By Martin Dons

Coach at FC Midtjylland Academy Rene Petersen has worked with the talents of the club for almost a year now. Higher degree of self-awareness, focus on strenghts and areas for potential development are some of the aspects in which e-stimate’s personal profiles are helping the players.

For almost a year, the talents at FC Midtjylland Academy have worked with enhancing and optimising their conscious and unconscious behaviour. Red, yellow, green and blue are key colours in the personal profiles by e-stimate, which Rene Petersen – former handball player and trained master coach – has made on the U17s and U19s of the club.

– Many of the young players have defined goals that they want to play at the big stadiums, but they are not always aware of the road to get there. They have a feeling that sometimes they succeed, and other times they do not – but they do not know why. We have to create a higher degree of consciousness about why they succeed. One way of doing that is to find out when they are good and when they are less good, says Rene Petersen from Prevent.

The players possess all the colours and therefore it is all about knowing yourself well enough to know when to look in your mental toolbox and dig out the different colours. The profile by e-stimate is also able to show an untapped potential that the players were not aware of.

Strengthens the mental capital

The interesting part is to find the golden mean in order to reach your goal. The players are not always aware of this. They just follow an instinctive, unconscious behaviour that might not be useful to them, says Rene Petersen, who – besides a number of athletes – has worked with several business managers and companies as it also easily transferable to the business life and hence also usable outside of the chalked lines of the football field.

In the process, which is still on-going at FC Midtjylland, progress can already be seen, the coach says. It is all about strengthening the ‚mental capital‘.

– We have experienced that the players have gained a higher degree of consciousness about what it takes to reach their goals. They have become more self-managing. The players have become far better at motivating themselves and each other for maintaining focus on their strengths, thus ensuring a more straightforward way towards their individual and common goals, says Rene Petersen.

One of the players that Rene Petersen has worked with, is Johannes Madsen, and the U19 player has noticed very clearly how his knowing himself even better has helped him.

Raising the lower bar

It has provided me with an acceptance of who I am. You do not have to change who you are, but work with your challenges and be aware of what is good and what is bad for you. If it does not work for me, I have become better at getting back on track and becoming re-focussed. My lower bar has been raised, says Johannes Madsen.

He is excited about working with Rene Petersen who has presented a whole new world to the football talents.

– It has been different, but really great to work with the profiles. It has provided each of us with a higher degree of self-awareness and we have obtained a better knowledge of each other, enabling us to know how to best help each other. Some require guidance and a pat on the shoulder while others require harsher words, says Johannes Madsen, who plays on the U19s team of FC Midtjylland.

Besides the U19s, profiles have also been made for the U17s as well as all the teams‘ coaches.