It turns out there is a lot of stuff out there to read about sports psychology and how the mind affects the body's performance. I know, totally surprised right??
So the first thing I had to do was narrow down the aspect of my mental game that I most needed to work on first...which mind muscle was going to get the workout. This was an easy decision for me - CONFIDENCE...it's by far my weakest point.
The psychology behind sports confidence is actually pretty solid and defined as two specific types of confidence.
The first is Trait Sports Confidence. This is most easily described as confidence that is a personality trait of the athlete. These are the people who are so naturally confident in their ability that no matter how badly they perform nothing can sway them from this belief. As long as they are careful not to veer off into arrogance, people with high trait confidence usually do well it sport, they refuse to give up and see themselves as able to achieve at the highest level.
The bad news is that the research shows there is not much you can do to increase trait confidence....you either have it or you don't. I don't think it's too wild a guess to say that many of us in the derby world don't have an abundant supply of trait sports confidence. Many of you, like me, were the last to get picked in the school teams and are only now, as adults, appreciating the joy of being active and athletic. The fact that I have shyed away from trying most sports in itself probably indicates that I have low trait sports confidence, I never believed I would or could be good at them.
So now for the good news - trait confidence is not the most important type of confidence when it comes to performing well in sport.
That job belongs to State Sports Confidence and there is plenty that you can do to beef up that muscle. State confidence is your belief in your ability to perform in a particular given situation. On the track, at the jammer line, against that massive hardhitting blocker it's your belief in how you can cope with that situation at that moment (state confidence) that matters, not whether you generally think you are the best thing on eight wheels (trait confidence). The most obvious example of the difference between these two types of confidence is the classic star player who misses the deciding goal. Even though they may have oodles of trait confidence they don't believe that they can make the all important shot for the team when it's all on the line.
So this is what I need to work on - a bit like a physio does, I have isolated and named the weak and problematic muscle....State Confidence. I'm sure most of you could do with building up this muscle...even if it's only in one situation or circumstance that you find it wanting.
There is an abundance of exercises and theory on how to best build your state confidence but I'm going to start with positive self-talk.
Now I'm not into any airy-fairy stuff where you look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself how wonderful you are three times a day so this is how I'm going to break it down (just in case you want to give it a go as well)....
1. List 5 thoughts or situations on the track that make me feel least confident.
Mine are: when I'm against a hard hitting blocker, when I'm on the jammer line, when I fall over alot, when I'm 'the goat', when the jammer skates right past me without me even attempting a hit.
2. Come up 5 phrases to counter these confidence suckers.
Funny thing is as I look at my list of situations I definitely already have a phrase for each of them, just not helpful ones - "I'm going to get injured" "I'm so bad at jamming" "I must look useless falling over this much" "I can't get past" "I didn't do my job, I've let the team down"...so it's time to find some replacements!
They need to be easy to remember, even in the middle of scrimmage, and they need to be believable. No good telling myself that I can jam like Suzy Hotrod, I will just laugh myself out of the room.
"I can take big hits" "I can improve my jamming" "I recover so quickly!" "I can make holes" and my favourite borrowed from Lord of the Rings...."You shall not pass!"
3. Write my new ass-kicking statements on two pieces of card (preferably laminated to make it last longer) and attach one to my training bag. Read them every time I get my gear in and out of my bag - so that's at least twice every training session and once a week when I clean my pads.....because us derby girls always do that weekly! I will attach the other copy to my wallet or mirror (if I must!) or computer screen so that I see it several times a day. Every time I see the cards I will read through them - out loud if I'm somewhere that won't be embarrassing - and I will say it like I mean it......until I do!
The good old fake it till you make it. Heres hoping it works!!
So the first thing I had to do was narrow down the aspect of my mental game that I most needed to work on first...which mind muscle was going to get the workout. This was an easy decision for me - CONFIDENCE...it's by far my weakest point.
The psychology behind sports confidence is actually pretty solid and defined as two specific types of confidence.
The first is Trait Sports Confidence. This is most easily described as confidence that is a personality trait of the athlete. These are the people who are so naturally confident in their ability that no matter how badly they perform nothing can sway them from this belief. As long as they are careful not to veer off into arrogance, people with high trait confidence usually do well it sport, they refuse to give up and see themselves as able to achieve at the highest level.
The bad news is that the research shows there is not much you can do to increase trait confidence....you either have it or you don't. I don't think it's too wild a guess to say that many of us in the derby world don't have an abundant supply of trait sports confidence. Many of you, like me, were the last to get picked in the school teams and are only now, as adults, appreciating the joy of being active and athletic. The fact that I have shyed away from trying most sports in itself probably indicates that I have low trait sports confidence, I never believed I would or could be good at them.
So now for the good news - trait confidence is not the most important type of confidence when it comes to performing well in sport.
That job belongs to State Sports Confidence and there is plenty that you can do to beef up that muscle. State confidence is your belief in your ability to perform in a particular given situation. On the track, at the jammer line, against that massive hardhitting blocker it's your belief in how you can cope with that situation at that moment (state confidence) that matters, not whether you generally think you are the best thing on eight wheels (trait confidence). The most obvious example of the difference between these two types of confidence is the classic star player who misses the deciding goal. Even though they may have oodles of trait confidence they don't believe that they can make the all important shot for the team when it's all on the line.
So this is what I need to work on - a bit like a physio does, I have isolated and named the weak and problematic muscle....State Confidence. I'm sure most of you could do with building up this muscle...even if it's only in one situation or circumstance that you find it wanting.
There is an abundance of exercises and theory on how to best build your state confidence but I'm going to start with positive self-talk.
Now I'm not into any airy-fairy stuff where you look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself how wonderful you are three times a day so this is how I'm going to break it down (just in case you want to give it a go as well)....
1. List 5 thoughts or situations on the track that make me feel least confident.
Mine are: when I'm against a hard hitting blocker, when I'm on the jammer line, when I fall over alot, when I'm 'the goat', when the jammer skates right past me without me even attempting a hit.
2. Come up 5 phrases to counter these confidence suckers.
Funny thing is as I look at my list of situations I definitely already have a phrase for each of them, just not helpful ones - "I'm going to get injured" "I'm so bad at jamming" "I must look useless falling over this much" "I can't get past" "I didn't do my job, I've let the team down"...so it's time to find some replacements!
They need to be easy to remember, even in the middle of scrimmage, and they need to be believable. No good telling myself that I can jam like Suzy Hotrod, I will just laugh myself out of the room.
"I can take big hits" "I can improve my jamming" "I recover so quickly!" "I can make holes" and my favourite borrowed from Lord of the Rings...."You shall not pass!"
3. Write my new ass-kicking statements on two pieces of card (preferably laminated to make it last longer) and attach one to my training bag. Read them every time I get my gear in and out of my bag - so that's at least twice every training session and once a week when I clean my pads.....because us derby girls always do that weekly! I will attach the other copy to my wallet or mirror (if I must!) or computer screen so that I see it several times a day. Every time I see the cards I will read through them - out loud if I'm somewhere that won't be embarrassing - and I will say it like I mean it......until I do!
The good old fake it till you make it. Heres hoping it works!!
"You shall not pass" Luv it!!!! Totally going to use that one.
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