Sports psychology: self-confidence in sport – make your ego work for you!

Self-confidence is not solely in the hands of fate, you are the person responsible for determining how confident you feel in a sporting encounter

Article at a glance:

• Self-confidence in sport is defined;
• Six key elements contributing to self-confidence in sport are outlined;
• Practical exercises to boost self-confidence are given.

When athletes feel confident, they are more readily able to turn sporting potential into superior performance. Conversely, when they feel unsure of themselves, the slightest setback or smallest hurdle can have an inordinate effect on their performance.

“I don’t think it’s bragging to say I’m something special.”
Muhammad Ali

What is self-confidence?

For many athletes, an explanation of the concept of self-confidence is hardly necessary as they know intuitively what it is. Indeed, self-confidence is so palpable in some athletes you can almost reach out and touch it. Their confidence is reflected in everything they say and do, in what they wear and how they look.

Self-confidence is commonly defined as the sureness of feeling that you are equal to the task at hand. This sureness is characterised by absolute belief in ability. You may well know someone whose self-belief has this unshakeable quality, whose ego resists even the biggest setbacks. In such people, confidence is as resilient as a squash ball: the harder the blow, the quicker they bounce back. Nonetheless, although confidence is a desirable characteristic, arrogance – or a sureness of feeling not well founded in one’s ability – is undesirable. If self-confidence is perhaps the ‘guardian angel of sports performers’ then arrogance is their nemesis.

Confidence is related to personality and those who exude self-confidence across a range of contexts, say at work, socially and in their sport, are said to be high in trait confidence. However, confidence can also be very specific – to a particular situation or with reference to a set of circumstances – in which case it is known as state confidence or self-efficacy.

‘When you perform any skill successfully, you will generate confidence and be willing to attempt something slightly more difficult’

For example, a professional football player may give off vibes suggesting they are high in trait confidence; however, when they are faced with the prospect of saving their team in a penalty shoot-out at a major championship, their state confidence can plummet and this has the potential to wreak havoc on their performance. This is precisely what happened to David Beckham when England faced Portugal in the quarter finals of the European Football Championships in June 2004. In the throws of a nail-biting penalty shoot-out, he lost focus and hoofed the ball over the crossbar.

Theoretical approaches to sport confidence

There are two main theoretical approaches to sport confidence; one is Robin Vealey’s model of sport confidence¹ and the other is Albert Bandura’s self-efficacy theory². Owing to its prevalence in the sport psychology literature and the empirical support it has attracted, I am going to focus solely on the latter. Bandura’s theory was amended by Deborah Feltz³ to form a sport-specific version while I have adapted it even further to suit the applied nature of this article (see figure 1 below).

The six sources of self-confidence

The confidence an individual feels during a particular activity or situation is generally derived from one or more of the following six elements, which are presented in figure 1 in order of their relative importance:



Performance accomplishments are the strongest contributor to sport confidence. When you perform any skill successfully, you will generate confidence and be willing to attempt something slightly more difficult. Skill learning should be organised into a series of tasks that progress gradually and allow you to master each step before progressing on to the next. Personal success breeds confidence, while repeated personal failure diminishes it.

Being involved with the success of others can also significantly bolster your confidence, especially if you believe that the performer you are involved with (eg a team-mate) closely matches your own qualities or abilities. In effect, it evokes the reaction: ‘if they can do it, I can do it’.

Verbal persuasion is a means of attempting to change the attitudes and behaviour of those around us, and this includes changing their self-confidence. In sport, coaches often try to boost confidence by convincing athletes that the challenge ahead is within their capabilities: ‘I know you’re a great player so keep your head up and play hard!’ An athlete might reinforce this by repeating the message over and over to him or herself as a form of self-persuasion. A tip here is to avoid stating what you want in the negative; so, rather than ‘I really don’t want to come off second best’ try ‘I really want to win this one’. Accordingly, your mind will not need to consider what is not required in order to arrive at what is.

Imagery experiences have to do with athletes recreating multi-sensory images of successful performance in their mind. Through creating such mental representations, mastery of a particular task or set of circumstances is far more likely. What you see is what you get (see SPB 238)!

Physiological states can reduce feelings of confidence through phenomena such as muscular tension, palpitations and butterflies in the stomach. The bodily sensations associated with competition need to be perceived as being facilitative to performance and this can be achieved through the application of appropriate stress management interventions such as the ‘five breath technique’ and ‘thought-stopping’ (see PP 243).

Emotional states is the final source of self-confidence and relates to how you control the emotions associated with competition, such as excitement and anxiety. Very often, the importance of the occasion creates self-doubt, which is why it is essential to control your thoughts and emotions. Learning imagery and concentration skills such as those described in ‘the spotlight of excellence’ (Exercise 2) will help.

“This is a fantastic day for me and my family, this is historic. I have been ready for the win for quite some time, it was just a matter of where and when.”

Lewis Hamilton (after his maiden Formula One Grand Prix victory in Montreal)

Research into self-confidence

It is patent to the vast majority of athletes that self-confidence enhances performance. A large number of studies have shown that higher levels of self-confidence are associated with superior performance. In one recent review, the average correlation reported between self-confidence and performance across 24 studies was 0.54, which indicates a moderately strong relationship⁴. Even under strict laboratory conditions, it has been demonstrated many times over that when confidence is manipulated either up or down, there is a significant effect on sports performance^5,6,7.

Very recently, research has shown that social support, such as that which comes from a coach or team-mates, can buffer the effects of competitive stress on self-confidence⁸. Social support also has a direct effect in enhancing athletes’ self-confidence. Further, exposing athletes to mental training programmes from an early age is likely to have a very positive effect on their levels of self-confidence, which may carry into their adult sporting careers⁹.

In terms of specific self-confidence interventions, it appears that motivational self-talk has a more positive effect on self-confidence than instructional self-talk¹⁰. That is, self-talk related to inspiring the athlete such as ‘Come on, you can do it!’ or ‘I am just so up for this one’ rather than self-talk relating to key foci such as ‘keep your eye on the ball’. Another study examined the impact of hypnosis, technique refinement and self-modelling (through a videotape) on the self-confidence of a cricket bowler¹¹. As expected, results indicated significant long-term improvement in self-efficacy and bowling performance following intervention.

How being involved with the success of others can boost confidence

A good example of this phenomenon came at the 2004 Athens Olympics when Kelly Holmes outstripped expectations to win two gold medals in the 800 and 1,500 metres. Immediately after Holmes’s second gold medal, the Great Britain 4 x 100-metre relay team composed of Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Malcolm Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis took to the track for a final in which they were the rank outsiders. Previously famed only for dropping the baton, the Brits romped home a whisker ahead of a formidable USA quartet to secure the third of the team’s golds. Significantly, each of the American sprinters had won individual medals in either the 100 or 200-metre events at the Athens Games. The British sprinters attributed their extraordinary success to the mental boost they had received from seeing their team-mate Holmes winning her second unexpected gold.

In a further recent study, it was shown that high self-confidence could reduce the intensity or strength of anxiety symptoms, and influence whether they were interpreted as facilitative or debilitative to performance¹².

Essentially, self-confident athletes interpreted their anxiety symptoms as being part and parcel of the competitive experience. In a related study, it was shown that both the intensity and interpretation of self-confidence were strong predictors of golf putting performance¹³.