One of the most important areas to understand in football is confidence. Without the confidence or belief that you can achieve a goal, you will fail or may not even begin. There are a whole bunch of specific and powerful methods that you can use to build up your confidence and ensure success. In this article I am just going to cover three of the best:
Past performances.
Firstly and probably most powerful of all is the recollection of past performances. Through making notes about your previous success you realise that you have been able to achieve a certain level of performance in the past. Thinking back over past matches or training to times when you have successfully played well serves to remind you of your skill and ability.
Pinpointing times when you have successfully performed well is great for increasing confidence. For example if you are having problems with penalties you can think back and remember a time when you were successfully scoring a penalty.
Through remembering that you are competent and able to carry out this action it will increase your confidence in relation to penalties.
2. Watching someone else do it!
The second way to increase your confidence is through watching someone else successfully perform or achieve that action. Watching someone else successfully complete an action that you desire to complete is a powerful form of increasing confidence, especially if that person is similar to yourself.
By watching or modeling others, you can learn how to improve your skills. For example if you are having trouble with penalties and your confidence is low then through watching someone else perform this action you will be able to increase your belief in your own ability (especially if that person is similar to yourself).
3. Encouragement from people you respect.
Encouragement or verbal persuasion from coaches, trainers or significant others is another trigger for boosting confidence. This can be in the form of feedback (“Here’s how to do this”) or motivational (“Come on, you can do it”). If the person providing the encouragement is considered to be credible and knowledgeable, the encouragement is likely to be more influential.
People often also employ encouragement (or positive self-talk) to help themselves feel confident about what they are about to do. As there is a tendency to act according to how we think, positive self- and task-related statements made by people can increase confidence.
If we continue with the penalty example, if your coach or trainer demonstrates belief in your ability through encouraging you to go ahead with it, it can be a powerful form of confidence leading to thoughts such as “If they think I can do it and they are honest and knowledgeable then I trust their judgment and I reckon I can do it”. Obviously that is not the exact thought process but you get the idea!
Confidence can be an elusive little sucker especially when it has abandoned you and you need it most, but rest assured there are simple and powerful ways to build your confidence to get you back to peak performance!
Take care!
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Robin Stafford is fooballgirl.com Performance Specialist a gifted and rising star amongst the sports psychology industry, working with a number of elite atheletes around the world.
Helping and advisng his clients on how best to tune their mind and bodies to perform at their highest level.
To become a client of Robin's contact : marketing@footballgirl.com (please send details of your sporting history, issues that need help)
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