aim of psychological training is to attain peak performance, it will not help much if your peak performance is poor!

The first step is to decide what you want to achieve. Do you have a dream that you wish to make a reality? It's important to discover what motivates you, and to write down a mission statement or creed to provide motivation.

Goals should be set for the long term, short term, and daily. A simple example of a goal is to obtain a regular place in the club team, or to the make the State or Region ODP team. A daily goal might be to run an extra quarter mile, or to learn a new skill.  A short term goal might be to run an extra five miles, score a certain number of goals, or master a set of new skills. It is important to set realistic goals. Becoming a professional soccer player is a wish of many young soccer players, but few are successful. It is better to set challenging, but achievable short-term goals.

After setting goals and finding out what motivates you, there are several performance-enhancing techniques to help achieve those goals: Relaxation and breathing, Imagery, Concentration, and Confidence building through positive self talk and team building.

Better breathing increases blood flow, improves the circulation, reduces risk of injury, and decreases the recovery time after a match or training session. Two useful techniques are circle breathing and progressive relaxation. Clear the mind of all distractions, and relax. Then, breathe slowly in through the nose from the centre of the body, which is behind the belly button, drawing air upwards to fill the lungs. Breathe in for about four seconds, hold for about two seconds, and then breathe slowly out for four seconds. Repeat 5-10 times.

Progressive relaxation involves tensing and relaxing each muscle from the neck to the ankles. Tense the muscle whilst breathing in, hold, and relax on exhaling. The aim is to gradually relax each muscle, and so relax the whole body. There are other relaxation methods, such as meditation, and also methods of controlling the circulation and heart rate.

Imagery involves imagining a particular action in your mind before actually doing it. For example, before attempting to take a penalty, imagine yourself scoring by kicking the ball exactly where you want it to go. This method can also be used in learning new skills, such as a dribbling trick.

Concentration is all about being focused on the task in hand, and not having your mind cluttered with other thoughts. Soccer players, who are focused, are concentrating only on the game to the extent that they might not know what the time is or what the crowd is doing.

Confidence in your ability is an important psychological quality, and can be built up by positive self-talk and team building . Optimism is important. Linked to this topic is the idea of cohesion. The Western Samoan rugby team is famous for their "war dance" prior to matches, and in industry, many companies now have group outings to build cohesion and team spirit. A team that criticizes each other and contains personalities that dislike each other never plays at its best.

Employing these performance-enhancing techniques will help you to achieve peak performance in every match.

Peak performance means playing at the very best of ones ability, being "on a roll" or "in the zone". Think back to your greatest achievement on the sports field or even in life as a whole. What was it that caused you to play so well? Unfortunately, most of us will have trouble answering that question, and such events are rare. The idea of peak performance is to turn these rare events into regular events. Peak performance started as a concept in athletics, but now it is well recognized in soccer and other sports as well as in the business world.

What characteristics does a state of peak performance have?

• Feeling relaxed. It is a common mistake that we should be "psyched up" to play at our best, but research shows that this is not true. The best state of arousal is slightly above normal, that is relaxed, but with a feeling of energy.
  
• Confident. There is a feeling of expecting to succeed, not hoping or wishing for success, but expecting it. There is no fear, and a trust in instincts and intuition.
  
• Complete focus. There is a feeling of being in the present, of being totally absorbed in the moment, with no sense of time.
  
• A feeling of that everything is effortless. Movements are smooth, even graceful, with the mind and body in perfect harmony. The game feels as if it requires little or no effort.
  
• Automatic actions. In other words, there is a feeling of being on autopilot with no interference from thoughts or emotions. Athletes perform better when apparently no conscious thoughts are involved. A soccer player needs to be able to think about tactics, and who is around him, but the idea of not being distracted by emotions applies.
  
• Being in control. You feel in control, so that what you think will happen does happen.
  
• Fun. A sense of enjoyment. Peak performance is not obtained when we are bored or irritated. This is one reason why it's important for coaches to make training as interesting as possible.

One more thing to consider.  It is often said that 90% of the game of soccer is mental.  If this is true, shouldn't every soccer player strive to be mentally prepared?