5 Tips to Unstoppable Confidence

As a parent or coach of young athletes, you undoubtedly can see it crystal clear when your athletes are lacking confidence right before the competition.  At the heart of kids inability to come to the game with confidence is fear, however, I have shortcut tip that can bring confidence to every game match or tournament.

Tip #1 to Unstoppable Confidence

Organize everything you do for your athlete around skill acquisition and effort.  Everyone knows that athletes perform better when they improve their skills which are why they practice drills, scrimmages, and conditioning.  The one thing we hear often from coaches and parents is that they don’t perform as well in the game or competition as they do in practice.  They lose their confidence in the game.

In practice, these kids are praised from coaches and parents and feel the hustle, determination, and discipline that shows an improvement in their physical skills.  During the competition, they only praise good performances and minimize skills and effort.  These athletes only focus on having a good performance because that’s what their parents are doing instead of just executing the skills and showing hustle like they do in practice.  This causes the kid to worry and stress, fear a poor performance which causes nervousness, tension, tightness and timid play along with other problems. It makes it harder to focus on what they are doing out there.  Praise efforts and skills.  That’s a mental skill.

Tip #2 “I Can” attitude

Make the term “I Can’t” not acceptable. 

I remember my coach yelling at me every time I said “I can’t” to her and then punished me with extra conditioning.  Usually was running the stairs or doing extra sit-ups till I performed the skill to the best of my ability (with or without a spot).  She reminded me after that you can do anything you put your mind and attention on.  We all learned from coach Ida, from all the extra conditioning we had to do that we will never say those words again.  When we use the “I Can” attitude we help build confidence through consistency and repetition.

Tip #3 Remind them of past success

If you have done something before, guess what?  You can do it again. It is so much easier to revert back to the times of failure or fear of what can happen in the future because that is our protective mechanism.  This happens very frequently in children.  Sadly, if we don’t train our minds differently, we’ve just killed our confidence level. Kids and adults alike only remember their falls or failures long before they can remember their successes.  As a parent or coach, you can assist by finding the best times to remember the past successes.  Here’s the biggest tip; be specific!  You’ve not only bonded with your child but you’ve just boosted their confidence level.

Tip #4 Consistency

Every sport has a routine they do in both practices and before a game.  The most important benefit to these routines is trust.  Trusting your body to know what you need to do with everything you trained it to do.  First, comes routine then comes trust.  Once you do your routine consistently, you will do it time and time again.  There is a great mantra to this, “I will repeat what I perform well and I know how to do it”.

The unconscious mind is the powerhouse to consistency.  Think about what it does for you every day with your heart beating and breathing.  You don’t have to think about either, it does it all for you unconsciously and consistently.  When we make a mistake we need to tap into our unconscious mind at that moment and reconnect.  This great mind of our has the knowledge and directions to make all these correct movements (and also the incorrect ones).  The only way to connect the correct movements is through a routine.

Tip #5 Create a confidence journal

Get a small journal

After every practice write down 3 things that you succeed on and want to remember.  It can be anything from pointing your toes to catching a ball.  I call it a confidence journal because it reminds you of all the hard work and effort you put into your sport.  Just showing up can be one if you are having trouble thinking one.  We’ve all had days when showing up takes so much effort due to studying for exams or being ill. You did the work and your need to positively remind yourself of it.  Have fun with this!

Use this strategy and other mental toughness skills to build your confidence so you can perform to your potential.

You can do this!

Mental skills are just like physical skills.  Everybody can learn them.  My 4 session process is a no-brainer for parents who want to give their kids every opportunity to succeed.  Call me right now to see how your child will benefit in school, personal relationships and instilling a success mindset for the rest of their life.  This is the time to do it through sports while they are interested in something like this for their own personal development.  Call me now!