The Ideal Player As A Footballer takes a close look at the mental malaise -habitual lapses of concentration- that seems to afflicted Arsenal players over the years.

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The Ideal Player As A Footballer:
Arsenal's Mental Disease (Habitual Lapses of Concentration)
written by
Chuka Okonkwo & Dubem Okonkwo

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The Ideal Player As A Footballer: Arsenal's Mental Disease (Habitual Lapses of
Concentration)
"Unless every player resolves to personally develop and strengthen his power of
concentration...the team will continue to suffer the results of lapses of
concentration."
Lapses of Concentration: The Arsenal Football Team (March 2011)
The Ideal Player As Footballer agrees with the view of The Tw↑ns:
Env↑ronMENTAL Training that Arsenal's mental disease, or habitual lapses of
concentration, is a disease that has afflicted Arsenal players periodically for
many years. And Arsenal aren't the only Premier League team afflicted with this
mental problem on the pitch.
Too many players are mentally unfit to play in games. Their attitude is incorrect;
they lack focus and do not appear to have done anything during the week to
develop their power to concentrate.
The Ideal Player As A Footballer knows the importance of remaining focussed for
the full 90 or in some cases 120 minutes of a game, and takes daily steps to
ensure that his concentration never wavers. Alas, this is not the case with many
Premier League players.
He agrees with The Tw↑ns: Env↑ronMENTAL Training view that players talk too
much before a match. They drain their mental energy with empty platitudes and
useless tub thumping, instead of taking the necessary steps to steady
wavering attentions and focussing on the roles they have to play.
Minds that know how to concentrate know the importance of conserving mental
energy. Since mental energy, mental focus, mental power are key to a successful
game. Without them not even the most talented squad can expect to accomplish
much.

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The Ideal Player As A Footballer feels that there are too many sport
psychologists deceiving athletes into absorbing techniques that fail to address
the important issue of developing and improving the power of concentration.
Look at any Premier League match and observe the number of players falling to
the ground at the merest contact. Players are programmed to go to ground in the
penalty area rather than to score in open play.
Next time you watch a game see the number of players who tumble to the
ground and look towards the referee. Doesn't this remind one of the way a
mollycoddled infant, learning to walk, behaves whenever it falls over? (We shan't
mention its loud cries in order to draw sympathy from an overanxious guardian.)
Now compare this to the confident infant who falls over, but immediately picks
itself up and keeps going. No tears, no squealing, no attention seeking, just
determination to accomplish the goal of learning to walk.
The Ideal Player As A Footballer realises the importance of fine tuning his
powers of concentration by performing boring mental exercises. (No easy just-lie-
back-on-the-couch therapy for him. As for away day bonding trips to sweltering
Dubai. No comment.) The regular practice of boring mental games is why you will
never see him lose his focus on the field. He knows the benefit of disciplining the
mind to undergo challenging and distasteful tasks. Alas, too many Premier
League players lack this important attribute: a willingness to roll up their sleeves
and do more or go that extra mile with their training.
The Ideal Player As A Footballer has little time for the sport psychologists plying
their trade in the football arena, let alone their methods. He stops short of
referring to most of them as charlatans or
mountebanks with their questionable methods that are a few paces short of
fraudulent. He trains his own mind and will continue to do so, selecting mental
training regimes from various disciplines. Training methods that ensure he is
always mentally fit during a match.

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Below are some of the qualities or characteristics he expects to personally
display in every match.
(1) Full alertness: focus and concentration
(2) Sharp attention
(3) Calmness
(4) Strong powers of observation
(5) Quick mental reactions
(6) An incredible work ethic
The reader will notice the absence of positive thinking, belief and
confidence from the above list. In his opinion, a player who has worked on
the six points will naturally exude confidence, belief and positive thinking in every
game. Just as the player who has worked on his technique and stamina during
training can expect to cope with the physical demands of any game. He doesn't
know the meaning of a quiet game. On the pitch a game of football is more
than just a chess game. It is a physical battle, but the wits must still be
present from start to finish.
You will never ever see The Ideal Player diving or feigning injury. You will never
see him selecting to fall inside the penalty area in the hope of being rewarded
with a penalty rather than going for goal. He knows the importance of setting a
good example - not only to watching youngsters aspiring to become footballers -
but to his subconscious mind. Recognising that the subconscious mind is the
seat of all habits, good and bad, he practises behaviour that is beneficial to his
career. The thought of preventing himself from attempting to score a goal and,
instead, penalty seeking is repugnant to him. Sorry all you divers and simulators
plying your trade this weekend. Don't let his opinion stop you from continuing to
spend precious minutes of a game seeking to con the referee with your 'shouts
for a penalty'.

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The Ideal Player As A Footballer advises any player who honestly wants to
discipline their mind to read 'The 2010 World Cup South Africa: England's
Preparations' by The Tw↑ns: Env↑ronMENTAL Training and to pay close
attention to the 11 examples of distractions and lapses of concentration on page
3 of the report.
The 2010 World Cup South Africa: England's Preparations
http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/fullscreen/26979209/2
His advise to players is to sort out their own heads. Since coaches appear
unable to prevent, or in some cases actually encourage cowardice from their
players in the penalty box, it is for players to seek other techniques to bring out
courage, boldness and heroism when they find themselves in the penalty area.
1. Why fall over because your heels have barely been caressed?
2. Do you really lose your balance that easily?
3. Do you really think that you have a better chance of scoring from the penalty
spot than if you stay upright and attempt to find the back of the net?
4. Which matters most to you?
a) That you had 'a shout for a penalty',
(Are you reading this Match Of The Day pundits?)

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or
(b) That despite attempts to foul you, you evaded or eluded your opponent
and stuck the ball in the back of the net.
5.) Aren't you embarrassed to see your thespian role analysed on Match of The
Day 2?
If crashing to the earth in a heap is what you were taught at the academy as a
youth, or if that is the current philosophy of your FA badge carrying coach, you
have been or are being deceived. Abandon this bad habit before you ruin your
game. That is if you really care for the game, and are playing as
an honest athlete determined to reach the very top and join the elite. If you're part
of the elite already, then you shouldn't be soiling your reputation with such
behaviour. It is definitely a habit to eradicate from your game. Unless you feel
you need it for some 'special' reason. Do you?
Bad habits are easily formed; good habits are not. It is because we humans are
the sum total of acquired habits that The Ideal Player As A Footballer has always
taken care to ensure that he programmes his subconscious mind correctly.
Any footballer - it doesn't matter whether he has a cupboard full of winners
medals in his home - who selects to fall to the ground without striving his utmost
to remain on his feet is not doing himself any favours. Yes, he will probably get
that deserved 'shout for a penalty' - are you reading this BBC pundits?- but he
does himself little good.
Every time he goes down he is instructing his subconscious mind in that habit.
He is telling his mind that he doesn't have the confidence to score a goal. He is
forming the habit of going down in a heap every time he meets a challenge.
Please don't try to con the intelligent that the tug on your shirt, the arm around
your waist, the leg in your path, or that rough challenge prevented you from
scoring a goal. It didn't. Your mind has been hypnotised into accepting that it is
better to topple over at the slightest challenge and claim a penalty as a reward

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than to defy your opponent's intentions (foul or fair), and score a goal. The Ideal
Player As A Footballer believes that it is better to stay on your feet even if your
attempt to score fails than to reduce yourself to this level. He doesn't care what
instructions you have received over the years from coaches in training. Are you
keen to develop your mind so that it can focus for every moment of a game
or are you keener to master the art of simulation?
The Ideal Player As A Footballer believes that players, who are not interested in
practising the various forms of professional fouls, should set out to improve and
develop their powers of concentration. Such an approach will serve their
careers better than if they learn the tricks of the game that one
Premier League captain alluded to during the recent furore over footballers trying
to influence the referee (instead of remaining focussed on trying to win the
game). Players who are disciplined enough to train themselves to concentrate
better would find an improvement in their overall performance (on a regular
basis), and fans would be treated to less of that mad rush of blood to the head
experienced by Arsenal players in the first leg of their Champions League home
game against Monaco on 25 February 2015.
It waits to be seen whether coaches will return to the drawing board and study
why their players lose concentration during matches, or whether players will take
it upon themselves to develop and improve their powers of concentration by
seeking alternative techniques. Proper techniques that really improve focus and
attention, not the quick fix mantras or positive thinking models being touted
around these days. Liverpool's mental implosion near the end of the
2013/2014 season should act as a warning to any player who thinks that reclining
on a couch or undergoing a course of hypnotherapy is the best way to train one's
mind. It isn't. It may help to calm the jitters, but it is no substitute for intensive
mental exercises which improve and develop concentration.
The Ideal Player As A Footballer is perplexed by the latest post-match
sentiments echoed by the Arsenal manager. For a club famed for the
psychological impact it has on its players to allow the current squad to publicly
hear (it implied) that its opponents didn't deserve to go through to the last eight,
makes one wonder about the type of psychology that supports such a view.

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Arsenal players and every Premier League player should visit the link below and
study the contents of the famous sheet. They should take the time to dwell on the
meaning of the various sentences and ask themselves whether their conduct and
attitude week in and week out displays anything close to what is promoted in that
famous text.
Arsenal motivational sheet
http://www.onlinearsenal.com/showthread.php?14640-Arsenal-motivational-sheet
The Ideal Player As A Footballer believes that without an ability to concentrate
week in and week out, it will be impossible to carry out a single line of that text,
irrespective of whether your team's colour is red, blue, white, green, yellow, or
black. It matters not how gifted or talented you think you are as a player. The text
(in any language) will be a mere string of words, grammatically correct, obeying
the rules of syntax, but having as much meaning as Cretan hieroglyphs. The
meaning, being lost or not fully understood, cannot be emblazoned on the heart
or fixed in the mind.
Each player has to decide for himself if he is going to take the necessary steps to
improve his power to concentrate, not only for himself but for the success of
the team, or whether he will continue to vainly assure himself that he is great
because of his market value, or to blame circumstances of all descriptions for his
failings. Until players are honest about their mental disease -lapses of
concentration - managers will continue to endure the pain and frustration of
losing matches that could or should have easily been won had the concentration
and focus been there.
There is no disgrace in losing a match or being eliminated from a competition if
you have given your very best. After all, in the latter case, there can only be one
winner. However, losing or habitual elimination due to lapses of concentration is
a sign of a mental disease requiring immediate treatment.

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“Each well-born soul must win what it deserves.
Let the fool prate of luck. The fortunate
Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,
Whose slightest action or inaction serve.
The one great aim.
Why, even Death stands still,
And waits an hour sometimes for such a will."
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Further reading:
Lapses of Concentration: Arsenal Football Team
http://www.slideshare.net/ChukaDubemTheTwinsOk/lapses-of-concentration-the-
arsenal-football-team-43439777
LeBron James's work ethic
http://www.businessinsider.com/lebron-work-ethic-2014-7?op=1&IR=T
Chelsea 'could not cope mentally'
http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/31844562
Chelsea lose ugly in European exit by Phil McNulty - Chief football writer,
BBC Sport
http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/31845015
Change away goals rule, says Wenger
http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/31958105
Monaco not worthy winners - Wenger
http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/31936064
'The Follow-up: The Next Step To Take'
http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/fullscreen/27138410/1