Tommy Smith has played in multiple continents, made hundreds of professional appearances, and earned 50 caps for the New Zealand national team. In this article, Smith, no stranger to the demands of the biggest stages, discusses the challenges of pressure, coping with expectation, and his experiences playing at the World Cup and Olympic Games. In This Article Coping with Pressure Playing professional football can carry a lot of pressure — from fans, coaches, and even players’ own personal standards. But learning how to cope with…
coping with pressure
The psychological component of football underpins everything that a player does. But mindset and other mental skills can be the hardest attributes for children (and professional athletes) to develop. In this article, A-League winner Stefan Mauk discusses his path to building a positive and constructive mentality, and how a focus on processes, not outcomes, helps him to perform at his best in the professional game. In This Article Coping with Pressure Within the context of professional football, pressure comes from many sources; crowds, coaches, teammates,…