You can train your skills and routines with visualisation. This helps you prepare for the real thing. Active visualisation is when you create an image or set of images for what you want and repeatedly imagine it, planting seeds which may grow on the spot when a similar circumstance occurs later. Neutral visualisation is when you set up a scenario and just watch it, in your mind’s eye, play out. It prepares for eventualities. Passive visualisation is when you just watch whatever comes to your mind. It prepares you for the unexpected. Are you prepared?

Nothing can happen if you don’t think it can happen. When you imagine yourself on the pitch in a tough situation, that’s visualisation. When you rehearse a great play before it happens, that’s visualisation. When you see yourself scoring the winning goal, that’s visualisation as well. As a player, you’ve been doing this your whole life without having a name for it. Now, do it consciously. Write your visualisations down on paper, guard them well, reading them before going to sleep. Keep your visualisations to yourself. Then go out on the pitch and make them come true!