The Key to Performance: What we can learn from Marcus Rashford
“Football is probably 95% of mentality. That gives you the baseline to perform. There are a lot of players that have ability – that’s why they play at the top level. But what sets them apart is their mentality.” These are the words that Marcus Rashford told interviewers when explaining his recent red-hot form at Manchester United. His improvement demonstrates how mental strength plays an important role in sports, by ultimately managing resilience and confidence but also helping resist from negative thoughts.
Rashford’s game is full of confidence, whilst he has worked incredibly hard to fight back from long-term injuries and mental health issues. He continues to impress everyone by his excellent goal-scoring run and revival at the club. His prolific form has prompted the way you should put setbacks behind yourself and establish a desire to perform at the top level.
Mindset can impact the way you feel, determine thoughts, and psychologically respond to situations, research shown by Standford University. By holding onto negative feelings, it can influence your reality and experience higher levels of stress, which can lead to anxiety.
By encouraging yourself to develop a more positive mind, having a ‘growth mindset’ rather than a ‘fixed mindset’ will affect your worldview. This way, you will always aim for improvement and stop feeling guilty or unappreciated when you make a mistake. Rashford stated that “I’m concentrating a lot more in that headspace and it’s needed in order to win games and trophies”, revealing his unbreakable mentality on and off the field playing a crucial role to move forward in life. It is described as the ability to change, grow, and develop over time.
If you are more focused on the qualities that are essentially unchangeable or “fixed”, such as past mistakes, you will be less open to mistakes because the setbacks are impinging on your future success.
The way you train and maintaining your state of mind is just as important as the sport, to help you to become resilient and want to constantly strive to improve.
Being able not to fear from failure is a crucial step in becoming mentally strong. Techniques and approaches can help you overcome the thoughts of possible risks and outcomes of the situation. Things that elite athletes are taking more control of, is their mental preparation. Visualisation, meditation, and mind-body approach are commonly used to maintain concentration and set goals.
This can also be revealed by his recent celebration of pointing to his temple. It suggests that making a priority of your struggles, is probably the most important factor of sports.
Banerjee , R. ‘Marcus Rashford says football is ’95 per cent mentality’ as he explains his red-hot Man Utd form’, Goal, 25 Feb 2023, https://www.goal.com/en-au/news/marcus-rashford-says-football-is-95-per-cent-mentality-as-he-explains-his-red-hot-man-utd-form/bltddaf1a11e104505d
Primeau, M. ‘Your powerful, changeable mindset’, Stanford Report, 15 September 2021, https://news.stanford.edu/report/2021/09/15/mindsets-clearing-lens-life/#:~:text=Research%20shows%20that%20mindsets%20play,more%20resilient%20to%20life's%20challenges.
Pay, C. ‘Growth Mindset: A New Tool to Help with Anxiety and Depression’, 7 February 2022, https://extension.usu.edu/mentalhealth/articles/growth-mindset-a-new-tool-to-help-with-anxiety-and-depression#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20growth%20mindset,with%20using%20healthier%20coping%20strategies.