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Locker
Room Talk
Feature
Mental Game Article
Champion
Athletes Don't Stifle Public Display of Confidence
By Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.
I was working with one of my racing students this week on the topic of
enhancing confidence and how important confidence is to success.
He said that good friend of his who is winning often appears
to be ultra confident in his ability and that seems to appear
almost boastful about his place in sport.
My student
went on to say that he doesn’t want others to think he
looks too confident about his racing because that may appear
like arrogance to other people. He said that many people have
bad opinions about you if you act too confident or publicly
display a lot of self-confidence about your sport or any endeavor.
I think
he was right to some extent - many people outside of sports
perceive confident athletes as arrogant and too boastful. Why?
People outside of sports (and some people in sports) don’t
understand what it takes to get to the top - full confidence
in oneself and one’s ability to win.
My student
went on to say that he wanted others to see him as a humble
person, not cockiness. His rational was that he would score
more points with other people if he acted a certain way about
his sport and would not be labeled as being arrogant. This way
people would like him more for being humble.
I asked
him if trying to act humble to others could limit his true feelings
of confidence on the inside. He never thought of it that way
before and after he chewed on the idea, I think he came to the
realization that displaying a cockiness attitude might be a
good thing for his racing career. Other top athletes seem to
have loads of confidence and he should too.
High confidence
and cockiness is not arrogance in my book. It’s the residual
of a lot of well-founded success. When Tiger Woods tells the
media, “I was the best today because I had my A-game,”
is this confidence, a cockiness, or arrogance? I guess it depends
on your perspective and how much success or confidence you have.
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So what
is the big deal about confidence and cockiness and how it appears
to others? I mention this because many athletes I work with
worry too much about how others perceive them and this actually
holds down their confidence because they don’t want others
to see them as an arrogant son of a gun.
Like the
example with my racing student, some athletes muffle their own
feelings of confidence for fear of how it may look to other
people. Cockiness or high confidence has its place in sports
and can be the key to success, but it must be founded on true
internal confidence. The confidence I want my students to have
is based on their true belief on the inside.
Some athletes
outwardly display confidence to showboat on purpose - like Dion
Sanders, for example - or to protect themselves from feelings
of inferiority. There is no place for this type of cockiness
in sports as it does not serve a useful function other than
to bring attention to the person.
And I’m
not talking here about athletes that are too confident and reach
a state of over-confidence. You know the type... the athlete
that knows everything already and won’t listen the coach
or take constructive criticism because he can’t get any
better than he already is - he thinks he just has to show up
to play well.
Do you stifle
you own feelings of confidence because you worry about how it
may publicly look to others? If so, you care more about how
others perceive your attitude than you care about developing
your confidence and thus performing your best. My suggestion
is to stop holding back your confidence when your results or
past success can back up real feelings of confidence. Let that
cockiness ride and stop worrying about how others may label
you as an athlete when you believe in yourself.
If you want
to learn a 14-day confidence-boosting system for getting that
total confidence everytime you perform, jump over to peaksports.com
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Sports
Specific Mental Training Tip
Tom
Brady on Mental Preparation
One of
the hallmarks of a champion's attitude is the ability to prepare
one's mind for any challenge that might be encountered in competition.
For example, NFL star Tom Brady does not want any surprises
when he competes on the weekend. He prepares his mind to be
successful against any team. How? He anticipates every possible
defense that he might face during the game and how his team
will execute their best against each defense.
"I
don't want any unknowns. I don't want any guesswork. When
I go out onto the field, I want to know exactly what we're
going to do versus every defense we could face," he says.
"And when I feel like I'm prepared like that in my mind,
I feel like it's just execution from there, and if I can go
out and execute and that's the stuff I work on, then we're
going to do exactly what we set out to do."
~Tom Brady, QB
Once you
prepare mentally for any challenge you face and have a solution
for each challenge, you put your mind in position to react and
execute. Some athletes become startled or surprised if something
unexpected happens and this rattles their focus enough to get
beat. You want to prepare you mind for anything that can happen
so you can play on with focus, confidence, and composure.
Podcast
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Podcast 7 explains what fear of failure is and
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undermine performance. Furthermore, Dr. Cohn lists a number of
strategies to help you overcome fear of failure in sport and perform
your best. Show
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Pro
Athlete Quote of the Month
“You
have choices even though you are nervous when going low. You
have the choice to play safe and protect, or put it on the line
and go farther under par. That day I made the choice on every
shot to take it deep and keep it going. When I walk of 18 I
am going to feel good about this day.”
~ Steve Lowery, PGA Tour on Going Low
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Baseball
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I am a college freshman and a baseball pitcher. I pitch really
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throwing strikes during a game, then things start to unwind
and fall apart. I try to talk to myself and regroup but often
it doesn't work. I get nervous in games. I can have a few good
innings but if I start throwing balls and walking guys then
it all starts to fall apart and I can't seem to get back on
track. I feel myself lose concentration and I lose control.
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Most
Valuable Product (MVP)
Dr.
Patrick J. Cohn
Master Mental Game Coach
Dr.
Patrick J. Cohn is the President and founder of Peak Performance
Sports of Orlando, Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in Education from
the University of Virginia in 1991, and founded Peak Performance
Sports in 1994. Dr. Cohn is an author, speaker and one of the
nation's leading mental game experts. His coaching programs instill
confidence, composure and effective mental strategies that enable
athletes and teams to reach their performance goals. Dr. Cohn
has helped athletes from a variety of sports backgrounds (both
amateurs and professionals) identify and develop the mindset needed
to achieve peak performance. World-class golfers, runners, shooters
and auto racers, as well as motocross, tennis, baseball, softball,
football and hockey players, are among those who have benefited
from his mental game coaching and training.
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