Self-confidence and how it affects athletes
Self-confidence is the "feeling of trust in one's abilities, qualities, and judgment" (Oxford Dictionary, 2008).
Or in sporting terms, confidence is "the belief that you can play a certain shot or achieve a certain goal, no matter what the circumstances are" (Kremer and Moran, 2008).
Athletes need to have confidence in their ability to be able to succeed in their sport. It is important to recognise that we all have the ability to have self-confidence: it can be trained and installed in us. Athletes with self-confidence will then be able to influence themselves and their sporting performance, as well as have influence over others, especially their competitors.
Athlete's who have optimal self-confidence will be able to perform better. Typically they will:
- Be positive in their approach to their performance
- Take risks to improve their performance
- Keep an "always a winner" healthy mental attitude, even when they did not win a competition
- Focus on the positives on their performance, rather than letting their negatives get them down
- Take constructive criticism well
Psychologists refer to three different types of confidence:
- Diffidence
- Optimal self-confidence
- Over-confidence
Diffidence refers to a lack of self-confidence. Athletes who experience this are less likely to perform to their potential as they focus on the fear of failure and withdraw from the competition.
Children may suffer from this when they come up against other children who have better equipment (such as trainers or running spikes).
This lack of self-confidence will see athletes not only think they are going to fail, but also start making excuses for their performance before they even take part in their event.
Athletes with optimal self-confidence set realistic goals that they often achieve. They have the ability to look at their performance levels objectively and have the courage and heart to keep motivated and carry on with their training programmes and competitions.
Athletes who are over-confident, however, can experience a drop in their performance. Over-confidence can also be referred to as "false-confidence". This is because the athlete has a skewed mental image of how they can perform and what their abilities are. They may already believe that their technical abilities are the best they can be, and as such they won't improve their performance.
Self-doubt and how it affects athletes
Self-doubt is to have a "lack of confidence in oneself and one's abilities" (Oxford Dictionary, 2008).
Self-doubt and anxiety have a huge affect on an athlete's performance. This is particularly true for sports such as golf, or rugby, where the player focuses on an earlier bad shot or pass rather than thinking positively on the rest of the game. Dr Stephen Ball suggests that in this instance, the athlete replays the negative shots in their minds, rather than focusing on the positive shot they are yet to take.
Self-doubt destroys self-confidence. Athletes that are focused won't let their self-doubt and negative thoughts enter their mind, so their self-confidence remains strong.
However, those athletes that let self-doubt affect them will notice their technical skills diminish and will experience tentative behaviour, rather than their skills being automatic.
Self-doubt often affects athletes in competition, rather than during training. It is one of the contributors to under par performance during competition. Self-doubt affects athletes by affecting their mind negatively, or increasing the chance of injury or cramp during a critical moment.
Self-doubt affects how an athlete sees themselves in front of an external audience. They may suddenly not want to perform in front of people, and worry that they will look bad and even embarrass themselves in front of others.
Athletes that have confidence in their abilities are committed to win and perform to their best standard. However, those athletes affected by self-doubt do not commit 100 per cent to win and will accept near loss.
If an athlete with self-doubt wins their competition, they still do not accept it is due to their abilities, as they doubt their skills. They use language such as: "I guess I was lucky today." If they lose they don't critique their performance and look at ways to improve. They accept they lost and lose language like: "It was fun just to take part" and "I'm just glad to be here."
Some athletes are confident in their abilities at a lower competitive level, but will be affected by self-doubt if they reach say the semi-final stage. Although they have the skills to win, their self-doubt will affect them mentally. They may suffer from cramp, injury or just loss of concentration.
Lack of confidence and self-doubt will certainly affect an athlete's performance and commitment to their sport. Whilst they may seem to be improving during training, self-doubt will affect the athlete in a competitive environment.
How athletes can over come self-doubt and a lack of confidence
Self-confidence can be determined by an athlete's past performance. The athlete needs to adopt an "always a winner" mindset. They need to focus on and refer to their best performances, not necessarily their last performance.
There are a number of ways an athlete can over come their lack of confidence. These are discussed below.
An athlete should mentally visualise their previous good performances to remind themselves of how this made them feel, and what this performance looked like.
The athlete should also watch the performance of others (peers and sporting heroes on the television) and try to recreate what they have seen.
They also need to imagine various scenarios and work out how they would cope with them. This will make them feel prepared and increase their confidence.
The small beliefs we have in ourselves all contribute to our confidence levels. The athlete needs to consistently focus on their positive performances. This helps to affirm the notion that they can do it, and they can succeed.
Verbal persuasion and affirmations train the memory to think in a positive way. This can come from the coach or the athlete. The athlete can take the positive affirmations that the coach has said and keep repeating them in their mind.
The repetition of a positive statement or belief should become the athlete's mantra. They need to visualise themselves acting out this statement. For example: "I am the greatest" (Mohammed Ali).
If the coach is giving constructive feedback to an athlete, they need to ensure this is done in a positive way as this could damage the confidence of that athlete. The athlete needs to learn to ignore comments that are not constructive and helpful, or are not from a knowledgeable source.
The easiest way to overcome a lack of self-confidence is to heavily focus on all the positives of the athlete. The coach needs to discuss with the athlete their performances and current achievements in a way that motivates them and installs confidence, not discourages them. For example, the athlete and coach will:
- Discuss the athletes' performance in a rational and non-emotional way
- Discuss the things that can be changed to help the athlete improve - these are small manageable things
- Discuss and highlight the things that were good in the athletes' performance
- Discuss the athletes' achievements to date
- Discuss a new route to achieve the athletes' goal(s)
- Discuss the positive performance of the other players/ competitors
The athlete needs to be honest when reviewing their performance: this means looking at the positives and the negatives. Too many athletes will only focus on the negatives if they did not perform the way they wanted to. They need to ensure they look at the good things in their performance, as well as reviewing past performances and what was good about them.
The athlete needs to write and focus on specific achievable goals. This makes the challenge manageable and will motivate the athlete to achieve their personal goals.
To improve self-confidence, the athlete should also look at controlling their emotional arousal. By training their mind to view emotional symptoms such ad butterflies and increased heart rate as a positive sign, they will be able to perform better and with more confidence. The athlete needs to ensure they don't lose control: if they do this then they can maintain their confidence.
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