Football Players Psychology (Achievement Nudge about How to Achieve a Calm and Steady State of Success)

---

Last Updated on March 24, 2025 by Bill Truby

What do you do when life “tackles” you? The psychology and tools football players use can help.

Football players need to maintain confidence, deal with anxiety, manage anger, and avoid fear – all while keeping focus. (It’s the same with the game of life, too). How do the players do this? Sports psychologists teach them some simple and effective tools that help, and they can help us, too.

The methods used are founded in the science about the pre-frontal lobe of our brain. This area is key to decision-making, anticipation, and awareness. If the pre-frontal lobe gets overloaded, it impairs your ability to think clearly and quickly make good decisions. The techniques used are designed to keep that area of the brain free from clutter and help it fire efficiently.

Proof that the tools work is in the research published in 2010 in the Journal of Sport Behavior. It said that the introduction of psychological skills at half-time consistently improved performance in the second half of the game. Here are some of the tools used – tools that are SO applicable to life!

First, there is positive self-talk. Research shows, how you talk to yourself affects the chemistry in your brain and your hormones. Negative self-talk increases the stress hormone, cortisol, reducing the pre-frontal lobe’s effectiveness. But positive, energizing self-talk releases dopamine, noradrenaline, and DHEA, which helps your brain fire more effectively. An associated skill is to take negative thoughts and turn them into positive self-talk. A player might take the thought, “We’re not going to win,” and change it to, “Though it’s a struggle right now, we DO have what it takes to win!”

Another tool is to use a word that becomes a trigger to get you to a desired state. If you have a tendency toward anger, you can practice a calmer state, then associate that state with a word like “ice.” I use “soft and low” as a trigger phrase to relax. The word “power” can help you remember to persist.

Another subtle tool used is body language. What affects the mind affects the body. And, yes, it works the other way around, too. Your body’s position and posture affect your mind. One research study showed that it’s impossible to be depressed if you maintain a pleasant, happy facial expression.

Sports psychologists teach players to keep their heads up. When your head is down and your shoulders are slumped, your brain’s chemistry changes for the worse. Research from Harvard Business School showed that a dominant pose decreases stress hormones by up to 25 percent, AND increases the confidence-boosting testosterone by 19 percent. That’s nice to know when YOU need to tackle something in life.

Another tool is to focus on small goals. This uses your brain’s natural filtering mechanism. Filtering causes you to externally see what you internally focus on. The part of your brain called the “reticular activating system” draws your attention to things that are in your mind or that you believe are important. For example, when you start researching a certain type of car, what happens? All of a sudden there are many of them around. That’s the filter at work. Focus on bite-sized goals, and they appear, too.

One more tool. It’s used when you make a mistake or things go wrong. Players are taught to “let go.” But more than that, they are taught to use a personalized, symbolic gesture to do so. Dropping blades of grass to “release” what happened, or wiping the shirt can be symbolic acts associated with words of letting go, and the decision to move forward positively.

So… positive self-talk, trigger words, and a focus on bite-size goals can keep your brain clear and prevent you from being tackled. Symbolic acts to let go when you DO get tackled, help you get back up and practice those three tools again. Simple tools, but they work!

They say, “It’s not whether you win or lose but how you play the game.” But I believe we all want to win, and it is HOW we play the game that even gives us a chance to win. Learning from football players helps us see this: no matter how big, fast, strong or talented the player is, the most influential power football players use to win is the same power you and I have – the brain.

---

This article is part of our ongoing Achievement Nudge series—short, witty, and often inspirational articles to spark your personal and professional growth. Explore more nudges on our blog, or sign up for our weekly Nudge and News email. Each edition includes an Achievement Nudge plus leadership, professional development, and personal growth videos and articles to keep you inspired and on track.

---