Jump Out of Your Slump

Tips to Overcoming a Sporting Slump

Athletes experiencing slumps is not uncommon and more often than not they attribute this slump to being a physical issue. However, quite regularly, a slump can be due to a psychological issue.

Picture the scene, your free kick to goal conversion rate it 95%, suddenly, you’re missing more free kicks, your conversion rate drops to 80%. Your first thought is that you need to practice more. You train harder and incorporate more free kick practice into your training. When playing, you go to take a free, you feel nervous and anxious when stepping up to the ball, you miss-hit it and the ball goes out for a goal kick. You practice even more in training to improve your free kicks, but your free taking doesn’t improve, leaving you feeling more and more anxious when stepping on to the pitch. Suddenly, every aspect of your game seems to deteriorate. You train harder to get out of what appears to be a slump in performance.

What if you looked at your performance slump as a psychological issue, rather than a performance issue?

The new scene goes something like this: Your free kick to goal conversion rate it 95%, suddenly, you’re missing more free kicks, your conversion rate drops to 80%. You recognise that this could be a psychological issue because you’re training as consistently as you were when your performance was at its peak. You continue your regular training and incorporate some mental skills training into the mix. You set an achievable goal, focus your attention on your performance over the outcome. By stripping it back to the basics and enjoying playing, you remove the feelings of anxiety when stepping up to the ball. You start seeing results back on the pitch and you’ve jumped back out of your slump.

Some mental skills to incorporate into your training to get out of a slump include:

1. Goal setting

2. Focus

3. Meditation

By recognising the psychological aspect of your game and working on this, alongside your other training techniques, you can improve your performance and overcome a number of

performance issues.