How to tackle the pressure of a tournament?

Mental strength is a key part for any footballer who wants to maximise their potential.

A tournament is always a challenge. Even more so when it comes to one of the best competitions in Spanish grassroots football, which is the Oviedo Cup. “In any learning phase it’s important that our scholars start discovering how they should behave during a tournament, in a situation where they can only permit a couple of errors and where they have to keep concentration levels to a maximum”, explains Carlos Rivero, head coach at Marcet’s High Performance Academy.

A three team tour travelled last easter to Asturias to go up against some of the best clubs in Spain, at the U-16s and U-19s level. A true test of character from a psychological stand point. “A tournament of this level puts to the test the mental strength of the players”, points out Rafael Rodríguez-Soler, head of the Sports Psychology Department at Fundación Marcet. “This is a unique situation, in which the players have to give their best in a limited space of time and where they’re confronted with new and unrepeatable situations. All of this can lead to a decrease in terms of their concentration, pressure or anticipation”.

Mental strength is a key part for any footballer who wants to maximise their potential. Juan David Corrales and Erik Aguado know this very well. Alongside their teammates, they knew how to overcome a troubling defeat and ended up lifting the trophy in the Oviedo Cup. The video at the top of the page shows their experience in the tournament and how they adapted mentally to the new conditions that they were faced with. And the gallery below is photographic recap of the tournament for Erik and Juan David’s team as well as Marcet’s other sides that took part in the Oviedo Cup:

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