Have Faith in Yourself



“Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself.” -- Robert Collier.


If you've had the experience of watching yourself competing poorly, adequately or extremely well depending on how confident you felt that day, you're not alone. Athletes of all abilities experience fluctuations in their self-confidence. Research has consistently found that one's skill level can be overrun by self-doubts. Even the most skilled athlete can perform poorly under circumstances that undermine his or her belief in himself or herself.


A study in the January 2008 issue of the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology looked at the sources and types of confidence important to World Class athletes. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 14 athletes who had competed in the Olympic Games, World Championship and/or World Cup. Specifically, they were interested in how these athletes gained self-confidence (i.e., the sources of their confidence) and what types of confidence they thought necessary to succeed in sport (i.e., what the athletes were confident about).


So what are the sources of confidence in World Class athletes? The results identified three major factors: preparation, accomplishments, and coaching. Every single athlete interviewed highlighted the importance of physical preparation in helping create a feeling of confidence. Nearly all of the athletes mentioned the importance of mental preparation. All athletes used prior successful competitions to bolster their self-confidence. All but one of the athletes interviewed identified coaching as a source of confidence either through a coach's ability to provide encouragement, positive feedback and reinforcement, and compliments or through a belief in the coach's ability to provide the appropriate training regimen to insure success.


Sport confidence is not uni-dimensional. It is has many facets. Four types of sport confidence were identified by athletes in this study. Athletes felt skill execution-confidence; they believed in their ability to execute correctly the skills required to be successful in their sport. The athletes felt achievement-confidence; they believed in their ability to achieve their goals whether they be "winning," "beating the other team," or " getting a certain time." Athletes felt physical-confidence; they believed in their physical ability (strength, speed, stamina, level of fitness, etc.). They also possessed psychological-confidence; they believed in their ability to deal with nerves and expectations.


While there are many limitations to this study and one should take caution in generalizing from a group of World Class athletes to those competing at other levels, I believe there are some good lessons to be learned from this research. So here you go:


  1. There is no substitution for physical preparation. If you want to feel confident the next time you compete, do everything you can physically to arrive at the competition in the best shape possible.


  2. Don't forget to prepare mentally. If you don't know how, have someone teach you relaxation techniques, visualization techniques, and techniques for managing your pre-competition anxiety.


  3. Get a coach. Good coaches can be an excellent source of positive feedback that you can use to build self-confidence. Good athletes know the value of a good coach.


  4. Practice, practice, and practice your basic skills so that you have no doubt in your ability to accomplish the task at hand. Every good performer (whether in the arena or auditorium) knows that practicing is the key to success. It's also the key to self-confidence.


  5. Keep track of your past achievements. I advise the athletes I work with to keep a journal of their accomplishments. When I really want to build an athlete's self-confidence I have them email me a list of at least two goals/things they accomplished each day. Keeping a written record will allow you to look back on what you've done and feel more confident come race day or the day of your big competition.


  6. Self-confidence can be learned. Self-confident athletes are not necessarily born that way. They work hard to get there.


Now is the time to ask yourself: "Am I as confident as I'd like to be?" If not, time to get to work. The only thing stopping you from becoming more confident is you.

Since I started this post with a quote, I thought I'd end with one. This one comes from one of the world's great performers. Though not an athlete, the quote's author certainly knows a lot about acting under pressure.

"Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go so much further than people with vastly superior talent." -- Sophia Loren


Reference: Hayes, K., Maynard, I., Thomas, O. & Bawden, M. (2007). Sources and types of confidence identified by World Class sport performers. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 19, 434-456.

1 comments:

  1. Dr. Randy Borum says
    January 16, 2008 at 5:24 AM  

    Very nice!

    I just finished writing a column on "faith" for Black Belt Magazine. Robert Nideffer, argues that the distinction between confidence and faith is an important one for the competitive athlete. While confidence can be easily shaken, faith endures. As Nideffer says, “Faith is believing in the absence of success.”

    Thanks Sportsminded for sharing your expertise!


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