Tag Archives: confidence

Self-Confidence

Goldberg, A. (2015) Self-confidence. Competitive Edge. Retrieved from https://www.competitivedge.com/self-confidence

Confidence is a difficult thing to build. It takes time and effort. Particularly effort. And lots of it. As a participant, there are many things you can do to build confidence and many credos surrounding it.

  • Nothing replaces hard work
  • Remind yourself of yourself
  • Don’t compare yourself to others – Focus on you
  • Focus on what you can control
  • Dwell on the positive
  • Catch yourself doing things right
  • Be a good coach to yourself

 

As an educator, something that has become increasingly obvious to me is the notion of no matter what you do, you’re impacting a student’s confidence. Every single interaction influences confidence; whether it’s a look, tone, comment, or your body language, the students are watching and they care what you do. This is so important to keep in mind in a classroom and isn’t limited to just competitive activities. Students self confidence can be extremely fragile and as the adult in the room, it lies on your shoulder to model how to have self confidence. This is a very difficult task as we as educators aren’t handed bag of self-confidence as a resource and told “go forth and spread the good worth of self-efficacy”, handing out confidence from our confidence bag to those in need. Tough as it is though to bring confidence into the classroom, it is necessary thing and I will refer back to the credos at the beginning for inspiration. They are solid principles to build self-confidence from and if you can, you will set your student sup for success in self-confidence as well. To relate this back to competition though, these credos are the definitions of a good competitor. Self-confidence will feed to positive elements of competition and thus will support further growth of confidence. It is a cycle that, if possible to implement, can have a tremendous influence on an individual’s life.

Confidence and Performance

Skinner, B. R. (2013) The relationship between confidence and performance throughout a competitive season. All Graduate Plan B and other Reports. Paper 285. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1284&context=gradreports


 

When looking at sports, it is obvious immediately that sports is competitive. It’s working against others to achieve a task first. This is undeniable. Additionally, it has been discussed at length about how sports can be detrimental to an individual’s confidence. However, what is rarely discussed is how sports can have a hugely positive impact on a child’s confidence.

 

When looking at confidence’s influence in sports, it can be separated into two categories; traits confidence and state confidence. Traits confidence refers to a long-standing disposition that an athlete (or student) exhibits in a competitive task. This is more permanent character trait and make difficult to alter. A state confidence refers to the athlete or students mind frame “in the moment”. This can shift wildly and many influences can shift an athlete or student’s confidence during a task. A coach or teacher NEEDS to keep both of these in mind at all times as they impact the manner in which a student or athlete acts. Nonetheless, competition, and sports, can have a wonderfully positive influence on individuals. It acts as a source of personal accomplishments, is an avenue for verbal praise and motivation, and also plays a role in a positive psychological state with the proper framework. All of this however is depends on the facilitator. Under several studies, a coach or teacher’s confidence has a direct relationship to the participants under their care. A high confidence in the coach will result in a high confidence in their team.

 

Another key post to mention is the idea of resiliency. Sports and competition builds resiliency. While it may seem like high success and always winning would breed high confidence, it it actually incorrect. An athlete or student that faces failure and the succeeds, actually builds resiliency and a higher form of confidence. This “stumbling into confidence” method strengthens the student or athlete’s character and sets the student up for a greater deal of success in the future.