Growth is something that must be pursued by all athletes. In the world of professional sport, there is a lot of importance that is placed on performance. In order for there to be proper and suitable performance, the athlete must be in prime physical and mental condition.

A usual problem that athletes faced is that there was so much importance placed on their physical health and aspect. This is not the only thing that should be focused upon. There are non-physical ways to improve an athlete’s performance. Today, we will be taking a look at the non-physical ways an athlete can improve their football game.

Fighting the old beliefs

Football is first and always, a very physical contact sport. As such, it would not be surprising if a lot of the focus would be about improving the physical attributes of the athlete. These will include building specific physical exercises to focus on muscle strength and stamina.

However, as the sport clocks more years under its belt, it would be wise to look at other ways to improve an athlete’s performance. In recent years, there is much emphasis placed on the mental well-being of the athletes as well.

The addressing of mental illness is more common and no longer held the negative stigma that it once did. When that came about, there truly needed to be a revolution regarding the ways athletes improved themselves.

Non-physical ways to improve performance

It may sound like a lot of phooey but give it a gander and you might just end up quite surprised:

1.)   Film Study

Preparation is a key ingredient in improvement, right? This is something that more of the latter generations could really take advantage of. Make it a habit to record your games and review it repeatedly. You would be surprised at the wealth of information that hindsight provides.

When you are in the middle of a game, your vision is only restricted to what is directly around you. Having your game recorded will offer you full field vision. A lot of professional athletes have their games recorded. More and more teams are coming to realize the importance of this. A common issue from back then was the quality of the recording.

Nowadays, it is so much easier to obtain high quality recordings. Study these individually and as a team. The individual study is needed in order to build your own opinions on your strengths and weaknesses. Then do an analysis of your team’s performance. When the team looks over the recordings, everyone should have their own takeaways from their own individual reviews.

2.)   Keep an eye on your nutrition

With the vast improvement of medicine comes the vast improvement of nutritionists. More and more athletes are paying attention to what they eat as this is what can account for around 79% of the body’s muscle growth.

It is quite funny how it was not even the rigorous physical training that amounts for a majority of the muscle growth. Now that this is more commonly known, it is important to really take advantage of it. if you are able to, visit a nutritionist in order to get a accurate estimation of what you should be eating and what you should not be putting into your system at all.

Nutrition is a critical part of your life as an athlete. Not only will it enable you to perform better but it will also account for your prolonged physical fitness and health.

3.)   Sleep

There has been this notion that you can always make up for lost sleep. Recent studies have shown that you cannot. Once you lose sleep, that is gone and you will have to readjust several days of your life in order to make up for the messed up hormones and chemicals in your body from missing sleep.

Sleep is vital if you want to be able to heal your muscles properly after a training session or after a game. One of the things that you need to be strict with is your sleep schedule. Not only is your body’s recovery tied to your rest but the energy you will have for another day’s training or game is reliant on your sleep as well.

4.)   Wellness retreat

What was once perceived as a luxury is now considered an utmost necessity. Athletes need to have proper rest and relaxation. This includes taking a complete and absolute break from anything and everything that is related to their sport.

The age of information has made it quite difficult to escape the outside world. Pressure can truly affect an athlete’s mind and performance. As such, it is important to take regular wellness retreat that focuses on the holistic wellbeing of the person.

It is important to take breaks away from anything that is harmful to your mental health. It also helps to form good mental exercises to clear away any sources of anxiety and stress. It is now a generally accepted fact that mental health is just as important—if not more important—as physical health. As such, it is important for any athlete to take really good care of his or her whole wellness and not just their physical aspect.

To Conclude

When you think of improving one’s football performance, it is not at all weird to narrow planning to the actual physical part of the sport. As we hope that we have shown above, it is not only the physical part of the game that needs attention.

There are actually non-physical ways to improve your performance as an athlete. The trouble will be sticking to the tips. It is not at all odd if, while reading this article, you thought it was absolute hogwash. That was what some of us thought at the start of our careers.

However, if you just open your minds, you just might be surprised at the results that you will get. Just as we discovered how wrong we were, you can as well. All you need is to have both eyes open when looking at the ways to improve your performance.