Jean Williams, Nate Zinsser, & Linda Bunker

1. Chapter 15 Cognitive Techniques for Building Confidence and Enhancing Performance Jean Williams, Nate Zinsser, & Linda Bunker “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” -Henry Ford

2. What Athletes Say “The whole thing is never to get negative about yourself. Sure it’s possible that the other guy you’re playing is tough, and that he may have beaten you the last time you played, and okay, maybe you haven’t been playing all that well yourself. But the minute you start thinking about these things you’re dead. I go out to every match convinced that I’m going to win. That’s all there is to it.” Jimmy Connors

3. “Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart, and mind, confidence is the key to all the locks.” Joe Paterno Penn State Football Coach What Coaches Say

4. “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude of mind.” William James What Psychologists Say

5. Definitions Self-Confidence: • State of assurance • Belief in one’s power • Expectation of success

6. Confidence Research Findings • The most consistent difference between successful and less successful athletes is that successful athletes profess greater self-confidence. Samples included: • high school basketball players, softball players • college wrestling, basketball, softball, baseball, tennis, track & field • Olympic and national athletes (divers, skiers, figure skaters, gymnasts) • professional baseball and golf

7. Confident Athletes • Think they can, and they do • Have positive emotions, images, and dreams • Focus on succeeding rather than worrying about failure • Try harder and persist longer under adversity

8. Confident Athletes (cont.) • Have high: • Mental toughness • Optimism • Self-efficacy

9. Definitions Mental Toughness: • Natural or developed psychological edge • Enables coping better than competitors with performance demands • More determined, focused, confident and in control

10. Definitions • Belief that one can successfully execute the behavior that will produce the desired outcome Self-Efficacy: Optimism: • Expect the best possible outcome • Dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation

11. Misconceptions about Confidence • Either you have it or you don’t • Only positive feedback can build confidence • Success always builds confidence • Confidence = outspoken arrogance • Mistakes inevitably destroy confidence

12. Prerequisites for Gaining Confidence • Understanding the interaction of thought and performance • Cultivate honest self-awareness • Develop an optimistic explanatory style • Embrace a psychology of excellence

13. Seligman Learned Optimism vs. Helpless/Hopeless • Learned Optimism: • Predisposition to keep one’s mind on positive aspects in life, even in face of disappointments • Explanatory Style: • Refers to how an individual internally responds to and explains both the good and bad events that occur in his/her life • Permanence: situation will be repeated • Pervasiveness: generalizing to other events • Personalization: see self as causal agent • Glass half full or half empty: • Optimist vs. pessimist

14. Goal is Optimistic Explanatory Style • View errors as temporary and atypical of one’s potential • View successes as more permanent, general, and indicative of true ability

15. Embrace a Psychology of Excellence • Go for your dreams • Focus on your successes • Be your best friend, biggest fan and greatest coach • Create your own reality

16. Self-Talk Quotes • “Daily you are becoming what you think about yourself.” • “Whether you believe you can do something or believe you can’t you’re probably right.” • Life is what you dwell on. If you dwell on the negative, life is negative. If you dwell on the positive, life is positive.” (Terry Orlick, Canadian sport psychologist) • “Change your thoughts and you change your world.”(Norman Vincent Peele, US Clergyman) Thoughts Feelings Behaviors

17. Self-Talk • Internal dialogue with yourself • out loud or inside your head • Inappropriate or misguided thinking  negative feelings and poor performance • Key to cognitive control is self-talk • Ideal performance state: No self-talk • But, most individuals do think before, during and following performance • Need to learn to control self-talk 1st create awareness of self-talk 2nd know when and how to think 3rd use techniques to control self-talk

18. Constructive vs. Destructive Self-Talk • Constructive: • Fosters positive expectancies • Enhances self-worth and confidence • Enhances performance • Appropriately focuses attention on the task • Destructive: • Focuses on what you don’t want (usually is negative) • Distracting to the task at hand • So frequent it disrupts automatic performance • Engage in derogatory self-labeling (e.g. loser, choker)

19. Uses for Self-Talk • Skill acquisition and performance • Use words to cue action • Learning: technique cue words • Later: strategies/ feeling cues • Type of skill affects (self vs. externally paced) • Changing bad habits • Focus on desired outcome vs. error

20. Uses for Self-Talk (cont.) • Attention control • Create/change affect or mood • Control effort • Building self-efficacy •  Adoption/maintenance exercise behavior

21. Identifying Self-Talk • Retrospective recall • Imagery • Self-talk log (Note the situation/events associated with the self-talk statements)

22. Techniques for Controlling Self-Talk • Thought stoppage • Changing negative thoughts to positive thoughts • Countering • Reframing • ABC cognitive restructuring • Affirmation statements • Mastery and coping tapes • Video technology

23. Thought Stoppage • Begins with awareness of unwanted thought • Use a trigger to interrupt or stop the undesirable thought • E.g., say “stop” and/or imagine a “red light” or a “stop sign” • Practice  reoccurrence of unwanted thought patterns • Beware “ironic processing” • Focusing on suppressing unwanted thoughts can  them

24. Changing Negative Thoughts to Positive Thoughts • Use when thought stoppage does not work • Replaces unwanted thought with a positive thought that provides support or appropriately redirects attention • Couple the technique with a relaxation technique • Stop the self-defeating thought • Slowly and deeply inhale • Slowly exhale and substitute self-enhancing thought as body relaxes

25. Example: Changing Negative to Positive Self-talk Negative Positive “He robbed me on the line call-- that ball was in.” “There’s nothing I can do about it. If I play well, I’ll win anyway.”

26. Countering • Use when changing - to + fails because still believe self-defeating statement • Use past evidence and future possibilities to refute underlying beliefs that led to dysfunctional thinking • Argue against the dysfunctional and for the more functional self-talk Example: Can’t believe positive expectation. Counter with, “He may have beaten me before, but I’ve really improved my technique and conditioning -- this match is mine.”

27. Reframing • Interpret situations in a more positive way • Can transform weakness/difficulty into a strength /possibility • E.g., research shows that reframing anxiety symptoms as facilitative rather than debilitative increases performance Example: “I’m feeling nervous. Good! That just means I’m ready.” Example: “So it’s cold and sprinkling. I’ll make that my advantage because I can ignore it.”

28. Example of Reframing “ I have learned long ago to live with fear—controlled fear. Anxiety, panic or outright fright that’s fear out of control. Being relaxed, anticipating punches, accuracy, getting away from punches, translated into fear under control” Oscar De La Hoya Olympic Gold Medalist and WBC Lightweight Champion Parade, March 30, 1997

29. Irrational and Distorted Beliefs • Perfection is essential: Must be thoroughly competent, successful, and achieving in all possible respects. • Catastrophizing: Expect disaster, worst-case scenario (awfulizing) • Worth depends on achievement: You are your accomplishments. • Personalization: Everything is some kind of reaction to you

30. Irrational and Distorted Beliefs (cont.) • Fallacy of fairness: Expect fair treatment/ideal conditions and resentful when others don’t agree with your definition of fairness. • Blaming: Make excuses/blame others or, at the other extreme, unreasonable self-blame. • Polarized thinking/labelling: All or none thinking (no shades of grey) – often judgmental and prone to negative labels.

31. Irrational and Distorted Beliefs (cont.) • One-trial generalizations: Come to general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence. • Shoulds: List of ironclad rules for behaviour - get angry or feel guilty when violated, which can lead to problems for self or interpersonal relations. • Emotional reasoning: What you feel must be true – more likely to have problems with adverse emotions because generalize them as personal characteristics.

32. Criteria for Assessing (Ir)Rational Thoughts • Based on objective reality • Are they helpful • Self-destructive thoughts are usually irrational • Useful in reducing conflicts with others • Help you reach your goals • Reduce emotional conflict • Help you feel the way you want to feel (Steinmetz et al., 1980)

33. ABC Cognitive Restructuring • Based on RET by Albert Ellis • Purpose: Identify and dispute irrational beliefs that often underlie maladaptive thinking • Premise is that faulting thinking, not the situation, causes the deleterious emotional reaction and behavior

34. ABC Process A. Activating Event • Describe the event that led to the feelings and behavior B. Beliefs or interpretations • Record the actual dysfunctional self-talk C. Consequences • Identify feelings, bodily reactions, and behavior D. Dispute • Identify the irrational belief and dispute it with a rational statement

35. Examples of Self-Statements to Stop Irrational Beliefs • “I may not like this situation, but I can certainly deal with it.” • “I don’t have to be perfect. I made a mistake and will learn from it.” • “Don’t catastrophize. Put this in perspective.” • It would be nice if life was always fair, but it isn’t” • “My accomplishments are just one part of who I am.”

36. Affirmation Statements • Statement about what you want, phrased as if you already had it • Positive action-oriented statement • State in present tense and avoid perfectionistic demands • Write/say many times -- post it • Stop using the affirmation once becomes true Examples: “I love pressure and perform well when under pressure.” “I listen carefully in class and take good notes.”

37. Vidotapes, CDs, or DVDs • Mastery self-talk tape/file • Voice describes a perfect performance • Speak slowly and provide pauses, can add music • Coping self-talk tape/file • Describe negative situation and bad reaction • Follow with rehearsal of effective coping strategy • Emphasize process of regaining control/confidence • Videotape • Splice personal or team highlights • Add audio input, e.g., inspirational music • Watch many times while imaging the action, with accompanying emotions and self-talk

38. 10 Confidence Builders • Never say negative things about yourself -- outloud or mentally. • Cancel a negative with a positive. • WATCH FOCUS: Tell yourself what you can do –- not what you can't. • Plan daily successes. • Get into the "habit" of succeeding. • Watch your environment • Avoid people who put you down. • Challenge yourself to demolish a fear by tackling it -- fear lessens. • Evaluate disappointments • Are they blessings in disguise? • Objectively evaluate criticism. • Develop meaningful goals and realistic plans to achieve them. • Get excited about your future! • Look confident! Act confident! Sound confident!

39. Summary • In every situation and for every decision to be made there are two options • One can be positive and build self-confidence or one can be negative and drag confidence down • It is your choice as a coach, leader, and athlete • Attitude is one of the things you can control