In another article entitled Five keys to athletic confidence, Dr Taylor identifies the five key components to achieving Prime Confidence and they are as follows: Individuals who are successful in any walk of life have many traits that stand out, and without question one of the main ones is confidence. It is the same in the sporting world and it is no coincidence that those who are successful in sport, have a great confidence in their own ability. Confidence can often be one of the key differentiating psychological factors between successful and unsuccessful performance. The article What’s Sports Confidence provides us with the following definition: Metrifit’s athlete monitoring and well-being software is used world-wide in team environments in Universities, High Schools, National Associations and with professional and amateur teams across many sports. Our new lifestyle profiling functionality is based on years of experience in this area – we know the key factors that underlie optimal performance. This is available for coaches and teams. It provides an essential baseline to assess where you are, and set goals and objectives to improve in key areas that ultimately will improve your performance. Preparation breeds confidence: Preparation is the foundation of confidence. This preparation includes the physical, technical, tactical, equipment-related and mental parts of your sport, and it means putting the necessary time and effort into every aspect of your training

Among the highest rated sources of sport confidence were coaches’ leadership, vicarious experience, mastery and demonstration of ability. Athletes differed significantly across gender in vicarious experience with males recording higher scores. Social support also yielded significant difference across year of study with finalists having lower scores. Mastery, physical and mental preparation, social support and vicarious experience showed significant difference in favour of those who had longer playing experience Having sports confidence means having self-confidence which is YOUR belief in YOUR ability to complete a physical skill or task required in your sport. Our confidence can be bolstered at times by others’ belief in us; but, ultimately, we have to believe in our own abilities to go out there and perform our best. Support bolsters confidence: It’s difficult to achieve success on your own. The very best athletes in every sport have many people supporting them. There will be times when things are just not going well, and it helps to have people to whom you can turn for support and encouragement

Sports confidence takes two forms and comes on a sliding scale of strength. Athletes can be confident about their overall ability, and they can be confident about their ability to perform specific skills. A diver can have overall confidence in his ability to dive well and win meets but can have varying degrees of confidence on each individual dive. A basketball player may have high confidence in her ability to sink three-pointers but medium confidence in her ability to dribble with her left hand. General confidence and skill-specific confidence are both important and feed each other.

Sports Confidence is essential to achieving the sports goals we have for ourselves. A high belief in one’s abilities is always a characteristic of high-achieving athletes. Muhammad Ali used to repeat, “I am the greatest,” reflecting a belief in his boxing abilities and in himself. That confidence carried over into a successful career in which he defeated many other tough and capable boxers. social climate (social support, vicarious experience, coach’s leadership, environmental comfort, situational favorableness) Being prepared means paying attention to all aspects of an athlete’s regime. If a coach or an athlete knows that they have done their best in terms of preparing through nutrition, sleep, training and are mentally focused, then they can go into competition with a self-belief that is based on solid foundations. Through simple effective monitoring, coaches and athletes can easily identify areas that might affect preparation and steps can be taken to ensure each athlete is in their best condition to perform. Metrifit can help build the confidence that might make the difference between winning and losing. Research by Anna Saw (Deakin University, Australia) detailed in Athlete Self-Report Measure Use and Associated Psychological Alterations has shown that use of Metrifit is associated with increased athlete sporting self-confidence. Metrifit is ‘athlete-centric’ helping to develop self-awareness, encourage creative thinking and emotional intelligence as well as developing ownership and responsibility within the athlete for their own success. Find out more about MetrifitIt may be tempting to presume that this self-belief is something that these athletes are born with, but in many cases it is a trait that the athlete has developed over the years. What is important to understand is that this belief in their ability is not something that comes by accident, or as a result of them simply relying on natural talent. Preparation is key