The Mind Zone

We have a good player who could be better, we feel, if he lost some weight. But, this player has seen guys like Jerome Bettis and Craig "Ironhead" Heyward on televison, and, given their success, he doesn't feel motivated to take the extra steps to be in good shape. Suggestions?

If your player is truly overweight and that is the reason for him not performing as well as he could, it may be helpful for you to first explain why being overweight can hinder his performance (e.g. it decreases speed, limits agility, enhances fatigue). Next, discuss what factors are essential in becoming a successful player and what are not.

If he believes his success is primarily due to being heavy because of the success of players like Bettis and Heyward, point out to him that both those players make up the minority of how running backs are built in the NFL. Moreover, the reason for their success is mostly due to talent and skill rather than weight.

Of course, Bettis and Heyward may use their weight to their advantage, but if they didn't have exceptional football skills, they would not be successful in the NFL, no matter how much they weighed. Therefore, once your player realizes that being overweight is not the key to performance success, he should begin to concern himself with the factors necessary in going from a good player to an excellent player.

Please consider the following suggestions:

Determine why your player is overweight. If it is due to a lack of activity, you may want to monitor his activity, especially in the off season, and develop an activity program designed to improve both health and skill-related fitness. If it is due to poor nutritional habits, you should consult a licensed nutrionist who can teach him how to eat properly.

Develop a prorgram that can improve both his health-related fitness (i.e., cardiovascular endurance, muscular strenght and endurance, flexibility) as well as his skill-related fitness (speed, agility, coordination).

Be sure to set goals with your player that are related to improving his fitness and, in the early stages of the program, reward your player for reaching his goals. During the season, the goals may change from fitness to performance­such as increasing yards per carry, per game and per season.

By focusing on performance goals and eating properly, hopefully your player will realize that proper nutrition and eating right are more important to being a better football player than being overweight.

Next season's team is going to be very young, replacing a moderately successful (but not outstanding) one. I'm really concerning the team may not "know how to win," meaning that we'll probably be in a lot of close games that if we can get ahead, it will be really important to complete the task and put the team away.

It sounds like you are asking about how to teach your team how to win. For a young, inexperienced team, winning games may not be realistic because a great deal of time is spent learning, developing and mastering new offensive and defnsive systems and players are unfamiliar with the new level of competition they will be facing.

Consequently, players can become overanxious, lose their confidence and have some difficulty adjusting. Therefore, the focus should not be so much on winning the game, but what your team needs to do to improve its performance and play well.

Setting individual and team goals that help the players to concentrate and focus on specific football tasks is probably where you should start. By focusing on the process of what is necessary in order to be successful, rather than the outcome, players can ultimately develop greater level of control over their performance as well as gains in confidence, motivation and enjoyment. Good luck.

Have a motivational or psychological question you'd like to pose? Address your questions to: The Mind Zone, American Football Monthly, P.O. Box 13079, North Palm Beach, FL, 33409. You may fax responses at (561) 627-5275. E-mail your question to mindzone@americanfootballmonthly.com.