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,…
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After making his professional debut in Australia, Stefan Mauk embarked on a career that would see him win the A-League and play in multiple continents. But his pathway to professional football was not easy. In this article, Mauk, now playing in Japan for Fagiano Okayama, reflects on his childhood playing football, the biggest factors in his development, and how adversity helped drive him to become a professional footballer. In This Article A Sporting Childhood Mauk traces the origins of his career back to a childhood…