Play Like a Champion Today
What comes to mind when you think about an athletes who have self-confidence? We think of them as people who walk with their heads held up, shoulders back, and facial muscles relaxed, as they walk onto the field with an expression on their face that tells the world, “I am going to win.”
Do you wish you could portray the same message to the world with your body language - and truly believe that you too are a winner? The good news is you can - self- confidence is not given for free to anyone. It is a myth that if you are not born with self-confidence you can never have it; self-confidence is an attitude that can be cultivated.
“Research indicates that the factor most consistently distinguishing highly successful from less successful athletes is confidence” (Gould & Weinberg, 2015. p, 323). If you want to achieve better results you must start by building your self- confidence. Olympic gold medalist Michel Philips meditates for fifteen before every competition. He uses guided imagery to envision himself swimming and winning the race. Self- confidence is built through hard work, planning and practicing. (Gould & Weinberg, 2015). Success does not automatically breeds confidence. The same way an athlete must continue to train to compete and succeed at higher and higher levels, without which he or she cannot reach their full potential as an athlete, so too, it is crucial to continue to develop and maintain self confidence, because without self- confidence it will be extremely difficult to nearly impossible to reach your highest potential as an athlete. Therefore, the harder you work on building your self-confidence the better off you will be as an athlete.
This begs the question: what exactly is self confidence? “Self-confidence is the belief that you can successfully perform a desired behavior” (Gould & Weinberg, 2015. P, 324). The desired behavior might be to stick a triple layout flip off the uneven bars if you were a gymnast, hitting a home run if you were a baseball player, or sticking to an exercise regimen to become fit. Self-confidence can apply to many situations in exercise or sports; the common factor is that you truly believe in your skill level and have complete certainty that you will get the job done.
Sport psychology researchers came up with some tips that you can use to build the self- confidence that you always wanted to have. These include: focusing on past accomplishments, acting with confidence, responding with confidence, and thinking confidently.
Focus on Past Accomplishments
According to Gold & Weinberg, successful behavior increases confidence and leads to further successful behavior. Whether one scores a win for the team, loses five pounds on the scale, or is finally able to get out of bed independently following a sport injury. “Performance accomplishments are the most powerful way to build confidence. Manipulates or create situations that allow participants to succeed and have a sense of accomplishment” (Gould & Weinberg, 2015. p, 342). The success does not have to be a big accomplishment to engender a positive feeling, motivation, and the certainty that subsequent success will follow the first. As the saying goes, “success breeds success.”
Act Confident
If you behave in a confident manner you will feel more confident. A person’s emotions and behavior are directly intertwined with one another. Therefore, the more confidence a person portrays, the more confident they will feel. Picture a person who walks around with slumped shoulders, a pained facial expression and with his head down; he is communicating to the world that he is depressed and lacks confidence in himself and optimism for his future. This tells his opponent that he will be distracted and is an easy target. Therefore, even when you are feeling down, don’t let others know: keep your head up, your shoulders back, and facial muscles relaxed, demonstrating to your opponent that you are confident and have the stamina to persevere
Respond With Confidence
Everyone makes mistakes - it’s a part of life. However, the way you respond to failure can build you up or crush you. “Athletes should focus on responding to mistakes and errors with control and confidence rather than reacting with emotion or unproductive behavior” (Gould & Weinberg, 2015. p, 343). Accept the negative feelings that result from a poor performance or mistake instead of running from the discomfort that causes you or trying to deny the reality of your emotional experience. Own how you feel! Resist pushing your feelings aside and pretending that they are not there. Remind yourself that you are a good player. This one failure does not define you. The past cannot be undone or redone. Focus your thoughts on things you can control, the process you will follow to achieve success moving forward and the great progress you will attain.
Think Confidently
Confidence is developed by constantly thinking positively and telling yourself you can and will achieve your goals. “A positive attitude is essential to reaching potential” (Gould & Weinberg, 2015. p, 344). If you think and believe you can, if you go out to the arena telling yourself you can you will perform a lot better than if you convince yourself you are doomed to fail. If your mind is on a negative feedback loop you are likely to perform poorly. To reach success you must dream success! Imagine yourself on a billboard featuring the best athlete of the season or even the greatest athlete of all time.
Summary
Remember confidence is not a given, confidence is built. The way you think, walk and act are all skills. Imagine yourself on a scale, if the scale is tipped all the way to the negative side, you have become extremely skilled at these negative expressions. With changing any negative behavior, you must replace the destructive behaviors with positive and productive behaviors. Identify the negative habits and replace them with positive habits. Make a commitment to create the change you want to become. Practice training and competing with this mindset until self-confidence and positive attitudes become automatic. Don't wait for tomorrow; believe in yourself and you will play like a champion today!
Citation
Gould, D., & Weinberg, R. S. (2015). Foundations of sport and exercise psychology (6th ed.).
Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
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