Mental toughness what is it? How do you
develop it? it is this nebulous term that
nobody understands come watch this video
and find out exactly how you can
increase your mental toughness
Hey, this is Coach JR from Renegade Soccer Training. One of the most important parts about being a successful athlete is having
incredible mental toughness having the
grit to push through when things get
tough that not only means in a game when
things online but also on the practice
field what we have is an entire system
to help you understand yourself how to
motivate yourself during the tough times
and really how to find your passion and  your
confidence in the game's on the line
let's start off in our first step.  The
first step is to actually take a look
inside and to know thyself. This is a seven step process for us where we ask you seven different questions.  Go ahead and
download the PDF attached below and work
through this as we delve into finding
more about you. Let's get started.
Alright, the first question comes down to progress. I want you to take a look at the last year
and think to yourself "Have I really made
dramatic progress towards my soccer
goals?" and this might come to you and you
say wow yeah I'm actually bigger or
faster or stronger or I learned how to do a
few things.  But some of that is just you
growing up and you getting better
physically. So the question I really want
you to think about is "Relative to my
peers everyone else on my team or maybe
more importantly if you're in the ODP
program or along the state athletes did
I get demonstrably markedly better than
all of them over the past year?" Here's
the issue when we get into this law I'm
just going to practice and then maybe on
off days we go we pick up a ball we take
some shots, we knock it around with our
friends we think that this is the best
road towards getting us where we want to
be but I would contend to you that
there's a much much better way and I
know that you always say to yourself "well I
really should be doing more, and I'll go ahead and do that, I'll read some  articles and I'll figure it out and I'll get that
started tomorrow but honestly tomorrow
just stays tomorrow and tomorrow and
tomorrow. It never ever comes. But this
uncertainty is exactly why we developed
the renegade soccer training system and
specifically our burst system. You get so
many touches on the ball and fit so
quickly you can literally take years of
training and compress it into a few
short months. So the thing I want you to
ask yourself is if you can improve
one thing what would be the very first
thing if you look at yourself as a
player what can I do right now that will really just open up the game for me. For about 95 percent of players if
they're really honest with ourselves there's
two things its your ability to control
the ball if you can just control the
ball in tight spaces when there's
pressure be cool under pressure and
be able to either better person or deliver a
ball out of space and keeping your head
up the whole time if you can do that the
game would change for you and the next
one is fitness if you can look at your
opponent late in the game and know I'm
gonna run you into the ground I can make
that extra run and get back on defense
because I'm fit and I'm confident that I
can do it that is what changes players
from being good players to being great
players or being a player who might be
on the bench and they want to get that
starting spot to earning that starting spot so the first question I have for you again "Have
you made amazing progress and what one thing
could you start on today that would make
you much much better player?" I'll see you in a minute.
great thanks for taking a look at that
first question it's incredibly important
let's move on to the second section next
section is all about enjoyment because
deep down if you're gonna make a
commitment we have to really understand
"Do you actually really enjoy soccer?" so my
question is when you think about soccer
and everything is quiet and there's no
pressure how do you feel about the game?
does it bring you an anxiety becasue your nervous
about performing or do you actually just love to go
out and touch the ball, feel it at your
feet
push it past somebody and win? Maybe
defend somebody and be able to take that
ball away? Do you enjoy the pressure of your
teammates counting on you? How do you feel about soccer? and here's
why. Because whatever your goals are, it
could be "Hey I just wanna make the JV
squad in high school because  that's going to
help out my status in high schoo. Or I
want to be a varsity starter and our
teams gonna push to go for the state-run
I want to be an all-conference, all-state.
I wanna make the ODP system or
maybe get to that next level in college, earn a scholarship and help pay for your
education.  Every single one of those
goals is legitimate and they are all
very worthwhile
But each and every one is gonna take a
commitment and you're going to have to
make this step from saying if I want to
be able to do those things it has to be
more than just showing up when everyone
is there and smiling and laughing and
high-fiving and working on nutmegging 
everyone right? that's fun we love that
we all love ripping shots on the goal. But that is not what really gets better. What would really get you better is
do I love the game enough and when I
think about it "Oh my! Is that amazing I love
being out there but am I willing to take
that kind of passion
and work on it alone? Because as a team I
have to be a better individual player
and do I have enough love for the game
and my teammates that I will develop
myself?" So my question to you is "When
you're sitting at home and you're just
watching TV, working on your homework,
spending time with the family,
do you long to be out on the pitch in
the Sun with the ball at your feet
working at your game? That's the big
second question. Work on it,  and we'll be right back
Alright I hope that last section went
well for you next section is being
yourself. I have a question for you. Why do you
actually play soccer and this goes
beyond the enjoyment of the game but
this is something that you have to know
about yourself because you have to
during times when you don't want to do
stuff you have to be able to dig down
push yourself through those low times.  Are you like a
competition junkie and you just
honestly play you got into soccer but
honestly you'd love to play pickup
basketball, or baseball, or football or
something just to compete so much and
soccer happens to be your sport.  That's
ok. A
competition junkie that's fairly common
actually.  Do you love the team? Do like
to show up and hang out because either the guys
on your team you just know and you hang out at school and you go to the
movies together with the girls you go to
the mall and movies hang out together on
the weekends it's a really cool team
atmosphere you like to hang out? That can
be another very legitimate reason.
Another is you actually enjoy being a
teammate and you love the struggle of the games. Soccer is an
incredibly hard game. Do you enjoy being a
teammate who works together to overcome
adversity work through those hard
practices all that conditioning and work
to beat a team that maybe you shouldn't?
Is that what drives you? Another one is
do you have a certain status that's just
tied up in you being a soccer player and
this comes in many different forms.  It
could be that when you're a little kid
you started playing soccer your parents
got into it and now they seem to be
maybe even more excited about playing
soccer than you do at times.  That can be a
status in your home.  Or maybe you're just
a varsity soccer player at your high
school and their comes a lot of status
with you being a starting varsity
athlete. It could also be status for next step
in understanding you
is not only do you enjoy the game but
what really really drives you? Another one that
I didn't even mention it's actually very
very common. Is fear, it's actually fear.  Who many
people think maybe the best basketball
player that ever lived Michael Jordan he
literally would end the season winning
the NBA championship, being the MVP of
the league, and of the championship, and
he would get himself so mentally
prepared for that offseason to train
hard because he said "I'm not good enough
to make the team next year. I'm scared of
being cut and I don't ever wanna feel
that way." That's drove him. I'll tell you
my own personal story, I was a
competition junkie.  So when I was young I
loved to compete. I would leave practice I
played football, I played soccer, I played tennis, I ran track
I'd play pick up basketball for hours every single day but they knew
that about me, so in order to motivate me
I would be in competition at all times
a training session, we would set it up with competition and I would tear
that up. So the question for you is "What
drives you why do you actually play this
game?"
You sit and think about that come up with the answer and it'll shed a lot of insight on how
we can motivate you. I'll see you in a minute.
Alright, the next section is going to move from
looking at you to looking outward at
your support system and that's what this
is titled your support. When we look at
your support what we're trying to do is
figure out all of the people in your
life who are supporting you and
contributing towards your gains
contributing towards you being
successful we also need to look on the
other side of the coin at the people who
are causing drama and here's why all of
us have a very limited time every single
day and honestly a very limited amount
of energy and focus and so if we are
consistently running into drama that's
not a good thing that's going to cause
us to not be the best student we can be
not be the best athlete we can be not be
the best friend maybe not be the best
boyfriend and girlfriend and definitely
not be the best family member to your
brothers and sisters and mom and dad. So
we need to reduce drama as much as
possible and obviously relationships are
very complex things social dynamics is
is an absolutely extraordinarily complex
thing but they're very small things that
you can do they can help lessen drama
the first one is actually identify
people who you deal with on a
regular basis who are causing you extra
stress and then you need to really look
hard at those relationships and say am
I spending a little bit too much time
with them and this can be from your peer
group a team mate or even a family member
you know sometimes it's going to be your
parents that caused you a lot of stress
because you're young and you're trying
to spread your wings and you're a
teenager so frankly you're probably a
pain in the booty and so there might be
some tension there but I almost
guarantee you there are
small things that you could do that
would lessen that tension between you
and your parents and your normal social
group the same thing applies who in your
social group causes you drama and this
could be something that you think is
good this is my best friend and this is
one of my besties and they are always
causing drama in your life really need
to examine that because like I said
there's only so many hours in the day
and if you're truly trying to do
something great truly take yourself to
the next level as an athlete as a
student for sure you should be focusing
on that it's going to take a lot of
energy and you might have to think about
drawing back from those relationships or
speaking with them
building a bridge and really doing the
small things that you know would make a
difference in that relationship with
them to lessen the drama now on the
other side of the coin there are people
in your life who are absolutely
incredible energizing and this can be a
coach, a, teacher, a friend or an older brother
sister maybe more honestly best case your
parents what I would do is i would reach
out to those people try and maximize
your time with those people and ask them
will you be a mentor? Will you help me along
the path? Share goal to make yourself
into a better person with that person I
guarantee you if you open up to somebody
and you say this is my goal every single
time you talk to me I get so much
energy I walk away excited and ready to
bring my game to the next level
bring my study habits up, really tackle
those issues that I have to tackle they
would be honored to help contribute to
your path it's just the nature of who we
are so
less drama and increase the
relationships that provide you energy
Go ahead and get out your sheet and answer
those questions and I'll see you in a
minute
