Lessons from… John Johnstone: Mastering Your Confidence & Inner Game Solutions

“If I’m working with a midfielder and he gives away a simple pass, if his go-to approach or my go-to advice is to tell him not to think about it, I am probably setting him up for failure. For me it’s not a case of not thinking about a mistake, it’s more about how you think about the mistake,” says John Johnstone, an Elite Performance Mental Skills Coach from the east coast of Scotland.

This almost flies in the face of the advice you often hear not just within sport but life too, the trusty “just forget about it” guidance you may have heard from a parent, coach or teacher. However, imagine you were hammering a nail into a piece of wood and completely missed the nail. It would not make any sense to just completely “forget” about how you approached the nail that first time and instead just swing again more in hope than expectation and accuracy. Instead, even if it’s subtle and subconscious, you would need to reflect on why you missed the nail that first time, re-adjust your approach and then hope to hit the nail on the head.

“If you’re giving the ball away, is there something you can use from that to make the next pass better. Is there an understanding or lesson you can take from that mistake so you can almost say to yourself ‘I’m going to go on and have a better game because of what just happened there.’”

It is pretty clear why John Johnstone of Football Mindset is making a real impact within football around the globe and Scotland particularly. Having played as a domineering centre-back with a knack for communication yet experiencing genuine self-doubt and anxiety at times whilst performing in the East of Scotland League, John set out to discover more about the human brain. Now, he finds himself in the position where he is offering mental skills and wellbeing advice for footballers such as John Souttar, Scott Wright, Chris Cadden and Lawrence Shankland.

“I’m not a sport psychologist, I would instead class myself as a mental skills coach. I left school at 17, became a plumber then a personal trainer and always played football but not to a great level. Everything I’ve built has been self-taught. I’m just somebody who helps players think and feel a little bit better. I help change their beliefs and performances that way.

“I initially set up my own PT job and it got to the point where people were coming to me for diet and training programmes so I decided to go and get educated about the nutritional side as well, but the results were the same. People would initially lose weight but soon enough it would rebound and they’d just put it on again. I’d always ask them if they had tried other plans before to which they’d always say they’d tried loads of other plans but they hadn’t been effective. I thought, realistically, what difference would me giving another one have? I then stumbled upon neuroscience, which was my big opening to the mental side of things. From that point, I knew I could take this into football.

“For a couple of years, I’d chuck the TV in the car and drive to any sport club that would allow me to work with them. Whether that was boys’ teams, girls, pubs, amateurs, football, gymnastics, MMA or rugby. It allowed me to get the reps in to build the experience to allow me to work with professional footballers.”

After steadily building the experience of assisting athletes across a range of disciplines, John’s big break within football came in the shape of a young Scottish footballer possessing a desire to maximise his potential in the shape of John Souttar.

Lessons from… John Souttar: Become Multi-Dimensional

“I’ll be honest, I couldn’t have hand-picked a better client in terms of John’s attitude, application and commitment. Not just working with me but his overall career. The reason me and John ended up working together was he wanted to tick every box. When his career finishes, he wants to be able to tick every box and know that he chucked absolutely everything at it. He admitted at that point that the mental side of the game wasn’t something he was working on as consistently as he maybe could have been.”

Since bursting onto the scene as a 16 years and 99-day-old academy graduate for Dundee United in early 2013 and returning from a number of serious injuries whilst at Hearts, there is a general attitude within footballing circles that John Souttar is very mentally robust. Now, juggling the demand of playing for Glasgow Rangers, pushing for a place at the European Championships with Scotland, he does this whilst being the joint owner of a successful coffee shop, does this therefore highlight the benefit of having interests out-with sport?

“John had always spoke about opening a coffee shop so I certainly wasn’t shocked to see that happen. John’s a very rounded individual, but at the same time make no mistake, having a coffee shop, if you pick up a serious injury, it will help at times but probably be a distraction also. Will it make it slightly easier, perhaps? It will also be an absolute graft to get yourself through that recovery with a coffee shop or not.

“If we talk about having other identities or more branches to yourself than just simply being a footballer, it could probably help people put things into context or perspective. It can help provide an element of perspective. It can maybe help deal with mistakes better, cope with the social media side of things better because they’re not plugged into football 24/7. Whether it’s business, family or whatever, it allows them to shift their attention and I think it’s massive having that ability to switch off.

“The lads I work with, I always refer to football as their job. I’ll ask if they are working so they can try remember that this is just a job because football is something that can be difficult to get away from and turn off from. An accountant can go into work between 9 to 5 and then switch off until the next day. For someone that’s involved in football they are thinking about the last performance, next performance, training, something the manager either said or didn’t say. I think it’s key that players see themselves as more than just a footballer, see themselves as a brother, a son, an uncle, a business owner.”

Another client John has built a strong relationship with is Hearts and Scotland striker Lawrence Shankland. Initially somewhat of a slow burner within the top league in Scotland, Shankland is now viewed by many as the most clinical striker in Scotland, having won PFA Scotland Player of the Year, and John has been able to witness some of his personal and footballing growth.

Lessons from… Lawrence Shankland: Bouncebackability

“Lawrence initially burst through at Queens Park before moving full-time with Aberdeen which didn’t really work out for him. Then, after dropping down to Ayr United and then Dundee United that was where things really took off for him.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t think Lawrence even needs confidence to score goals because finishing is just what he does. I think when a striker misses a chance, those unhelpful thoughts you get, every striker will have those at times. Again, it’s not a case of only thinking helpful thoughts around that because if we’re being realistic they will have thoughts that are unhelpful and negative at times. A big thing a striker can’t do when they miss a chance though is change the fact that they’ve missed it. Instead, what they need to do is put themselves out there for the next chance. The people that tend to score most goals are the people that also miss the most chances. It’s one thing having the ability to score goals, but if you’ve not got the mental ability to bounce back and go again, you’re not going to score that many goals. Lawrence has shown throughout his career that he can miss chances and go back and get the next one.”

Master Your Confidence

With a list of clients within football ranging from countries such as England, Italy and the United States, in 2020 John released a book aimed at assisting athletes with growing their self-confidence.

Step One: Mindset

“The first step is mindset, which investigates how the brain works and understanding that. Once you’ve got the understanding of that, it puts all the foundations in place. It’s all fine and well telling athletes what to do, but if they don’t understand why what you’re telling them to do is actually effective, I don’t think the message is as powerful. It’s about putting the foundations in place, getting the details about how that thing between your ears actually works and why it does the things it does.”

Step Two: Person

“The second step relates to how you see yourself as a person. When it comes to dealing with opinions, the hardest thing for any player or human is dealing with opinions. A big thing when dealing with (contrasting) opinions is trying to get the other person to change their opinion. What you think of yourself is actually more important than what they think of you. What are your principles? What are your beliefs and stories? Instead of saying I need everyone to change what they think of me, let’s spend some time changing what we believe about ourselves. We’re often our biggest critic, let’s turn ourselves into our biggest supporter.”

Step Three: Performance

“The last step is performance. This is putting systems and processes into place for before, during and after a game. At the end of the day, when it comes to the tactical, technical and physical side of sport, athletes have strategies and frameworks and processes in place. However, when it comes to the mental side of the game quite often we just hope to feel better or hope to play better or wake up in the morning and just feel confident. It is possible to put mental systems in place for that.”

One thing that is clear is that whilst John certainly does not undersell the importance of the mental side of the game and his role specifically, he has a refreshingly balanced understanding of the challenges that elite athletes face.

“I always say to players doing sessions that it’s easy for me sitting in the big seat saying to try do this, try do that whilst it’s them who needs to go do it in front of 60,000 people. You are aware and have a laugh with that.

“There’s nothing I can do to guarantee you’ll score goals, keep a clean sheet, play well or get praised on social media, but I can help shift the needle from a mental perspective and increase the likelihood of those things happening.”

You can purchase John’s book on Amazon here: Master Your Confidence

Quick-fire Questions:

Describe yourself in three words: Dignity, belief and laughter

How would your family and friends describe you in three words? No idea actually. Not sat and thought about it.

Are you more introverted or extroverted? Growing up definitely an extrovert, but now I’m more introverted. I am now a bit more selective of where I put my energy and focus.

Biggest personality strength? Commitment to my word.

Biggest personality weakness? Commitment to my word again. Double-edged sword.

Death row meal:

Starter: Haggis balls.

Main: Rice, mince and carrots. People might laugh but I like rice, I like mince and I like carrots, so why not?

Dessert: Cheesecake.

Drink: Dr Pepper.

Book recommendation: I really liked Cruyff’s biography. The simplicity of how he put across the message. How simple he could break down the game. That’s what I love to do with clients.