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How to improve the player’s self confidence

Improving a tennis player’s confidence is crucial for their performance on the court. Here are some strategies to help boost a player’s confidence in tennis:

  1. Positive self-talk: Encourage the player to develop positive self-talk during matches and practice sessions. Help them replace negative thoughts with positive and empowering statements. For example, instead of thinking, “I can’t make this shot,” they can say, “I can do this, I’ve practiced this shot many times.”
  2. Focus on strengths: Identify the player’s strengths and help them develop confidence in those areas. Encourage them to rely on their strengths during matches and remind them of past successes.
  3. Set realistic goals: Work with the player to set realistic and achievable goals. Break down larger goals into smaller, manageable steps. Achieving these goals will provide a sense of accomplishment and boost confidence.
  4. Visualization: Encourage the player to visualize success. Ask them to imagine themselves executing shots perfectly, winning points, and ultimately winning matches. Visualization can help build confidence and mental preparation.
  5. Practice and preparation: Consistent practice and preparation are vital for confidence. Ensure the player is adequately prepared physically and mentally for matches. Practice different scenarios and match situations to build confidence in handling various challenges.
  6. Positive reinforcement: Provide positive reinforcement and praise for the player’s efforts and improvements. Acknowledge their achievements, even small ones, and offer encouragement and support.
  7. Learn from mistakes: Help the player understand that making mistakes is a part of the learning process. Encourage them to view mistakes as opportunities for growth rather than failures. Analyze and learn from mistakes to avoid repeating them in the future.
  8. Build a support network: Surround the player with a supportive team. Having people who believe in their abilities and provide encouragement can significantly enhance their confidence.
  9. Develop a pre-match routine: Establish a consistent pre-match routine that includes physical warm-up, mental preparation, and rituals that help the player get in the right mindset. Following a routine can provide a sense of control and familiarity, boosting confidence.
  10. Focus on the present momentum: Teach the player to focus on the present moment and not dwell on past mistakes or worry about the future. Help them develop techniques such as deep breathing, mindfulness, or meditation to stay focused and confident during matches.

Remember that building confidence takes time and consistent effort. Encourage the player to be patient with themselves and celebrate every step forward, regardless of the outcome of the match.

In teams, is it about trust?

Soccer coaches often talk about lack of confidence.

First of all we must realize that when we attribute a result to the lack of confidence we are saying everything and nothing, because even if we know that conviction is necessary to play well, we must know the causes that determined it, otherwise it is a way of saying that only serves the coach to save his personal and professional conscience: “It is not my fault, they are the ones who are not confident“.

If, on the other hand, you understand what the ingredients of confidence are, you are probably already getting closer to a cure. In this regard, the questions to ask are as follows:

  • Are the players and the team aware of what they can do?
  • Do they agree on how they should play in the various phases of the game or do they have doubts/concerns?
  • Do they know how to consistently maintain this type of play throughout the match?
  • Does the team have a plan for responding to unexpected game situations?

If you don’t answer these four questions you will not improve; you must be aware of what is missing, the coach first. You can’t hide behind the phrase: “The team didn’t follow my directions” or “The team has no personality”, you have to know what caused these effects otherwise you will continue to lose.

In practical terms, the first step in increasing team competence is to train tactical and mental skills through quality drills. In fact, skill training through conscientious coaching ensures players are able to perform what is required of them. Preparation-improvement-skills go hand in hand, and this type of daily practice allows you to focus on the progress that occurs in a single session, in a week, in a month, and so on. In this way, not only is competence shaped, but also the ability to know how to play consistently over time.

Through the work on the field proposed by the coach, the players also develop another conviction that is extremely important, namely that it is through their commitment that they improve. The triptych of preparation – improvement – competence can be successfully achieved only if the players feel fully committed to what is required of them. If, on the other hand, this mechanism is not triggered, training will be conducted on autopilot, without risk of making mistakes and committing themselves just enough to not be taken back by the coach. When I work with athletes, I point out that these are “soulless” workouts in which the athlete’s job prevails, the intensity is absent and mistakes are explained by saying “but it’s just a training session, I’ll be more focused during the competition”. On these occasions, you have to be very clear with your players and point out to them that training in this way is harmful, because it creates a passive mentality that can only be repeated on the field.

Intense training with a high level of concentration also means that the coach must be supportive and encouraging precisely because the team is asked to be totally involved. The basic idea is this: the more demanding you are in terms of quality (speed and accuracy), the greater your willingness to accept mistakes and support first the commitment and second the result. If you act the other way around, first the result and then the commitment, the players will begin to do only what they are good at, so that they receive positive reinforcement from the coach, thus reducing the possibility of improvement.

The reasons why people do not change

  1. It is thought to be imposed
  2. It is believed to be useless
  3. It is believed to be impossible
  4. It is thought to have already given much
  5. For lack of information
  6. People don’t listen
  7. One is impulsive
  8. One feels incapable
  9. One does not see the benefits
  10. One has always done that way
  11. One is afraid of making mistakes
  12. One thinks about something else
  13. One is too busy
  14. One is suspicious
  15. One is arrogant

How to learn to be confident

Mourinho, after Roma’s defeat against Juventus, talked about the lack of personality of his team’s players. It’s an issue of paramount importance for anyone who wants to achieve challenging goals. Today many people have this problem. You can also have a positive self-esteem, which consists of the value we place on ourselves as people, but have little confidence at the same time. It is possible, because confidence is skill-driven and reflects the optimism of knowing how to deal with specific situations and circumstances in a seemingly spontaneous way. It is more easily influenced by external events and, therefore, is modifiable depending on the situations being experienced. I have met several athletes who are motivated, focused, competent but lack confidence.

Confidence is like a crystal glass, beautiful and fragile.

Usually in these athletes their actual competence is higher than the degree of confidence in it. They have difficulty drawing optimistic explanations from their successful experiences, thus not nurturing the growth of their confidence.

Positive psychology is very clear on this point, we need to set aside global explanations for the mistakes we make. This happens when we tell ourselves “I’ll never understand, I always make the same mistakes” or “same mistake again, I don’t learn”. Whereas we need to be committed, thinking that mistakes show the way to improve, so let’s accept them and commit to doing things differently. It has to become an automatic way of thinking and to make it happen you have to do it, someone learns more quickly for others it will take months.

The question is, “When I am in the situations that are most important to me, what do I want my dominant thought to be? And what do I do?”

For this to happen in the race, this way of being must already be inside the athlete, not invented on the spot. It must always be practiced in training, it must become a spontaneous way of thinking and acting.

10 rules to build the confidence

Confidence builders

  1. Plan successes on daily base
  2. Live with positive people
  3. Stay focused on what you can do
  4. Ask yourself to destroy your fears
  5. Build an optimistic assessment of you bad performances
  6. Be your most important fan
  7. Try harder and persist longer under adversity
  8. Assess your performances with the mindset to do better next time
  9. Be excited about your present and future
  10. Practice daily self-control

Sarri and Ancelotti stress management

Sarri problems in the management of  Ronaldo and those of Ancelotti with his team and his president highlight how it’s difficult in these moments to remain optimistic, satisfied and determined rather than pessimistic, dissatisfied and distressed. The question is: how to maintain this attitude during the evolution of the crisis situation.

This stress does not come so much from the results but refers to the stress of managing the players, from misunderstandings arising during the work and from having to negotiate with their players.

We know that what differentiates a coach who manages these experiences from another who, on the contrary, is chocked by them, it is in the way of dealing with situations perceived as stressful.

One question to answer is: “How can I show myself convinced that we will be able to get out of this crisis or that my choices are the right ones?” In football, if we don’t believe we have everything we need to be able to achieve our goals, it’s almost certain that we won’t achieve it. It’s like saying to our opponents: “Today we’ll give you some of our confidence to win, we’d rather remain insecure. So the lesson is as follows: accept the challenge and play with the confidence we can do it till the final whistle. Players are taught to chase even the balls that are impossible to catch, the same for the coach because we must never leave the idea that nothing is impossible.lite sarri ronaldo juventus milanRisultati immagini per Ancelotti insigne lite

The athletes’ main psychological mistakes

The athletes’ main psychological mistakes:

  1. Think that feel healthy is enough to do the best.
  2. Visualize the race without providing for the possible difficulties that could be happened and not provide a way to solve them.
  3. Be too much/little activated, driven by the desire to win or the fear of not succeeding.
  4. Be so much worried about the race and not focused on the present but on what might happen of negative.
  5. Not thinking the difficulties during the race as a normal part of the performance but as personal incompetence.

Who is accountable of the long term athlete development?

Confidence is a relevant topic for the psychologists and very often the coaches use it to point out the errors of their athletes are caused by a deficiency in this psychological dimension. Sometimes this explanation is used to hide the coaches’ mistakes but other highlights limits in psychological development.

On this topic we can say a lot. One such example comes from the interationist approach to the study of personality, it explains the behaviors are derived from the relationship between the personality, the situational challenges, the specific skills and expectations of the social environment.

Since the question is so complicated, no one among athletes, coaches and staff, sports organizations and parents can shirk their responsibilities, which determine the athlete long term development.

How many address the issue of poor performances with this vision? How many clubs are organized to meet this need, taking into account these variables?

You’re a believable coach if …

Coaches, in the relationship with athletes, base their credibility on psychological dimensions where interpersonal communication plays a vital role and concern:

Stable aspects of the character – it refers to dimensions such as honesty and to show direct and clear communication with athletes without manipulating them. They are people proud to be part of that team.

Competence – They are individual professionally competent, geared to continuous improvement and innovators. They accept their limits and mistakes. They know that admit them is an index of strength and not weakness.

Commitment – these coaches  are heavily engaged in carrying out their activities. They possess and convey a positive vision of their team, and are intensely committed to achieving their goals. Sport and training inspire them and in these areas put their enthusiasm. They have a lot of energy; they are convinced and tenacious.

Caring – They are genuinely interested in their athletes, as individuals and as a group. To learn about them spending time with them and showing interest in the present as well as the future.

Consistency – They are individuals who act mostly consistent realizing their training philosophy, while adapting their behavior to the demands of the environment and unexpected situations. To this end they control their emotions so as to convey confidence to athletes. Are consistent in enforcing the rules and behavioral standards to which the team must adapt. Therefore, acting in an organized manner and highly responsible work.

Confident builder – They stimulate the confidence of their athletes. Try to speak at their best but they are also patients in helping them to develop and improve.

Being good communicators – The believable coaches are good communicators. Open, honest and straightforward when speaking to the individuals and the team. Continuously remind the athletes what they must do to be winners. These coaches require maximum involvement and take into account the information received from the athletes. They really listen and it is precisely for this reason they are aware of problems and conflicts, actively seeking to solve before they can further worsen.

(by Alberto Cei, revised from Janssen and Dale, 2002)

The team psychological skills

The team psychological skills I think most influence the play and the performance are the following.

Collaboration – Each player has the responsibility to actively contribute to the team cohesion. This attitude must be trained every day, it’s the structure that supports the team and it’s based of relationships among the players, the coach, the technical and health staff and the managers. It’sessential that everyone in the team has a well defined role and specific goals. Each player must accept his position and be committed and engaged. Who was not convinced must quickly clarify his position, otherwise he will not engage fully in the team.

Fighting spirit and toughness – In every game are positive and negative moments; the team as a whole has to find the positive in the difficulties and the team skill is to think that this is the time to demonstrate the ability to resist and then to behave in combative and tenacious way. Concentration and self-control in the field must serve to moderate the excesses of aggressive behavior that can result in impulsive and too fouled behaviors.

Concentration – it means to do the right thing at the right time. It concerns to follow the guidelines coming by the coach but also the management of the thoughts after a mistake, in times of increased pressure of the opponents, in the crucial moments of the match but also after scoring a goal we should not relax but stay focused.

Competitive stress management  - Emotions are difficult to manage effectively and this is why so often limit the performances. There are those felt by the young players, who have to learn to manage their role not only in the game but also in daily life and there are those of the more experienced players, who must also continue to maintain their  emotional commitment balanced. In connection with the game it’s necessary that everyone can find the optimal emotional condition to start the match well. The players should identify what are the emotions that allow them to play well and those which hinder them,working to consolidate what it’s good.

Self-Esteem – I often say to the athletes I work with that to be a champion it takes courage and humility. Courage to think that I can achieve great things with the team, so have confidence in me and at regards of the teammates, and then have the humility to commit myself every day to achieve this dream, step by step. To accomplish this task is not easy, because it’s easier to dream without engaging or to try to do the best but without an idea in the mind of what / how he’s doing. In a team confidence it’s not just a personal issue but it’s also a collective factor to build and to keep growing.