Academy Football, Professional Football, Injuries and Early Retirement

In this episode, David and Brendan discussed the challenges of :

• Goalkeeping
• Academy Football
• Turning Professional
• Loan moves
• Coach and Manager personalities
• Changing your game to suit different tactics asked of you
• Dealing with serious injuries
• Retiring at a young age

Brendan bravely opens up and talks about his difficult journey and shares some excellent advice for young players, parents and coaches who invest time with young footballers.

Essential Learning Points From This Episode

• Why developing self-belief is important in academy football.
• The mindset required to play top teams in youth football such as Ajax, AC Milan, Manchester United, Benfica…
• Seeing challenges as an opportunity.
• Keeping a balanced perspective towards how you define “pressure.”
• Nerves are natural when you make your debut and when you play in big stadiums with large crowds as a youngster.
• The importance of supporting and praising your team-mates.
• Don’t let a bad training session before a match knock your confidence.
• How to impress new coaches and managers.
• The difficulties of adjusting to different playing styles when you’re loaned out after experiencing academy football.
• Dealing with differences of opinion between you the player and managers.
• How to cope after making errors as a goalkeeper.
• The way you handle criticism will make or break you as a goalkeeper.
• Brendan shares advice for players who suffer long-term injuries.

Thank you for tuning in!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose Demystifying Mental Toughnesss.  We’re grateful for that.