mental block

Question
hey
i always get told i should play either outside LB, or RB
but when it comes to playing and it counts, i always seem to be afraid to get in and tackle or afraid to run the ball against certain people and i dont know why, when i play with my friends im fine i just can seem to break a mental block that doesnt let me perform aswell as i should
any ideas why?
thanks for reading

Answer
Hello lewy and thank you for your question.

Mental blocks usually boil down to confidence.  A great thing to do is to condition yourself so you feel the same way in a game as you do when you play with your friends.  After all, both are on grass, played with a ball, against humans.  Your skill, your abilities, they are all the same regardless of who you play.  So, start giving yourself a success frame of mind.  Every time you make a great tackle or run the ball really good, stop and mark that moment and how you feel about it.  Imagine putting that moment in a library in your imagination, where you can grab it and relive it.  What this will do is build up your personal library of success moments.  And since it is YOUR library, you can check them out any time you want.  When you are in a game, before you even start a play, take a moment, check out one of your success moments from your personal library and instantly see, hear or feel that success.  We do this naturally, since sights, sounds and smells remind us of things we've seen, heard, felt or experienced. You've probably noticed that emotions/feeling go along with it.  And that's what you want, to re-experience that feeling of success and confidence of great tackles and running the ball well.  This is something you need to practice, practice, practice, and it will pay off.  I use this a lot with my sports clients, IT WORKS!

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

David

David Kenward, The Mental Coach
http://www.thementalcoach.com