Soccer Psychology - The Ideal Performance State - Learning to Play at Your Peak by Jason Vittrup

This article was taken from Jason Vittrup's book, entitled Into Soccer Psychology. Jason is a former State Director of Coaching for the Alabama Youth Soccer Association and is now the Director of Coaching at Les Bois United Soccer Club in Boise, Idaho. He has agreed to let us post his coaching articles on this website. You may contact Jason by e-mail at JVittrup@aol.com. This article remains the property of the author. You may also purchase Jason's videotape 25 Moves and Exercises (Order # 5042) on-line from Sysko's or at 1-800-932-2534.

Learning about Flow and Playing at a Peak Level

       The key to playing at a peak level is performing in your Ideal Performance 
State or IPS. This is the optimal physiological and psychological level of arousal
measured in muscular tension, heart rate, blood pressure, and brain wave 
frequency.  When in IPS, the player experiences highly distinctive patterns of 
feelings and thought which enable top performance.   The discovery of IPS is not 
unlike the discovery of "flow." Flow is a term describing the state people enter
when "things seem to go right," "everything clicks," and "I could do no wrong."
Musicians experience flow when the music comes naturally and easily. Assembly-
line workers know flow when challenges are neither too easy (boring) nor too 
hard (frustrating). Soccer players experience flow when rules are clear, and 
personal goals are met.

        Flow gained recognition through research of thousands of people from
diverse backgrounds. Test subjects were given a beeper to wear throughout the
day. Whenever the beeper sounded, subjects stopped activity to record what 
they were doing, and how they felt at that moment. the results enabled 
psychologists to discover all people enter into a similar state of consciousness
know as "flow."
      
       The Ideal Performance State (IPS) is similar to flow but tailored to optimal
athletic results. When working at full capacity, IPS should involve all levels of
human existence: body, mind, emotions, spirit, and creativity. To remember how
to reach the Ideal Performance State, think of the word PERFORM. The job of 
coaches and players is to keep the body and mind within the following 
parameters:

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Personally challenged
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Energized with positive emotion
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Ready for fun and enjoyment
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Focused and alert
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On automatic instinct
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Relaxed and calm
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Maintaining confidence
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   Just a little bit about the seven components of IPS:

Personally challenged: Great players like Ronaldo set goals for each and
every performance. Ronaldo has already won every major soccer award, 
but still gives everything in practice and games. Ronaldo finds challenges 
where other do not.

Energized with positive emotion: Nearly impossible to do without staying
physically fit. Healthy thoughts accompany healthy bodies.

Ready for fun and enjoyment: The best performances, in anything, always
come when having fun.

Focused and alert: Focus deals with blocking out distractions, while alert
means paying attention to what is happening.

On automatic instinct: In soccer, automatic would be responding to visual
clues mostly, while instinct uses the sense of feeling and intuition.

Relaxed and calm: Relaxed refers to keeping the muscles un-tense, while
maintaining a calm mentality.

Maintaining confidence: Players must keep a high self-image or 
performance, especially the willingness to take risks, plummets.

Jason Vittrup is the former Director of Coaching for the Alabama Youth Soccer Association and is currently living in Boise, Idaho and is the director of coaching for the Les Bois United Girls' Soccer Club.