Teaching Mindfulness & Mental Agility at the Krakow Kings ?? Youth Summer Camp 2023

In the fast-paced and highly competitive world of football, attention, breathing ad team cohesion are not just desirable traits, but are essential skills that can make or break a player's and teams’ performance.

Last week, David Ostr?ga, Head Coach?of the Kraków Football Kings u19, 2022 National Champions Team, invited me to be an assistant coach, focusing on preparing the team mentally for the 2023 season. Below you will read about the three areas we focused on, nurtured, and cultivated over the 7 days as well as some other fun anecdotes.

To start, I truly believe that the coaches and I learned first-hand that teaching the team attention, breathing and inter-personal skills significantly enhanced the players' abilities on and off the field. Not just in what we witnessed, but the direct feedback we got from the players, captains, support staff, fans, and each other. I am sure the opposing team, on the last day also learned something when they were defeated after the Krakow Kings camp back to win 23-20. And you must note that this win was after the players intense week of physical and mental trainings, as the coach said to the ref, “there legs are heavy.” In total the team had 10 full training practices + pool time, over a dozen film reviews and sessions with me, including one intense yoga flow.

Let’s explore further the three elements I focused on with the team.

1.??? Attention

Attention is foundational for everything, and as I quickly witnessed, to the game of football. Whether it's tracking the movement of opponents, anticipating plays, or maintaining focus during high-pressure situations, attention is a key skill that is utilized in every aspect of the game. Therefore, I decided to start with and continue to have them train their attention throughout the week, so they can continuously sharpen their focus and make split-second decisions with precision.

One common challenge faced by everyone at times is the tendency for our attention to be constantly pulled towards the past or future. Dwelling on past mistakes or worrying about future outcomes distracted some of the players from being fully present in the moment. Therefore, by cultivating attention techniques at the camp, the footballers learned how to manage their attention effectively, stay in the present moment and support each other in maintaining this. I heard them saying and yelling often, “let’s focus,” “remember what Coach Patrick taught us,” “cold mind, hot body,” etc.. We trained everyone’s attention through mindfulness and cognitive exercises, meditations and performance enhancing techniques.

Managing attention was not just crucial for individual performance but also for the whole team’s success. It was just a joy for me to see, especially in the team’s final day match, with the Warsaw Mets, how each player was fully engaged and focused on their role within a collective strategy. I do believe that with extra attention training we further created a cohesive winning unit that has now a higher chance of achieving victory on and off the field, now and in the future.

2.??? Breathworks

Breathworks is a true game changer when it comes to enhancing performance, mental health and well-being. The power of conscious breathing has been known for millennia, and I harnessed it in innovative ways to improve the team’s cardiovascular fitness, reduce their stress and anxiety, and promote overall well-being.

The team was eager to maintain their focus and concentration during the camp when they saw how much more power they got when breathing correctly, how much more quickly they could recover and how it supported them with being focused and present. In other words, I incorporated specific and different breathing techniques into their practices daily, so they could tap into the power of self-regulation, allowing them to recover quicker, stay calm under pressure when they needed and perform at their best after each, “hike,” and in each moment.

But it's not just that athletes benefited from breathworks on the field. They found themselves using it to find motivation, to manage pre-game/pre-practice stress and to fall asleep at night. They now have an easy to access powerful tool at their disposal - a way to breathe for relaxation, recovery, stress-management, and performance.

Let me tell you, when we did the pre-rally calls (yells) at the end of huddles after taking a deep in-breath the ground, walls and buildings shook and it is a great psychological tool against the opposing teams.

3.??? Connecting with each other and building team cohesion

Finally, I focused on exercises, activities, games techniques, and meditations to get the team to form deeper and more meaningful bonds with one another. This was done to further strengthen what the other coaches were already doing with them so they could connect on deeper levels in pairs and as a team, as well as, to communicate effectively with their companions and trainers.

These skills proved to be essential at the camp and will spill over into their everyday lives, as they foster collaboration, respect, and the ability to resolve conflicts (both internal and external). Moreover, from the feedback we witnessed and received we can conclude that there were increased levels of success, play satisfaction (whether the play went as the wanted or not), team member self-esteem, and decreased anxiety.

It made me emotional and brought me lots of pleasant sensations to hear all the positive sharing’s, reflections, and comments from individual players during and after the camp. In addition to get a whole team thank you present and to hear the positive effects it had on the other coaches.

Moreover, building connections with each other and team cohesion is all held together by a glue and that glue that holds a team together is culture. The head coach already has a great culture around him, a culture of respect, high performance, companionship and winning and it really felt like I was part of this culture and family. With that being said, the head coach and the other coaches allowed me to contribute to that culture, to enhance the well-being and mental health of that culture and I will be forever grateful to them for that.

4.??? Conclusions

One of the best weeks in my life. I got to do what I am passionate about and support so many great kids and individuals. I incorporated mindfulness, cognitive exercises, meditations, breathworks and visualization practices into the camp, and with the support of all the coaches we equipped the young athletes with valuable tools to enhance their mental agility and overall performance. Teaching them how to harness their attention effectively, regulate their breathing and bond together more deeply, did not only benefit them in football, at the camp, but also in other areas of their moments. We truly believe that they are better prepared now for success during the season and in whatever other endeavors they decide to pursue in the future.

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