Coaching Sports To Build Confidence

Motivating players while perserving the athletes' confidence when you need to offer performance feedback to them. The best coaches have mastered this skill. Here is a list of ten ways for challenging your athletes while still maintaining their confidence.

1) Make it a "we feat with high intentions

The best words you can say to your athletes when they made a mistake is "I know your better than that." This simple phrase strengthen their belief that you have faith in their ability and that you know they are capable of performing at much higher level than what they are currently demonstrating. Then turn the challenge into a "we" achievement that lets the athlete know that together you will attack the problem. Making it a "we" project shows your athletes that you are willing to partner with them to help them improve.

2) Realize mistakes are not done on purpose

Most errors players make are not intentional. Athletes want to play well, not only for themselves, but also for their coaches and teammates. Being aware your players errors are not intentional can be challenging at times, but initially the best course of action is to encourage and support them to correct it.

3) Allow players to play through mistakes

Although it is not always easy, a demonstrate your confidence in an athlete is to allow them to keep playing through their errors. Give them a opportunity to self correct themselves within the game situation rather than pulling them out and immediately offering your feedback. Allowing athletes to self correct and learn from mistakes provides them with an chance to learn resiliency.

4) Excuse making should not be allowed

An athlete must take responsibility for their success, they must also take responsibility for the mistakes and own the corrective process. Taking responsibility for their success and failure develops a player's confidence and builds self-esteem. Taking ownership for their mistakes demonstrates a high level of maturity and, after correction, boosts a player's confidence. The successes they own develops a deep foundational confidence level in their ability that they will need when the inevitable series of short falls comes along.

5) Keep it fact based and targetted on the solution

Many times coaches can get caught up in the emotions of the moment. At times like these, the feedback is emotionally charged and can lead to statements the coaches wish they never said. Instead of focusing on the problem, help athletes focus on the solution.

6) Target the critique on the behavior, not the person

When giving criticism, make sure the focus of it is the athlete's behavior and not the athlete themselves. Criticizing the behavior allows a person to keep their confidence intact because their behavior can be changed and corrected. If you focus on the person themself, they take it personally and feel humilated.

7) Surround the constructive criticism with positive facts

A player will become defensive and tune out the feedback if the coach is always finding fault in them. By sandwiching the constructive feedback between positive statements, the player's defensives stay down and they are more objective in listening to the feedback.

8) Provide feedback in a one-on-one environment

Ever heard the phrase "Praise in public, criticize in private." When praising athletes in front of their peers, it does a lot to build their confidence. On the other hand, when you criticize athletes in public, you embarrass them in front of their peers, which raise their defensive mechanism. An athlete's pride in their performance is what get them through the tough moments

9) Reinforce past achievements and player strengths

Athletes can build their own self-confidence by focusing on their strengths and past accomplishments. One of the best things a coach can do is to remind them of how successful they are and provide detailed examples of this success. Refocus your athletes on their strengths.

10) Always provide hope

When it comes to your players, you must adopt a mind set of hope. The worst thing you would ever want them to do is to give up. If a player ever senses you have given up on them, they will either give up on themselves or lose all respect for you and give up on you as a coach. A major factor in a player's confidence level comes from their belief that the coach has confidence in their athletic ability.