Mar 20th, 2022 00:00, by Tim Hanswillemenke

Berlin Thunder Hire Martial Arts Fighter Fatima Yazici as Mental Coach

As the first franchise in the European League of Football, the Berlin Thunder hire a mental coach for their players, coaches, and staff!

Berlin Thunder mental coach and psychological consultant Fatima Yazici. © Privat

Mar 20th, 2022 00:00, by Tim Hanswillemenke

Berlin Thunder Hire Martial Arts Fighter Fatima Yazici as Mental Coach

As the first franchise in the European League of Football, the Berlin Thunder hire a mental coach for their players, coaches, and staff!

The European League of Football has a lot of great coaches, general managers, and players who make the league as exciting as it is. However, the Berlin Thunder go one step further and hire a psychological consultant and mental coach to further enhance player performance.

Mental Coach – A Connecting Point

“My position as a holistic mental coach and psychological consultant serves as a connecting point but also as the address for all mental and mindset matters, be it for the players, coaches or for the orga team in the office”, Thunder mental coach Yazici explained in an interview.

Berlin Thunder mental coach and psychological consultant Fatima Yazici. © Privat

The former martial arts fighter, dancer, and basketball player studied systemic organizational development and received a master’s degree in neuro-linguistic programming. From an early age, Yazici was in interested in sports, coaching, and simply people: “I realized that the most important thing is to have access to the people I work with and that all that knowledge is only useful if you also have the soft skills to apply the methods. My background as an athlete was of course a huge plus“.

From Martial Arts to American Football

“Football has always appeared on my life path“, Yazici explained. She elaborated: “I had the first points of contact in Frankfurt am Main when I played basketball in an American team called ‘Pirates’. I noticed that the sport fascinates me, but there was no female team back then”.

After Yazici decided to become a martial arts athlete, she was trained by former NFL player and personal trainer Christian Mohr in Aachen. During the training sessions, the Thunder mental coach recognized  parallels between martial arts and American football, at least from the athletic point of view.

“What appeals to me is the drive, the passion, and the development as a person in this sport”, Yazici commented. “[…] In my time as a trainer and coach, I was able to collect such wonderful moments and empower athletes to go their way more strengthened and I am more than open to the football world”.

Pre-Season –Working on Personality

As the Berlin Thunder mental coach and psychological consultant, Yazici is already working towards the season by going through a mental pre-season workout with the athletes. “My pre-season work is pre-competition strategy. In personality work, these would be the topics of determination, optimism, resilience, and also emotion control“, Yazici explained. She added: „Self-awareness, self-confidence, and self-esteem are built“.

Once the season kicks off, the focus shifts from personality work towards analyzing the behavior of an athlete in a competition setting, as Yazici noted: “During the season, it is about the observation and analysis of the behavior in the competition setting as well as feedback and conclusions after the competition“.  

After Berlin Thunder’s first team activities yesterday, it will be interesting to see how the players and the franchise develop with the help of mental coach Fatima Yazici prior and during the 2022 season.

More news around the Thunder here! 

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