Last week I spoke about the first of the 3 C’s that can aid the performance of individual players and the team as a whole. This week I will talk about the second C which is concentration.

Concentration is more of a problem for some players than others. By concentration I mean that the player is fully focussed on the game they are playing and not being distracted by other things.

Sometimes things outside of the game are not the problem, occasionally things happen in the game that the player has no control over, such as a bad refereeing decision, but due to the raised levels of psychological arousal these can stick in the mind of the player.

These distractions can cause the player to lose whoever they are marking and the result is a conceded goal.

It is inevitable that players will make mistakes during games because we are all human, but it is how players recover from this that can make the difference. If a player makes a mistake that causes a goal this can be hugely disappointing for them but it this is replayed over and over again in their mind they can cause more goals to be conceded because they are not focussed on their job.

The same is true if a player misses a golden opportunity to score a goal, if they get a chance again soon after they might be thinking I really hope I don’t miss this chance rather than focussing on actually taking the chance.

The main goal is to regain focus on the game as quickly as possible, it is important to control the controllable, by this I mean that they players should focus on themselves and their own jobs rather than trying to change a bad refereeing decision.

Players will not be able to change the mind of a referee regardless of how much they protest at the decision, the same is true that the player cannot turn back time or chance something that has already happened.

Instead the player must use their energy on focussing on things that they can change.

Players can use triggers or words that make them focus on the game, it is very important that focus is regained as quickly as possible.

Next week I will talk about the last of the 3 Cs which is collaboration, which is the ability of the players to work together as a team.