Re-enforcing Players Confidence

Most youth athletes look to their coach for confidence. Ideally, athletes should be able to create confidence on their own by focusing on their personal strengths, past successes, and hard work. In reality, a significant number base their confidence largely on how much confidence they perceive their coach has in them. This is especially true for female athletes since they are relationship network based more than their male counterparts.

In just this past year, I can think of four examples at the high school level where coach’s hyper-competitive attitude led to public player berating and destroyed multiple player’s confidence. Contrary to these coach’s actions, publicly embarrassing players does not encourage them to play harder, it encourages them to shut down. In two of these examples, the coach was replaced part way through the season and the players not only bounced back, but also exceed their previous level of play. The unfortunate part was that these hyper-competitive coaches are potentially the most technically and fundamentally sound coaches in the area, but their inter-personal skills are destroying their opportunities for success.

Player’s confidence is critical to their individual success as well as the team’s success. The confidence a coach shows in their athletes often time makes or breaks the player’s confidence. A key tenant to successful coaching is player confidence building, working with their players to reach their potential, and helping them realize it.

Athletes who play with confidence can achieve phenomenal success. They are more aggressive, display more trust in their abilities, and seek out ways to be successful. They spend less time worrying about what their coach is thinking and less time with petty bickering. Confident athletes demonstrate more composure and mental toughness in adversity. They want to be the go-to person win the game is on the line.

Conversely, athletes without confidence become tense in pressure situations and fail to perform. Many times these athletes play not to lose or focus on not making a mistake. Because they play tentatively and have a negative focus, they tend to be more error prone and make excuses. Rather than focusing on corrective action required for success, they justify away the mistakes and play in mediocrity.

How do coaches show they have confidence in their players? They are careful with both their verbal and non-verbal communication. If a coach says, "I expect you to make that play," it conveys the underlying message that the coach knows they have the skills to perform. If a coach says, "Don’t do that," it conveys the underlying message that the player has not developed the skills to be successful. If a coach takes a player out of the game immediately after making a mistake, it conveys the underlying message that the player is not capable of being successful in this situation. If a coach allows the player to through a mistake, it conveys the message that it is a one-time mistake and he has confidence that it will not happen again.

What a coach says, how they say it, and what they do demonstrates their confidence level in a player. Young athlete’s self confidence is fragile and is easily destroyed. It takes a long time for a coach to communicate their confidence in a player, but a very short time for a player to perceive that their coach lacks confidence in their ability. Watch your verbal communication and body language, less you have a very long mediocre season.

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