Building Confidence

The Sports Psychology 2 Model of Confidence

One of the most common hurdles facing coaches of competitive athletes is competition nerves. Why is it that some athletes appear to rise to an occasion yet others appear to fall apart? Excessive nerves can be the result of a lack of confidence but this is often over-looked when the athlete in question seems to be completely confident in training.

Sports psychology 2 techniques can help coaches to spot the symptoms and develop effective coping strategies to make under-achieving in competition a thing of the past.

What is confidence?

 

• One dictionary definition is: the belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something.
• The sports psychology 2 definition is: confidence is a state of mind, it’s all about how you are thinking and what you are focusing on.

“You need to play with supreme confidence or else you’ll lose again, and then losing becomes a habit” – Joe Paterno (American football coach)

If an athlete has confidence in their abilities, self-belief, they’ll perform confidently – even when the pressure is on. So how do you build that confidence?

A lack of confidence generally stems from a fear of some sort. In competitive sport, a lack of self-belief can simply be a fear of the unknown. As an athlete, you may find yourself standing on the start-line of an important race when the ‘what ifs’ strike: “What if I can’t do this; what if I‘m not ready?” or “What if I get left miles behind and look like an idiot?”

This sort of self-doubt will have a negative impact on performance so as a coach, it becomes an important part of your role to limit the potential for ‘what ifs’ to enter an athlete’s mind. Sports psychology 2 can introduce coaches to mental training tools that equip them with the skills to help athletes banish the ‘what ifs’ by developing greater self-confidence.

The Sports Psychology 2 Model of Confidence

• Skill Set

Based on the pillars of performance, developing equal strength in the four key skill areas – technical, tactical, physical, psychological – will give athletes a solid structure on which to build self-confidence.

Negative ‘what ifs’ become positive ‘what I haves’ giving athletes belief in their abilities.

• Values or Philosophy

A coach with strong values and a clear coaching philosophy will inspire confidence in his athletes. Knowing what you believe and knowing what it is you’re all about makes it much harder for the ‘what ifs’ to interrupt your thoughts.

• Capabilities

Identifying where strengths and weaknesses lie allows you to build on strengths and develop weaknesses to match those strengths. Experiencing progress through training and practice builds confidence in the knowledge that change is always possible. With a growth mindset, there can be no limit to your capabilities.

With the help of sports psychology 2 techniques, coaches can learn to identify the source of each athlete’s ‘fear’ and turn unknowns into familiars. Positive experiences in training will boost confidence in competition. After all, an athlete is unlikely to under-achieve through fear of the familiar!

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You get what you focus On! Positive Mental Attitude and Performance