Importance of Self confidence in Athletes

Career of an athlete is based on his performance. Performance is directly proportional to the amount of confidence the athletes with him. Let us understand the factors that affects self confidence in athletes and how can it be build in them.

Cause of low Self Confidence in Athletes

• Problems with Coach: For an athlete, his coach is everything. Those athletes that are part of a team like football, basketball or hockey, may suffer from low self esteem if despite of enough hard work the coach is bias towards another player due to some personal reasons.

  This may affect self-esteem of the player and reduce self confidence of the athlete.

  Lack of communication or misunderstanding between athlete and the coach significantly harms the self-confidence of the athlete. Negative motivation too may reduce self confidence in the player.

• Repeated Loss: Winning and losing is part of every player`s life but with repeated defeat the athletes loses self confidence. A major retrogression of self confidence is observed if the defeat rests on shoulders of a single athlete; as in tennis and track events.

• Competition and Self-Doubt: The athletes may not feel confident to face the opponents knowing about their past achievements. This is because of self- doubt in the player which may be difficult to overcome. It could also be result of lack of preparation.

• Near to Retirement: Biological age may reduce self confidence in athletes. The athletes may not have the same vigor in the body as they used to leading to a self-doubt and low self-esteem.

How to Rebuild Confidence in Athletes

• Proper Preparation: Better the preparation more self confidence the player will feel. The training should cover sharpening of the skills, knowing about the competitors and being regular with the game.

  Sharpening of the skills gives them an edge over other players. Knowing about the competitions and competitors makes the player mentally aware so that there are no surprises for the player in the field. Example, if the player knows about the players.

  Training should be made interesting by the coach so that player is not bored by the same schedule. For better training, the coach should understand the psychology of the athlete.

• Understanding Psychology: To improve self confidence in the athlete the coach must is aware of the mental health of the athlete. This will help the coach in more ways than just one.

  For examples, the psychology of the player helps in understanding if the athletes can be motivated through positive motivation or negative motivation.

  Without awareness of this, if the coach tries to increase self confidence in the player through negative motivation then the player may develop self doubt and have reduced self confidence.

  Understanding psychology of the athlete makes the coach aware about how the athlete may react to different situations.

• Achieve Short Term Goals: Experience makes the athlete stronger both mentally and physically. Make the athlete participate in small events even if those are for recreational activities.

  Allow the athlete to be his own competitor and motivate him to break his own record. This can be done by keeping a strict record of his performance.

• Discussing Extraordinary Examples: The coach/trainer should discuss with the athlete about the famous athletes who have shown extraordinary self confidence in their life.

  Knowing that a certain person nailed success through abundant self confidence boosts self confidence in athletes.