Resilience is defined as the ability to bounce back or recover from adversity. It’s becoming a catchphrase for coaches and parents in regards to the development of players. There are many books and experts on this topic and I will only share what I have learnt and continue to learn about resilience in players.

The game of football is full of “errors”. Every single team and player in the world makes mistakes in games and trainings. Even the great passers of the ball like Xavi still make errors. His success pass rate is generally in the high 80s range — an incredible success rate but still not “perfect”. In football to be perfect can also mean to be “safe” and lacking “creativity”.

We all make mistakes. The players, coaches and teams that have the ability to define the mistakes in the correct context are, in my opinion, resilient. A player chooses their mindset after making a mistake or a success. In many ways the response to success or failure defines an individual’s resilience.

I often say to my players that the team who makes the most of their mistakes will invariably dominate the game. Mistakes are unexpected and they catch both teams out in their thinking and positioning in the game. The team that recognises the mistake the quickest and reacts often gets an opportunity to exploit the opposition that may have been difficult to create under controlled possession. To achieve this level it is important to work on the mental resilience of your players in regards to correctly putting mistakes into context. Obviously there are some mistakes that cost you more than others i.e. own goals etc.

As an example a player under-hits a pass and it’s been intercepted by the opposition. The player can choose to:

1. Dwell on the mistake, blame others or themselves for the error and allow their emotions to affect them, albeit temporarily.
2. Attempt to rectify the mistake by immediately trying to regain possession by running in to put pressure on the ball.
3. Analyse the new situation with a clear mind and make accurate decisions based on the new situation looking to exploit the opportunity.

Replace the under-hit pass scenario to a scenario where the player has passed the ball with pace and power over 30m directly to the feet of the winger and the winger is now taking on the fullback. Like the first scenario the player can choose to congratulate himself or race forward to support or analyse the situation calmly and support the attack.

Our decisions are based on a myriad of emotions and thoughts that occur after the instance — good or bad.

MISTAKES IN CONTEXT

The negative thoughts that invade a player’s mind when they make a mistake invariably are “the worst case scenario”. Instead of just accepting they have made a mistake they quantify in their own mind the magnitude of the mistake.

• “By missing the goal I have cost the team the chance of winning the league”.
• “If only I had jumped earlier I might have won the header that lead to the winning goal?”
• “How can I look anyone in the face after I missed that penalty.”

This can be compounded by the way teammates, coach and supporters react and what they say to the player without thinking.

As a coach it is vital that you assist the player to recover their composure and mentally regain game thinking without any residual negativity. Use words, phrases and scenarios in your communication that contextualises the mistake.

One of the key tools I use is when I ask a player to rate their performance out of 10. You often get I was a 5/10 when a player has deemed himself to have played badly. That’s generally a harsh assessment but it’s part of the worst case scenario. The process of questioning and guidance generally follows the process below:

• “What did you do well within the 5 out of 10”. This starts them thinking positively about their game on the weekend and what they did well.
  • “How did you feel when you were doing those “actions” in the game?”
  • As a coach you receive positive words and symbols from the player in regards to what they did well — I call it “banking words” that you as a coach can use when helping that player in the future.
• Then I often follow it up with: “What a great opportunity we have here”.
  • The player will then ask “what do you mean?”
  • This leads into you being able to say “We now know what you did very well last week. Now we can discuss the areas that you need to work on and improve over the next few weeks — what a great chance to improve”.
• This changes completely the discussion about what he did poorly in his own mind. It now becomes more about exploring how he can improve.
• The discussion is now focused on the areas that he didn’t do so well but from a positive starting point. As a coach you can now assist them to correctly judge the mistakes. Often it is never as bad as the player believes.
  • “How did you feel when you made those mistakes” also provides you with word “banking”.
  • Give the player a plan for how he can improve and what needs to be done. He will, without doubt, be excited about what he needs to improve on and when it will occur.
• Use the words he used as he improves and works on his “errors” to provide additional mental support to the player.

TRAINING FOR RESILIENCE

Encourage adverse situations and help players take a “growth” mindset in a secure training environment.. This blog won’t cover the types of trainings you can do as that will come in a later post.