The Sports Psychology Blog
Today's Sports Psychology blog comes as Barnet manager Paul Fairclough, struggles to come to terms with his teams reversion to ill-discipline.
Football: Barnet - The Red Card Is Back!
"I spoke to the players and had them commit to the end of the season to ensure that they're not going to be red carded for a discipline like that." The words of Paul Fairclough, after ten-man Barnet were defeated 2-0 in mid-week by Peterborough. Ten times this season, Fairclough's team have played out the game with only ten men. And this after The Bees had tried to clean up their disciplinary act in the autumn.
So why have Barnet's old problems come back to haunt them? The early season clean up was as a result of too many red cards, both last season and at the beginning of this season. Something had to be done. They took the position that only one player would ever speak to the referee, when words were needed. And it worked. Fairclough was manager of the month for October. The Bees were on a roll. More focused, more concentrated, Barnet were thinking clearly. And playing better.
The respect for the referee policy worked for them. But it clearly papered over the cracks. Underneath the surface, the ill-discipline that they tried to suppress, never went away. All it took was one indiscretion, one red card and the old patterns were back.
Like a gambler trying to fight an addiction, it can be tough for a team to overcome a discipline problem. One day at a time is the only way. Every training session you must set goals. Goals to build the quality of discipline. Discipline is the watch-word. Discipline in behaviour; attitudes; habits and patterns. Measure it. Talk about it. Study the sporting greats who were exampleships of discipline. Live and breath the quality of discipline.
Somewhere in their season, Barnet took their eye off the ball. Maybe they thought they had cracked the discipline thing. Maybe there wasn't total agreement and buy in from the whole team. Either way, the ill-discipline they sought to overcome, was there all the time. Just waiting for its moment. Now it will even tougher for Paul Fairclough to rid his team of this problem. For the problem knows, the team doesn't yet have the collective will to overcome it. And without will, anything goes.
