The Sports Psychology Blog
This Sports Psychology blog, comes as Holland prepare for next weeks European Football Championships, in Austria and Switzerland.
Football: Holland - Unity!
It's the week before the 2008 European Football Championships. Holland have not performed in the final of a major championships, since 1988. Alongside England and Spain, they are one of Europe's classic underachievers. And former Dutch star, Frank De Boer, has been speaking out about his countries chance of success.
''I strongly feel that some players are more proud to play for their countries than we are.'' De Boer then went on to explain that he thinks others countries players, are mentally tougher than the Dutch.
The Dutch have always had the players to grace the games biggest stage. But, they seem to let themselves down as a team, again and again. Highly talented individuals failing to mesh as a team. Rumours of internal division and disagreement, come out of the Dutch camp, virtually every major competition. Maybe creating unity and harmony in the Dutch squad, is one of the toughest jobs in world football?
To create collective unity, is the holy grail that football managers seek. The sense that all players are aligned to a common cause. That all energies, are being directed in one, agreed-to, direction. That personal motivations come second, to the desire to serve the collective.
Which means being able to agree on the collective motivation. For who are you playing? Yourselves and your careers? Or a greater cause? Can you discover that greater cause? And if so, can you give it meaning? Meaning that leads to motivation. That leads to a triggering of emotional energies, that enables you to raise your game, to another level.
It means putting personal difference to one side. It means understanding what it truly means to wear the famous orange shirt. Understanding what it means, to those thousands of Dutch fans who travel in such numbers and good-spirits. Understanding what it will take, to break this Dutch stop-situation.
And it means having developed a quality of focus, that will allow nothing to distract you from the main aim and goal.
Holland's chances at this years championships, have been largely dismissed. Very few pundits see them as European Champions. But one year, a group of Dutch players will come together and put right the wrongs, of serial national under-performance.
Whether it will be Marco Van Basten's squad, will be determined by how potent his teams mental preparation has been. And how hungry their desire is, to break that, seemingly permanent, stop situation.
