The pyschology of achieving confidence at Home.

[Tears in rain]

Can I just say how great this thread got when those who were discussing the intricacies of sport psychology emerged. 

It was great to be able to read about peoples opinions, use and understanding of psychological skills training and psychology methods like CBT. 

PST is a very useful thing for athletes to train with research suggesting it can bring about an improvement in skill as well as things like confidence. 

Of course things like self talk are useful and help as focusing or motivating factors, but as stated it won’t make the huge impact which drives a winning run at home. 

LJ keeps repeating himself about these little tiny 1% factors and this is where that comes in I believe. It is massively centred on an interdisciplinary approach. 

Would have commented sooner rather then later but it’s been a busy week! 

[Cowshed]

11 hours ago, southvillekiddy said:

Thanks mate, that's very informative. Quite a rarity on here to have someone read a poster making a serious point and then respond to it appropriately. 

I'd argue that City starting strongly with some short term strategy in mind must help? How about "Imagine you are a goal down and the team is pressing for an equaliser" I appreciate it's more feasible for a solo sportsman to use psychology but surely the team could have individually set strategies that takes into account their personal make-up as you say. Then these could be incorporated in a team pyschological strategy?

It is not a particularly unusual training tactic. Coaches frequently attempt to induce more tempo in training by creating more intensive scenarios. Stressing players in varying training exercises again creates intensity. Intensity feeds deeper learning and ultimately internalises training.

Psychology can be team centred. Lee Johnson mentions clarity. The team buying into its common purpose and thoroughly understanding their roles, while individually believing they have the qualities to adeptly carry out their roles is clarity. That learning can (100% will) be broken down individually into person centred training and training in units - defensive, midfield etc. 

This Clarity, knowledge, deep learning drives confidence. 

These are no secrets. The opposition will be prepared, rehearsed and motivated. The conservative football we see frequently at Ashton Gate is due to the opposition being prepared, rehearsed and motivated to keep it that way.

    

[Wrongagain]

Watching the bench at home there is a huge difference between the warm up enthusiasm of some of the players, strange thing is it’s usually the less enthusiastic but more experienced players that come on (with the exception of MT), is this due to the fact our coach still waits until the game is gone before making changes?

Our starting 11 at home is not usually what the fans expect in terms of attacking formation either, so the atmosphere is dampened before a ball is even played.

[Mr Popodopolous]

10 minutes ago, dave36 said:

Watching the bench at home there is a huge difference between the warm up enthusiasm of some of the players, strange thing is it’s usually the less enthusiastic but more experienced players that come on (with the exception of MT), is this due to the fact our coach still waits until the game is gone before making changes?

Our starting 11 at home is not usually what the fans expect in terms of attacking formation either, so the atmosphere is dampened before a ball is even played.

Last sentence is interesting especially.

One up front isn't necessarily inherently negative- perhaps a mismatch at times between perception and reality? Now if it was 3-5-2 vs 4-1-4-1 I would agree but if it was expectations of 4-4-2 then like I say a bit of a mismatch IMO.

[Davefevs]

11 hours ago, downendcity said:

I've commented before that LJ seems a very analytical coach and it appears that in analysing the opposition he then tries to set us up to counter the opposition strengths. 

Away from home, when the home team is expected to put the pressure on and make the running, his tactics usually work well, with our counter attacking style being ideally suited. However, there is a danger that when we are at home, if LJ does select the team and set us up to counter the opposition threat, then these tactics can be counter productive.

It would explain why all too often we start home games on the back foot, as it is almost as if LJ wants to see how the game pans out in order to decide if he needs to make any fine tuning changes to our set up, but this only concedes the initiative to the opposition. It then becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, in that if we are on the back foot and start sluggishly, the crowd becomes nervous and restless and this is quickly conveyed to the players with the danger than they become more nervous and defensive creating a vicious circle of nervousness.

The games against Wolves and QPR were interesting, in that we started poorly and conceded the initiative and the lead to the opposition before half time, which is all too typical of home performances. However, in the second half of both games when we did put our foot down we were a different team and both Wolves and QPR were on the back foot and struggled to contain us.

The change in both games must have been instigated by LJ at half time, so if he can create this attitude at half time, why not pre-match? If we started games with such a positive approach while there might be a   danger of being caught on the counter  by some teams, I have a feeling that more often than not we would get a lead earlier in the game, which would not only boost the teams' confidence, but would also life the crowd, which in turn would lift the players - the reverse of what tends to happen all too often at the moment. 

Agree with the sentiments of this DC, but I think most home games we do start relatively well (for 10-15 mins), but we ultimately don’t get a goal, and we then suffer as the away team grow in confidence.  I agree that Wolves (less so QPR imho) and Ipswich we gave up the early initiative.

[Hellfire Corner]

On 03/04/2019 at 15:04, spudski said:

 

It's a catch 22.

Imo...for it to work...the whole end needs to be like section 82 with standing and singing.

Stuck away in the corner doesn't work imo...such a shame.

Surely that must be a catch 82?

[Mr Popodopolous]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Agree with the sentiments of this DC, but I think most home games we do start relatively well (for 10-15 mins), but we ultimately don’t get a goal, and we then suffer as the away team grow in confidence.  I agree that Wolves (less so QPR imho) and Ipswich we gave up the early initiative.

Wolves was more understandable I think given their quality, a more cautious start perhaps prudent- but agree with the general point.

Good example of your point was thinking way back to August. Middlesbrough at home- we were certainly beaten but 2-0 was harsh. More than that though, we did start well but conceded a soft goal and it went downhill from there. 2-1 a fairer scoreline than 2-0 that day IMO but before the error it was a fairly even start. Error leading to Middlesbrough opener naturally deflated the crowd.