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Kristen Mattox and Sharon Kerr

California State University, Fresno

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation. Arthur Ashe

Confidence in competitive sport is a result of particular thinking habits more so than physical talent, opportunity, or previous success. These thinking habits, when persistently practiced result in higher levels of confidence.

Practicing the skill of controlled thinking, an athlete can enlist consistent positive thinking which elicits positive feelings and leads to improved performance.

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Prerequisites for Gaining Confidence

• Thoughts – Performance

The athlete directs his or her thoughts onto those aspects of environment and self that produce powerful, confident feelings to enhance performance.

• Honest Self-Awareness

The athlete must always ask the question, “Am I really thinking in the way that will give me the best chance of success?”

• Develop an Optimistic Explanatory Style

Explanatory Style refers to the way an athlete responds to and explains both good and bad events that occur in his or her life. It defines optimistic and pessimistic individuals.

➢ Permanence-the degree to which one feels events will repeat themselves and continue to affect one’s life either negatively or positively.

➢ Pervasiveness- the degree to which one feels that a particular experience will generalize to other contexts.

➢ Personalization: The degree to which one feels they have control over what happens to them.

• Embrace a Psychology of Excellence

Thoughts about one’s self are aligned to produce energy, optimism, and enthusiasm.

REFERENCES

Mack, G. (2001). Mind Gym. New York: McGraw Hill.

Orlick, T. (2000). In pursuit of excellence (3rd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Feltz, D. L., & Lirgg, C. D. (2001). Self-efficacy beliefs of athletes, teams and coaches. In R. N. Singer, H. A.

Hausenblas, & C. M. Janelle (Eds.), Handbook of Sport Psychology. (2nd ed., pp. 340-361). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Zinsser, N., Bunker, L., & Williams, J. M. (2001). Cognitive techniques for building confidence and enhancing

performance. In J. M. Williams (Ed.), Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance (4th

ed., pp. 284-311). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.

http:// motivational-sports-quotes.shtml. Retrieved 8-31-2004

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Jordan said he went into every game believing he was the best player on the court until someone disproved him. Very few did.

Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy beliefs are not judgments about one’s skills, but rather judgments of what one can accomplish with those skills. In other words, self-efficacy is about what one thinks he or she can do, not what one has done. Having a strong self-efficacy is important in athletics because you must believe you can be an accomplisher.

SELF-TALK AND CONFIDENCE

Anytime you think about something, you are in a sense talking to yourself.

Positive Self-Talk is a valuable tool for enhancing confidence and performance. The practice of boosting or uplifting one’s self is valuable for the athlete because the athlete will attach positive labels to him or herself, thus increasing confidence.

Negative Self-Talk does the opposite. Talking negatively to one’s self will cause the athlete to attach negative labels to him or herself which will impact confidence and hinder performance.

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