Andoni Iraola, Liverpool’s head coach, would do well to read my new book…Compete… Let’s strip things back using the mental skills I introduce in Compete. There’s three…just three…that’s all you need: Attention Intensity Intent He complains his team started the game passively out-of-possession - giving the opposition too much space and time. This is a Low Intent - energy-back (in the book I break down Low Intent into three - hesitancy, inhibition, passiveness). And yes…you can work all week preparing your team to face an opposition with what you feel is the perfect game plan against them. But then…boom…they start the game passive or hesitant or a little bit inhibited. Low Intent - energy-back. A perfect game plan is easily disrupted by thoughts, emotions, and feelings that hinder. He claims that once his Liverpool team picked up the intensity they were able to impose themselves more on the game. There are two branches to intensity - physical and mental. In Compete, the mental skill of intensity is defined as the level of engagement a player has. An Optimal Intensity is when a player has a strong level of engagement - alert and ready. They are alert to the opportunities and ready to exploit them. They are alert to the dangers and ready to deal with them. High Attention Optimal Intensity High Intent Liverpool need to ensure their players have a mental warm-up alongside the physical warm-up that prepares them to play. If players can’t tell you within 15 seconds what they’re trying to achieve mentally in a warm-up and in the first 15 minutes of a game then they don’t know. They don’t know! Players need competitive mental frameworks fo their game. They need to know precisely what they need to do to compete in their High Performance Mindset (HPM). They need to know how to start a game with… High Attention - focused and connected Optimal Intensity - alert and ready High Intent - purposeful, positive, proactive …they need to know how to be outstanding mentally for 100 minutes no matter what! Your game plan must be enveloped in individual and team HPM. And you have to coach this every day - in every activity in every session!!! ************************************** 𝐌𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤, 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞, 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐬