Does Your Confidence Tank After the Warm Up?
Do you (or your athletes) have to perform well in warm ups to feel confident at the start of competition?
I’m sure you build confidence from lots or practice and training. But what happens to your confidence when you don’t perform up to your expectations during the the warm up?
This is a common confidence-buster for athletes: They judge the quality of their warm up prior to competition and assume they will perform the same way in competition.
Do you worry about the quality of your warm up before competition? Many athletes I work worry too much about how their performance feels in warm up…
These athletes can lose confidence when their performance feels off during warm up. They begin to think that a poor warm up translates into doing poorly–at least in the opening moments of the game, race, or match.
They think: it’s happened before so it’s likely to happen again. This is called an over-generalization. If you — or your athletes do this – confidence takes a hit because you buy into this self-fulfilling prophecy.
How you react to your warm up is vital to your confidence during the opening moments of competition. If you think you don’t “have it” today, your confidence will suffer.
This is called reactive confidence, but really you want proactive confidence.
If you’re the athlete that reacts negatively to a poor warm up, what can you do to start the competition with higher confidence?
(1) The warm up is just a warm up. You don’t have to win the warm up! Use this time to help you physically and mentally prepare for competition. You don’t need you’re A-game in the warm up.
(2) Use intensity to your advantage. Most athletes perform their best when they are psyched and intense for the competition. This might be hard to achieve for some athletes. Know that the adrenaline from competition will help you get pumped and focus better.
(3) Rely on your years of training and experience. Don’t allow a 30-minute warm up to sink your confidence if it was not great. Confidence is a long-term project and is based on months and years of practice and preparation, not how your game feels in the warm up.
Related Sports Psychology Articles
- How to Perform Under Pressure with Confidence
- How to Build Confidence Like the Pros
- How to Grow Competition Confidence
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