Why Wait Till You Get On The Pitch?
Adrian Cronin
Assistant Manager and Head of Goalkeeping Development at Galway United Women's FC.UEFA B Goalkeeping licence
Do you Visualize?
David James once said on preparing for a game , he takes his first corner at the first set of traffic lights on the way to a game. If you agree or not with visualisation or Mental imagery, we all do it in some way or another, don't believe me, ever dream of making that great save or dream of winning the FA Cup or picture yourself in a team photo with Messi, this is visualisation.
For grassroot keepers after a weekend game, the next training session may not come quick enough, If you played well, had a great performance you want to get back to the training pitch because you are feeling unbeatable, cause you know what you practised worked, or maybe your game didn't go to plan and you want to get down to work on it.
But why wait till you get on the pitch to work on your game,the following is a brief report by Pamela M. Chilton of the Foundation for Research and Exploration of Mind Motivation.
Les Cunningham, HypnoSport (Maryborough Victoria Australia: Hedges & Bell, 1980) A number of studies have shown that a mental rehearsal of an upcoming performance can improve the eventual performance. Two Examples from Example: Study I: Australian Psychologist Alan Richardson tested three groups of basketball players on their ability to make free throws. Then, over the next twenty days each group was subjected to the following routine: Group A: Engaged in no practice whatsoever. Group B: Practiced free-throws for 20 minutes each day. Group C: Spent 20 minutes each day simply imagining that they were throwing the ball at the basket. After twenty days Group A showed no improvement in their ability. Group B: Improved their scoring rate by 24%. Group C: Improved their scoring ability by 23%. (Additional Reference: Michael Talbot, The Holographic Universe (New York: HarperCollins, 1991)
So while your waiting to get down to the pitch , why not spend some time visualising or imagining doing the right thing, picture it, making that top corner save, distributing the ball out to set up a goal, catching that difficult cross, saving that penalty , celebrating the win, hearing the crowd chant your name, or feeling that pat on your back.
If doing this for a few minutes a day or before you to sleep increases your abilities by a couple of percent , what are you waiting for, GET DREAMING !!!!!!!!!!!
Adrian Cronin
Goalkeeping Coach