Maintain the Level of Your Confidence
What effects do game-ending mistakes have on your confidence?
For most young athletes, losing is difficult, but making a costly mistake late in a game can hurt their confidence, especially if it leads to a loss.
For example, a QB may become frustrated after throw a pick 6, which lead the opposition to the win. Or a receiver might get upset after dropping a pass in the endzone and lash out at defenders.
Small mistakes early in a game can still affect your confidence. However, costly mistakes late in a game can be emotionally overwhelming. The negative emotional consequences of costly mistakes can have longstanding effects on confidence.
What can you do to minimize the effects of costly mistakes? For one, you should realize that your reaction to mistakes affects your confidence and future performances.
Letting go and learning from mistakes requires a mindset that does not view mistakes as career-defining moments. Mistakes are merely a blip on the screen in your career.
When you view mistakes in this manner, you gain a sense of control and empowerment, allowing you to re-focus your efforts and move forward.
Wide receiver Jalen Reagor was selected 21st in the 2020 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. In two seasons, Reagor has not made a significant impact on the team’s performance.
In a mid-season game against the New York Giants, Reagor dropped two passes in the fourth quarter. One of Reagor’s drops was on the last play of the game-ending Philadelphia’s chance of a late-game comeback victory. The Eagles lost 13-7 to the Giants and fell to a 5-7 record.
After the game, Reagor put the game in perspective instead of beating on himself after the loss.
REAGOR: “Just two drops that I would say (are) very uncharacteristic, but just got to go through the highs and lows and go on to next week and make the plays. That’s what you do with anything. That’s what you do in life. You have bad days. You have good days; you’ve just got to move forward. Because tomorrow’s still gotta be here, I still have to go practice. I still have to play next week. You can’t too much dwell on it. Just me taking ownership and moving forward.”
Your response to mistakes will impact your confidence and future performance when you make a mistake. So, always keep in mind, mistakes don’t define you. Mistakes can refine you.
Learning From Mistakes
The key is to grow and learn from mistakes rather than be self-critical about your performance…
Ask yourself, “Does this mistake define me as an athlete?” “What can I learn from this mistake?” “What can I do to prevent the same mistake from happening again?” “What can I work on in practice to improve my game?”
Ask yourself, “Does this mistake define me as an athlete?” “What can I learn from this mistake?” “What can I do to prevent the same mistake from happening again?” “What can I work on in practice to improve my game?”
Related Sports Psychology Articles
- When Confidence Flows from Within
- How Football Players Get Confidence
- Pregame Confidence for Football
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The Mental Edge for Football
Are you (or your athletes) performing inconsistently in games with less confidence in games than in practice? Do you lose confidence easily after a couple of blown plays? Do you become so frustrated with your game that you can’t focus on the next play? If you answered yes to these questions, it’s a good bet that your mental game might prevent you from consistent performance in games.
“The Mental Edge For Football” is a complete brain dump of the TOP eight mental training sessions we teach our football players to help them boost their mental game and improve consistency – from how to mentally prepare for games to performing under pressure to building unstoppable confidence.