Football to me is so much bigger than a sport, it can be magical if you let it, yet painful if you allow too much of the mind to get involved. Over my last 14 years of playing, this is something I have discovered.
Hello there, my name is Shania and I have two significant interests in life, these include both football (or ‘soccer’ depending on what mood I’m in) and the mind/human behaviour. From this, it is not surprising I have a BSc majoring in both sports & exercise and psychology. I’m also a few months away from finishing my master's degree in psychology.
My intention for this space is to take an explorative approach to sport psychology concerning competing in women’s football. Throughout a season of football, I think many of us football fiends can agree it is never smooth sailing and there are always both highs and lows. Similar to the beautiful game we call life I suppose. There are currently an array of various tools out there from the field of sport psychology that are available for athletes to adopt in order to be in the right state of mind to compete. I have gone through periods of dipping my toe in some of these techniques but have never stuck to them due to some not working or information on techniques being too vague. Throughout this journey, I want to investigate and ‘test out’ all the different sport psychology nuggets I have heard about over the years. I plan to not only research these ideas around sports psychology but apply them to a real-life season. So, come along with me on this venture if you are:
A. Interested in the mind’s involvement in sport
B. Struggle with sports performance yourself due to the mind
C. Wish to elevate your sporting performance through the mind
D. None of the above, however, you’ll give me a shot anyway ;)