The Truth About Confidence – Young Athletes Are Not Naturally Confident
Confidence is not something a young athlete just has naturally. Instead, confidence is something an athlete earns by developing skills in specific areas. It’s perfectly normal for a young athlete new to a sport to lack confidence. However, if an athlete has experience and still lacks confidence, then there’s reason for concern.
When experienced athletes lack confidence they have put in the time, but not the effort to develop all the skills they need for success. Furthermore, it’s not just physical effort either. Earning confidence comes from investing time and effort in both physical and mental preparation.
Young athletes routinely go above and beyond on physical preparation. However, the missing variable for confidence is often the mental preparation.
Coaches spend less than 5% of any given youth or high school practice on developing mental skills. In effect, this means that in a 2 hour practice, the typical coach will spend about 6 minutes on mindset. Even with that 6 minutes, it’s still likely only touching the surface with a motivational speech or a mental thrashing about focus.
Simply stated, it’s normal for new athletes to lack confidence. However this should not be normal for experienced athletes. In both cases athletes must develop skills that are both physical and mental to increase their level of confidence.