Daniel Abrahams
@DanAbrahams77 • 55,125 subscribers
Sport Psychologist (HCPC), author, and host of @sportpsychshow. Currently consulting with a number of clients…
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Great video this… I have 20 years working at Premier League clubs (six contracts) and the last two seasons at Feyenoord (winning the Eredivisie under Arne Slot)… …and I firmly believe that players can be the most impactful psychologists (without being psychologists themselves). Coaches who exploit this phenomenon will give their team a better chance to experience success. Players need to be able to influence their team mates and follow their team mates… To influence To follow This is easier said than done at the very highest level. Players are wracked with social anxiety, caring too much what their teammates think of them. Too many aren’t given an opportunity to build conversational skills they can use in small groups to discuss the games’ challenges rationally. And too often players are at a club where the coaching culture is (very respectfully) overly top-down and not autonomy-supportive enough (which isn’t to suggest that a degree of top-down isn’t important…it probably is). Coaches at this level would do well to up-skill their players in leadership and teamwork, and create a coaching practice that provides players with opportunities to utilise those skills. A final thought: I would respectfully broaden Mr Keane’s player leadership model - leadership as action. Players can lead by action, but also by energy and instruction. Some (but not all) can use their voice as well as their body to influence others… (Note: my comments above have nothing to do with Manchester United or Bruno Fernandes specifically)
Daniel Abrahams444,328 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten
In the video below Burnley manager Vincent Kompany is coaching one of his centre backs In this thread, I'm going to take you through a model of learning accompanied by some teaching techniques that could be used by Kompany to better help this player learn his coaching points 👇
Daniel Abrahams1,253,740 Aufrufe • vor 3 Jahren
Roy Keane: “It’s just an act…” 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 Below is perhaps one of the most insightful clips I’ve watched related to the psychology of adult elite sport (the professional level of sport). Tucked away…silently…in a BBC interview quite some years ago. A small section of an interview with Roy Keane, one of the Premier League’s greatest players… “It’s an act. Of course I had self-doubts, but I kept an act up. The skinhead. A few sendings off. I fear nothing. Some sort of machine. Which is nonsense. You act, don’t you!” Roy Keane was a great actor. He acted when he took to the pitch. He had, what I call a ‘Game Face’. I wrote about my mental technique of ‘Game Face’ in my first book Soccer Tough (a book that I’m proud to say Gareth Bale called life changing). And I expanded on ‘Game Face’ in Soccer Tough II. A ‘Game Face’ is a term I use to describe a player’s best ‘mental state’ and ideal ‘competitive persona’. It’s a pictorial metaphor that helps players think about, imagine, and then self-regulate around who they want to be in the heat of battle and how they want to execute their actions. “I’m my Game Face no matter what. I say it, be it, do it, act it…embody it, enact it” To bring this alive I’ll provide some examples… I spent five years working with someone considered one of the best defenders in the world. He had a ‘Game Face’ of ‘Dominant & Relentless’. These last two years working with Feyenoord as they won the Eredivisie and the Dutch Cup, one of the players had a ‘Game Face’ of ‘Positive Upbeat Benzema’ When England played in the final of the rugby World Cup in 2019, one of the players had a ‘Game Face’ of ‘Aggressive Energetic Lion’ (I was lead psych prior to the World Cup). You see, these are pictorial metaphors consisting of action-based words, often combined with a model player or concept such as an animal. Metaphors are wonderful linguistic tools for self-regulation, and can help human beings execute actions at a high intensity level, as well as engage in a competition with approach behaviour (on the front-foot, energy forward). Ultimately, sports competitors would do well to be great actors when they need to be. This doesn’t mean there’s anything inauthentic about their style of play. On the contrary, a ‘Game Face’ is robust in that it offers a description of ‘who they are’ and ‘who they need to be’ when kick-off arrives. It offers a dynamic descriptor of ‘who they are’ and ‘who they need to be’ in-game when the pressure is on. A ‘Game Face’ is a mix of authentic and inauthentic mental (and personality) states that enable players to adapt and flex when they need to. Roy Keane had a ‘Game Face’. He was an actor when he needed to be. In his words, it helped him find ‘the zone’. A ‘Game Face’ is the most powerful technique I’ve devised over the years…one that enables me to help players take charge of themselves and take control no matter what. To dominate their mindset and own their mindset no matter what… …no matter what!
Daniel Abrahams640,779 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren
Andrew Luck, former NFL quarterback (now GM of Stanford Football programme) digs deep into the importance of competitive practice… Don’t mess with practice…that’s when you win games… The detail - constraints and conditions that help players experience the demands of competition. Tasks and challenges that increase emotion and feeling. But here’s the thing… Mr Luck hints at player mental frameworks when he speaks to the opportunity to practice breathing and positive affect during tough-to-manage training sessions. Breathe…steady your nervous system! Positivity…influence your teammates! Deeper still… Go to work on attention, intensity, intent… A deep attention during practice…search for the cues you need to respond to… Heighten mental intensity…stay engaged with the cues… Aim to execute actions with a high intent…purposeful, positive, and proactive no matter what… In control and in charge. Dominate and own your mindset. Practice is a time to go hard mentally…it’s a time to practice the psychology of game day… (From Think Fast Talk Smart Podcast)
Daniel Abrahams129,418 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten
The ever impressive Sean Dyche… “We’ve gotta run and run and run some more” - there’s nothing complicated to it he claims. Now, Mr. Dyche is one of a few Premier League managers I haven’t had the pleasure to meet…but if I did I know what I’d want to talk to him about. I’d be bold. I’d give him a knowing smile and a little wink: “Come on Mr Dyche who are you kidding? This is years of playing and thinking. This is years of study that you’ve wrapped into a simple framework you can take with you anywhere…” Simple masking complex… Now, of course, he might push back: “No Dan this really is simple” - but there’s nothing simple about team shape, pressing, recovery lines, working in synch… No, Mr Dyche, no…this is just darn good coaching. And darn good coaching is neither simple nor easy. It’s complex and hard. I love the fact that Mr Dyche speaks about the importance of a framework. And that players can then explore from that framework. They ca explore and create. But a solid base is needed. This resonates with me because my work as a sport psychologist functions in a similar vein. I want the players and teams I work with to be passionate about High Performance Mindsets. I want them to be students of mindset. I want them to take control and take charge of three mental skills - attention, intensity, intent. From this framework I believe they can optimise the execution of their technical, tactical, and physical actions. From this framework I believe they can their best possible performance. From this framework I believe they can be tough to beat (not impossible to beat…but tough to beat)… The ever impressive Sean Dyche sells you his simple. But his simple is enveloping the complex. His simple is years in the making…
Daniel Abrahams142,590 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten
I think it was comedian, Jimmy Carr, who said that happiness is your current situation minus expectations. Perhaps he stole this from someone else. Either way, it feels true. Jannik Sinner, having lost to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Australian Open looks devastated. Professional athletes tend to be when they lose. My thirty years in high performance sport has shown me that the ability to recover from disappointment is such a crucial part of being a high performance athlete. Most are going to lose…they’re going to lose a lot! Most have to experience an overwhelm of emotion following a loss and then very quickly go again. Go again Go again Go again Easy to say. Devilishly difficult to do. The sensorial memory of loss can linger in mind and body. The stinging sense of defeat can emotionally burden for some time. And so the ability to flex and shift back to high mastery and a high performance mindset with speed is critical. The same holds in the corporate world. Disappointments aplenty - that missed job opportunity, that lost account, that failed pitch - none of these can be allowed to cripple enthusiasm. None of these can be allowed to render you ‘actionless’. But that’s hard! And so back to Jimmy Carr. Happiness is your current situation less expectation. Direct your expectation appropriately. “All I expect from myself is to start and stay in a high performance mindset. All I expect from myself is to deliver in my competitive persona. All I expect from myself is my competitive process. That’s all!” The greatest athletes must expect great things from themselves. But for mood regulation and to remain mastery-oriented, those expectations must be aspects they can control…
Daniel Abrahams113,382 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten
Sean McVay asks himself regularly… “Would I want to be coached by me?” The LA Rams coach holds the mirror up in front of himself and questions his practices and processes. He questions his behaviours and actions. “Would I want to be coached by me?” Would I want to experience what I deliver daily? Would I want to be around me? Would I want to engage in my session design? Would I want to approach me and have an honest conversation? Would I look to me as someone who is highly competent? “Would I want to be coached by me?” A question that goes beyond sport…would I want to be married to me? Would I want to be in a team at work with me? It’s a question that immerses you in a meta-state aimed to build self-awareness - thinking about your behaviours in a given context. Rising above yourself to look at yourself. Taking the helicopter view of what others might experience from you. Self-awareness Meta-states “Would I want to be coached by me?”
Daniel Abrahams98,785 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten
The brilliance is in the first sentence…that’s where the subtle hand of leadership emerges amidst the noise. A message exuberantly delivered, absolutely. And that’s ok - NFL is a sport of physical aggression (as well as skill), and so energy needs to be injected into the room for players to be able to hit hard, get hit hard, and still go again. But here’s the thing about this clip of a Bills player urging his teammmates to help each other. In that first sentence he’s passionately suggesting that they aim to influence each other. Specifically, just one other player. “When you leave this room, grab just one guy, and tell him to hold you accountable to the kind of focus we want, the kind of energy we want, the kind of effort we want” Take responsibility for one other and ask that one other to hold you accountable. It’s a social contract worth having. Worth having because no athlete is infinite. When exhaustion stains your face and self-regulation feels distant from your grasp, to have that one other person drive you on. Tunnel your focus. Energise you. Soar your effort. That’s what it is to know you have a great team mate by your side. The brilliance is in the first sentence. Influence doesn’t have to be across the team, it can be with just one other player.
Daniel Abrahams146,498 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
Carlos Cuesta chooses his words carefully. He orients them towards the positive… Perhaps the former Arsenal assistant coach (now head coach of Parma in Serie A, Italy) has read Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett’s book ‘Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain’. In it, the Harvard neuroscientist describes how the language centres of the brain are connected to the insides of the body. Words and sentences influence heart rate, blood flow, and hormonal release. Coach Cuesta wants Arsenal defender, Ben White to feel great. He wants him to reflect on his strengths. A confidence-enhancing trick designed to release a cocktail of hormones that help Ben feel more ‘can-do’. Obvious maybe, but something coaches can do more of. Compliments are something coaches should never tire of. But let’s be clear. The brilliance of this short snippet of communication lies in the last five seconds. “So now it’s only a question of angles and body shapes” In other words, your anticipation is fantastic. You read the game better than any one else. To become more complete you need to focus on angles and body shapes. We can work on this together. A hook…a punchline! You reel ‘em in (this is what you’re great at) and then deliver a juxtaposition (this is what we can work on to help you improve). You’re great AND you can get even greater - and I can help you with that. Commit to me. Commit to this process. I can take you places you’ve never been before.
Daniel Abrahams125,826 Aufrufe • vor 11 Monaten
Kim Hellberg talking to his Middlesbrough team… High flying in the English Championship, he wants his players to be constantly making decisions…even when nowhere near the ball. Ah, yes. As a sport psychologist I can safely assert that Mr Hellberg is training attention. He’s cultivating attention - the most important mental skill. Attention - duration and direction…players should always be focused and connected to the game. Focused and connected to teammates, opposition, space, ball, responsibilities, principles, actions… There’s never a time to be distracted and disconnected. Always switched on. Always action-hungry and task focused. And as Mr Hellberg expresses here: “You’ve always in the game all the time. Making decisions” In the game all the time In the game all the time Focused and connected Focused and connected Focused and connected (My new book, Compete, will be released in May and will be discussing the importance of attention and provide tools of how to retain attention)…
Daniel Abrahams62,343 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten
A manager trying to rouse his players… Cortical arousal…a call for mental activation and physical intensity… Mikel Arteta using words, sentences, phrases enveloped in tone, volume, rhythm, pause…trying to tap into memory, striving to evoke pain and pleasure, cautioning threat while willing reward. Motivation - to move towards and to move away from. Mental activation… The challenge for any coach is to recognise the cause of performance lapse. Do my players need to rise in intensity or do I need to cool the nervous system? Might a rise be true for one and a drop be true for another? Should this come from me or should this come from my players? Questions…questions! For me…pre-planned: -individual mental frameworks -a team mental framework Then time for: -players to group together to speak -the coach to assert the tactical plan enveloped in those mental frameworks -mini individual conversations An all-in feel…an integrated approach. Cortical arousal, narrative, and meaning in competitive sport are strange things. One player is best served in a state of physical dominance while another is best suited to a playful state akin to playing mate’s football. Player one: dominant, relentless, strong Player two: playful, focused, free No hard, fast rules other than this - each and every player has their ideal mind and body state that helps them to anticipate, make decisions, co-ordinate their body, and execute at an appropriate physical intensity. And that state must be found and maintained in each and every game. I love Mikel Arteta’s passion. I love his energy and his vibrancy. I also love the complexity of the human. With 11, 13, 15, 18 plauers all gawping at you, hanging on every word you say…you never quite know whether the content or the delivery is suited to everyone in the room… …you never quite know… And that’s what makes sports coaching so much fun and so intriguing. That no matter who you are and no matter what level you coach at…coaching is a decision-making process where even the very best and even the very famous are making a best guess most of the time. A best guess most of the time…
Daniel Abrahams221,951 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren
Roberto De Zerbi, former Brighton head coach, see here coaching Marseille, taps into evolutionary psychology… Approach behaviour and avoidant behaviour… De Zerbi demands approach behaviour! A high intent. Energy-towards. Leaning into the challenge. Purposeful. Proactive. Moving forward. Risk-taking and brave. Explorative. Creative. Expressive… There is no middle ground. No shade of grey for De Zerbi. Courage, courage, courage. Mistakes will be made but that’s fine by him. My framework? Attention Intensity Intent That final word - intent. I work hard with all my players to ensure they execute with a high intent no matter what. No matter the enormity of the game. No matter who they play or where they play. No matter how they’ve been playing or how their teammates are playing. A high intent is a skill. It’s the purposeful, positive, proactive execution of actions. It needs to be worked on in every activity in every session. It needs to be insisted upon. It needs to be a part of the game plan. It needs to be included pre-match and in post game reflections. It needs to be a non-negotiable! Roberto De Zerbi, former Brighton head coach, see here coaching Marseille, taps into evolutionary psychology… (Video found on MÁS Positional account on ‘X’ - do follow them)
Daniel Abrahams103,797 Aufrufe • vor 11 Monaten
Dennis Bergkamp with a call to all players… “Technique, technique, technique…practice, practice, practice” The thousands of hours spent alone, with teammates, and with coaches…focused on honing his own unique brand of technique…his movement solutions for as many scenarios as possible. Doing it until he doesn’t have to think. He just does! An embodied intelligence. A mind-body competence fit for any situation in any footballing environment. See and do See and do See and do Of course, when practicing on their own, ambitious young players should engage their mental muscles. Attention on first touch when bouncing the ball off the wall. Imagining team mates around them. Executing actions confidently. Engaging in self-control if they spill or miss. Retaining a high mental activation as any tedium sets in. Technique and mindset intertwined… And then self-regulated learning. Deliberate practice. Intentional training… What am I doing that’s helping me improve? What am I focusing on? Are there other ways to execute this action? Exploring, creating, seeking feedback, internalising, memorising… Practice on purpose… Technique and mindset intertwined…
Daniel Abrahams71,023 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten
Agh, this time they got beat. This time the intent wasn’t there. This time they were slightly weaker in the challenge, slightly slower to respond… This time… Sean Dyche has overseen a turnaround at Premier League club, Nottingham Forest. Listen to him…listen to how many times he says intent. Intent - energy-forward. Approach behaviour. To show for the ball. To cover space. To make that last step. To press hard. To execute actions positively. To be proactive. To play purposefully… Intent…intent…intent Is this any different to going for the deal in your business? To facilitating the meeting. To the last hours of completing a project. To that frustrating brainstorming meeting looking for new ideas. Attention - an eye for detail Intensity - your strength of engagement Intent - to lean into the challenge These are the narratives of winners. These are what they do! But they require practice daily. That’s on the driving range in golf or on the practice court in tennis. That’s in conversations with colleagues and with difficult clients. That’s in the boardroom and on the pitch during training. Sean Dyche is heading back to basics with his players. He’s viciously, brutally, unbendingly returning to the tiny details that fire great performances and subsequent outcomes. He’s training intent. He’s going hard with intent. He’s aiming to win with intent…he’ll never compromise with that…
Daniel Abrahams64,638 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten
Fear… No matter the skill in your feet, fear can stifle and suffocate. It can tear talent apart. It can annihilate ability. Champions can be found wanting. The easy becoming difficult. The simple becoming complex. Jamie Carragher illustrates this by highlighting the incredibly gifted Liverpool players hiding. Urging the ball to go long. Refusing to show for it. Seeing the game out with fingers crossed more so than with intelligence and confidence. Fear is performance anxiety. It’s a low intent, energy-back. It’s hesitancy of action rather than positivity of movement and motion. It’s inhibition as opposed to purposeful play. It’s passiveness and caution rather than proactiveness and expansiveness. Small rather than big… Players need to learn to respond to their inner impulses. They need to learn to respond to the thoughts that envelope their mind, and the emotions and feelings that surge through their body. With weight settled forward they should show for it. While ignoring their internal strife they should lean into the challenge. With discipline and determination they should execute actions confident, brave, and aggressive… …even when everything inside of them encourages the opposite. This is what it is to be mentally skilful. This is what it is to be mentally tough. This is what it is to be mentally strong. This is fearless football…and fearless football takes daily work
Daniel Abrahams64,165 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten
USF head coach, Brian Hartline, demanding his players do all they can to win the moment… This second This action This activity This session Today This week Next game This month This season Sports are game of moments. In fact, there are thousands of micro-moments in every game that can be won or lost. And these moments…these micro-moments…constantly influence the momentum of the game. The momentum of the game as it swings back and forth. Underpinning moments and momentum is mindset. Is a player, are players, and is a team in High Performance Mindsets vertically or Low Performance Mindset? Mindset drives Moments drives Momentum. Sports are games of Mindset, Moments, and Momentum. And this is why I want every player I work with and every team I work with to be outstanding at starting and staying in a High Performance Mindset. (𝐌𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤, 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞, 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬 𝐇𝐏𝐌 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐬, 𝐌𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤)
Daniel Abrahams46,444 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten
Steve Nash engaged in self-regulated learning early! His father, canny as a fox, pointed out what he did well and encouraged him to bottle the details. Remember this, remember that! Remember this, remember that! Memory - but it was never about remembering the performance outcomes, it was always performance process - the actions and decisions that helped the young Nash to score, not the scoring itself. All detail! All detail! This has been called attentional density (by neuroscientist David Schwartz). When you pay attention to something, your brain fires in patterns akin to that something. The more you think about it, the more the brain fires that way. The more the brain fires that way, the more chance you have of remembering what you’re paying attention to. Pay attention to the details! Pay attention to the details!
Daniel Abrahams50,933 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten
The last one he quit on… I’m the first person to scream the importance of context when highlighting an isolated video… But as a sport psychologist, I respectfully question the value in putting Phil Foden in an activity without defenders…in England training I think it’s a fair debate…and I’m not convinced by the value of this at all…
Daniel Abrahams160,539 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren
𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐧𝐞 𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐅𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐝: 1. 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐞𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 - he was open-minded to speak with me and utilise me as the consultant sport psychologist to the club. Yet he checked and challenged most of what I said. It became obvious that as I spoke he was sense-making my ideas to judge and make a decision whether to use my suggestions. This is great - you don’t want a coach to accept everything…yet you do want a coach to listen, ask questions, and make appropriate judgements. You want them open and closed! 2. 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐜 + 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 - he had a sense of positivity about him without engaging in ‘toxic positivity’. He certainly gave the impression that he was confident in his approach, yet this confidence didn’t come across as mindless. He worked incredibly hard and this work ethic combined with his presence (built from his confidence) certainly rubbed off on his players. Work ethic + presence! 3. 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 - he wanted his coaches to up-skill themselves in delivering on my suggestions (the ones he wanted to utilise). Coaches were present in my small group meetings and he wanted them to reinforce the points I made. For him, his coaches (and all the staff) were delivering the psychology. (Note: coaches aren’t psychologists…but they do do psychology in their role at all times!) 4. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 - he was certainly the ‘boss’ and he certainly laid down the game plans. But he appreciated the importance of leadership and teamwork…thus gave players the opportunity to practice these in training. Team huddles during and in-between activities game players the opportunity to solve problems together, guide, give advice, share, and motivate each other. A keen combination of coach-driven and player-centered felt like the approach during his reign at Feyenoord. Psycho-social skills are important to Arne. 5. 𝐓𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 - psychology IS tactics and tactics ARE psychology. Intuitively Arne knows this and so the thoroughness in his tactical approach is shown through the numerous meetings he had with players (on a group and individual level). Certainty drives High Performance Mindset and evades Low Performance Mindset. And that is very much a mantra we had at Feyenoord. Everything we do works towards individual and team High Performance Mindsets. His tactical thoroughness drove player and team certainty which drove High Performance Mindsets. (Note: this is my lens of the world from my experiences at Feyenoord for two seasons. Much of what I did is confidential…but above offers a positive and important view of a very good coach)
Daniel Abrahams73,419 Aufrufe • vor 10 Monaten