How to improve your confidence in sport.
One of the most important psychological variables to achieve maximum performance is the self confidence; We can define the confidence of an athlete as his own belief that he can successfully perform a desired behavior such as running a triathlon, losing 3 hours in a marathon, finish a 100 km race or be a starter on your team.
We say that an athlete has self-confidence when he is convinced that he can do something, such as shooting a penalty, shooting 3 or beating his own record. But it is not about saying that he is convinced, but that this is based on realistic expectations, that is, it is not worth deceiving yourself or trying to deceive others.
It is important that we take into account in sports performance that there are three factors that are fundamental, on the one hand the athlete has to be able to perform certain behaviors, that is, he has to have a special talent. Secondly, it is important that the athlete wants to carry out these behaviors, that is, that he or she is motivated, and thirdly, it is important that an athlete is convinced that he or she can do it, that is, self-confidence.
In short, in the sports performance of an athlete, the conviction that he has the ability to do things is fundamental, believing that he can is the basis of confidence. Like most psychological variables, the self-confidence of an athlete is dynamic and can be modified throughout a season and his sports life. Self-confidence depends on what the athlete himself is capable of doing, that is, how he is perceived, this perception will depend fundamentally on the assessments he makes of the sports information related to him, we must not forget that an athlete as any person is constantly receiving and processing information related to their training and competitions and this will influence your confidence.
The perception of what an athlete is capable of doing depends fundamentally on the information he receives and this comes mainly from four sources, an important source of information comes from his own sports experiences and his sports performance. Keep in mind that the same sports fact can have positive and negative aspects. If the athlete after a competition focuses his attention on the positive aspects, he will value it as a success and in this way his confidence in being able to achieve his goals will increase; however, if he focuses his attention on the negative aspects of his performance, he will perceive it as a failure. and in this way will negatively influence your confidence to achieve your goals.
That is why it is important to make the most objective assessment possible of the performance, it is important that the athlete is aware of the things he has done well, but it is also very important that he realizes what aspects he has to improve, in that sense it is The role of parents and coaches is essential; they are the ones who have to help athletes to set your attention about these aspects.
It is important that coaches teach tasks in which success prevails, a second very important source of information that influences an athlete is the comments that the environment emits, in this sense it is important to compensate the possible negative effect of these comments with other information in which positive qualities of the athlete stand out. A third aspect that is important and that influences confidence is the information that comes from sports experiences of other athletes, when an athlete knows that, for example, another runner with whom he usually trains has been able to improve his own brand, his own confidence, it can also be reinforced, in short, the achievements of other colleagues should stimulate the rest of the athletes who train with him.
Finally, it is also very important for confidence, the information that the organism itself provides about the physical state and the perception and interpretation that is gained from it. Feeling well physically provides the athlete with security and confidence, for this reason it is so important to respect breaks and active recovery training. When an athlete feels physically strong, with more confidence and with more feelings of being able to achieve their goals, ultimately a good training You must control the training loads taking into account the psychological effect that you are also producing.
What coaches and athletes themselves can do to improve confidence, it is important that we know some tips that can be useful for both athletes and their coaches in order to improve confidence.
In the first place, it is important to establish realistic and short-term goals. The goal-setting technique is a strategy that sports psychologists use and that helps us plan the season and its goals in a controlled way, thus helping to promote safety. and confidence in the athlete. It is also very important to foster confidence that the athlete is positive, in this sense it is important that according to mature, learn and get to know when you have negative thoughts it is important that you are able to detect them and change them for other positive ones that exert a positive influence on you.
Acting with confidence is also important, researchers have shown that there is a clear relationship between what we feel, what we think and what we do; Therefore, if we are able to act as if we are confident, we will generate confident thoughts and generate positive emotions. It is also important that we use visualization, this is a strategy that we use to see, to recreate situations that we would like to see happen.
In this way we prepare our minds for what is going to happen with which it is as if we had already experienced this situation and finally a last orientation would be to have a good preparation when an athlete feels well prepared, when he feels well trained, when he is respecting proper nutrition and rest makes you feel much more self-confident.