Confidence is NOT a personality trait

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Confidence is key,” more times than you can count. Yeah yeah yeah… we get it. But let’s talk about what that actually means.

Because here’s the truth: Confidence isn’t something you’re born with or without. It's a mental skill. Just like any skill, it can be trained, strengthened, and yes, needs maintenance too.

Whether you feel super confident right now or you’re barely hanging on after a rough week, your confidence is something you can take real ownership of. And that’s what makes it so powerful.

So What Is Confidence, Anyway?

In sport and performance psychology, confidence is usually defined as your belief in your ability to execute a specific skill or task successfully. It is NOT blind optimism or pretending everything’s perfect. It’s grounded belief built on experience, repetition, and mindset. Let’s bring in a heavy hitter here, Dr. Albert Bandura. Bandura is the father of Self-Efficacy Theory, one of the most influential frameworks for understanding confidence in sport. He identified four key sources of self-efficacy (a term often used interchangeably with "confidence" in sports psych):

1. Mastery Experiences (aka Performance Accomplishments)

Past wins, even small ones, are your strongest source of belief. Confidence grows from proof.

2. Vicarious Experiences

Watching someone you relate to succeed (a teammate, a training partner, even a competitor) tells your brain: If they can do it, maybe I can too.

3. Social Persuasion

Positive feedback from coaches, teammates, parents, or even yourself can give your belief system a boost—especially when it’s specific and timely.

4. Emotional & Physiological States

How you feel before and during a performance matters. Learning to interpret nerves as energy, or excitement instead of fear, can help regulate confidence on game day.

The more aware athletes are of these four sources, the more they can take control of their confidence—not wait around hoping it magically appears.

Why Confidence Matters (Like, A Lot)

Confidence doesn’t just change how athletes feel. It literally changes how they perform.

Research shows confident athletes are more likely to:

• Stay composed under pressure

• Take smart risks

• Recover faster from mistakes

• Push through challenges

• Enjoy the game more (and stay in it longer)

One study (Woodman & Hardy, 2003) found that high-confidence athletes had faster reaction times, lower anxiety, and better decision-making than those with low confidence. Confidence isn’t just mental—it shows up in body language, energy, and how you move.

How to Build Confidence That Lasts

Here are 3 evidence-based strategies to help athletes strengthen their confidence day by day:

1. Track Successes (Small AND Big Wins)

After every training session or competition (or really any day), reflect on 1–2 things that went well—even small wins. Keeping a “confidence log” trains your brain to notice progress. Over time, this becomes a library of proof: I can do this.

Trust me, some days it may feel incredibly difficult to think of anything you did correctly, so here are some questions to spark your thoughts:

• Did you come well-prepared?

• Did you have good sportsmanship?

• Did you try anything your coach suggested?

• How was your mindset?

2. Use Imagery to Rehearse Success

Visualization is not woo-woo nonsense. It’s a legit, science-backed tool that elite athletes, Navy SEALs, and Olympic performers use to sharpen their mental edge. The brain doesn’t fully distinguish between a vividly imagined experience and a real one! So, when done right, imagery becomes mental reps for confidence.

Mentally rehearse yourself competing with focus, confidence, and resilience. Feel the nerves and see yourself responding well.

Pro tip: Try to incorporate all 5 senses in your imagery. The richer the imagery, the more powerful the effect.

3. Set Mastery-Based Goals

Let’s not hang all your confidence on whether you win or lose. Outcome goals like “I want to win” sound motivating, but they leave your mindset at the mercy of things you can’t control: your opponent, the weather, a bad ref call, etc. Instead, focus on mastery-based goals, things you can control that reflect how you want to show up. For example:“Today, I’m someone who competes with energy and resets quickly after mistakes.” This taps into Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), which says confidence grows when athletes feel autonomous, competent, and connected. Give yourself credit for how you play the game, not just how it ends.

Confidence Is Earned & Re-Earned

Confidence isn’t a permanent state. It’s fluid.

Some days you’ll feel flawless. Other days you’ll wonder where it went. That’s normal.

What matters is that you treat confidence like a muscle.

You train it. You fuel it. You give it recovery and attention. You build it back when it dips.

Ready to Train Confidence Like a Skill?

I offer individual mental training sessions, team workshops, and digital resources that help athletes and coaches develop confidence that lasts on AND off court!

Book Your Free Consultation Call

References:

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W. H. Freeman.

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and

the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01

Woodman, T., & Hardy, L. J. (2003). The relative impact of cognitive anxiety and self-

confidence upon sport performance: a meta-analysis. Journal of Sports Sciences, 21(6), 443–457. https://doi.org/10.1080/0264041031000101809