Psychology in Football


Book Description

Psychology in Football is a detailed guide to delivering sport psychology in an elite team sport environment, from practical drills on the training field to shaping organisational behaviour at club level. The book is illustrated throughout with real-world case studies, drawing on research into sixteen professional clubs across five European countries, and concludes by suggesting how other elite team sports can learn from the experiences of professional football.




Football Psychology


Book Description

Presenting an empirically underpinned synthesis of research and theory, while offering guidance for applied practitioners, this is the first book to comprehensively map the psychology of learning, playing, and coaching the world’s favourite sport. The book provides a complete analysis of key topics that capture the broad range of football psychology such as personality, motivation, cognition, and emotion; coaching and team essentials; psychological skills for performance enhancement; and developing players in youth football. Including contributions from a range of international researchers, each chapter provides a review of the relevant literature, key theories, real-world examples, and reflections on how knowledge can be applied in practice. Split into four sections, the book covers a diverse range of topics relevant not only to coaching and performance but also to personality development and health promotion. Essential reading for any student, researcher, or professional in the area, the book is the most cutting-edge overview of how psychology can explain and improve the way football is both played and understood.




Soccer Tough


Book Description

Soccer Tough demystifies mental toughness and football psychology and offers practical techniques that will enable soccer players of all abilities to actively develop focus, energy, and confidence. Soccer Tough will help banish the fear, mistakes, and mental limits that holds players back.




The Official FA Guide to Psychology for Football


Book Description

The official guides to success on and off the pitch.' This Official Football Association series provides invaluable and essential advice and information about key football skills for anyone involved in football, of any age and level. The books are especially aimed at those involved in grassroots football, who may not have the back up and help that they might need to realise the full potential of their involvement in the game. Each book in this series is packed with practical exercises and features, information and expert advice, which will improve your understanding and enhance your ability and enjoyment of the world's greatest game. A straightforward, lively and practical guide, this book encourages you to look at the four main psychological areas of football: motivation; learning; development; and the environment. It is essential reading for any coach, especially youth coaches, any parent or carer, and is also very useful reading for players themselves. It gives advice on developing and managing the four main areas and how to develop strategies for individuals. This book also includes an important chapter about age appropriate training, and a chapter on the means of consolidation for the player. 'Be a part of the game.




Myths and Facts about Football


Book Description

This book presents accounts of economic and psychological analyses of association football (or “soccer” as it is popularly known in the USA). As football is widely accepted to be the world’s most popular sport, the case for scientific investigation of its characteristics is self-evident. As the contributions to this book demonstrate, the game of football offers an ideal opportunity to empirically investigate a wide range of broad issues, for example: behavioural decision-making; judgmental forecasting; motivation; game-theoretic models of strategic choice; competition and labour markets. Are teams more likely to concede a goal after having just scored? Does the team going first in a penalty shoot-out have an advantage? Should goal-keepers dive or stay put for penalty kicks? Do referees make decisions consistently? Why do fans like their teams? What factors influence the career of footballers? How well can experts predict football matches? How accurate are prediction markets? How does the stock-market react to match outcomes? These questions and others are addressed in this book. A particular focus is the investigation of popular conceptions—and misconceptions—about football. Of interest to psychologists, behavioural economists and football enthusiasts with an analytic approach to understanding the game, this book brings together contributions from a range of academic disciplines and will stimulate further research into football and the intriguing insights into behaviour it offers. See feature article in The Independent, October 8th, 2008: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/fact-or-fiction-form-in-football-954440.html Listen to interview with Patric Andersson on Swedish National Radio http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/P1/program/index.asp?ProgramID=1302 Read Chris Charles’s blog on BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/chrischarles/2008/10/lies_damned_lies_and_statictic.html




Coaching Psychological Skills in Youth Football


Book Description

Successful footballers are typically those who are best able to regulate their emotions, fix their attention, utilise effective interpersonal skills, and remain highly motivated and self-assured in the face of consistent challenges. These behaviours are the hallmark of mentally tough, emotionally intelligent players, and can be grouped under the 5Cs of: Commitment, Communication, Concentration, Control, and Confidence. The 5Cs, however, are rarely innate - they are a product of a player's long-term psycho-social development and, crucially, they can be coached and nurtured. The aim of the 5Cs program, in this book, is to show coaches how to develop these important psycho-social skills and help young players to understand how they can truly achieve their potential. Written specifically for soccer coaches of all levels, Coaching Psychological Skills in Youth Football details each C in a methodical and practical manner with real-world exercises for training and matches. The book is relevant to soccer coaches working with 5-16 year-old players, with individual techniques and practices marked for appropriate age groups. By weaving these techniques into their normal coaching practice, coaches will help educate young players to optimise their motivation, discipline, composure, self-belief and teamwork. A complete 12 month development plan is included alongside a case study from a youth coach who has actually experienced the 5C journey. Coaching Psychological Skills in Youth Football will build your confidence as a coach as you learn how to grow and apply a world-class knowledge of sport psychology in youth football.




Fundamentals of Sport and Exercise Psychology


Book Description

This text provides an introductory look at the opportunities and goals in the field of sport and exercise psychology.




Football Fitness and Conditioning


Book Description

This book is intended for those who want to work on improving the fitness and conditioning of football players. The contents are written, above all, for the needs of the fitness coaches (strength and conditioning / performance coaches) in football/ soccer, but the needs of the head and assistant coaches have also been covered. This book is a particularly useful tool for coaches working with young categories of football players. The principles for fitness (and conditioning / performance) training are similar for different categories of players, professional (adults) / young players. The following contents, through examples and programmes, explain the principles of the processes of training and transformation of Human Motor Abilities (HMA), which are predominantly recognisable in the football game, and which affect the improvement of the general and specific fitness of football players. For us, as authors of this book, our goal is, through these contents, to enable the coaches to independently understand and set up transformation of Human Motor Abilities in the form of fitness and conditioning trainings. The trainings described are examples of good practice (based on science). After reading the contents of this book, the coach should be able to develop one’s own plan and programme for each kind of training. The future fitness and conditioning training plan should be a flexible plan and should follow the changes that occur in the players; it should be dynamic and adaptable according to the respective conditions. Topics covered: PRE-SEASON PLAN | TRANSFORMATION OF HUMAN MOTOR ABILITIES | TRAINING LOAD + DOSAGE MANAGEMENT | FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH/POWER TRAINING | PERFORMANCE MONITORING | OFF-SEASON- TRAININGS | REHABILITATION (INJURY PREVENTION)







Reasons beyond motives. Psychology or relationship marketing? A cross-cultural investigation of football fans' motivations


Book Description

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 66, University of Edinburgh, language: English, abstract: This cross-cultural study aims to investigate motivations of the UK and the non-UK fans, specifically the factors affecting fan behaviour and the role of marketing activities of the clubs in it. As the purpose of the dissertation is the understanding of behaviour, beliefs and motives, the results will be derived from the in-depth interviews, conducted with fans of Manchester United FC and Chelsea FC. Specifically, it attempts to discover main factors impacting football consumption; to explore the role of relationship marketing and branding in fans’ motivations, and to investigate how fans motivations vary within different demographics and nationalities. The context of this study is two big English clubs - Manchester United and Chelsea, which have enormous fan bases not only in the UK but all over the world. Literature in relevant fields will be reviewed and presented to build a ground for the further research and explore the current understanding of fans motivations and football marketing.