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Photo-HappyGolfer-BlogBuild Confidence and Self-Esteem With Sports Performance Counseling

4 Keys to Success

By Greg Douglas, LMHC

Where does confidence come from and how can I become more confident? This is a question I have asked myself on many occasions and throughout many different situations in life. How can I build confidence so that I can feel competent and achieve success? At first glance there seemed to be no simple answer. No instruction manual to bolster the way I feel about myself and to perform at peak levels. Not until I discovered a pathway to build confidence and self-esteem – in the principles of sports performance counseling.

Building Confidence in Sports Performance – My Story

As a young junior golfer I became enamored with the sport and vowed that I would do whatever I could to master the game. I read golf magazines, sought out advice from seasoned professionals, practiced countless hours, and took regular lessons. Even after my extensive review of sports performance guidelines I was left with the thought that there was something missing from my game. Many athletes struggle with self doubt and feelings of anxiety or low self-esteem when they fall short of performance expectations. After hearing television commentators state that players “have to be confident in order to play their best” I wondered, “Is this what’s missing for me”?

I set out on a search to find a way to become confident about my golfing abilities. How will I do this? Will I need to wait until I have some level of success in order to feel competent? Can I find a way to build confidence and self-esteem from the ground up? How will I even know what being truly confident feels like? These were the questions that motivated my journey. At this time in my life I had no idea about how the principles of sports performance counseling could help me. I came to the conclusion that there would be no way for me to play well without being able to somehow develop a base level of confidence in my abilities.

At this point I decided to engage in an experiment to see if there was a way to develop confidence without first achieving success in a competitive situation. I developed a system to increase my confidence by setting small goals for myself. I marked off an area on the driving range and set a goal to land 2 shots in a row inside the designated area. I achieved this small goal, and felt good about the accomplishment. Then I changed the goal to hitting 5 shots in a row inside this area, then 10, and then 20. As I continued to achieve these small goals I felt better about my golf game and was pleased to experience improved self-esteem and a new confidence in my abilities. I had stumbled upon some of the most important principles in sports performance counseling.

I began to use these principles of sports performance counseling in other areas of my game. I set a goal to make five 3-foot putts in a row, and then 10, and then 20. At one point I became so confident in my putting that I would make a hundred 3-foot putts in a row before ending my practice session. As you can imagine, this newfound confidence in my abilities translated to the golf course. That summer I achieved my best success in tournament play to date and began to really believe that I could achieve success on a larger scale than I ever thought possible. My confidence and self-esteem reached new, higher levels than ever before.

4 Keys to Confidence in Sports Performance

I discovered four keys to increasing self-belief, improving self-esteem, and developing the kind of confidence needed to perform near peak capacity. These keys, which are central in sports performance counseling, include

  • Identify small, realistic, and achievable goals
  • Focus on the process of improvement – not the results
  • Give yourself credit for even small improvements
  • Use imagery to make practice feel like “the real thing”

The takeaway from this experiment: You can build confidence before you achieve success. There is no reason to wait until you win a game or tournament to feel a sense of competency and positive self-esteem. This rings true not only in the area of sports performance, but in many other aspects of life, including school or work performance, dating, speaking in front of groups, and making good parenting decisions. These keys can transform self-doubt, anxiety and performance fears to confidence, competency, and a true belief in your ability and potential.

Please contact us today to learn more about sports performance counseling.