State of Mind have begun a pioneering mental fitness project with Bold Miners FC and Bold FC open-age football teams.
Bold Miners have raised funds for State of Mind Sport for the past four years on the Gaz Mercer and Andy Walkden Memorial Day.
Nicola Haggerty has been a driving force and a key ally and is one of the reasons we have developed a unique project with the views of the players that will begin this autumn.
Phil Veivers and Dr Phil Cooper were at the club earlier this week to present to the players and coaches about the project and what we hope to achieve.
State of Mind hopes to be able to help all the players feel good, play better and live well away from the game.
Initial results
To begin our unique Mental Fitness Project, we asked the players at Bold Miners FC and Bold FC some pre-project questions:
1. We asked players if they were aware of mental fitness 54% said ‘Yes’, 19% said ‘No’ and 27% were ‘Not Sure’
2. We asked players if they were aware of mental toughness 62% said ‘Yes’, 15% said ‘No’ and 23% said they were ‘Not Sure’
3. We asked if players wanted to improve their mental fitness 81% said ‘Yes’ and 19% said ‘No’
4. We asked if players wanted to improve their mental toughness 85% said ‘Yes’ and 15% said ‘No’
The overwhelming majority of 24 players want to improve their mental fitness and mental toughness. We will ask players what areas they would like to improve, and we will report on this later in the project.
Areas to improve
From this data, we can ascertain which areas need to be improved.
Dr Phil Cooper RMN, MBE was in the dressing room pre-match to talk to the players about the project and demonstrate a quick controlled breathing technique with more to follow based on the priorities identified by players below.
In a dominant performance, Bold Miners secured their third win in four games, beating local rivals Redgate 6-0 and climbing to 6th in the table.
This emphatic victory was marked by standout performances and strategic changes that paid off handsomely.