Confidence: why we need it to perform and why I don't have any (sometimes)
We are going to forego the in-depth biography, the history of my growing love of rowing, my academic credentials etc etc, for now anyway. Suffice to say I love rowing, I love teaching sport and exercise and I am back in the business of research (the demands of modern academic life and two small human additions to the family meant my research aspirations have been on ice for a while). I have started this blog in an attempt to draw all these interests together in order, I hope, to bring together my interest in rowing, sport psychology and everything inbetween.
I hope my cognitive meanderings will be of interest to my current students, past students and new students of sport psychology to be, as well as anyone else who has ever been in a boat and wonders how the hell they a) got there and b) how they row the thing whilst not falling in the river (I sometimes fall in).
My topic for this first entry is a big topic, a catalyst that is needed for any kind of success on the water. Confidence. Despite the title of this blog post I do have confidence in my rowing, the problem is I don't have it all the time, consistently, outing by outing, stroke by stroke, week by week. Sometimes its there and sometimes....its not. It is these peaks and troughs I am trying to understand here.
Thinking on my own confidence in the boat it clearly has waned and surged over the last three years (when I first started; River 1 JB-D 0), from that first outing (yes, I fell in) to the crew's recent exploits at Llandaff and Ross regatta (we came second in both (out of two)). For those of you who row, or even if you haven't, I am sure you will agree with me its pretty hard (even though the professionals make it look easy). It doesn't take long to get the basics but I suspect a lifetime isn't long enough to truly master the many aspects of this most elegant and demanding/brutal of sports (don't get me started about 'The Erg'...). So putting aside the physical and technical demands what about the stuff that goes on in your head, where does psychology come in?
What exactly is confidence? Taking one of many definitions, for the sake of brevity here we will think of confidence as ' A belief you have a skill set related to your sport that helps you to be successful in that sport' (Smith and Kays, 2010).
It makes sense, but in my own experience it is more than this. We might consider self-confidence (SC) to be multi-faceted, for example our physical SC, our cognitive (thinking/feelings etc) SC and our resilience (how much punishment can I take) (Vealey and Knight 2002). Further qualitative work, with world-class athletes suggests this can be broken down even further, i.e. achievement confidence, skill acquisition, physical factors, psychological factors (Hays et al, 2007)....the list goes on.
We could discuss at some length the multifaceted nature of self-confidence, but we wont here. What I suggest we do is accept it is a complex phenomenon, that it does exist and it could potentially influence aspects of our performance, maybe all aspects of our performance. So, how do we know that being confident is good for our performance?
Weellllll, we could wax lyrical for some time on this point, lets boil it down, what the literature seems to suggest is this; coaches and athletes see confidence as being crucial, they tell us its important (Bull et al, 2005); and evidence suggests we can differentiate successful from un-successful athletes by measuring self-confidence (Mahoney and Avener, 1977 for example). Probably most convincing is the research that looks at this relationship directly, self-reported confidence followed by good performance; classic studies by Nelson and Furst (1972) found this, as well as many others more recently; see Hays, Lane and Owen 2016 for example. In a nutshell the evidence also supports the idea that confidence is very important when it comes to performing.
One term I recently came across which seems to be born out, in a simple and small way in my own recent experiences, is confidence-performance spirals (Lindsey et al, 1995). Put simply, confidence increases performance which increases confidence and so on. Alas, it also works the other way, and that is perhaps where I am at/was at post race...loosing confidence in my ability, leading to poorer performance (rowing way too short for example; rowing defensively) and so on. Basically, a real downer.
So where does this leave us/me? In terms of confidence and sporting performance we need it, we can agree anecdotally and from research that it is linked with good performance and therefore we need to keep confidence high. So how do I/you get some consistency in your performances via a belief in my/your own ability, confidence in your ability to perform?
Thankfully there are many psychological techniques and insights that can help build and maintain confidence, and in future blog posts we will explore them in depth. For now though here are a few practical tips for you out there, taken from my own experience and reading the literature, that will help you build confidence, and stay confident:
- Think positively - you need to believe that its worth experiencing the losses, training hard and the multiple dunkings in the river. Believe in yourself - I can do this, I can learn to do this, I am determined to improve, I am willing to train hard.
- Be prepared to fail - take risks in training, welcome mistakes and feedback, we can't improve without these things! Take on board coaching and you will see improvements
- Experience success - do the two things above well and this will come! Success leads to confidence which leads to more success. Probably...I am still waiting for this bit
- Remember where you started - I find it really helpful to think what you can do well, not focusing what you can't....I was awful when I started, I basically rowed like Windy Miller from Trumpton. Now there is less Trumpton.
Also sport psychology consultants have reported that maintaining robust sport-confidence occurs through constant development (Beaumont, Maynard & Butt, 2015). Basically, the above cycle never steps, and the stronger/more robust our confidence is the more we can deal with the inevitable ups and downs of sport. I will certainly bear this in mind in training and competing, and especially next time I mess up a stroke, feel like i can't go on or struggle to get up ridiculously early in order to freeze on a river (yes dear reader, Winter really is coming).
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and ask questions.....next time: what I say to myself in the last 500m of a 2k (hint: it ain't that positive).
Reference list
Beaumont, Chris. Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, England, CBeaumont@live.co.uk Maynard,
Ian W.. Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, EnglandButt, Joanne.
Sheffield Hallam University,Sheffield, England. (2015). Effective ways
to develop and maintain robust sport-confidence: Strategies advocated by
sport psychology consultants. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 27(3), 301-318.
Bull, S. J., Shambrook, C. J., James, W., & Brooks, J. E. (2005). Towards an understanding of mental toughness in elite english cricketers. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 17(3), 209-227. doi:10.1080/10413200591010085
Feltz, Deborah L.. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USÖncü,Erman.Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey. (2014). Self-confidence and self-efficacy. Routledge Companion to Sport and Exercise Psychology: Global Perspectives and Fundamental Concepts., , 417-429.
Hays, Kate. English Institute of Sport, United KingdomLane, Andrew P.. Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, United KingdomThomas, Owen. Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff,United Kingdom. (2016). Sport confidence. Sport and Exercise Psychology., , 25-49.
Hays, K., Maynard, I., Thomas, O., & Bawden, M. (2007). Sources and types of confidence identified by world class sport performers. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 19(4), 434-456. doi:10.1080/10413200701599173
Machida, M., Otten, M., Magyar, T. M., Vealey, R. S., & Ward, R. M. (2017). Examining multidimensional sport-confidence in athletes and non-athlete sport performers. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(5), 410-418. doi:10.1080/02640414.2016.1167934
Mahoney, M. J., & Avener, M. (1977). Psychology of the elite athlete: An exploratory study. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1(2), 135-141. doi:10.1007/BF01173634
Nelson, L. R., & Furst, M. L. (1972). An objective study of the effects of expectation on competitive performance. The Journal of Psychology, 81(1), 69-72. doi:10.1080/00223980.1972.9923790
Smrdu, Maja. Department of Psychology, FAMNIT, University of Primorska,Slovenia, maja.smrdu@famnit.upr.si. (2015). First-person experience of optimal sport competition performance of elite team athletes. Kinesiology, 47(2), 169-178.
I hope my cognitive meanderings will be of interest to my current students, past students and new students of sport psychology to be, as well as anyone else who has ever been in a boat and wonders how the hell they a) got there and b) how they row the thing whilst not falling in the river (I sometimes fall in).
My topic for this first entry is a big topic, a catalyst that is needed for any kind of success on the water. Confidence. Despite the title of this blog post I do have confidence in my rowing, the problem is I don't have it all the time, consistently, outing by outing, stroke by stroke, week by week. Sometimes its there and sometimes....its not. It is these peaks and troughs I am trying to understand here.
Thinking on my own confidence in the boat it clearly has waned and surged over the last three years (when I first started; River 1 JB-D 0), from that first outing (yes, I fell in) to the crew's recent exploits at Llandaff and Ross regatta (we came second in both (out of two)). For those of you who row, or even if you haven't, I am sure you will agree with me its pretty hard (even though the professionals make it look easy). It doesn't take long to get the basics but I suspect a lifetime isn't long enough to truly master the many aspects of this most elegant and demanding/brutal of sports (don't get me started about 'The Erg'...). So putting aside the physical and technical demands what about the stuff that goes on in your head, where does psychology come in?
What exactly is confidence? Taking one of many definitions, for the sake of brevity here we will think of confidence as ' A belief you have a skill set related to your sport that helps you to be successful in that sport' (Smith and Kays, 2010).
It makes sense, but in my own experience it is more than this. We might consider self-confidence (SC) to be multi-faceted, for example our physical SC, our cognitive (thinking/feelings etc) SC and our resilience (how much punishment can I take) (Vealey and Knight 2002). Further qualitative work, with world-class athletes suggests this can be broken down even further, i.e. achievement confidence, skill acquisition, physical factors, psychological factors (Hays et al, 2007)....the list goes on.
We could discuss at some length the multifaceted nature of self-confidence, but we wont here. What I suggest we do is accept it is a complex phenomenon, that it does exist and it could potentially influence aspects of our performance, maybe all aspects of our performance. So, how do we know that being confident is good for our performance?
Weellllll, we could wax lyrical for some time on this point, lets boil it down, what the literature seems to suggest is this; coaches and athletes see confidence as being crucial, they tell us its important (Bull et al, 2005); and evidence suggests we can differentiate successful from un-successful athletes by measuring self-confidence (Mahoney and Avener, 1977 for example). Probably most convincing is the research that looks at this relationship directly, self-reported confidence followed by good performance; classic studies by Nelson and Furst (1972) found this, as well as many others more recently; see Hays, Lane and Owen 2016 for example. In a nutshell the evidence also supports the idea that confidence is very important when it comes to performing.
One term I recently came across which seems to be born out, in a simple and small way in my own recent experiences, is confidence-performance spirals (Lindsey et al, 1995). Put simply, confidence increases performance which increases confidence and so on. Alas, it also works the other way, and that is perhaps where I am at/was at post race...loosing confidence in my ability, leading to poorer performance (rowing way too short for example; rowing defensively) and so on. Basically, a real downer.
So where does this leave us/me? In terms of confidence and sporting performance we need it, we can agree anecdotally and from research that it is linked with good performance and therefore we need to keep confidence high. So how do I/you get some consistency in your performances via a belief in my/your own ability, confidence in your ability to perform?
Thankfully there are many psychological techniques and insights that can help build and maintain confidence, and in future blog posts we will explore them in depth. For now though here are a few practical tips for you out there, taken from my own experience and reading the literature, that will help you build confidence, and stay confident:
- Think positively - you need to believe that its worth experiencing the losses, training hard and the multiple dunkings in the river. Believe in yourself - I can do this, I can learn to do this, I am determined to improve, I am willing to train hard.
- Be prepared to fail - take risks in training, welcome mistakes and feedback, we can't improve without these things! Take on board coaching and you will see improvements
- Experience success - do the two things above well and this will come! Success leads to confidence which leads to more success. Probably...I am still waiting for this bit
- Remember where you started - I find it really helpful to think what you can do well, not focusing what you can't....I was awful when I started, I basically rowed like Windy Miller from Trumpton. Now there is less Trumpton.
Also sport psychology consultants have reported that maintaining robust sport-confidence occurs through constant development (Beaumont, Maynard & Butt, 2015). Basically, the above cycle never steps, and the stronger/more robust our confidence is the more we can deal with the inevitable ups and downs of sport. I will certainly bear this in mind in training and competing, and especially next time I mess up a stroke, feel like i can't go on or struggle to get up ridiculously early in order to freeze on a river (yes dear reader, Winter really is coming).
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and ask questions.....next time: what I say to myself in the last 500m of a 2k (hint: it ain't that positive).
Reference list
Bull, S. J., Shambrook, C. J., James, W., & Brooks, J. E. (2005). Towards an understanding of mental toughness in elite english cricketers. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 17(3), 209-227. doi:10.1080/10413200591010085
Feltz, Deborah L.. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USÖncü,Erman.Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey. (2014). Self-confidence and self-efficacy. Routledge Companion to Sport and Exercise Psychology: Global Perspectives and Fundamental Concepts., , 417-429.
Hays, Kate. English Institute of Sport, United KingdomLane, Andrew P.. Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, United KingdomThomas, Owen. Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff,United Kingdom. (2016). Sport confidence. Sport and Exercise Psychology., , 25-49.
Hays, K., Maynard, I., Thomas, O., & Bawden, M. (2007). Sources and types of confidence identified by world class sport performers. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 19(4), 434-456. doi:10.1080/10413200701599173
Machida, M., Otten, M., Magyar, T. M., Vealey, R. S., & Ward, R. M. (2017). Examining multidimensional sport-confidence in athletes and non-athlete sport performers. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(5), 410-418. doi:10.1080/02640414.2016.1167934
Mahoney, M. J., & Avener, M. (1977). Psychology of the elite athlete: An exploratory study. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1(2), 135-141. doi:10.1007/BF01173634
Nelson, L. R., & Furst, M. L. (1972). An objective study of the effects of expectation on competitive performance. The Journal of Psychology, 81(1), 69-72. doi:10.1080/00223980.1972.9923790
Smrdu, Maja. Department of Psychology, FAMNIT, University of Primorska,Slovenia, maja.smrdu@famnit.upr.si. (2015). First-person experience of optimal sport competition performance of elite team athletes. Kinesiology, 47(2), 169-178.
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