I am not sure what happened. I was full of confidence and could do nothing wrong. Then I made a couple of mistakes in a match, and my confidence just vanished, almost instantly. I could not believe it. I was not sure how to get it back, nor did I understand why it had gone.
Stephen, current academy player
Sport confidence is the degree of certainty that you possess about your ability to be successful in sport. Sport confidence can be (a) general and represent your beliefs in always being successful (e.g., securing a professional contract, representing your country, or helping your team win the league) and (b) specific and refer to your ability to be successful in performing a task (e.g., tackling, passing, or kicking). Being confident at passing does not necessarily mean that you will be confident at tackling. Likewise, although you might be confident in your ability to be successful at rugby, you won’t necessarily be confident in other areas of your life such as education, friends, or work.
Overconfidence does not exist. Confidence that is greater than actual ability should be termed false confidence. Rugby players or teams that have false confidence may experience a decline in their performance if they underprepare for a match because of their belief that they will easily win the match. That is, the confidence that people have in their ability does not match their true ability. A rugby player or team that has false confidence can experience a variety of undesirable consequences. For example, suppose that you are playing a team who is bottom of the league in your next match. You may be tempted to think that all you have to do is turn up and you will win. A consequence of this attitude or mind-set is that you might cut corners in training because you think that you don’t have to work as hard. During the match, you might exert less physical and mental effort. In this instance, the confidence in your ability to be successful would be based on your usual level of preparation, but with less preparation or mental effort your performance will not be as good and you would have false confidence. Therefore, you must never take shortcuts in training or matches. Regardless of whether you are playing the team that is top of the league or bottom of the league, do not become a victim of false confidence by taking shortcuts in your preparation. Instead, earn the right to be confident.
Is confidence important in rugby? The answer is yes. Being confident in your rugby ability is important for a number of reasons. Sport psychology researchers have found that along with mental toughness, confidence is one of the most important characteristics in determining success in sport. The more confident you are in your ability, the better your performance will be. As a player you may have been supremely confident at times and experienced a drop in confidence at other times. Did you play better when you were more confident and worse when you were less confident? Take some time to think about the match in which you felt the most confident and the match in which you felt the least confident. Then complete table 7.1.
A number of other benefits are associated with being confident.
• Performance. There is a positive relationship between sport confidence and performance. That is, people who are more confident perform better, whereas people who are not confident do not perform as well.
• Emotions. Research has revealed that the most confident athletes are able to remain confident and relaxed under pressurised situations during competition.
• Concentration. When you are confident in your ability, your mind is clear of worries about your ability to perform well, which allows you to concentrate on what you are doing, such as taking a goal kick or scrummaging.
• Goals. Confident athletes set themselves challenging goals and are more relentless in their desire to pursue such goals. Conversely, players who are not as confident do not set challenging goals nor are they as determined to succeed in achieving their goals.
• Strategies. Weinberg and Gould (2011) suggested there are two types of playing strategies: playing to win and playing not to lose. The most confident athletes have a play-to-win attitude, whereas less confident athletes play not to lose. A rugby player who adopts the play-to-win attitude always tries to make things happen, such as taking on an opponent in order to score a try, whereas a rugby player who has the attitude of playing not to lose looks for a pass rather than risks taking on an opponent and making a mistake.
• Momentum. Being able to reverse negative momentum created by circumstances such as losing four matches in a row or missing four kicks in a row is crucial in rugby. Confident players are able to reverse negative momentum by having a never-give-up attitude.
Callard the COACH
I know from my coaching experience that players all like individual confidence boosters before they play. Some even perform their confidence drills as late as the warm-up before the game. Whatever they do or whatever they want, you as a coach have to provide it! The players are the people who are about to take to the field, and they must feel prepared and full of confidence to tackle whatever comes in front of them.
The benefits of being confident are numerous, but you may want to know where your confidence comes from. Here is a list of factors that contribute to your sport confidence:
• Mastery. Developing and improving skills (but risk of losing confidence if you work on a particular skill, such as lineout throwing, and fail to perfect it).
• Ability. Demonstrating your ability by winning matches, outperforming your opponents, and outperforming your teammates.
• Preparation. Being prepared both mentally and physically for a match.
• Self-presentation. Feeling good about your body, weight, and overall appearance.
• Social support. Receiving encouragement from the people around you such as your coach and teammates as well as those outside rugby such as your parents and others (e.g., spouses, siblings, and friends).
• Leadership. Having faith in the leadership ability of the coach and the coach’s decisions.
• Other players. Seeing other rugby players of similar abilities performing successfully in matches.
• Environment. Feeling comfortable in the environment in which you will perform; feeling comfortable among your teammates.
• Situation. Seeing breaks in matches going your way and having a feeling that everything is going be all right.
Callard the PLAYER
I always believed that sport confidence was linked to the work that you put into your game during the week leading up to a match. Situations would be acted out and various outcomes practised under pressure, both as an individual and as a team.
Individually, I covered a lot of outcomes. Of course, I could not cover them all, but I could cover those that mattered most to my position—kicking out of hand, taking high balls, and goal kicking. It was the foundation that I knew would underpin my performance! It was to be the launch pad from which my game could be effective for the team.
As a player for a number of years, I experienced a number of new training methods that became available. For example, overspeed training and using Rocket Ropes were the last things I did after my kicking on Friday before the game on Saturday. The training involved a series of sprints over 30 metres attached to a rope on a pulley system. The other person attached to the rope jogged in the other direction. Because the rope was on a pulley, the pull created in the other direction was three times as fast. As a result, you were pulled along at great speed and you had to maintain your form. Running so fast was a great confidence booster! Although I was not one of the quickest players, the training gave me a psychological edge in games.
You should recognize that a number of factors influence confidence and that building confidence takes time. Confidence can also disappear rapidly, so you should continue to engage in practice to maintain your confidence. For example, you might follow the recommendations that we outline to build your confidence and get results. If you fall back into your old behaviours, however, your confidence may disappear. To improve your confidence, adhere to the following recommendations.
Do not take any shortcuts in your training and preparation for matches. Earn the right to be confident through hard work. The following case study illustrates the importance of not taking shortcuts in training. This case study is based on a real example of a professional rugby union player who had just broken into the first team of his club.
CASE STUDY
Jim (pseudonym) is a 19-year-old professional rugby player who had played six games for his first team. He was a fly-half and experienced problems with his goal kicking during his third game. In his first two games Jim kicked well, but his performance had started to decline, as had his confidence. The following dialogue represents a snippet of the conversation that he had with his sport psychologist, who is referred to as SP.
SP: Jim, your coach tells me that you seem to have lost your confidence in recent games. I would like you to talk me through what has happened.
Jim: Yes, I have lost it, and I am not feeling confident at all. It all started when I played my third game for the first team. I kicked poorly, and the crowd really got to me. I could not stop thinking about whether I was going to get picked for the first team again because they had just signed another fly-half on loan.
SP: OK, let’s go back in time slightly now. I want you to describe the first two games that you played for the firsts.
Jim: Well, they went well for me. I missed only three kicks in both of those matches together. I felt so assured about my kicking game that I knew I had a good chance of making every kick.
SP: How did that make you feel?
Jim: I felt brilliant. I felt good during the matches and felt good away from rugby, too. In the matches I wasn’t thinking about anything other than kicking the ball through the middle of the posts. Even the kicks I missed went very close and were probably out of my range, but I told the captain I would have a go.
SP: You mentioned that your performance got worse in the third game. I was wondering if you did anything differently in preparation for your third game compared with you did for your first two games.
Jim: I had a tough week of training leading up to the third match because the coach wanted the players to improve their fitness. This has continued for the last few games, and I have not been putting as much time into my kicking after training. I have not been doing any extras.
In this case study, the player may have become a little complacent with his kicking after performing well in his first two matches, so he took shortcuts in training. He did not prepare fully, so his confidence suffered, as did his performance.
Every player measure success differently. For instance, if you are currently playing for your club’s fourth team and are then selected for your club’s third-team squad, you have been successful. In table 7.2, list five things that you want to accomplish in rugby but make sure that they are achievable.
The most significant sport confidence that you can have is belief in your ability to get better at rugby. Don’t judge yourself in relation to how other players are doing. Instead, focus on areas of your game in which you have improved and areas of your game in which you would like to improve. See chapter 2 on the performance profile for information about how to identify areas of your game that you would like to improve.
Regularly carry out position-specific practice in which you focus on specific elements of your game (e.g., lineout throwing, catching high balls, kicking, and so on). Developing these skills will set you apart from other players who play in your position. Ensure that you enter each training session with something that you want to practise and improve, such as your agility, strength, or kicking.
Prepare for all possible outcomes. Mentally prepare for optimal performance. Plan what you want to happen and visualise yourself being successful. For more information, see chapter 3 on preparation and chapter 6 on imagery. In addition, consider what could go wrong and work out how you will respond to it. That way, no surprises will occur during a match.
Honour yourself no matter what and do not be too critical. If you have done the right things in the build-up to a match and given your all, then you have no need to be self-critical. Remember that you will always have another chance.
Always display a confident demeanour, regardless of any mistakes that you make and especially after you make a mistake. Never reveal to your opponents that mistakes affect your confidence, even though internally it may have caused you stress. For instance, if a full back drops a high ball, his or her shoulders may drop. The player may look at the ground and display negative body language. The opposition team may then target that player. You should try to exude confidence at all times in these ways:
• Keep your shoulders pushed back. This action forces your chest and torso out. Your torso is vulnerable, but your posture demonstrates power and shows that you are not afraid of any confrontation.
• Always look straight ahead. If you make a mistake such as dropping a ball or giving away a penalty, do not look at the ground. Continue to look ahead and keep your chin up.
• Walk with a purpose during breaks in the game.
• Communicate clearly with teammates by maintaining the volume in which you would normally speak to them.
Callard the COACH
I like players to be honest, but I don’t want to see them beat themselves up on the pitch. There is a right time and place for that, but it is not during a match. Some players go overboard and start remonstrating with themselves, physically showing the opposition that they are rattled. They must stay calm, realise their error, get over it, and live for the next pass they get or the next tackle they have to make.
No matter who you are, at times you have negative thoughts about yourself, which can reduce your confidence. You may think, I am not good enough to be in this team or I am going to miss this kick. Change negative thoughts that you may have into positive thoughts by using positive self-talk.
TASK Write down negative thoughts which negatively affected your performance or confidence.
This task will help you understand which situations have produced negative self-talk and why they produced negative self-talk. After you have done this, substitute the negative self-talk with an example of positive self-talk. To change a negative self-talk statement into an example of positive self-talk, you need to affirm
• your abilities,
• your skills,
• the training that you have been doing, and
• the preparation that you have done.
The example in table 7.3 illustrates how you can change negative self-talk into positive self-talk. Complete table 7.4 and change negative self-talk into positive self-talk.
R = Respond: Respond to any mistakes that you make in a match or in training by adopting a confident mind-set. You can do this by demonstrating confident body language and by focusing on what you will do next time that an opportunity arises in a game.
R = Respond: Respond with confidence to any criticism that you may receive from a coach, teammates, or the crowd.
R = Respond: Respond to problems by focusing on the solutions to solving the problem.
R = Respond: Refuse to accept a mediocre performance by preparing both physically and mentally.
• Sport confidence is the degree of certainty that you possess in your ability to be successful in sport.
• There is no such thing as overconfidence; we refer to confidence that is greater than actual ability as false confidence.
• The benefits of being confident include increased performance, enhanced emotional well-being, and better concentration.
• You can improve your confidence by not taking any shortcuts in your mental or physical preparation.
• Always exude positive body language during rugby.
• Use positive self-talk to boost confidence.