Luke O’Nien has dated back to when he was in an academy the main thing he did was train physically, but he thinks that isn’t even half of it. To him being mentally prepared outweighs being physically prepped.
ACADEMY
"I was in an academy from the age of seven and it was all about building a footballer from the tactical, technical and physical side. That was it. Just that. We could all kick a ball and we could all run. It left me thinking, what was the difference between us?”
QUESTIONS
"All I was taught in the academy was to train harder, kick more balls and lift more weights. It made no sense because if we all did this, then what separates us all from one another? I started to question things. As I got older, I realised there is this big void in the game. There is literally zero work on the psychological side of this sport.”
OUT OF BALANCE
"I feel like football is 80 per cent in the mind but from the moment I kicked a ball, I only had mindset conversations with my family who, luckily, recognised the absence of it. It's ludicrous to think that we spend 99 per cent of the time working on the 20 per cent of the game and one per cent working on the 80 per cent that is the foundation of the game. It is completely out of balance.”
