Soccer Psychology - The Ideal Performance State - Learning to Play at Your Peak by Jason Vittrup

The key to playing at a peak level is performing in your Ideal Performance State or IPS. This is the optimal physiological and psychological level of arousal measured in muscular tension, heart rate, blood pressure, and brain wave frequency. When in IPS, the player experiences highly distinctive patterns of feelings and thought which enable top performance. The discovery of IPS is not unlike the discovery of "flow." Flow is a term describing the state people enter when "things seem to go right," "everything clicks," and "I could do no wrong." Musicians experience flow when the music comes naturally and easily. Assembly- line workers know flow when challenges are neither too easy (boring) nor too hard (frustrating). Soccer players experience flow when rules are clear, and personal goals are met.

Flow gained recognition through research of thousands of people from diverse backgrounds. Test subjects were given a beeper to wear throughout the day. Whenever the beeper sounded, subjects stopped activity to record what they were doing, and how they felt at that moment. the results enabled psychologists to discover all people enter into a similar state of consciousness know as "flow." The Ideal Performance State (IPS) is similar to flow but tailored to optimal athletic results. When working at full capacity, IPS should involve all levels of human existence: body, mind, emotions, spirit, and creativity. To remember how to reach the Ideal Performance State, think of the word PERFORM. The job of coaches and players is to keep the body and mind within the following parameters:

Personally challenged: Great players like Ronaldo set goals for each and every performance. Ronaldo has already won every major soccer award, but still gives everything in practice and games. Ronaldo finds challenges where other do not.