Iowa Football Mental Training Program

T

TalkHawk

Well-Known Member
Does anyone know what access the Iowa program has to a peak performance coach.... Sports Psychology coach?

Alabama football for instance has worked with IMG Sports Academy with there Mental Training.. and a guy named Trevor Moawad. Really good stuff.

It is extremely interesting considering Iowa has lost to opponents they are more talented than. Usually upsets happen....in the sports psychology world....when one team is playing in Green Lights and the more talented team gets caught in Red Lights. Green lights are positive self-talk that allows you to just play. Red lights would be stuck in negative thoughts, not being able to move on from the last bad play, not being able to refocus, poor body language.
All things Iowa seems to have shown in games like the Minnesota game.


With Iowa's resources financially I'm sure they do something.........wonder if anyone has the specifics of any of it??????
 
Their psychology is let the other team beat itself, never take chances, conservative clock management at all times.

Basically can some it down to two words

BE CAREFUL
 
Last edited:
Bigtenchamp said:
There psychology is let the other team beat itself, never take chances, conservative clock management at all times.

Basically can some it down to two words

BE CAREFUL
Click to expand...
Well I'm on record that this team is all about refinding their "attitude" and carrying it throughout the game...I agree wholeheartedly that's our problem. This conservative tripe is just that. This team lost its edge and they are struggling to reacquire it...

We aren't losing games because were aren't aggressive or enuff or because of clock management. We are losing them because we used to go out and punch people in the throat and we don't seem to do that like we used to and our ego and total team vibe is just very fragile and I don't know why.....

Everyone wants it to be something tangible that they can point at, but it isn't that easy...sports psychology is a very real thing.

Chad
 
YES! Do this...

I happened to see Vandenberg after the Minnesota loss, and I was SOO tempted (but didn't) to mention something about facial expression.

See I had noticed, during the Penn State and Minnesota games, that after a bad series, Vandenberg is on the sidelines getting coached, and he has his head down, furrowed brow in either frustration, confusion or both. There have been studies that show simply changing your facial expression can change your mood. I wanted to tell Vandenberg this.

I can't remember a time when Stanzi looked frustrated on the sideline. He always had a calm blank look on his face. Quite possibly this had something to do with the fact that he could bounce back after a bad play or series.
 
I have called this about Vandy the whole season. He has brutally bad non-verbal leadership skills when things go wrong He takes the deer in the headlights expression to the sidelines.

However, beyond that, he doesn't seem to exhibit verbal leadership skills either. When things go wrong, good leaders rally the troops. Vandy just seems to pout.

Really seems more like a Gen-Y entitlement thing. This is a common result of helicopter parenting.
 
TalkHawk said:
Does anyone know what access the Iowa program has to a peak performance coach.... Sports Psychology coach?

Alabama football for instance has worked with IMG Sports Academy with there Mental Training.. and a guy named Trevor Moawad. Really good stuff.

It is extremely interesting considering Iowa has lost to opponents they are more talented than. Usually upsets happen....in the sports psychology world....when one team is playing in Green Lights and the more talented team gets caught in Red Lights. Green lights are positive self-talk that allows you to just play. Red lights would be stuck in negative thoughts, not being able to move on from the last bad play, not being able to refocus, poor body language.
All things Iowa seems to have shown in games like the Minnesota game.


With Iowa's resources financially I'm sure they do something.........wonder if anyone has the specifics of any of it??????
Click to expand...



I do not believe that Iowa has ever done this, but it is something they should look at.
 
You can talk about x's and o's all day long....... when you are getting beat by Minnesota.........there is more to it than that.

It's not the best team that wins.... it's the team that plays the best. Performing at your peak level when talent evens itself out becomes paramount.

Nick Saban and Alabama football have used a Mental Training Program for his entire tenure at Alabama. Urban Meyer, although clearly he know's his offensive x's and o's..... didn't play college football. He is a psychology major and a master of the mental game.

Just a couple examples.... but success leaves clues. Should probably learn from the best of the best.


The real thing is.... MOST coaches talk about the mental side of the game.... but have no idea what to do to implement it into training. If so much of the game is mental it should be worked on everyday.


The availability of peak performance coaches now and sports psychologists is being widely used in college athletics.
This thread....this issue will not be discussed much, usually isn't....... but I would not disregard this as being one of the bigger problems for the Iowa football team the last few years.

Iowa HAS to be doing something. The Sports Psychology is just as important as Doyle is to the program.
 
Whatever happened to the Hawks being the "Bullies of the B1G"? I think Mich St has wrestled that away from us.

In most of the 2000's Iowa had a very intense and physical presence on defense (Sanders, Roth, King, Angerer). Sometimes they would take it too far, but they were always willing to punch the opponent in the mouth. Their intense balls to the wall play rubbed off on their teammates. The past two years I haven't seen that from anyone.

I understand we aren't always going to win and that overall we are a 6 to 8 win team on average. I'm fine with that. It's the losses where it doesn't look like we put up a fight of any kind that bother me (see MN, NE). I look back at the game at Michigan that we lost in 2004 I believe, the game Tate got his helmet ripped off and continued the play. I didn't feel too bad after that game because the team fought like hell, they just came up short. I thought the Hawks battled in the ISU game this year, they showed fight but just got beat by an equal or slightly better team on the road. MN and NE however, it appeared that they just didn't have it in them.

We aren't always going to have guys like Roth/King on the team to lead the way with intensity, I think it is important that they have some sort of mental training program in place. Who knows, maybe they actually have something along those lines in Fort Kinnick.
 
Yet nobody has brought up Fry. He was good at mental prep. He beat alot of teams when we had less talent. There could be something to this idea.
 
azhawkeyefan said:
Whatever happened to the Hawks being the "Bullies of the B1G"? I think Mich St has wrestled that away from us.



I understand we aren't always going to win and that overall we are a 6 to 8 win team on average. I'm fine with that. It's the losses where it doesn't look like we put up a fight of any kind that bother me (see MN, NE). I look back at the game at Michigan that we lost in 2004 I believe, the game Tate got his helmet ripped off and continued the play. I didn't feel too bad after that game because the team fought like hell, they just came up short. I thought the Hawks battled in the ISU game this year, they showed fight but just got beat by an equal or slightly better team on the road. MN and NE however, it appeared that they just didn't have it in them.

We aren't always going to have guys like Roth/King on the team to lead the way with intensity, I think it is important that they have some sort of mental training program in place. Who knows, maybe they actually have something along those lines in Fort Kinnick.
Click to expand...



That's exactly it. When the better team is caught in RED LIGHTS....and the inferior team is caught in GREEN LIGHTS..... that is when upsets happen. Minnesota, Northwestern. You can break down schemes, x's and o's all you want.... research has shown it goes WAY beyond that.

When two teams are BOTH stuck in GREEN LIGHTS.... that's when the magic happens. That's when the all time great games play out.

There are tools, techniques, things to go too when you get caught in RED LIGHTS. When you start talking to yourself negatively, when your emotions do not allow you to move onto the next play...... it isn't good enough to just talk about it and tell your guys to move on, get tougher..... there are techniques to teach yourself to get yourself back in the present moment.
Alabama football has this exactly figured out.

talk all you want about there talent.... but they don't lose games they're not supposed too and they do it with managers at the QB position. they are not dropping back Andrew Luck, Barkley, even Russell Wilson.
Talent only gets you so far..... when you combine the mental control and aspect of the game with talent....... LOOK OUT.
 
olddude said:
Yet nobody has brought up Fry. He was good at mental prep. He beat alot of teams when we had less talent. There could be something to this idea.
Click to expand...


I think you're 100% correct.

Nebraska football and Tom Osbourne had a system for playing the game one down at a time. The concentration on the mental game gave them a huge advantage as well.

I would be shocked if this Iowa staff isn't doing something with someone to focus on this area of the game..... with there resources....it would be highly disappointing if they were not.
 
Why not use Dan Gable? If that guy doesnt get you focused mentally, nothing will. The same things about wrestling can be transfered to football, just have to change your mindset.
 
CAARHawk said:
I have called this about Vandy the whole season. He has brutally bad non-verbal leadership skills when things go wrong He takes the deer in the headlights expression to the sidelines.

However, beyond that, he doesn't seem to exhibit verbal leadership skills either. When things go wrong, good leaders rally the troops. Vandy just seems to pout.

Really seems more like a Gen-Y entitlement thing. This is a common result of helicopter parenting.
Click to expand...

How in the world can you tell any of this from watching games on TV?
 
Section136 said:
How in the world can you tell any of this from watching games on TV?
Click to expand...

Of course you only see so much. But when the limited data only shows one thing it leads to certain conclusions. Of course there might be things going on beside what I am seeing, but I am seeing a good amount of data to lead me to this conclusion. Also, understand that I included the the qualifier "seems" for a reason.
 
mavhawk said:
Why not use Dan Gable? If that guy doesnt get you focused mentally, nothing will. The same things about wrestling can be transfered to football, just have to change your mindset.
Click to expand...


Gable has given talks to the football team (when he was honorary captain). Can't remember which game it was but they came out flat and awful.

Maybe there's something to sports psychology though. Seriously, this team, the coaches...they're lilke the walking dead. There's talent but it's getting lost in the even-keel approach to EVERYTHING. Football is a fantastic sport because emotion can put you over the top. We're seeing far too littlle emotion in the last two years.
 
mavhawk said:
Why not use Dan Gable? If that guy doesnt get you focused mentally, nothing will. The same things about wrestling can be transfered to football, just have to change your mindset.
Click to expand...


No question. The concepts and ideas he would use can apply to any sport really.


I'm surprised no one has the answer to who or what the football team uses.
We all know the impact Doyle has on the program. The same impact should be felt by a peak performance coach.
 
There is no doubt in my mind that the current staff has had access to and have exploited many available sports psychology programs.
 
Nice to see someone who gets it......

TalkHawk said:
You can talk about x's and o's all day long....... when you are getting beat by Minnesota.........there is more to it than that.

It's not the best team that wins.... it's the team that plays the best. Performing at your peak level when talent evens itself out becomes paramount.

Nick Saban and Alabama football have used a Mental Training Program for his entire tenure at Alabama. Urban Meyer, although clearly he know's his offensive x's and o's..... didn't play college football. He is a psychology major and a master of the mental game.

Just a couple examples.... but success leaves clues. Should probably learn from the best of the best.


The real thing is.... MOST coaches talk about the mental side of the game.... but have no idea what to do to implement it into training. If so much of the game is mental it should be worked on everyday.


The availability of peak performance coaches now and sports psychologists is being widely used in college athletics.
This thread....this issue will not be discussed much, usually isn't....... but I would not disregard this as being one of the bigger problems for the Iowa football team the last few years.

Iowa HAS to be doing something. The Sports Psychology is just as important as Doyle is to the program.
Click to expand...
 
IOWuh said:
Gable has given talks to the football team (when he was honorary captain). Can't remember which game it was but they came out flat and awful.

Maybe there's something to sports psychology though. Seriously, this team, the coaches...they're lilke the walking dead. There's talent but it's getting lost in the even-keel approach to EVERYTHING. Football is a fantastic sport because emotion can put you over the top. We're seeing far too littlle emotion in the last two years.
Click to expand...


Come on, thats a scapegoat right there....

Chad
 
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