Become a Better Soccer Player: Self Confidence

Believe in yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself when you step on the soccer field, how can you expect your teammate or coaches to? A player should always be confident in his/her abilities. If you’ve been putting in the practice and Soccer training necessary, then you should be confident in yourself as well. A player who play’s with confidence in themselves will always be more successful than a player who plays unconfident, scared, and reserved.

As you progress as a Soccer player, your confidence will increase with experience, but the base of confidence is a mental component. It has to come from within you. It cannot be given to you by teammates or coaching staff, your confidence comes from you.

More exclusively, for the purpose of this article, I want to focus on Self-talk; specifically, the difference between Positive and Negative Self-talk. Whether you think you can do something, or think you can’t… your right. It’s all in your head.

Positive Self Talk: anything said to oneself promoting encouragement or motivation.

Examples: 

• “I can do this, just keep focused” 
• “I’m better than my opponent, they can’t mark me”
• “I’m the best” (Maybe a little much, but then again you’re the only one who can hear what’s going on inside your head)

Negative Self Talk: anything said to oneself promoting discouragement or incapability.

Examples:

• “I can’t do this, I suck”
• “I’m playing so bad, I should just get a sub”
• “This team is too good, how am I supposed to compete?”

Now imagine one player is using positive self talk and the other negative. Who is going to be more successful? You tell me.

Be your own personal cheer squad. Pump yourself up and encourage yourself to do better. You are capable of doing anything you want; it’s all in your attitude. The best Soccer players in the world are confident in themselves. If you want to be the best you can be, you need to be confident in yourself.

Use positive self talk to your advantage. Next time you catch yourself using negative self talk, become aware and correct the habit. Over time you will begin to develop a habit of continuous positive self talk (this can be extremely helpful in Soccer and life in general).

 All the best Soccer players play with confidence, you can see it in the way they present themselves. They know they are quality players and have the ability to do what is expected of them and more. Although, it is important to be confident, it is also important to be humble. It is not necessary to brag about how good you are (arrogance is different than confidence).  Keep your thoughts to yourself and simply play to the best of your ability.

Be confident but be humble.

Remember. Believe in yourself.

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