June 20, 2014
For today’s blog post, a brief talk on confidence:
One of my female hurdlers, whom I’ll call Andrea, was saying the other day that she needs to work on the mental side of her race. It was a conversation we had had before, as she puts a lot of pressure on herself. While I demand a lot of my athletes, I don’t like for my athletes to want success too much. Too much tension impedes progress, has a negative affect on performance.
I pointed out to her a teammate, whom I’ll call Jill, who had decided to switch her start in the 400 hurdles from a 24-step approach to 23 steps, which meant switching her feet in the blocks, getting out faster, and risking a greater level of late-race fatigue. Never one to err on the side of caution, I approved of this change and decided to work with her to make it work.
I pointed out to Andrea that Jill was willing to try 23 steps because she’d been feeling a bit crowded taking 24 and she wasn’t afraid of what might go wrong if she switched. She wasn’t afraid of making mistakes.
“But you can’t make mistakes,” Andrea said.
That’s when I explained to her that true confidence knows no fear. If your attitude is, “I can’t make mistakes,” then you’re afraid of making mistakes, and you increase the chances of making mistakes. The tension that you feel in your mind will translate to your body. You won’t run freely and fluidly. You will run with rigid, tense muscles that aren’t ready to react to whatever occurs in the moment.
Real confidence, I said, isn’t telling yourself you won’t lose, telling yourself you won’t fall. Real confidence is knowing you could lose but not being afraid of losing. It’s knowing you could fall but not being afraid of falling. It’s knowing you could hit hurdles but not being afraid of hitting hurdles. It’s knowing you can get off your rhythm but not being afraid of getting off your rhythm.
Real confidence isn’t “fearless” as the opposite of “fearful.” Real confidence has no opposite. It’s being free of fear altogether.
