Confidence
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Loading ...I don’t know that there’s a player in ultimate frisbee who’s sucessful that doesn’t have confidence. More often than not in surplus; occasionally fragile and easily broken, sometimes shelved for the appearance of “spirit’s” sake, but always there.
You NEED to have confidence to be successful. But you also need to be successful to have confidence, don’t you? How do you develop one without the other?
A few thoughts to this end.
1)You can learn it elsewhere. Even without much success as an “ultimate player,” prior success as an athlete is transferable. Being successful outside of the athletic field can also be transferable, but in such instances the transfer of confidence has less to do with your body’s performance and more to do with your ability to plan, work, and execute (perhaps more important to long-term success in this sport).
2) You can get lucky (or have some natural talent). It’s astounding how much of our lives are decided by a couple fluky moments. Gamblers–”beginner’s luck” is not so because all beginners are lucky, but because the lucky beginners wind up sticking with it and getting hooked. Same with ultimate, or any other endeavor you pursue. Think back to your first experiences with this sport. It’s very unlikely that you struggled greatly out of the gate–too much discouragement would’ve sent you packing. It’s much more likely you found some fascination in your ability to throw a frisbee the right way every once in a while, or played in a tournament early on and caught or threw a goal or something similar.
3) You can persevere. Typically if you don’t get lucky, and don’t have another field to draw confidence from for prior experience, you’re in it for your friends, or the girls (guys), or some other extrinsic reward (perhaps another successful player inspired you to aspire for similar heights). This leads you to playing and improving.
Ultimately (pun intended), you work. Natural gifts are not the rule, and there are so many dimensions to this sport that nobody steps in with a complete toolset. You work, and you improve, and seeing this improvement gives you confidence. You know, when you step on to the field next–”I have worked and I have improved, and I will see better results as a consequence.” And this positive mental feedback often leads to better performance.
Issues come when adversity or bad luck gets our mental cycle off track–a few bad throws, you get burned deep despite feeling faster than you ever have, etc. Doubt creeps in, failure continues to grow, and a negative feedback cycle leads to diminished performance.
You MUST develop a strength of mindset to weather these rough patches. When I talk about confidence, THIS is what I’m really referring to. A lot of it comes from experience, but you can compensate for a lack of experience with a healthy mindset. By “healthy” I don’t mean “positive;” only a fool or a hopeless romantic will continue to see daises when the weeds are growing. But you cannot let the weeds dominate the landscape, either. Simply get to work removing them, eliminating negative thoughts and taking action to correct for perceived shortcomings.
I feel as though one of my best assets as a player is my mindset; as a very analytical person, I typically remain emotionally detached with regards to my performance–sure, I want to do better, but I don’t ever get too high or too low on myself, merely motivated to do better.
In times of struggle, find something to latch on to that you know to be true about yourself. If you find your throws failing you, invest more in your legs. If your offense is suffering, redouble your focus on your defense. Draw from one well of confidence and don’t dwell on your drought elsewhere; while you can tend to the drought directly and, slowly, refill the well that has emptied, it only needs a little guidance to get on the right track (if you’re self-aware enough, you can diagnose what needs to be done yourself; otherwise, get some coaching or let it be). You can channel your emotions more productively into a different aspect of your game, instead of struggling against the force of those emotions in the aspect that’s created it.
Apologies if I’m getting too metaphorical. Know that confidence is a skill like any other; it can be practiced and improved. Being confident in your own capabilities will always lead to better performance; it may not always manifest in success (this is an important distinction), and there may come a time when you need to re-evaluate your approach and change it to get better results for your team. But never lose confidence in your ability. Work hard, develop confidence, and hold it tight.
