Football vs. Soccer

Football vs. Soccer

Football vs. Soccer

Introduction

The psychological factors involved in athletic performance have long been of interest to athletes, coaches, sport psychologists and sports scientists. Empirical studies have largely focused on individual psychological factors and their influence on performance which includes confidence, motivation, attention, visualization, and psychosomatic skills. Similarly, some studies indicated that the use of mental skills such as goal setting, imagery, relaxation, and self-talk are important areas in the field of sport psychology . They also asserted that goal setting as attaining a specific standard of proficiency on a task, usually within a specified time limit can increase performance during competition. Moreover, imagery as using all the senses to re-create or create an experience in the mind helps athletes to perform better and increase self-confidence .

Furthermore, relaxation acts as a technique to rid the muscles of disorder tension interfering with performance and help the rest of the body and mind. It also promotes confidence in the athletes' ability to lessen or decrease the effect of undesirable thoughts and feelings. In addition, self-talk has been defined as occurring verbalizations or statements about something as well as increase performance and skills in sport. In consequence, mental training can improve performance of athletes in order to achieve championship in competition.

There are evidences that an athlete needs to work with a mental training. For example, athletes who find it hard to maintain motivation during off-season training can use goal setting training to provide a sense of direction and purpose in their workouts. It is especially when he is unable to perform up to a desirable ability level in competition, using imagery effectively to focus on desired image and thus can develop attention skill. More successful athletes show a greater positive mental health profile by larger scores of energy and lower scores in such negative moods as tension, depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion, for example, using positive self-talk to raise self-confidence.

There are various individual skills and team tactics needed to play effective association football (soccer). Football is in theory a very simple game, as illustrated by Kevin Keegan's famous assertion that his tactics for winning a match were to "score more goals than the opposition". However, well-organised and well-prepared teams are often seen beating teams with supposedly more skillful players, even over time. Coaching manuals and books generally cover not only individual skills but tactics as well. Several of these are explored below.

Individual skills

The importance of a skill depends much on the player's position on the field. Overall, football skills can be divided into four main areas, namely outfield technical, mental, physical and goalkeeping technical abilities.

Technical skills

Control

Crossing

Dribbling (which depends quite heavily on a player's technique, although those are not the same)

Heading

Jockeying

Marking

Passing

Shooting (which includes finishing, free kicks and long shots)

Tackling

Technique (maneuver of the ball in tight space or maneuver of the ball with back to goal)

Tricks

Counter Attacking

Physical abilities

Acceleration

Aerial ability-jumping

Agility

Balance

Handling

Pace

Sprinting

Stamina

Strength

Throwing

Shot Power

Headers

Tapping

Goalkeeping skills

Aerial ability-jumping (can be considered a physical ability)

Agility (can be considered a physical ability)

Balance (can be considered a ...