I can’t play soccer afraid. You can’t play any sport constantly fearing mistakes or that you will somehow tarnish your own legacy somehow.Like so many athletes, this fear of failure is learned; that also means that it is trainable. We can recondition ourselves to break these types of negative thoughts. That’s precisely what I want to try to experiment on myself. Research has shown that goal setting interventions specifically those that focus on setting mastery approach goals can reduce fear of failure in athletes. As there is a current 5 week break in my season, I figured this would be the perfect time to use myself as a guinea pig.

I’ve adapted a 12 week intervention that was designed for Danish elite athletes to fit my own timeline. This intervention breaks up goal setting into seven different steps: (1) set goals, (2) identify obstacles (3) secure commitment (4) develop action plan (5) obtain feedback on goal attainment (6) evaluate goal attainment (7) reinforce goal attainment. From here the investigators created four different phases to implement the intervention. Phase 1 was an intro to goal setting. As I am already kind of familiar with it I will use this as a self reflection and needs analysis kind of phase. Phase 2 focused on actually setting mastery approach goals. Phase 3 involved discussing any barriers to goal setting and strategies to overcome them. Phase 4 concerned evaluating goals and setting up goals for the future. The original intervention was 12 weeks long with one 60 minute session per week. I plan on covering the material in 5 weeks with two sessions per week at least. Thankfully, the investigators included the materials for their intervention in the appendices of their study so I plan on following as closely as possible.

SESSION 1

Ok here we go! The first sessions are going to be the most ad-libbed by me. The original intervention featured a kind of intro to goal setting and such. Obviously, I’m coming into this with a lot of knowledge already, so I will be jumping right in to the thick of it. I plan on using the first two sessions as a time of self-reflection and discovery. The first session took me about 30-40 minutes. I spent the time asking the following questions:

This first part of Phase 1 was a little redundant. Just because I know what my issues are already, I kind of already know the goals I want to set for myself. However, there is some value in explicitly writing down on paper who you are currently and who you want to be. Specifically for me, it was nice to see there was some overlap between who I am now and the type of player I want to be. Of course there were some obvious discrepancies, but I think it was really valuable for me to take a moment and show appreciation for the positive attributes I already have.

This part of the intervention was also more about character traits than performance metrics. It was refreshing to take a step back and reflect on my overall aura and persona as a player, rather than specifically do I need to work on ball striking or 1v1 defending or something like that. I think in starting really big picture it’s easier to narrow down what is important as an individual player rather than just some stock idea of what someone in my position should be like. Further, if I were doing this with a team, having players start with character attributes they want can help to make it more personal which could increase the “buy in” of your athletes.

The next part of this first session I used to listed out those specific soccer qualities (ball striking, 1v1 defending, aerial ability etc) of a perfect player in my position. I listed 8 attributes most important to a center back. I then ranked them 1-8 ( 1 being most important, 8 being the least important) by how I perceived their importance. Next, I ranked these attributes based on how well I felt I accomplished them (1- what I am the best at, 8- what needs the most improvement). I then repeated these same steps for “Physical Qualities of a Perfect Centerback.” Here, I listed 4 that I thought were the most important. After, I compared these my lists. I reflected on what was similar between myself and this ideal center back. Then I created a chart what am I excelling at, what am I ok at, and what needs improvement.

This part of the session was a bit harder just because there are so many technical aspects of soccer it is hard to boil down a position into just a few. However, it’s also important to remember that what I think are is the ideal for my position may not be the same for someone else. But yet again this is my intervention so whatever is important to me is what I will focus on. I also liked this part of the intervention because once again I had to give myself some credit. As athletes it is so easy to get down on ourselves and think we aren’t good at anything. Sometimes, it is necessary to take a step back and give ourselves credit for the attributes we do have, that we worked hard for.

SESSION 2

Session 2 was a definitely shorter than the first session. This was more about “dreams” and further discovering the type of player I want to be for the future. The first part was about this idealized version of myself that I want to be, the second part of the session was about what’s holding me back from acheiving that.

This part of the intervention was cool because it was like building my dream player using the best qualities of all my favorite players. I think this could be the best way to increase buy in if I was doing this type of intervention with a team or other athletes. This is because its highly personal. Everyone has different favorite players and for different reasons. So each person’s ideal player is different. These ideal players will be used in future sessions to guide our own goals. This type of highly personalized approach increases goal commitment.

The next part of the intervention was about brainstorming what is stopping you from acheiving this “dream” athlete. I broke it down into physical barriers and mental barriers. Physical barriers could be anything from technical lapses to deficits in strength, speed, endurance etc. Mental barriers could be things like preexisting mental health issues, fear of failure, or pressure. Basically, anything that isn’t physical but hinders achieving your “dream” state. I tried to list between 5-10 barriers for each. I then ranked them in order of hindrance. This will be important for the future sessions when we narrow down our deficits and decide on our goals.

Weirdly enough, it felt good to list out the things I felt were getting in my way. Like most athletes, I’m sure, I realized that my biggest obstacle is me. I know I have mental health issues that affect my play, and those require real treatment more than just a goal intervention obviously. Realizing that my problems are internal gives me a sense of relief. Knowing that most of my barriers are things that I can change by modifying my behavior gives me hope. As athletes, I think we’re so wired to want to fix anything and everything having to do with performance. However, that can get overwhelming pretty easily. Writing down our obstacles helps to make everything feel a bit more tangible, more doable. Once you have these things explicitly laid out its easier to plan your attack.

SESSION 3