Dan Abrahams is a sport psychology consultant who specializes in soccer. Abrahams joins the National Soccer Coaches Association of America to share his insights into soccer psychology. All thoughts and opinions in this regular feature are that of Dan Abrahams and not necessarily reflective of the NSCAA. You can find out more about his new book "Soccer Tough" at danabrahams.com.

The soccer player must play in a bubble.

Not one that isolates her from her team mates or the opposition, but one that enables her to detach from the plays or thoughts that lessen her confidence, damage her focus or waylays her intensity of performance. In other words she needs a mental structure – a series of friendly thoughts to focus on or to return to if her mind wanders.

A simple idea but devilishly difficult to execute. This is where the idea of a ‘Match Script’ comes in and Chapter 6 in "Soccer Tough" introduces the reader to such a concept. A Match Script helps a soccer player to rest her mind on herself and in the present moment. Cue "Soccer Tough:"

Your script is two or three plays you want to execute during the game that are plays you can control and are related to your role and responsibilities and your mindset.

Let me give you some examples:

• Non-stop movement
• Win my headers: time jumps
• Push winger on the outside at all times
• Work hard – box-to-box
• Talk to myself confidently at all times
• Focus on me
• Be strong in every challenge
• Be dominant on a crossing ball

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of the two characteristics of the plays that make up your script. They must be things that you can control. This means they must relate to you as you are the only person you can completely control. If you look at the list above you can control all of those plays. You can control having non-stop movement, you can control timing your jumps, and you can choose to work hard. The second characteristic is just as important – plays must be related to your role and responsibility, or to your mindset. Again these are things you can control.

A 'Match Script' is my rod and staff as a soccer psychologist. It is a non-negotiable process I go through with all my clients to help them deliver consistency on match day. I know if they enter the arena with a couple of controllable, tangible plays engraved in the front of their mind they give themselves the best chance to deliver an exemplary performance.

For a game on Saturday, we’ll set a Match Script on Tuesday. This gives the player several days to process, picture and progress the script. Using a training session to multiply reinforcement links practice to the game – the blueprint can then be executed on match day.

A Match Script lends towards playing ‘in the zone.’ Back to Soccer Tough:

Many of the coaches I talk with about the script refer to the concept of the ‘zone.' They point out that a feature of this well talked about mental state is a clear, uncluttered mind. They argue that a soccer player should play without any thoughts running through their head.

I, too, believe that the brain and nervous system work best when a soccer player is merely playing and reacting instinctively to the challenges that unfold. Being intuitive, automatic and reflexive is a mindset and way of playing that all footballers should adhere to.

But to me the researchers who study the zone are not saying that there should be no thought. Simply there should be less thought. Perhaps that means having 2,000 thoughts pass through your conscious mind as you play rather than 10,000 thoughts. No one will ever know the exact amount of thought required to be ‘zone-like.' What I do know is that players who set foot on the pitch with a match script have something to focus their mind on, as well as something to take their mind away from the things they can’t control. And they have tangible, controllable things to come back to when they get distracted.

Soccer coaches who can help their players manage their thinking as they play – that’s 21^st century coaching. A 'Match Script' does just that.

Abrahams will be facilitating a ‘Mental Toughness for Soccer’ workshop on June 5,2013, in Orlando, Fla. The day will be packed full of ideas, techniques and philosophies to help your players develop quicker and perform more consistently. For details,  visit Dan Abrahams' website.

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