Coaching Tip – From Thana Arikrishnan Back to Newsletter

Getting Confident

The first thing to realise is that confidence is a feeling that you can control.

Steps to getting more confident

1) Accept how you are feeling – nervous, scared, low in confidence. Don’t beat yourself up or try to fight that too much but realise there are some things you can do and that it is your responsibility for how you feel. While we strive for perfection rarely are things perfect – accepting that is the start to better performance.

2) Stop – just for a few seconds – take a break – interrupt your pattern of thinking.

3) Remember - a time when you have been confident. Remember something good said to you or a time when you were winning. Let those thoughts keep coming in over on top of your fears etc just keep reminding yourself that you can do it even if you don’t believe it 100%.

4) Rituals - do something to remind yourself of this feeling – e.g. jumping up and down, wearing something lucky, hitting your hand on the racket strings – something that links that feeling to a ritual.

5) Be Ready to Work - Don’t underestimate your opponent or overestimate them. Remember that how you perform is in your control e.g. whether you go for every shot, whether you choose to believe in the possibility that you can win, whether you look for opportunities.

Note you can’t control everything – sometimes your form will be up and down but you can control how you react to it.