Building Confidence Within Your Athletes! - September 2022
Most athletes I work with want to be more confident. I felt the same way as an athlete. One thing that is important to note with confidence is that confidence must be built from the inside out. Yes, we can become more confident in ourselves by completing a skill or winning a meet, but our confidence can not only be based on success.
If an athlete only bases their confidence on success, then they fear failure. If athletes fear failure, they will be less likely to take on challenges, less likely to keep going when things are challenging, and they will feel like they need to prove their talent.
So, how can you, as a coach or parent, help your gymnast increase their confidence?
One way is to change your definition, as well as your athlete’s definition, of success. Instead of only defining success as winning, define success to include the athlete’s
Effort
Focus
Proper technique
Self-improvement
Focus (on what the athlete has control over – effort vs placement)
Then we need to change our definition of failure. No one likes to fail, but we are human, and failing is inevitable. Help your athletes embrace failure as natural and use it as a learning opportunity for your athletes.
Last of all, we can help build our athlete’s confidence by the type of feedback we provide for them. There are two types of feedback: feedback about the person – the athlete’s talent and their ability and feedback about the process – the athlete’s effort and learning. If we want to help instill confidence in our athletes, then as coaches and parents we want to provide feedback that is directed toward the athlete’s effort and learning.
If you or your gymnast would like more support, check out my coaching services on my website.