To perform effectively under pressure a player must be able to control their state of mind. This means removing any emotional thoughts or external distractions and thinking clearly about what decisions must be made. At the highest levels in sport all the players are extremely talented and it is often the players who think clearly who come out on top. Players should spend time training their mind just as they do their body, especially for isolated skills such as lineout throwing and goal kicking

By training your mind you can improve your performance and there are lots of different things that you can work on. The key is to find out what works for you and to commit yourself to this type of training, otherwise you will never receive the full benefit from it. There are four main areas you can look to develop; concentration, confidence, control and commitment:

Concentration - maintaining focus on the task at hand

The ability to 'turn on' and 'turn off' during a game is an important skill to have. When playing, your attention needs to shift from making a play call (broad and external) to catching a high ball (narrow and internal), waiting for an injured player to be carried from the field (broad and external) to kicking at goal (narrow and internal). If you cannot cope with these adaptations and get distracted easily, you are likely to choke under pressure. This is where your muscles tighten, timing and co-ordination break down and task- relevant information is missed. Taking deep breaths can slow your heart rate, reduce blood pressure and help reduce such anxiety. Most players use trigger words and positive self-talk to help them re-focus at critical points in a game and to help them concentrate during pressure situations. Your team might use trigger words to re-establish the focus and emphasis of play following a try being scored. Speak to your team mates about what they do to help them concentrate and find out what works best for you.

Confidence - belief in your own and others abilities

Sources of self-confidence will be different for every player. Some will get confidence from their coach whereas others will get it from recent performances or playing in front of a large crowd. Knowing what works best for you and being confident but not arrogant are the most important things to remember because high self- confidence arouses positive emotions, facilitates concentration and increases effort to achieve goals. Mental rehearsal is also a good way of simulating what you are about to do to increase your self-confidence before a game. Try picturing in your minds eye the first time you will carry the ball or the first time you will make a tackle. These videos must be played at full speed and their controllability and vividness are critical to their effectiveness. You should try to avoid getting confidence from outcomes such as winning and try to focus on processes instead. In rugby and many other team sports, a lot of things are out of your individual control so to rely on uncontrollable factors is to leave yourself open to negative experiences. By focusing on things you can control and seeing success in certain parts of your performance, you are more likely to remain confident over the long-term.

Control - maintaining emotional stability regardless of distractions

Players may need to be able to increase their level of arousal when making a tackle or setting up for a scrum and reduce it when kicking at goal or throwing the ball into the lineout. Adjusting the way you feel depending on the situation is therefore an important skill to have. The preferred level of arousal will differ from player to player, but to be self-aware of how you feel when you are under pressure and how you would like to feel are the starting point of being able to control your state of arousal. Anxiety (butterflies, sweating, worrying) is one source of arousal that can have a detrimental effect on your performance and should be avoided at all costs.

There are times when you will need to raise your intensity and excitement levels such as during a warm up and times when you need to relax and remove all thoughts from your mind, such as when you are going to sleep. Most players can increase their level of arousal for something they are excited about but many struggle to wind down after a game. A good way of relaxing is to play the cold spaghetti warm spaghetti game. Lie down with your eyes closed and tell your toes to start wiggling. As you wiggle your toes they start to feel softer and warmer (like spaghetti in a pan of hot water).

Gradually work your way through every muscle group in your body all the way up to the crown of your head. The whole process should take 5 minutes and you will be in a state of total relaxation when you finish.

Commitment - continuing to work towards your goals

Goals are important for managing conflicting interests and taking ownership of your actions. Poorly set goals can have a detrimental effect on your performance so it is important to set specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed targets. Achieving our goals increases our confidenc eand as a result, we can set harder goals and work harder to achieve them. Three types of goals typically set are outcome goals (result focused), performance goals (achieving performance standards) and process goals (specific parts that lead to a good performance). Focusing on outcome goals (winning) before a match can lead to anxiety and ultimately poor performance, which in turn affects your confidence in a negative way. Performance goals such as percentage of tackles made or process goals like a smooth kicking action are preferable because, if set, recorded and monitored correctly, they will increase your self-confidence irrelevant of the overall outcome.