Your Mind: Confidence - It’s Half The Battle
March 16, 2007
How many times have you heard this? Player/Coach/Parent says: “Wow. He (or She) is playing with a lot of confidence right now and just looks like a different player.”
Many times the only difference between two players of equal talent is that one of them is playing with more confidence and, subsequently, makes more plays – possibly The Play of the match. Confidence is the rock-solid belief in one’s ability.
It seems like players at all levels experience an ebb in confidence at one time or another and it’s the way they handle it that often times makes a critical difference.
“Self-belief is such an important element in football.”
— David Beckham
When some players lose confidence, it’s the beginning of a deeper spiral, while others are able to bounce back the very next game. It’s always a lesson in how you handle mistakes (learn from them and let ‘em go!) and maintain your mental edge.
I ran across an interesting excerpt in Soccer – The Mind Game (by Steve Bull & Chris Shambrook; ReedSwain Publishing; ISBN 1-59164-095-4) that gives another perspective:
“You and your team have choices with confidence – you can choose to take control of it … or carry on believing that confidence is out of your control and that you’ll get it only by getting a win, because, after all, in football, one of the most frequently used quotes is: ‘All we need is a win to get our confidence back.’
This approach simply perpetuates the myth that confidence is all about results and totally sets up a player or team for massive confidence peaks and troughs throughout a season – not an approach we recommend.
Confidence is possibly the most important psychological commodity within sport. From amateur player to international performer, more often than not, sport psychologists will at some point focus their work on helping improve confidence. We have stopped being surprised at how frequently we get requests to help improve confidence…. More than any area in sport psychology, confidence truly outlines how important it is to think of your mind as you think of your fitness.”
Speaking of confidence and your performance on the field, check out this article on dealing with performance anxiety and confidence, “Don’t Choke. Dealing With Performance Anxiety”.
– Steve
Steve Arters is co-founder and president of Ziga-Zoga, one of soccer’s newest community-based websites. He’s a current and longtime club soccer dad at the Premier and D-1 levels in Texas and has been fortunate to accompany teams to the top national tournaments from coast to coast. Steve has a media background that includes radio, newspaper and serving as a reporter/editor for The Associated Press and United Press International. He also has extensive marketing/advertising experience that includes sports marketing expertise involving professional teams/organizations, national cable programming and college conferences. He can be reached at sarters@zigazoga.com.
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