How my Tamworth teammates and I were able to go toe-to-toe with Spurs – explained with science
It’s fair to say me and my team-mates at the non-league football club Tamworth FC were pretty keyed up as we prepared for our FA Cup third-round match against Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur on January 12. We’re 96 places below them in the football pecking order and we all have day jobs (in my case as a sports psychology lecturer at Nottingham Trent University). Unusually for us, we met at Drayton Manor Hotel for “pre-match”, where we could eat and relax prior to the game. Usually, especially if it’s a Tuesday night game, it’s a manic rush to eat, prepare and get yourself from work to the game. So under normal circumstances it’s hard to establish a set pre-performance routine to focus on regulating arousal and anxiety levels and build confidence. But as someone who teaches this sort of thing for a living, I’m always telling students how important it is to prepare properly. On this occasion, though, we were playing one the the most famous sides in England, if not the world, and …
