Self Confidence in Football

You might have heard of the many forms of confidence. Self-confidence, self-belief, self-esteem and even elements of self-worth which all associate with the perception of how we view ourselves. In this blog we are going to focus on the impact of unhelpful thoughts on our self-confidence.

Start to ask yourself these questions… What does football self-confidence mean to you? How important is it to be confident on the pitch? When do you experience low confidence? when do you experience high confidence?

If you’re a goalkeeper and a penalty has been given to the opposition if you have high self-confidence, you may say comments to yourself like “I’ve got this”, “I’m going to try my best to save this” or “stay focused”, which boost your belief that you are going to put the player off and save it. However, if you are feeling low in confidence and it’s important to note that something outside of football could have contributed to this, may translate into your game and when faced with a penalty you may automatically voice unhelpful thoughts, such as “the pressure is all on me and I don’t think I’ll save it, he’s not missed any of his last 5 penalties”.

These are automatic negative thoughts, also, known as ANTS. Metaphorically, let’s visualise what this looks like. One ANT = one negative thought. How you deal with that negative thought is in the power of your own hands. You can choose to sweep that ant outside to get rid of it or to subconsciously ignore it. If you choose to ignore it, this may lead to an ant infestation in your house (without you even realising!).

ANTs = slow your performance down physically and mentally. The more ANTs the less control you have over your wellbeing and performance.

So, what does this mean for you in football. As humans we experience thousands of thoughts a day. 90% of our thoughts are similar to the day prior, which means regardless of whether these are positive or negative we carry then forward to the next day and the next… We cannot ignore negative thoughts when they arise, but we can choose how we let these ANTS consume us. Let’s say you are worried about saving the penalty (this is completely normal especially if it’s been a while since this has occurred in a game like situation). Instead of viewing this thought as an unhelpful way of thinking that may result in uncomfortable feelings of anxiety, worry and fear and cause you to lose your focus when the penalty is taking place… take that thought and perceive it as “yes, I am feel anxious and a rush of adrenaline, but this means that I’m focused and ready to save the penalty”. You begin to believe that you’re going to save the goal before it as even happened. You visualise how you would think and feel, which tells your brain that this is the outcome already!

Put this into practice. Think about a time when you were quite self-critical of a previous performance or when a decision didn’t go the way that you expected. Could you save a goal when you were speaking negatively to yourself? Could you perform a free kick successfully?

Have a think about these ANTs… what are they? When do these ANTs creep up? What impact do they have on your performance?

Try the table below.

		ANTs (automatic negative thoughts)
What are these ANTs?	How do these make you feel?	Impact on performance?
Example  “I am not going to recover mentally from that goal I let in”	Example  Frustrated at myself and anxious when the ball approaches my half.	Example  Loss of focus and concentration.