I have just completed a leadership course at SACS high school where I took a group of leaders through the basics of leadership for 3 weeks. I attempted to open their minds to what is possible and to get them to see how best to lead people. An interesting debate cropped up and it reminded me of a few things that I had learnt from Professor Tim Noakes as well as from various other readings. What comes first, Confidence or success?
The debate in my opinion offers two distinct paths. 1. Positive perceptions in your mind = good attitude = productive preparation = confidence = success. This for me, would seem the best method or approach as it is completely reliant on self and the discipline of your own thoughts. You control your perceptions and thoughts which in turn leads to a positive attitude to practice and play, which then instills confidence in your play which should then in turn, according to anecdotal evidence lead to increased success. The thought that confidence comes through great preparation is widely thought to be true, but this only works if the preparation is all-encompassing (covers physical and mental prep), and the player actively applies positive thought to the work that he/she has put in. This model should also work in the case of early season, where no 'prior success' has taken place, or in the case of a lean spell of form, where you attempt to get yourself back into successful times through your mental processes and approach. A top rugby player for example may be sturggling but through sheer mental effort continue to see himself in a good light, to put in the hours on the practice field, knowing that this will pay off eventually.
The second way of thinking, which some of the leaders agreed with is 2) success= confidence = good practice due to being happy = positive attitude = good perceptions of self. This could also be said to be true, and I believe is the way it works for most sportsmen. We rely on success to create an increased confidence and then added motivation to practice effectively which will keep us having a positive attitude and great self-perceptions. An example would be the cricketer who scores runs and then feels confident to score in the next innings, and enjoys his training and feels good about himself all due to his previous innings and not due to his mental efforts to prepare himself well.
The ideal way in my mind, is a mixture of the two, whereby we apply option 1 and create a positive attitude ourselves which leads to quality practice and increased confidence. Then we success does come about, we ensure that that success then leads back to increased confidence, positive attitudes and practicing etc. Sportsmen need to guard against success leading to arrogance or complacency and then decreased quality if practice as so often can be the case. Success therefore will lead to increased perceptions of self, according to the model, but it should not serve as the only leader to good perceptions of self, as that becomes dangerous and extremely reactive.
Confidence comes through quality preparation and past successes, but it is up to the sportsman to decide how much emphasis he places on each one and how he manages to balance between the two. A lovely true story goes that a top college basketball player in the States was playing in the state final. He was by far their top points-scorer, and the plays had been deisgned around him by the coach. In the final, he missed 4 shots in a row and the team was on the verge of losing the game. The coach called a time-out and said that he would re-design the next play (the final one) to ensure someone else took the shot. The player would have none of this, he said give me the ball and I'll score. He did. When asked afterwards why he was so sure that he'd score, he said, "I have a 80 % success rate at goal and I've practiced all week at that rate. Now I have missed 4 in a row which means I was bound to make the next shot!". He went on to say that he made up his mind that he should make the next shot and therefore creating his own perception, which then in turn led to the confidence, which then created that success.
I have just put some thoughts out there and welcome thoughts or feedback and this is a debate that I think is difficult to conclude.
For me a really useful question is: What is recipe for confidence? How do you create it for yourself, what are your rules or conditions.
ReplyDeleteAre those rules or conditions outside of your control? If so by default your confidence will be variable, more so than it could be.
In my experience top athletes base their confidence on their decision to have a complete and thorough work ethic. They know regardless of any short term result (missing the basket in basketball) they have put in the effort and will get the result. As Daley Thompson said, "I have trained to hard to get this wrong." Gary Kirsten said it felt like he had studied the entire file before an exam, so he could feel really confident that he would do his best, and that took pressure off him.
Of course this approach requires radical honesty and immense effort, however the payoff is also immense.