Prepare Minds Not Just Muscles

Pre-Season Builds More Than Fitness

Everything looks good at this time of year.

A new season is on the horizon. The sun's out, the lads are getting through pre-season, and perhaps you've added a couple of decent players to the squad. Confidence is high, optimism is everywhere and everyone is talking about what's possible.

Enjoy it. Just don't mistake it for progress.

Remember these weeks when it's the middle of January, it's chucking it down on a Tuesday night, you've taken a hiding on Saturday, and training suddenly isn't quite so much fun.

Success can make those moments even tougher. Maybe you've just been promoted. Maybe last season everything clicked. Perhaps you've gone so long without losing that some of your players have forgotten what it feels like to be beaten. There are teams every year who genuinely don't know how to respond when they lose two on the bounce.

There's an old saying that calm seas never made a great sailor. It survives because it's true. You don't discover much about your team when everything is going well.

In the military we were taught that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Sport isn't war, despite what some touchline experts seem to believe, but the principle still holds. The opposition have spent all week trying to ruin your plans. They'd quite like the points themselves.

So, while everyone is concentrating on getting fitter, stronger and quicker, who's preparing the squad for the point when confidence disappears and results stop coming?

Because they will.

The habits you build now will decide how players respond later. The language used around the club. The standards you accept. The way coaches, physios, volunteers and everyone else reacts when things aren't going well. It's easy to be positive when you're winning. That's not really the test.

One thing I've found useful is deliberately preparing for adversity before it happens.

Instead of spending pre-season assuming everything will go to plan, why not rehearse the moments that usually derail performance?

What happens when you're 15 points down after 20 minutes? A player gets a yellow card. Someone misses an easy tackle. The referee makes a decision that nobody agrees with. Three handling errors happen in succession.

None of those situations are unusual. Yet we often behave as though they're a complete surprise.

Rather than trying to stop players feeling frustrated, disappointed or angry, help them recognise those emotions, accept that they're there, and then return their attention to the next job.

Mental resilience shouldn't first appear in Week 12 after four defeats on the bounce. It should be practised in July.

That also means creating the right environment around the team.

Mindfulness gets dismissed by some people because they picture scented candles and sitting cross-legged in silence. That's missing the point entirely.

Mindfulness is simply learning to notice what's happening without immediately reacting to it.

And that starts with coaches.

Players rarely stay calmer than their coaches.

How do you react after a mistake? What's the language you consistently use? Do players feel able to learn from errors, or do they spend their energy worrying about making the next one? How quickly do your emotions spread through the group on a Saturday afternoon?

Coaches set the emotional temperature of a club, whether they realise it or not.

A calm environment doesn't mean lowering standards or accepting poor performance. Quite the opposite. It means creating the conditions where players are most likely to make good decisions when the pressure is on.

Ultimately, mindfulness isn't about making players relaxed or happy. It's about helping them stay with what's actually happening instead of replaying the mistake that has just gone or worrying about what might happen next.

Pressure isn't going away. Neither are bad weather, “interesting” refereeing, injuries or losing streaks. They're all part of the season, however much we'd prefer they weren't.

The teams that deal with those challenges best aren't always the most talented. More often, they're the ones who stay present long enough to solve the problem in front of them instead of fighting the one that's already happened.

So, when you look at your pre-season programme this year, ask yourself one question.

You're spending hours preparing your players physically.

How much time are you spending preparing them mentally?

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