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Two players on a soccer pitch in a 1v1 situation.

How to deal with setbacks

updated on February 7th 2023

5 mins read

As much as we hope that everything we set out to do in life will go according to plan, the reality is often the opposite.

If you’re pursuing an aspirational goal, it’s likely that you will face numerous setbacks along your journey. Remember: If it were easy, everyone would do it.

Setbacks are inevitable, especially in sports like football. Whether it's an injury, being rejected at a trial, not making it into the first team, or losing the most important match of the season, all players will experience tough times in their careers.

But the soccer stars we see today in the Premier League, La Liga, and every other professional league in the world managed to overcome those setbacks! And you can too, with the following three steps on how to deal with setbacks!

Step 1: Acceptance

As hard as it may seem, accepting the facts and the reality you’re facing now, is the first step to dealing with any setback. At first, you might be angry or frustrated and ask yourself:

“Why always me?”

And that’s okay! Experiencing these feelings is normal, especially when it’s one of your first major setbacks in life. But after these first few minutes, you have the choice:

Option A: You dwell on it and keep feeling sorry for yourself

Option B: You accept the fact that you might not be able to change what happened but that you have very much control over how you’re dealing with the situation and what you are going to do next.

Step 2: Finding an opportunity for growth

This is why scanning is such a valuable skill to possess and very makes often the difference between average and outstanding players.

Being aware of your surroundings first of all can prevent you from making costly mistakes. Think, for example, of the countless situations in which goalkeepers or defenders forget the striker in their back, who all of a sudden takes the ball from them and scores!

But it’s so much more than that!

It also enables players to really read the game and recognise options & opportunities to shape the outcome of the match!

Regardless of which decision a professional player takes, whether he goes for a deep pass, switches sides, goes into a dribble, or simply passes back to his teammate - it’s always based on having scanned the match situation to see what might be the next best thing to do now.

Step 3: Set yourself Goals & Create an Action Plan

Now that you have gained knowledge and realized your opportunities, you need to do something about it! And to make the most out of it, you need to set yourself specific goals and create an action plan, based on your situation.

So to come back to our first example above:

Let’s say you’re a winger and your coaches explained to you that you weren’t picked because a) they weren’t impressed by your finishing and b) thought you were shying away from taking on defenders on the wing.

Based on this, you’ll then set yourself a SMART goal for both these areas and create an action plan for how exactly you are going to improve yourself day by day to reach these goals.

If you don’t know what a SMART goal is or how to create an action plan, check out our article on “How to Get Better at Soccer (Fast).”

The same counts for example of the injury. Set yourself a training plan, define and schedule your recovery sessions, and plan your tasks to further develop your tactical understanding and mentality. Potentially, this could also include parts of your body that you can still train without interfering with your recovery.

The entire time you’ve used on training sessions before you should now use to

Study match analysis to enhance your understanding of the game, especially of your position and how other players excel in your position.
Watch/listen to mentality masterclasses and/or podcasts with professional players, coaches, and other experts on topics like confidence, leadership, attitude, and more.
Train parts of your body that do not conflict with the injury so you can stay fit and work on areas you’ve been neglecting so far (e.g., your upper body strength).

Once you’ve set yourself the plan it’s time to execute!

Very important is that you do so consistently and that you try to keep a positive mindset that you will indeed “come back stronger than ever”!

And remember: everything you need to schedule and execute the training sessions/tasks in your action plan can be used in the Train Effective app!

Boost your confidence & build the mentality of a professional player with the Rio Ferdinand mentality masterclass
Get access to 200+ drills & exercises to master your technique
Work on your stamina with our fitness training programmes
Create a personalised training plan to focus on your individual strengths and weaknesses
Stay motivated by emerging yourself in a community of like-minded player

… and many other features that will make you a better player!

So download the Train Effective app now, increase your game understanding, improve your speed of play and show the world the player you've always been destined be.