Building Confidence for Competition (11/11/2008)

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sports psychology consultant Dr. Alan Goldberg. Goldberg offers some advice on building confidence for competition.

Goldberg’s Tip:

Swim practice is naturally a pretty relaxed place that allows swimmers an opportunity to get comfortable with themselves learning and working on new technique.

However, if you’re not used to competition, those early meets can be very intimidating and confidence-shaking. Now the swimmer has to deal with competitive pressures and has to worry about her time.

On top of this, it’s very easy to get distracted by what all the other racers are doing and how fast they are going. The best way to handle this with your daughter is to first “normalize” the nervousness that always comes with these meets.

Let your swimmer know that she’s supposed to feel nervous, that some of this nervousness is actually excitement and that with enough meet experience, it will actually help her swim faster.

The best way to address the confidence issue is to encourage your daughter to focus on and compete against herself when she races.

It’s very easy for swimmers of all levels to get intimidated and lose their confidence when they spend too much mental energy concentrating on their opponents. Instead, you want to encourage her to focus on her race and her race only. Avoiding comparisons and “staying in your own lane” will always help the swimmer feel better about herself.