All athletes need to be confident because if you're not confident, it means you will be doubting yourself; second guessing your mechanics and decisions come game time.
And when you second guess and overthink, you underperform.
Self-Confidence in Sports is Defined As
Self-confidence in sports is best described by two words: belief and trust.
You must have the belief that you are highly skilled. That's the first part of it. There needs to be an understanding present that you have the physical skills needed to succeed.
Think of this as the foundation of your confidence. You cannot have trust in yourself during games if you don't first have a strong belief in your skills.
One thing about true belief is that it's not dependent upon other people. You aren't comparing your skills to others, or needing your coach to tell you that you have high-level skills.
You simply have the understanding and belief in your skills that they are good enough to succeed.
In addition to belief, self-confidence in sports involves trust. Think about this in terms of the trust you have in yourself to execute during a game.
When I'm working with an athlete, I'll often talk about the difference between confidence in understanding and confidence in execution. Confidence in understanding is a lot like belief. It means you understand that you are highly skilled.
But confidence in execution is where you have the trust in yourself that you can apply the skills you've worked hard for during games.
So, with trust, think about application and execution during games.
Now that we've broken down self-confidence in sports into belief and trust, there's one more level we can take it to, and that's the feeling you have when you are performing with important levels of confidence.
Self-Confidence as a Feeling
When you have a strong belief in your skills and you have trust in your ability to execute during games, what you're going to find yourself doing is performing at an elevated level. And when you do, you're going to want to repeat it.
That's where this next aspect of understanding self-confidence in sports comes into play.
When you are playing well, there's going to be a certain feeling you have and the mindset you're in. We can call this a state - your peak performance state.
So, when I'm working with an athlete on building their self-confidence, one of the first places we look is their past good performances.
The goal is to identify their peak performance state. Because to me, that is what defines self-confidence as a feeling for them. It's the state they're in when playing their best.
What Keeps Athletes from Being Self-Confident
Knowing what self-confidence is in sports, it's important to also understand all the factors that work against your confidence as an athlete. These are known as the killers of confidence.
In all honesty, there are many things that can keep you from being confident. But we're going to focus on the three main ones I see athletes struggle with hyper-focusing on mistakes, negative self-talk, and outcome-oriented focus.
Hyper-focusing on Mistakes
This can happen during or after games and practices and is typically seen in athletes who are perfectionists.
Hyper-focusing on mistakes doesn't mean you are examining your mistakes in a productive way, looking for ways to grow and improve. It means you are fixating on your mistakes and beating yourself up over them.
What happens when you focus too much on your mistakes is that it begins to build a self-image where you see yourself as not good enough.
Focusing on what you did well is crucial to building confidence because you need that momentum to truly build trust in your skills.
Negative Self-Talk
The way that you think will either help or hurt your self-confidence.
If you are thinking negatively, this is going to significantly hurt the belief and trust you have in yourself.
Negative self-talk can occur anytime, including before, during, and after a game.
Leading into a game, negative self-talk will be centered around what may happen, what you don't want to have to happen, and thoughts of self-doubt.
During a game, there are many opportunities to adopt negative self-talk, but one of the most common times is after a mistake. That's when it's easiest to begin beating yourself up.
Something similar happens after games, if you tend to have a lot of negative thoughts focused on the mistakes you made. Over time, this type of thinking will continue to lower your confidence.
Outcome-Oriented Thinking
The third major factor that keeps athletes from playing with confidence is a type of thinking that's focused on the outcome. This is known as outcome-oriented thinking.
The reason focusing on the outcome lowers your confidence is that most athletes aren't focused on what they want to have to happen...instead, they're thinking about what they don't want to have to happen.
This type of thinking is present in athletes with sports performance anxiety. They think about what they don't want to have to happen and worry about making mistakes, which increases the anxiety they feel in the moment. As a result, their confidence drops.
What Contributes to Confidence in Sports
Now that you know three of the main confidence killers athletes face, it's time to get into the contributors to confidence in sports.
Physical Preparation
Without training your skills, it's going to be difficult to have a high level of belief in your skills.
Physical preparation is a key element of building athletic confidence. Without demanding work, you won't be able to develop the skills you need to succeed. And not only that, but you won't be able to gain the needed belief in your skills.
So, you want to make sure you are training as much as you can to make your skills second nature. The more comfortable you are with your swing, for example, the more belief you're going to have in it come game time.
Experience
To build trust in yourself and your skills, you need the experience of seeing yourself succeed. This is where athletes truly make the leap from simply believing that they're skilled, to trusting in their ability to execute during games.
Now, this experience can be gained in a few ways, with the best and most impactful way being success during games. But don't think this means you can only gain this experience when you have an exceptional game. What matters are all the small successes.
Every game and every practice there are things you do well. By focusing on them, you provide yourself with the experience of seeing yourself succeed.
Your Thoughts
The third contributing element to your confidence as an athlete is your thinking - what kinds of thoughts you have.
Just as negative self-talk kills your confidence, positive and productive self-talk will increase your confidence.
You want to make sure the thoughts you have before, during, and after a game are working to increase your confidence. You also want to make sure the thoughts you have daily are the same.
The reason your thoughts are so important to your confidence is that it's your thoughts that lead to belief.
If you think of something enough it becomes ingrained in your mind as a belief.
Building Confidence in Sports
Now that you know what confidence in sports is, the killers of confidence, and the three main elements that contribute to your confidence, it's time to begin taking steps to improve your confidence.
There are two ways this can be done: on your own, or with a coach.
So, get int ouch with me, Coach Nye, and let's do this!
Until next time,
Coach Nye
*Contributions from Eli Straw
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