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How Do You Develop an Elite-Level Competitive Mindset?
Article Summary: Most players train their technical skills seriously but only occasionally bring real competitive intensity to practice. This article explains why treating every drill like a game situation is the key to developing the kind of mindset that shows up consistently in real matches.
Most soccer players see themselves as “competitive” athletes. Without a doubt, a player who competes is a competitive athlete.
But what vaults a soccer player to the next level or to become an elite-level competitor?
As with anything, repetition is the key to success…
Too often, soccer players practice one way and then expect to flip a switch and compete at an entirely different level.
If you want elite-level ball skills, you “work” and “focus” on dribbling, ball striking, first touch, controlling the ball, and receiving the ball. Practicing these aspects of your game once in a while won’t help you develop high-level skills.
You need to work on your technical skills as if it were a game. You need to put full effort and focus into every drill during training. That helps you habituate and perform those technical skills at a high level in matches.
Mental skills require the same effort, intensity, focus, and repetition. To develop an elite-level competitive mindset, you must compete in practice and not just once in a while.
Playing with Competitive Mindset
For example, when your coach has you run sprints at the end of practice, instead of getting through the sprints, compete against one of your teammates. When you play a scrimmage and have the opportunity to make a run downfield, go for it as if it were a game.
Gotham FC center-back Ali Krieger is known for her competitiveness on the pitch. Krieger’s former USWNT teammate, Christen Press, commented on Krieger’s competitive habits and mindset she has developed throughout her soccer career.
PRESS: “I have never experienced someone who is able to put so much effort and, energy and love into every single day of what she does. She plays every single game like it’s the World Cup. She plays five-on-five in training like it’s a World Cup final. I’m like, aren’t you exhausted carrying this much for this long? I do not know how you do it. I do not understand how you could care that much all the time.”
Elite-level competitive mindsets are not an inborn characteristic. Mindsets are developed through purpose, action, and repetition.
How do you develop an elite-level competitive mindset?
First, define your desired mindset – Identify the characteristics that contribute to this mindset.
For example, you could characterize a competitive mindset as playing aggressively, never taking a play off, challenging for the ball, pushing the ball down the field, or taking calculated risks.
Create a specific training plan for developing your mindset. In other words, how do you plan to shape this mindset?
How will you build this mindset during practice, training sessions, drills, or off the pitch?
Next, spend 10 minutes daily visualizing yourself playing games with that competitive mindset.
You decide your mindset, whether consciously or unconsciously. Purposefully choosing a confident or aggressive mindset will take your game to new heights.
The three keys to developing a competitive mindset are repetition, repetition, and repetition.
You cannot consistently perform or implement what you don’t practice. Take advantage of opportunities to develop the habit of competitiveness.
Related Sports Psychology Articles
- The Challenges of Over Competitiveness in Soccer
- US National Team’s Competitive Mindset
- How to Balance Soccer Fun and Competitiveness
- Subscribe to The Sports Psychology Podcast on iTunes
- Subscribe to The Sports Psychology Podcast on Spotify
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