In my initial discussion with the first athlete, I got the impression from what they were saying that they believed they were a 'mid packer' at best. That was until they gave me some details on their performances, which for a vast majority of people would be a very good result (top 5/10 in age group depending on the race). It became clear that this athlete's biggest limiter was how they talked to themselves and how that self talk served to reinforce their behaviour and the outcome of their races. This is a person that I believe has podium potential, but is being held back by a lack of self belief, they are allowing themselves to stay within the realms of their comfort zone, avoiding going all out for the win as they think this will result in failure.
A short while later the same day, I was speaking with an athlete that, had I not known them, I might have been persuaded was going to give Craig Alexander a good run for his money. When in fact, they would probably place mid pack in most local sprint races. The contrast could not have been starker. This currency we call confidence is so important to us all in everything we do. So how do we build our self-confidence so that its stands on more than a foundation of sand? How do we become more robust to handle different challenges that sport and life throw at us?
Maybe the first place to start is by recognising whether or not we suffer from low self-confidence. Sometimes it's not always so apparent, some people may appear much more confident than they actually are. 'Fake it until you make it' is a well known self development technique. So how do we recognise under-confidence? We start by asking ourselves a few of these questions..Do you find it hard to accept compliments about how well you have done? It could be that, like our first athlete you don't push yourself for fearing failure or at least not meeting expectations. Maybe you allow other athletes thinking to govern your training or racing behaviour - those last minute changes of plan on the morning of your A race or doing everyone else's training except your own!
Low self-confidence often manifests itself in negative self-talk, body language and 'away from' goal setting (setting goals that avoid or move away from a problem or limiter). I would suggest we also want to build confidence grounded in reality not just spouting hot air in the hope its going to make us feel better about ourselves.
So here are my two pennies worth to help you become a more confident athlete:
- Starting Off: Write down and keep an achievement log of all the successes you have had however small. I.e. consistency in your training, improving your swim T-pace, staying focused on a tough turbo session, or whatever it might be. Keep it in a place that you can regularly update and reward yourself for these good performances.
- Spend some time thinking about your race goals, and make sure you have a mixture of outcome and process goals. Outcome goals are the ones we set each year like, beating our PB at a key race. Process goals are designed to help us get to our outcome goals, like training consistently for 8 sessions per week. Every time you reach one of your milestones record it in your achievement log. Don't forget to celebrate that success!
- Start to get to grips with managing your self talk as soon as you can, notice the language you use, and start to change it for more positive language. So a phrase like 'I am never...going under the hour for a 25' might be turned around to 'If I focus on my bike training, going under the hour could be possible'. Now we have moved the 'never' to a 'possible' what we need next is a series of small milestones that we can tick off on our way to 60 minute heaven :-)
- Using imagery is a regular part of many elite athletes training. Thinking and feeling what it will be like to achieve your goal, imagine through all your senses as you hit that swim PB or the sense of achievement when you log 12 hours of training!
Build on your own knowledge and skills in your chosen sport, this helps to build inner confidence about what you are doing. Keep yourself grounded, set regular, small but stretching goals and keep ticking them off your list. As the saying goes 'success breeds success'. It might not be an instant quick fix, but with application your confidence will hit new heights.
