Be positive, back yourself, and believe in yourself.
If you can do that, you are well on the way to being a good footballer.
While it sounds easy enough to do, we all know that it’s not.
The experts reckon that it can take two to three years and about 50 games of experience before a player really finds his feet in the AFL, and much of that comes from believing that he belongs.
The guys who have the confidence and/or the courage to back themselves from the start are the rare few who make an immediate impact.
Just think about your junior or school footy and the number of times you think to yourself 'I can mark this', 'I can kick this goal' or 'I can get this hard ball', compared to 'oh oh, I think the ball is going over my head' or 'I don’t think I can kick it straight from this angle' or 'Do I really want to put my body on the line for this one?'
If it’s more of the latter, you need to change your thinking.
Just remember, you train hard at repeating marking and kicking drills all the time – there’s nothing to stop you performing those functions at a high level in a game – except yourself.
We had our backs to the wall on a couple of occasions against Adelaide last weekend, and we hadn’t beaten them for a few years.
But the Lions guys never thought about the negatives – they concentrated on their role within the team and backed themselves to carry that out on every occasion.
Our guys were brave enough to take some risks at the right time and the flurry of goals at the start of the last quarter came for us.
It didn’t happen through guys sitting back and thinking negatively. They believed that they could win each contest and went for it.
When you achieve something that you believe you can do, you know it will happen again and again for you, so confidence grows.
I absolutely encourage you to do the same thing with your footy, and any the other things that you want to do around you.
Until next time, go Lions.
- Jed
