Sports Psychology in a Soccer Academy

In the last ten years, sports psychology has gone from having an almost spectator role to being part of the headline in all disciplines. Its development is taking place in a context in which athletes are increasingly knowledgeable and aware that they need to enhance all their capabilities to achieve their goals, and how a multidisciplinary team of professionals can take their performance to another level, even when it no longer seems possible.

Spain RUSH-SPF players doing the activities proposed by Futelite

We cannot understand what sport psychology is without knowing its benefits. Therefore, here is a list of reasons or examples with which we will understand perfectly what the role of sport psychology is.

One of the great benefits of applying this discipline is the field of mindfulness techniques. Thanks to it, athletes and their technical teams or teammates reinforce their attention and improve their performance during the practice of sport.

Thanks to the attention of the psychologist specialized in sport, the athlete, the club and the entire technical team achieve an optimal state of motivation. This translates into better results and better sports performance focused on constant improvement.

In sport, as in many other areas, having objectives and a good plan to achieve them is essential. A sports psychologist is a key figure in establishing realistic sports goals and setting up an intelligent training plan. In addition, all this also influences self-confidence, which in turn has an impact on motivation and self-esteem, all of which are essential in the world of high-performance sport.

It is one of the great burdens of today’s society that has not left the world of high-performance sport aside. It is true that in the world of competition, stress is key. But to prevent it from becoming demotivating and negative, sports psychology can provide tools for stress management. All this influences the performance, the achievement of objectives and the motivation of the athlete.

Another great reason to have a psychologist specialized in sports is that this professional allows athletes of any discipline to have the pressure under control. Thus, one of the great answers to what is sports psychology is that it is a great help to manage both stress and pressure.

One of the negative aspects that can result from stress, pressure and demotivation is the loss of self-confidence. This is a crucial factor in the field of sport. The discipline we analyze helps us to believe, in a reasonable and real way, that we are capable of achieving success and accomplishing our goals.

In addition to making the appropriate physical recoveries, a sports injury involves much more than pain. For example, it truncates all established sports plans, training and goals. Having a sports psychologist is essential in these cases. The support of this professional helps athletes overcome their fears, accept the injury and work mentally in the direction of empowerment.

If we talk about a sports team, in any discipline, the importance of this science is multiplied. What is sport psychology in relation to a team? Much more than we think. A sports psychologist will help us to create a common environment oriented towards the same collective objectives. Sports psychology is the field of team sports that allows all players to maintain their motivation and not to have problems between them.

If before we mentioned that it is essential to keep the attention while practising sports, now we talk about the opposite. In sport, it is as important to know how to concentrate on what you are doing as it is to know how to relax after you have done it. The techniques of sports psychology help us to disconnect when we should do so.

Finally, it should be noted that a sports psychology professional is able to detect in athletes some deficiencies or needs that, at first glance, may go unnoticed. That is why this figure is so important, as it is responsible for maintaining a healthy mental health context and favourable to the achievement of objectives.

The application of sports psychology is reaching all areas. In high performance, it is already a proven discipline in the evaluation or intervention, in the search to optimize performance. It is also growing in introductory sport, supported by increasingly efficient technology and ever-deeper scientific knowledge. Finally, sport psychology can also be used to maximize the positive effects of sport as a form of leisure and promotion of healthy living.

From Spain RUSH-SPF we firmly believe in this and that is why yesterday, we had the pleasure of holding a workshop with a great specialist in the field, Russell Grocott : Director at PAM Education, IACCA, Lu Ban Restaurant and Owner of Futelite Ltd. The talk was given through his company, Futelite .

Russell Grocott gave a sport psychology class for Spain Rush-SPF

Russell has been driven to work professionally at the highest levels of sport and is currently the Director of several companies that are delivering innovation in high-performance training and learning and in Sports, Culinary Arts and Entrepreneurship.

For the past 12 years alongside Malcolm Frame lead psychologist at Southampton FC , they have been inspired to successfully introduce a unique approach into leadership and futures leaders programmes for clients across all levels and age groups.

Driven by an awareness that we are at the start of an age that will see a totally new approach to the way students engage in learning and the reality of what this will mean to current and future generations

Malcolm’s work at Southampton FC Academy is regarded as the best in the world by many, and Russell’s role at 2016 Premier League Champions Leicester City and as head of the remarkably successful REFA Academy project in Valencia has enabled them to develop groundbreaking performance anatomy programmes.

In 2012 they co-wrote an award-winning learning programme associated with the London Olympic Games. the goal is to help individuals to maximise their talent by reducing limiting beliefs and developing a clear conscious awareness of how they can control the outcome.

As the pace of change begins to accelerate, Russell has built around him a team of experts that share a mission to impact Education integrating technology into a wide range of exponential learning programmes, that offer a new way of approaching the delivery of education and training primarily based in workplaces across the globe.

The team is currently developing collaborative agreements involving the UK Saudi Arabia and Chinese Education and sports sectors. Russell is a founding partner of the PAM Education Consultancy Services team that is providing solutions for UK organisations working in the field of transitional learning programmes.

Russell has devoted his working life to improving the development programmes that support all people with a love for Football. He is currently part of FUTELITE .

Russel’s REFA academy trained some of our most international ex-players from our academy, such as Dallen Doke , Mahir Radja Satya , SamuelChristianson Simanjuntak , Syahrian Abimanyu , …