Confidence Playing Football – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

Has your confidence playing football taken a dip? Or maybe you know you have more to give on the pitch but your confidence when playing football isn’t where you want it to be.

Anyone who plays football knows that where your head is at before and during a game will affect how you play. It could be day to day anxiety and stress that you carry with you onto the pitch. Maybe your general confidence and self-esteem levels aren’t as high as you would like them to be and this plays out in your game. And for many players, their own tendency to worry about being judged negatively or to be overly harsh and self-critical towards themselves, can impact on performance.

I’ve worked with players who make one mistake on the pitch and then their thoughts are stuck on that moment even when the game has moved on. Something shouted at you from someone on the side of the pitch can get in your head and you start playing with doubt and nerves. You miss a tackle, get booked, mess up a shot a goal, make an error and you concede or any other number of perceived or actual mistakes and mishaps that can be part of a game.

You start to dwell upon your performance and what you think you did, or didn’t, do well in the game. Instead of playing naturally you overthink and force things. You start to feel more nervous and anxious in the warm up and even in training. You start to think that you aren’t good enough. Your head can drop and you spend large parts of the game more focused in your own imagination and negative self-talk rather than responding to what is going on around you. Your performance suffers and you feel even worse.

When your confidence levels while playing football are good, everything just flows. You respond instinctively, your concentration levels are good, things just click and you are in the zone where you play at your best. Your thoughts, feelings, ability and performance all come together for you in these moments. Yet when your confidence levels dip, everything becomes harder. You don’t play to your best, things just seem a bit off for you and you can even start to lose the joy for the game that you once had. That’s where football confidence hypnotherapy can step in so that you can step up.

Football Performance Hypnotherapy

Research has demonstrated that hypnosis can be a very effective tool for helping you to enhance and improve your sports performance. Hypnosis has been shown to be effective for improving performance in a variety of sports, with some of the strongest support being for football.

Hypnotherapy for football is something that I’ve covered in previous articles:

Hypnotherapy for Football Performance

Football Performance and Running Hypnosis Downloads – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

The World Cup Kicks Off! Football Confidence Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

Improving Football Performance with Hypnosis – Hypnotherapy in Ely

Improve Football Performance with Hypnotherapy

And there is more on the research for hypnosis to enhance sports performance in these articles: Hypnosis For Sports Performance – Research and Evidence and Sports Psychology & Performance: Hypnosis For Peak Performance

Hypnotherapy can also help with anything outside of football that affects your playing such as anxiety, stress, self-esteem and general confidence.

Football Confidence

Your mindset and focus when playing affects everything about your performance. If your confidence takes a knock you may find that your usual performance levels drop and the thoughts in your own head become more negative and self-critical. It can become a negative spiral when each perceived error or mistake takes on bigger and bigger significance in your own thinking. You start to doubt yourself before and during playing. You start to hesitate and pause in situations where you trusted your own ability and judgement before. You stop playing naturally and overthink everything. You may find there are periods of the game where you feel you aren’t really part of what is going on around you. Your head dips sooner and for longer periods each time as your confidence when playing sinks lower and lower.

Whatever level you play at, your mindset, thoughts and feelings affect your performance and enjoyment of the game. You only have to watch Match of the Day to notice the players who are struggling with their confidence. Nothing seems to go right for them and they start to either force things or they slow down as they overthink everything they do. When your confidence dips, you can struggle to move on from things that have already happened in the game. You aren’t playing and responding to what is happening now because your focus is still back there. Anxiety, doubt and frustration take over where there was previously motivation, optimism and joy.

Confidence is all about what you tell yourself and focus upon in your own head before you play, when you play and even when just thinking about football. You want to be mentally calm and in control, and you want to feel relaxed and focused when playing. You want to be involved in the game, able to shrug off minor mishaps and able to respond to what is going on around you. Your self talk and imagination need to be calm, encouraging, positive, balanced and self-assured. When you trust in your own capability then good things happen. You play to your best, get better as a player and build upon past previous best experiences on the pitch.

If you want to have robust confidence when playing football then you may benefit from one of my most popular hypnosis downloads. You can find the details and get your copy here: Football Performance Hypnosis

And if you really want to play to your best, and to direct your own thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions when you are on the pitch, then do get in touch and we can build upon all the research and evidence to get your confidence back up there as you start to consistently play to your best week in and week out.

To your football confidence and success,

Dan Regan

Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

Improving football confidence and performance with hypnosis: Find out how I can help you with a Complimentary Hypnotherapy Strategy Session. Learn more here: Appointments

Find out what dozens of other people have said after their hypnotherapy sessions with Dan: Hypnotherapy Testimonials

And check out these powerful hypnosis downloads that can start helping you right away with football performance, anxiety, confidence and more: Hypnosis Downloads