“Confidence breeds success and success certainly breeds confidence”
In sport, self-confidence is one of the most frequently cited psychological factors though to affect athletic achievements.
So how do we get confidence?
The fact is we live in a competitive world and if you can’t keep your cool, stay focused, and find a way to win against your own demons, you’re in trouble!! Self confidence is a necessary birthmark as nothing in life comes easy, especially for YOU who wish to strive to be the very best you can with your first key factor being SELF-BELIEF. It takes courage to pursue your dreams and the goals behind those dreams. Every day is a new battle to overcome mistakes, pitfalls, setbacks, injuries, pressure and other obstacles, but from these you will learn, you will grow and YOU will evolve. This growth and learning evolution will become the building blocks upon your pursuit with a solid foundation set for a road to success.
If you lose a match, learn from it, learn to handle the loss like a pro, if you’re going to get your feelings hurt, throw a fit, or whine about the injustice of it all, don’t even waste your time trying to make it, you probably won’t. “Confidence comes from succes” is an obvious statement and so if you’re not winning a lot of matches to start with, where will the success come from? All young players need to find their success off the court and female players need to build their self esteem at the same time. Examples of a player’s success can include simple task accomplishments such as good school grades, improvement in the gym or improving fitness times, completing that one hour run that you used to quit on, running that long hill without stopping or even personal achievements such as stop biting nails, ticking everything in your diary of your daily requirements, all of these smaller achievements will help raise the confidence level.
Get onboard the train to POSITIVE TOWN, to be a successful professional athlete and a leader in your field, NEVER focus on failure, you will use the losses to learn and grow, focus on success and all your ability to attain it. Failure IS part of the process to success, if you are afraid to fail, then you will never have the opportunity to truly succeed. It’s a tough road of many processes and no achievement is ever made through complacency. As the old adage says, “Winners are not people who never fail, they’re people who never quit.”
For tennis players, true success is defined by your ability to overcome the obstacles, but let’s face it, there’s no short cuts, a lot of hard work, determination, good choices, good preparation, strength, mental and physical toughness, courage, motivation, self-belief, a touch of arrogance (but not too much, you don’t want to be known as conceited), negative thoughts need to be geared towards positives, maintain perspective and stay focused on your long-term goals. The size of YOUR success is truly measured by the strength of your own desire…
Adopting what is known as an “EVIDENCE BASED” approach to developing self-confidence is of course, your preparation and your training, consisting of unparalleled levels of effort, energy, enthusiasm and exceptional commitment. Nothing creates more self-confidence than winning – this comes from knowledge and every aspect of a great preparationenvironment which takes in not only your training, but recovery, nutrition, sleep and personal management. Pros leave no stone unturned and little to chance in their endeavour for greatness and therefore are obsessed with on and off court routines and habits which are sometimes bordering on superstition. Your self confidence will be earned through sheer hard work which in turn will create a stockpile of knowledge and skill – this EVIDENCE will grow through each match performance giving you the power to perform at a more confident and higher level.
There is greatness in all of us; it’s up to you how much you want it, SUCCESS!!