Psychology Meets Soccer – Refuel Performance Management Aims to Help Players on and off the Field
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Sports, especially on a professional level, demonstrate the strength and determination of humans. Players spend years putting their blood, sweat, and tears into their craft.
Boasting 15 years of professional football, former goalkeeper Richard Lee couldn’t leave the game just yet. Making almost 200 appearances in the Premier League and English Football League gave him expertise that was hard to find elsewhere.
During his career as a goalkeeper, he observed a gap in the game. That missing piece was support for players’ emotional and mental well-being.
Sports are both physically and mentally challenging. While players strive physically by running, kicking, and defending for hours, they also have to maintain the motivation to continue when exhausted.
Goalkeeping is an essential and slightly different skill set that is integral to winning a game. It is a sport within a sport. Of the 11 soccer players on a field, there will only be one goalkeeper per team. Staying between the posts can be lonely and isolating. Goalkeepers are part of the team, but getting into team spirit is more challenging when they are not running across the field with everyone else. It made Richard feel a range of emotions he didn’t experience anywhere else.
Richard’s personal experience with this kind of loneliness directed him to study Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and eventually become a Master Practitioner. Most simply, NLP is being aware of how one’s thoughts and behaviours impact one’s life. The ideas one thinks directly influence the potential outcome: positive thoughts = success, negative thoughts = higher possibility of failure. In some situations, it may be more complicated. However, NLP focuses on attempting to understand how mindset impacts behaviour.
Graduation: Life Lessons of a Professional Footballer, available on Amazon.com, is a memoir by Richard that goes much further in depth about his experiences, emotional struggles, and growth as a professional player. Richard, through NLP, is now equipped to deal with problems that may arise with clients and keep a positive approach to life. All football players and those interested in the game should read this book for its valuable insight into the world of professional football.
Another place that Richard explores the game is on The Goalkeepers’ Union podcast. With over 250 episodes featuring weekly guest appearances – such as Peter Schmeichel, Ben Foster, Joe Hart, Kasper Schmeichel, and Tom Heaton – Richard has created a platform that draws in football fans and players alike. He hopes to create a community that fosters support for the game as well as uplift the individual.
Once a player makes it to the professional level, football becomes their entire life. Having a job that is so consuming can present some challenges that need the support of a community to overcome. Richard is the man building that community.
Richard Lee discusses these problems and more on The Goalkeepers’ Union podcast. Connect with him on Instagram.
