How do you build your confidence in sports? Athletes often come seek out a sport psychologist because their confidence is too low. Many athletes, especially female identifying athletes, worry they’ll be perceived as “arrogant” or “not a team player” if their confidence is too high? The gender confidence gap is real, and it affects many female athletes and women’s sports teams today.
One of the biggest misconceptions about confidence in sports is that most athletes and coaches think confidence is simply the belief in one’s ability to win or succeed. That definition is too narrow and often leads to a simplified “yes or no”, “you either have it or you don’t” type of thinking, when the reality is that confidence is actually far more complex.
Confidence is an accumulation of one’s unique achievements across many different tasks and situations, coupled with preparation for the upcoming event, which enables one to develop specific expectations of achieving.
Burton & Raedeke, 2008
Most athletes experience a spectrum of confidence levels that fluctuate throughout the season based on internal and external factors. When I teach athletes and coaches about confidence, I encourage them to think about this broader concept: a continuum centered on optimal confidence, with underconfidence on one end and overconfidence on the other.
Underconfidence
Underconfidence, also known as low confidence, is marked by an underestimation of one’s ability to perform (APA). Underconfident athletes tend to under estimate their skill level and potential. They’re often overcome with self-doubt and have difficulty recovering from mistakes during practice or competition. They also tend to be underprepared, both physically and mentally, and highly sensitive to feedback from coaches which creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of failing in pressure situations.
Overconfidence
Overconfident athletes believe they are better than their game statistics suggest and carry an inflated sense of their performance history. They also tend to lack physical and mental preparation, and often respond to pressure situations by trying to over perform or hoard the ball. In many cases, overconfident athletes have a history of being pampered by parents, guardians or past coaches.
Optimal Confidence
Athletes with optimal confidence are prepared for pressure situations, both physically and mentally. They set realistic, attainable individual and team goals, and they approach competition with a clear game strategy.
Now that we’ve reframed confidence as a spectrum, how do we help athletes find their way into the zone of optimal confidence?
According to Bandura, high levels of self-efficacy contribute to better performances, or “mastery experiences.” Athletes who receive feedback and assurance that their goals are attainable tend to increase their motivation and effort until they achieve the success they’re after. Here are four strategies I use in mental coaching for athletes to help build confidence in sports before competition, along with free confidence-building worksheets you can use to work through them. I recommend athletes set aside quiet reflection time for each of the four categories: performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and arousal control (emotion regulation).
1. Past Performance Accomplishments & Experience
According to Bandura’s Theory (1997), the strongest predictor of self-efficacy is the athletes’ previous successful experiences (Williams & Krane, 2015). Taking a moment to reflect on all your past accomplishments in your sport, from the beginning of your career through to today, is one of the most effective ways to build your confidence in sports. Bring to mind a mental highlight reel of yourself playing your absolute best: maybe memories of playing in a flow state, big plays you made in critical moments under pressure, or an opponent you shut down. You can also create an actual highlight reel of video footage from your matches to watch before competition or during breaks. Imagery is a highly effective sport psychology strategy for building confidence in sports.
2. Vicarious Experience
You can also build confidence through vicarious experience: identifying a role model or expert in your sport and learning by watching and modeling their approach (Williams & Krane, 2015). This might mean watching college-level or professional competitions. The FIFA World Cup, Olympics and Paralympics are great opportunies to find and learn from a new role model in your sport.
3. Verbal Persuasion
Verbal persuasion is another effective sport psychology technique for building confidence athlete confidence in sports: it’s the positive feedback you’ve received from the people in your life life, most importantly your teammates and coaches. Spend some time reflecting on positive feedback, affirmations, and compliments you’ve received from them, and trust that they mean it. You may also find it helpful to reflect on what it felt like when your coaches recruited you and remind yourself that you were chosen to play for your team because they believed in your ability, talent, and potential.
4. Arousal Control (aka Emotion Regulation)
Arousal control, or the process of recognizing and managing ones optimal arousal state during competition, can also function to increase self-efficacy in athletes (Williams & Krane, 2015). Think about what it feels like when you first start to feel the pressure of a big game, meet, or competition. What does it feel like in your body? Do your muscles feel tight or heavy? Do you feel tension in your jaw, neck, chest or stomach? Picture that tension: what color is it? What is the texture? Next envision the tension leaving your body. Some athletes find it helpful to picture tension existing their body through an exhale of breath. Notice that you are not your anxiety, your worry, or your stress. That tension is separate from you. Externalize it. Let it go. Picture it leaving your body and notice a quiet sense of calm that follows. Learning to regulate your emotions to reach an optimal performance state is one of the most effective sport psychology techniques for increasing confidence in sports.
It’s all right to have butterflies in your stomach. Just get them to fly into formation.”
Rob Gilbert
Ready to put these strategies into practice? Download the free confidence-building worksheets and start working through each category this week.
References
Bandura, Albert. (1990) Perceived self-efficacy in the exercise of personal agency, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 2:2, 128-163, DOI: 10.1080/10413209008406426
Bandura, A., & Cervone, D. (1983) Self-evaluative and self-efficacy mechanisms governing the motivation effects of goal systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 1017-1028.
Burton, Damon & Raedeke, Thomas, D. (2008). Sport Psychology for Coaches. Human Kinetics.
Hays, K., Thomas, O., Maynard, I., & Bawden, M. (2009). The role of confidence in world-class sport performance. Journal of Sports Sciences, 27(11), 1185–1199.
Williams, J. M. & Krane, Vikki (2015). Applied sport psychology: personal growth to peak performance. Seventh edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/applied-sport-psychology-personal-growth-peak-performance-williams-krane/M9780078022708.html
Vealey, R. S., Hayashi, S. W., Garner-Holman, M., & Giacobbi, P. (1998). Sources of sport confidence: Conceptualization and instrument development. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 20(1), 54.