After failing to score for the fifth game running, pundits, journalists and fans alike are trying to pinpoint why Daniel Sturridge is struggling to recapture the form he displayed in 2013/2014 season, which saw him form a devastating attacking trident with Raheem Stirling and Luis Suarez. During that season, Sturridge scored 21 Premier league goals […]
Summer is winding down over here in the States. Temperatures are cooling down, and leaves will soon begin changing colors. Fall is approaching, which means one thing in the U.S.: football season is upon us. Months of two-a-day practices in the summer heat and hours of meetings have prepared thousands of teams for the upcoming […]
With 37 games played, the last match of the English Premier League (EPL) season on Sunday 24th May will see heroes and villains forged. Three teams (Hull City, Newcastle Utd and Sunderland) are staring into the abyss of relegation to the English Championship. The pressure is mounting. For some teams, the thought of survival in […]
As discussed in my previous article (ACT on the Gridiron: A New Approach to Sport Performance Enhancement in Football), my next few posts will be dedicated to illustrating the six core principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999) using real-world examples from the sport that takes over on the weekends […]
Youth sport is unique because it involves communication, coordination, and maintenance of relationships among multiple adults, all of whom are key stakeholders in a child-athlete’s sporting experience (Blom et al, 2013). The interpersonal relationships between the parent, coach and athlete are often referred to as the athletic triangle (Wylleman, 2000). Specifically in football, although it […]
Football has been described as “more than just a game” (Jones, 1995). As a result, footballers are experiencing psychological distress despite achieving great sporting success. To attest to this point, more than one quarter of professional footballers suffer from symptoms of depression and anxiety (Gouttebarge, 2014). Football is a highly pressured environment where emotional experiences […]
In recent times sport and especially football has seen a flurry of young sporting ‘wonderkids’ being shot into the media spotlight. With Real Madrid’s acquisition of the 16 year old Martin Ødegaard from Stromsgodest, Norway being the most recent and high profile due to the global reach of Madrid. The 16 year old has signed […]
For those of us that have watched Ray Winstone’s performance of ‘Angry Football Dad’ for the FA’s Respect campaign, we can truly experience the extremes of negative adult involvement in grassroots’ football. The Lancashire FA’s “Silent Weekend” is a recent initiative set out to improve the behaviour of adults in grassroots football and, as a […]
Heat stress from the environment can be detrimental to sporting performance, challenging the limits of the human cardiovascular system, temperature regulation and altering body fluid balance (Samuel et al., 2010). Human temperature regulation is at the forefront of maintaining core body temperature and has the ability to do this over a narrow range even with […]
If anyone is a fan of watching shows on TV such as ‘Psychopath Night’, then here is a short article for you to think about! There is an extensive amount of research surrounding the psychopathic personality traits of individuals in a clinical setting. To name a few, research suggests that personality characteristics such as a […]