How to Have Proactive Confidence
Confidence can gain momentum like a snowball growing in size as it barrels down a hill…
But, also, confidence can come crashing down like an avalanche.
Slight doubts can creep into your mind and slowly grow in magnitude and infiltrate other parts of your game.
At that point, athletes feel less confidence and become stuck in a slump. Bad performance after bad performance makes the attempt to regain confidence feel like an impossible task.
Knowing what impacts your confidence, the confidence-killers, is the first defense in preventing the downward spiraling of athletic confidence.
Most athletes believe winning builds confidence and losing lowers confidence.
That is true to a point. There are many other factors that contribute to confidence, such as:
- Finding and relying on your strengths
- Preparing at a high level
- Identifying little successes
- Managing unrealistic expectations
- Working hard in practice
- Developing strong mental skills
- Improving technique
- Ignoring undue or excessive criticism
- Challenging yourself on a daily basis
- Building positive habits
- Overcoming perfectionism
- Learning to calm yourself during competition
- Moving past mistakes in a timely fashion
- Avoiding comparisons
By focusing on these building blocks, you can build stable confidence that is not solely dependent on winning or losing.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan talked about the team’s confidence as they started the 2019-20 season with a 7-0 record. Shanahan points to winning as the reason for the team’s confidence, but there is something more at play.
SHANAHAN: “The more games you win, the more confidence guys get. Just like the more games you lose in a row, the less confident you get. Both can be a little bit contagious to the team and I think our guys, we’ve won a lot of different ways. Been in a lot of different types of games and I think our guys, the more you do that, the more you can reassure yourself that you can pull out certain types of wins.”
In terms of building confidence, winning or placing first in a competition are not the sole sources of confidence.
Building confidence means winning little battles… working hard in practice, preparing extra for competition, developing mental strengths or mental skills, working to hone technique, building rapport with teammates, strengthening your strengths, pushing past comfort, etc.
This is true for all sports… Winning a little battle for a gymnast could be finding the bright spot in a routine that didn’t score high…
Winning a little battle for a baseball player may be adding visualization to their training regimen…
Winning a little battle for a tennis player can be working on speed and agility.
All sports have a variety of opportunities to build confidence.
The more attention you pay to the little things, you build confidence that remains relatively stable no matter the outcome of an athletic competition.
Winning the Confidence Game:
Look for opportunities to build confidence. Ask yourself each day, “What can I do today to build my confidence?” and “”What will I do specifically to build my confidence?”
Be mindful of the things that can hurt your confidence, such as high expectations, doubt, making comparisons, and worrying about what others think about your game.
To build stable confidence you have to manage the confidence killers.
Related Sports Psychology Articles
- Do You Or Your Team Have The Comeback Mindset?
- How to Grow Competition Confidence
- How Preparation Boosts Confidence
*Subscribe to The Sports Psychology Podcast on iTunes
*Subscribe to The Sports Psychology Podcast on Spotify
Download a free sports psychology report to improve your mental game!
Learn more about our one-on-one mental game coaching.
The Confident Athlete
“The Confident Athlete” consists of 2 audio programs that include 14 days of confidence fueling exercises and a simple to follow workbook that guides you through the 14 days, helps you apply the strategies, and customizes the exercises to your personal needs.
Let me help you put a stop to the confidence leak. You can learn to have greater levels of confidence in competition than you do in practice by identifying the specific ways you undermine your own confidence and how to convert your practice confidence into COMPETITIVE CONFIDENCE.
“The Confident Athlete” is a ground-breaking system to teach you how to think like a champion and have ultimate self-confidence every time you step on the playing field, court, track, or course. The confident athletes was developed for any athlete – junior to professional –that wants to gain confidence. However, coaches and sports parents can learn how to teach others to perform with ultimate confidence. Use my program if you want to bust a slump or just wanting higher or more consistent levels of self-confidence.