How to Create Your Soccer Vision Board for 2022

With the near year quickly approaching, it’s time to think about your goals and what you want to accomplish in the year of 2022. Here we’ll go over one technique that can help you visualize and remember your goals–a vision board.

The goal of every soccer girl is to get as much playing time as possible. But, getting in the game is one thing; having your head in the game is another. Visualization is an aspect of psychology used to bring forth what is visualized in your mind into action in your life. As an athlete, visualization helps to manage stress and enhance performance.

After scoring a hat trick to clinch the victory over Japan in the 2015 WWC Final, Carli Lloyd actually credited her success to using visualization strategies.

One way to channel your visualization is by creating a vision board. A vision board is a physical manifestation of your big picture goal, steps to take to achieve your goal, and feelings that accompany reaching your goal.  You can put together pictures from magazines or Pinterest, words, or a combination of both.

As a soccer player, you could create a board based on the goals of your position on the field or your role as a practice player/sub. Having a focus for your vision board will give it purpose.

Here are four keys in creating a soccer vision board:

1. Intention: Knowing your intentions or your “why” is necessary for creating your vision board. Do you want to score three goals a game? Are you aiming for a shutout season in goal? Do you want to break out of your defensive role and attack the goal more often? Are you dreaming of making the most beautiful assists from center mid? Are you clinching the championship this year? Write down your intention before you begin your picture and word search.

2. Visualize the process: This is where you take some time by yourself, with teammates, or a coach to zero in on your intention. What are the details that would go with your intention? Take some time, sit with it, and use those visualization strategies. Dive into the feelings of achieving your goals. And then feel your way through the process of getting there. The more you can feel, the more you connect to reaching your goals.

3. The overall goal: Think of the board as a tool outlining the road to your overall goal. Keep the overall goal in the center of your board. Is it winning the championship? Becoming captain? Becoming the top performer in goals/assists/saves? Whatever the big goals are, put them in the center. Then fill in words or images around it to display the steps you will be putting into action to reach those goals. Your board should include WHAT you will achieve and HOW you will do it. For example, I used all words to create my vision board one year. The positive reinforcement and reminders of the focus of my life resonated more through words for this specific year. But in the past, I’ve used a combination of pictures and words.

4. Hang it up: This part is key to programming your subconscious to crushing your vision board goals. You must put it where you can see it EVERY DAY. Put it next to a mirror that you use daily, in the bathroom, above your bed, or on the door you walk through on your way to practice. When you see it, read it, visualize the meaning of what you created, and watch your goals come to life!

You may want to consider a vision board for each season of your girl’s soccer lifestyle—in-season, off-season, and preseason.  The more you look at the images on your vision board, the more your brain will be primed to “grasp opportunities that may have gone unnoticed,” says Tara Swart, a neuroscientist.

You could take the advice of a neuroscientist. Or you can follow the lead of Olympic gold medalists such as Kayla Harrison (Judo), Missy Franklin (swimmer), Mariel Zagunis (Fencer), and Carli Lloyd (Soccer). Creating a vision board can be the thing that sets you apart, elevates your game, and wins championships!

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