Mastering a Championship Mentality in Your Team

If you want to develop a winning mentality in football, it takes many individuals, it takes the coach, and an environment that encourages hard work, positive attitudes, preparation, et cetera. and that builds up incrementally over an amount of time.

You’re going to have to build a large amount of trust in your teammates and with yourself. Your discipline needs to be at a level where you’re demonstrating how you want your players around you to act. You can’t just wish it on your team, you need to show them how it’s done. Action drives others to take action. It starts with you. This begins with confidence in yourself, and preparation is key to that belief. 

Then, expand that mindset. Hold yourself and others accountable. Communicate, build relationships with your team, so that you can talk and give feedback to on another in a positive way. If there’s no trust, any feedback will be taken with a grain of salt, they won’t perceive it as valuable. But if someone cares about your opinion, they’ll listen, and they’ll elicit real change that will transpire into a higher standard of deliberate intent in both training and in games. 

While playing with the Pilots, we as a team were committed to one another, and committed to a higher goal. We were really fortunate to have that. Each and every one of us bought into the vision of becoming a championship team who played, served, and celebrated for a greater purpose. With that common goal, we were able to build on a solid foundation with one another, and develop our championship mentality, through standing side by side through each challenge, and working together. That’s what got us to national tournament throughout the years.

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Bethel Pilots and the awesome "João Sorrisão" celebration! Check it out here --> http://tinyurl.com/jtu375g

We prepared with the same mentality, we interacted with that mentality, and it ultimately showed our cohesiveness as a team on the pitch. Build on your foundation, and you CAN have a championship minded team.

So how do you develop the mentality? I believe it’s about being surrounded by an environment of people who want the same thing. When you play in a certain environment, with professional minded people, and you have the more impressionable players watching and saying well how can I not follow that. Then you’ll spiral upwards in your teams growth, and you’ll be on your way to winning championships.

Cheers,
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​-z

P.S. Here's how a Coach can affect this mentality

Simple.

Coaches, make sure to control + cultivate this ethic. Please!

Put the belief of winning into your players, not getting too down when you lose and too high when you win.

Condition your players with the right style of communication ---> Reinforcing good behaviors.

As a coach you don’t have much contact with the players, you only have an hour or two during training. So outside of that, it’s up to the players, they’re together in the locker room, doing fitness together, interacting, bonding.