Football Psychology

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Session Notes The Purist
Addressing:

Playing Tight

When the magnitude of the match, a cup final, a relegation decider, a derby, causes you to play conservatively, avoiding the creative risks that define your game. You stop making those diagonal runs, you pass sideways instead of threading the ball through, you become a shadow of your training-ground self. The fear of making a mistake becomes more powerful than the desire to make something happen.

How The Purist Can Overcome Playing Tight in Football

Posted on December 9, 2025 ~ min read
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For: The Purist athletes in Football
Focus: Session Notes - Playing Tight
Read Time: ~9 min
Session Notes December 9, 2025
Profile: The Purist
Sport: Football
Challenge: Playing Tight

In football, playing tight is when match pressure compresses your natural game into something smaller, safer, and ultimately less effective. You stop attempting the through-ball you execute perfectly in training. You check your shoulder three times instead of once. The diagonal run you planned never materializes because hesitation wins every internal debate.

For intrinsically motivated athletes who compete against their own standards, this pattern carries a particular sting. You know what you're capable of. You've catalogued every successful training session, every moment of technical precision. Yet when the cup final arrives or the relegation decider kicks off, that internal library becomes inaccessible.

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Vladimir Novkov

M.A. Social Psychology | ISSA Elite Trainer | Expert in Sport Psychology for Athlete Development

My mission is to bridge the gap between mind and body, helping athletes and performers achieve a state of synergy where peak performance becomes a natural outcome of who they are.

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