The key to Spurs success
There are signs Tottenham are turning the corner and that the pressure of playing for Tottenham is starting to be understood by some of the recent signings.
It is one thing looking at a league table but when a club is not a regular in the UEFA Champions League then are they considered a big club in Europe?
Certainly history can help and we do have European history, the first British team to win a major European trophy and regular European football, but you need a memory. Do the foreign players of today know that playing for Spurs, certainly at the moment when we continually challenge for top four, is we must win every game.
It's a different pressure than the pressure at a club like Valencia for instance. Not all players can handle that expectation and that can have a detrimental affect on their form. In those instances the mental side of the game becomes increasingly important as Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn points out.
Glenn Hoddle brought a sports psychologist, John Syer, to Spurs in the 1980's as the excellent article beneath the link (opens in a new window) explains. It gives an insight to the work currently undertaken, but it doesn't go far enough.
Using sports psychologists as part of the initial player analysis, before they are signed, can only help to sign the right mental players in the first place and the club has to give the spots psychologist the status that makes players respect them as essential experts.
I mean by that that sports psychologists are almost used apologetically, they are there if you want them, for me that's the wrong approach. It should be if you come to this club you WILL be working with a sports psychologist to improve the mental side of your game. It is imperative that the players see every game as a big game and do not down tools when they feel like it.
That is a mental weakness that the sports psychologist should be working on but no player is going to admit it is a problem with them and that they need help with it. How then would it get addressed, surely you work on something before it becomes a problem, rather than wait until after?
Prevention is better than cure. The club had to know it was a problem but it has affected performances this season, last season and in previous seasons.
The body cannot perform any action without the brain telling it to do so, emotion, behavour are the result of the brain, how you choose to be mentally is determined in your brain. Any achievement/success is the result of ideas.
Achievement/success are the result of activity, activity is the result of directions from the brain, therefore if you control your brain, and you can be taught to do so, then you control your achievement/success.
Let us teach players to exert that control and sign players who have ability but wish also to improve their mental game.
It is one thing looking at a league table but when a club is not a regular in the UEFA Champions League then are they considered a big club in Europe?
Certainly history can help and we do have European history, the first British team to win a major European trophy and regular European football, but you need a memory. Do the foreign players of today know that playing for Spurs, certainly at the moment when we continually challenge for top four, is we must win every game.
It's a different pressure than the pressure at a club like Valencia for instance. Not all players can handle that expectation and that can have a detrimental affect on their form. In those instances the mental side of the game becomes increasingly important as Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn points out.
"I am aware that every mistake can be a question of millions for the club and coping with that requires a lot of mental training. If you don't prepare yourself mentally it's impossible to maintain consistently high standards."
Glenn Hoddle brought a sports psychologist, John Syer, to Spurs in the 1980's as the excellent article beneath the link (opens in a new window) explains. It gives an insight to the work currently undertaken, but it doesn't go far enough.
Using sports psychologists as part of the initial player analysis, before they are signed, can only help to sign the right mental players in the first place and the club has to give the spots psychologist the status that makes players respect them as essential experts.
I mean by that that sports psychologists are almost used apologetically, they are there if you want them, for me that's the wrong approach. It should be if you come to this club you WILL be working with a sports psychologist to improve the mental side of your game. It is imperative that the players see every game as a big game and do not down tools when they feel like it.
That is a mental weakness that the sports psychologist should be working on but no player is going to admit it is a problem with them and that they need help with it. How then would it get addressed, surely you work on something before it becomes a problem, rather than wait until after?
Prevention is better than cure. The club had to know it was a problem but it has affected performances this season, last season and in previous seasons.
The body cannot perform any action without the brain telling it to do so, emotion, behavour are the result of the brain, how you choose to be mentally is determined in your brain. Any achievement/success is the result of ideas.
Achievement/success are the result of activity, activity is the result of directions from the brain, therefore if you control your brain, and you can be taught to do so, then you control your achievement/success.
Let us teach players to exert that control and sign players who have ability but wish also to improve their mental game.
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