Aggressive play

Question
Hi I was hoping you could tell me what I need to do to play more aggressively in all sports not just football necessarily  
,the biggest problem I have is playing aggressively my skill is ok but i just need help to play aggressively so what would you suggest to help?

Answer
Hello Billy

The first question I'd ask is SPECIFICALLY what do you mean by play more aggressively?  Why do you believe you are lacking in aggressiveness. When did you start believing this?  Why? The first step to changing something is writing down specifically what you want to change and how you will know when you've done it.

A lot of times people use the word aggressive when what they really mean is having the confidence to play their best under pressure.

Here's a mental training tool that can help. Get relaxed, close your eyes, and take five slow deep breaths.  Then, picture or imagine playing the way you want, acting the way you want.  Really focus on that, everything you see, hear, feel and experience.  Notice how focused you are.  Now change to another scene where you play the way you want to.  Notice again how you feel - confident and focused.  And do it again, the same thing.  This helps you get in the mind set of doing well.

Now, take a deep breath, and as you exhale, say to yourself, POWER, while imagining playing the way you want with the confidence you want.  Do that five times, then take a deep breath, open your eyes and stretch it out.  What you've done is started to train your mind to associate a word - POWER - with feeling confident and playing great.  The more you practice this tool, the stronger that association gets.  After you've practiced it ten times, you are ready to start practicing it on the practice field and in other parts of your life.  

When you've trained your mind to the point when you say POWER you feel that confidence,, then you are ready to do it in competition. You start doing this before the game even starts, to get yourself into the success zone (which you've trained yourself to do).  Then, in a game, take in a breath, exhale and say to yourself POWER and you'll discover you'll feel that confidence and power to do your best.  I've helped many football players improve using this tool and this can work for you too.  Remember, the more you practice, the better you get.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

David

David Kenward - The Mental Coach
Sacramento, California
http://www.thementalcoach.com
Win the Mental Game: Overcome mental blocks and improve performance
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