How to Build Confidence in Sports

Written on March 22, 2012 by Craig in Coaches, Mental Toughness Trainer's Corner

Who does not want more confidence in their sport, right?!?  It is especially difficult with kids because they believe it is based on their performances.  It is critical that you teach them that this is not true!

This is Part 4 from a talk, Craig Sigl, the Mental Toughness Trainer gave on How to build confidence in sports for the Pacific Northwest Coaches conference.

How Athletes Use Mental Training To Build Confidence

To build confidence in your sports athletes. First of all, you need to eliminate the idea that confidence comes from success.  It does not.  It can, but it’s not necessary.  When your athletes think it has to come from past successes, it stops them from gaining confidence.

You need to explain to them that they came out of the womb with no success and ever since have created success for themselves.  I’ve heard said by many people in the sports world that the only way to get confidence is to have success.  Well that does not help your kids who haven’t had any successes yet.

It feels like a Catch-22 – right?  Just like we say in the adult world, “How am I going to get a job if I don’t have a job?”  Well just get rid of that belief.  Instead point out they’ve had some successes in their lives and it’s more about just believing you can have success – and wanting it.”

When you’re young and you start learning to walk – you just want it. That’s all that was needed for success.  Get them on board that way.  Direct them that way.  That’s all you’ve got to communicate is,“If you want it, it will come around, it’s that simple.”

A lot of times we just need to dumb the teaching down and get simple with them to help them build mental toughness.  Just give them one little concept a day or several times during the week.  Pound it in multiple times and counter the negative stuff that’s going on in their head throughout the week.

The other important step on building confidence in sports is to clear the mental baggage.  Everybody’s got some.  Now this is not so easy as a coach.  This is the kind of I do in my office and in my programs.
But the bottom line, we should all be aware of is, that these underlying beliefs live in the cellular tissues of the body.  And literally it’s the subconscious mind that can get in the way and stop an athlete from performing their best.

To help your athletes build confidence in sport we have put together a game-changing guided visualization .mp3 that you can get  for free so your athlete can start listening on their way to the next big event!

Master Your Pressure with our free guided visualization

Welcome to the Winner’s Circle!
Craig Sigl, the Mental Toughness Trainer