Do you (or athletes you coach) excel in practice, but freeze up in competition? Do you have a hard time just being free or flow in competition?
Freezing up (or what I call lack of trust) in competition is a common challenge for many athletes. If you tighten up and control your performance in competition, you lack trust in your skills.
Or you could lose confidence in your abilities when you enter competition and this can cause you to freeze up and lose trust.
What is the difference between confidence and trust? We use them interchangeably in the English language.
In sports psychology, they are very different concepts and the TWO most critical mental game skills…
Confidence is how strongly you believe you can perform well, which typically precedes your execution of a shot, pass, or routine. You must have confidence to trust in your skills…
Trust in your skills is relying on your practice or motor memory (not muscle memory) to execute a motor skill; you are on autopilot when performing.
Why is it important to trust your physical skills and abilities?
If you believe in your ability to execute a skill successfully, you’ll have greater trust. Both confidence and trust are needed for peak performance in sports.
It’s paramount that you are able to perform spontaneously and intuitively by relying on your training or practice.
Athletes who lack trust in their skills:
- Focus too much on proper or perfect form during a game
- Try to perform perfectly when competing
- Over-coach themselves after they make a mistake
- Over-control their game because of the fear of making mistakes
- Worry too much about how others perceive them
Athletes with a high level of trust:
- Do a good job of leaving practice on the practice field, and learn to trust in what they practice.
- Become a “gamer” in competition and “let it happen.” They can react intuitively and keep it simple: See the ball and hit it.
- Perform in the here-and-now. They think about getting the job done without worrying about or analyzing how to get the job done.
Now you can learn all my secrets for improving trust in competition and performing with a fearless mindset…
“The Fearless Athlete: A 14-Day Plan for Unbeatable Trust” helps athletes with perfectionism and fear of failure improve trust in their skills.
This is one of the best-selling programs in “The Confident Athlete” series.
Read more about “The Fearless Athlete” here:
The Fearless Athlete CD Program
Your Mental Game Coach,
Dr. Patrick Cohn
p.s. Are you a Peaksports member? Members get 30 percent off “The Fearless Athlete.”
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The Fearless Athlete Program Discount for Members
Related Sports Psychology Articles
- How Elite Athletes Gain Trust in their Game
- Do You Seek Instant Gratification or Trust the Process?
- Have Trust in Your Skills
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The Fearless Athlete
For the last two decades, I’ve been working with athletes and helping them optimize their physical ability by teaching them the secrets of top performing athletes. Now, you too can learn how to regain that child-like fearless attitude.
Mental toughness is what separates the winner from the loser in any competition. Champion athletes train hard in practice, perform without fear in competition, and trust their skills in crunch-time.
The Fearless Athlete program is ideal for any athlete that wants to overcome fear of failure and uncover inhibiting perfectionistic traits; or for any coach or parent who wants to teach athletes to perform with trust and freedom in competition.