The power of a confident soccer player

We often hear about the stories of professional players going into slumps… Confidence goes up & down every day for everyone, but some deal with it better! Learn 5 ways to build good habits & confidence for any athlete & to develop the power of a confident soccer player here in this post.  One thing you have to do to improve confidence is get in a situation where you can be successful over and over.  This is why private lessons help so much!  This is why pro baseball players use the batting cages and why basketball players practice so many free throws.  To build confidence and correct muscle memory. So in futbol/soccer we need to do the same.  Then bonus is if you have a coach, parent or friend speaking positive life into you when you do good it helps the mental game.

People impact how we feel

For example, when I train/coach larger groups with partners of 2, each team of 2 players are competing to see who can get 20 passes first, which gets the heart rate & extra focus up because there is a chance to win. Usually there is 1 team that starts off better [I’ll call them Team #1]. This is where I work some psychology on them and say out loud, while pointing to a team that has not won yet and say, “OK I think ‘Team #4’ is going to win this one.“

As you can imagine – If you were to look into all the kids’ eyes & body language you would see Team #4 perk up and believe more in themselves and ‘Team #1’ loses their confidence and, for a second, believe what I am saying about Team #4. Four out of 5 times, Team #4 wins the next match because the confidence changed for a short time because of what the kids were hearing & ‘believing’.

Correct your thinking

This is a teaching moment for me to give to the players about CONFIDENCE and how you have to correct your own thinking in soccer & life.  I tell them they have to believe in themselves all the time – even when they don’t believe. You have to correct your thinking and think positive words in your head or speak out loud to teammates or co-workers. I also tell them that people are always going to tell you that you can’t do something because they either really don’t believe you can or most of the time they just want to bring your confidence down but you can’t let them. You have to make the choice though.

One great way to correct your thinking right away is by remembering a word or a time when you did something or heard something so good. A good example for any athlete is by remembering a good game or play you had or a time when a coach or parent said how well you did. You have to tell yourself that you are going to beat this player/team in front of you and that they will not work harder than you. As long as you have traits of good character and have these thoughts of self-belief good things happen more often.

I think the kids want to hear from an adult that the feelings of self-doubt is normal.  Have that sports anxiety in certain moments, especially tryouts.   To me these nervous butterfly feelings are good!  This feeling means you care about this moment and want to do well. The KEY is to let the kids know that it is NORMAL to feel less confident but if you should put your mind in a place where you are remembering all the good games, plays & words you have had and tell yourself you will play hard every play and want the ball.

How the same player can play like a different person

A soccer player without confidence is like watching a totally different player in both the eyes of the player & the eyes of those watching. Every soccer player has felt the difference of high or low confidence.  It’s like if you have a player playing pick-up at a park one day and feeling on top of the world – playing great. Then the next day he or she is on a tryout and starts it off with a mistake.  The difference this same person is feeling from one day to the next is like being a totally different person.  It’s all mindset.  Mentally having the strength or lack of strength to come back from mistakes or play in a high pressure situation is tough.  You have to believe in yourself, think positive and remember the good things you’ve done.

Players will have their ups and downs.  Similar to a rollercoaster that slowly goes up and then goes down super fast. Then there are times where it’s all over the place and everything is fast.  As long as you are finding ways to go up that’s what gets us through.  When this happens try to pay attention to what you are doing on and off the field.  Both when you’re up and down, try to find out whats making you go up.

5 ways to build good habits & confidence for any athlete

1. Think positive as much as you can
2. Correct negative thinking every time
3. Believe in yourself; don’t believe what others may say about you (tune out the haters)
4. Know your strengths & weaknesses and work on fixing the weaknesses, but working on strengths too (be teachable)
5. Be aware of body language & look confident

Confidence is not easy to control, but it is easy to remember to correct your negative thinking and speak positive over yourself.  Remember the good moments you have had and believe in yourself.