CHILD PSYCHOLOGY DEVELOPMENT ON AND OFF THE FIELD – A Practical View from a
leadership role of a Leading Football Academy

Any sports person to excel in the field of sports must understand and connect five levels which can influence the development cycle before becoming a Pro-players or a Pro-athlete. The Life Span Development which is applicable to modern psychology and applied psychology is equally applicable in sports psychology with some more added elements of endurance and passion to excel. The five levels of development in the environment include and influence the individuals, the macro system, exosystem, mesosystem, and microsystem. Macro Systems are the attitudes and ideologies of the culture. The Micro system is the daily routines of the players, child life at the sports field, Residence or Hostels, Hostel wardens, player care managers, leaders in the residential leaders, teachers, and coaches influence that part of the micro system. Interestingly, the child is not just a passive recipient of these influences but a co-constructor of the micro system in an integrated campus. The Mesosystem provides the link between various aspects of microsystem binding children, parents, teachers’ friends or peer group of players. These are direct and indirect influences which impact players physiologically. The Exosystem indicates broader influencing points including social institutions, for example FIFA or AIFF in the case of Football as a sport. The Marco system indicating larger cultural influence on individual players- Society, government, clubs in general, political value system for sports, education and family. The chronosystem covers past performances, history, and previous systems. Therefore, the interconnectedness of the influences on development of a player in sports. The economic status or job of parents can influence the micro system of child development. For Example a loss of job to parents which is part of Mesossytem can affect the Micro System of the Child. On the other hand, the environmental level changes may not have that much of an impact like the economic status changes. The psychological impacts on development of children are certainly different in different cultures- Collectivism of Asia and Individualism of the western world reflects a spectrum of changes on several dimensions across geographies of the world.

Experimental research in a grass root football academy suggests that seeking the data from the treatment or experimental group is a process in which an investigator, called experimenter , devises two different experiences for the participants and then studies and compares the outcome. A simple example: exposure to movie violence makes the viewers more aggressive by measuring the outcome. The second set of people who are exposed to less aggressive imagery will measure a less aggressive approach. Similarly, we can measure the outcome of the players on and off the field with the help of a control group. However, researchers need to make sure their studies are not influenced by factors other than those they are manipulating for studies. These are generally

referred to as random assignment or conditions on the basis of probability theory. In an integrated football academy measuring the developmental change, comparing longitudinal changes, cross-sectional changes (Under 13, Under 15, Under 17 clusters) makes sense. How people grow and change through their life spans is central for such academies. The Objectives set out with the vision to be compared after say 3 years span to know the magnitude of development and changes inching towards realizing the vision creating world level footballers from the academy in this example. Means, measuring individual changes like Skill Development, Moral Development between age groups or clusters and change over time.

Sport psychology is used across various sports to enhance performance of players by placating certain pointers to motivate positivity towards the game and class room conditions. More specifically in football- many of the best footballers make use of a sports psychologist to improve players’ mindset, boost confidence, improve concentration and focus and inculcate and apply leadership skills to become professional players. All footballers can derive benefits from a junior level, to senior level and national and international. Plethora of benefits arise out of a sport psychologist. Majority of the benefits include.

1. Confidence
2. Competition with Intensity of training.
3. Motivation to realize the full potential of players.
4. Transform players from a small club to International level
5. Continuous enhancement of Performance.
6. Coaches & Players interpersonal skill improvement
7. Football Safeguardians relationship building.
8. Education and proper communication.
9. Overall Life Championship.

How does it work in a typically growing football academy of international standards?

The process involves players seeking the help from a SP with regard to a problem they are facing or struggling with. It could be a communication issue, comprehension issue or lack of confidence or a lower self esteem. Some players may seek overall performance enhancement without any specific issue on the table. FIFA also indicates that football as a game will be dominated by psychological advancement in the next decade or so. It is not only about player’s conditioning using psychological tools available to enhance the performance but also coaches need coaching in the modern environment of professional football, pressures from various sources can overwhelm coaches and players which may result in crippling. Therefore, a timely intervention through psychological, psychometric tools. An average player can become world class. Performance is driven not only by skills but by attitude and character. Therefore, education and training of coaches and players are of paramount importance for benchmarking world class. The performance is decided by which player had the ball at the end of the game for the final shot on character, not talent alone. If you are a coach you will aim for a goal by the players you coach. If you are a teacher, you will put everything together and will say “ I’ll give it a go!”. A world class football academy needs to shape the sport in a different way by developing the players to

the newly recognized avenue of performance by making them Champions of Life not just the football game alone.

Fields are evolving incredibly faster. A cycle of physical, technical and tactical development is the first cycle in the sport and the next cycle is certainly psychological and technological advancements. This is a sure shot indicator that players need more real time feedback, better profiling, quality talent identification at grassroot level and finally more analysis of players in video labs with technology to support. As a researcher, I would rather ask coaches to tell me ten things about the players not connected with football. I have noticed in the recent past coaches know the SWOT of a player in football.Coaches have to travel from players to people to build relationships, trust and demonstrate that they really care for players and they could be catalysts to push them to do well in education and character building. Coaches could be great assets for academies if they understand players better with the environment like teachers who shape up the future for players integrating many things making them champions of Life. Upcoming world class academies in any sport for that matter should ensure that there is no EMOTIONAL DRAIN. The concept of treadmill psychology is a non stop activity. Actually these players are working to live and actually they are not living now. Football is important to us but having good education, life skills, good health ( Mental and physical) , and having a happy family are equally important to look at life cycle as a whole.

The blind belief of winning games is a bottleneck in the development of a player. The pressure of the leagues, matches, parents who normally are not in harmony with what the coach is trying to achieve. Coaches generally work harder in response to these pressures. Instead, working easier with a smile on your face may bring enjoyment of football and long term performance improvement of players and academies of world class. Many coaches ensure football, but forget the point why they are doing it by trading off enjoyment of the sport they are involved in. As a researcher, I would encourage players of my academy to visualize that they are winning the World Cup football with a dozen goals against the opponent. It is just a mental script but may result in winning the World Cup if not with a dozen goals but with one or two. If the coaches and players of the academy are on the same page, the visualization may become a reality. Forming good mental habits will develop confidence and the performance will always be better than what it was a minute ago.

To summarize the pivotal role played by sport psychology when applied to football is that “football is played with your head and your feet are just tools” quote unquote Andrea Pirlo. My takeaways from the sport psychology point of view are as under to enhance overall performance

1. Train your way of thinking to maximize your performance.
2. You play at your best when you are confident and focussed.
3. Mentally tough to handle situations which may vary in every game or match.
4. Keep your emotions in check
5. Great Heroes perform big in big matches and every player can emulate the same.
6. Great players are highly motivated to improve and thrive in pressure situations.
7. Good concentration, great confidence and higher intensity throughout the duration of the match.
8. Ability to make quick decisions clearly even if it goes wrong once, we learn from it. In education we either learn or unlearn our mistakes. If you score a goal you may win, if you lose you need to learn.
9. Consistency – be it a practice match, training matches or a league match. Play your best.
10. Consistently improve and play your best when it matters.
11. Leadership skill development by effectively communicating with teammates and coaches, teachers.
12. Some stress is good to stretch goals but not excessive. A little bit of stress has the potential to aid subsequent performance and face challenging situations on and off the field.
13. Footballers can remove uncertainty by relating the situation with something they have previously experienced and how they overcame the same. (In applied psychology it is related to familiarization and coping strategies to help you deal with the current problem)
14. Last but not the least is to become Proactive. Procrastination is a prime environment for unhelpful thoughts to lead to stress. Being proactive in this matter one can control stressful situations.

About the Author:

Dr. C.N.Narayana is a well known management academic leader, professor, author and Educationist with more than 35 years of experience. He is currently on an assignment as a Director of Education and Life Skills with FC Madras, an upcoming Indian Football academy with world standards having an integrated campus for football, education and life skills. FCM has a world class leadership team with a clear vision of creating the next Messi from Madras.