How’s your teams overall confidence?
Because let me tell you, activating a competitor’s confidence is EVERYTHING when it comes to teams performing at their best. The leading Sports Psychologists, Bob Rotella who wrote the book, How Champions Think says confidence is the number one skill athletes need to be successful.
Being strategic about teaching your team how to strengthen their confidence is a must! Mentally strong athletes translates to a confident team culture that thrives.
What would it be like if your team knew how to activate a competitor's confidence no matter the competition?
There was a point, when my confidence was at an all-time low when I was on the Junior National Team. We were facing Canada, and we lost three out of four games in a friendly tournament. Let me tell you—I was NOT feeling confident.
I kept asking myself, "Do I even deserve to be here representing my country?'"
Second guessing myself fed into the hesitations, the harsh judgements when I messed up. Doubt was creeping into every move, and I kept getting frustrated. We’ve all been there, watching our best players fall apart under pressure. But here’s the thing—our team realized something important that turned everything around for us. The Junior National Team coach pulled us together and said something that completely changed my mindset.
"Even if you don’t FEEL confident right now, you can still ACT confident. You can still do what confident athletes do and say what confident athletes say." - Pam Bustin Duke University Field Hockey Coach and Former U.S. Coach
So, we did it, and guess what? Our team's confidence followed. She was right.. Because Confidence isn’t just something you have—it’s something you can create.
You can train it and you can activate it, just like any skill. Once your team knows how to maintain a healthy level of confidence, it fuels their persistence, and it drives your athletes to keep working, even when things aren’t going your way. Even though we lost those three games to Canadian junior national team, we didn’t see it as total defeat.
We choose to view it as a challenge.
A challenge we believed we could improve on and grow from. That shift in mindset was the key to stepping into our team's confidence. Because confidence is all about self-belief—believing that, with the right effort, you CAN achieve your goals. Even if you’re not there yet, you trust that with practice, you WILL get there. When coaches explain to athletes confidence isn't something you're just born with. It’s a learned skill, that changes a teams mindset to keep going.
“To be a great champion, you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend that you are.” - Muhammad Ali
Tennis player with game face confidence
How are you intentionally building your athletes' confidence?
Here are six steps you can take as a coach to create a culture of confidence across your entire team!
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