The Big Three to improve confidence
The word “confidence” comes from Latin and means “with force.” Coaching would be easy if players came to training and competed confidently every day. Having confidence allows players to approach difficult situations with an expectation that they will succeed. Confidence is a prime component for success both on and off the field. What is confidence composed of? The most important factors that contribute to confidence we will call “the big three.”

The big three are:

1. Competence
2. Control
3. Optimism.

2. Control is the perception that personal effort and soccer expectations are within the player. Control is some form of coping skill and a choice that players can make to influence their performance. Control is an internal perception influenced by rituals, re-framing skills and other coping skills that players can access and utilize on demand.

3. Optimism is a player’s internal expectation that they can successfully influence and change specific aspects of a task. Optimism doesn’t infer absolute victory. Optimism implies players use clear problem solving strategies to small, specific and changeable aspects of the task.

How do coaches build confidence in players?
Rene Miramontes was teaching a crossing session with a group of local Seattle coaches. Rene’s enthusiastic and precise coaching leads to a question of why changing the size of the field was important. The brilliant young coaches answered his question correctly: “Because you wanted us to be successful.”

“Yes”, Rene answered. “Success breeds success and you need to be successful in training to be confident.” Rene, demonstrated why is he is one of America’s top coaches. By changing the environment Rene was influencing the players’ confidence. Amy Allmann, a former national team player, followed Rene by directing an excellent session for goalkeepers. She questioned the keepers by asking, “Why do we start with smaller goal sizes?” The answer was to make sure the keeper experiences success while learning new skills. Gradually, as they mastered basic goal keeping skills the training demands increased. The principle here is the same as Rene’s -- create success because it will help to positively influence confidence.

The most influential source of confidence comes from the player’s experiences. History is the best predictor of a player’s future play. Memories, self-image and expectations are based in situationally-specific thoughts that players rely upon to predict their future performance.

By using the big three 1=Competence, 2=Control and 3=Optimism, coaches can help to influence the players’ experiences and therefore perceptions of themselves. Can a coach give you confidence? Very practically the answer is no. Coaches do have a very small influence on a player’s confidence when demonstrating or communicating. However these contributions are smaller than the sources of confidence within the player. External sources of information don’t impact confidence as much you would think. Perhaps 10 percent of the players’ confidence comes from watching a teammate, or hearing encouragement from a coach.

Now, that means that 90 per cent of a player’s confidence is based on two internal sources. The internal history of the player and the internal state of the player’s body. This is where the coach should focus most of their effort if they want to improve a player’s confidence. That’s why Amy and Rene are excellent coaches. They know that consistent small daily changes in training have a dramatic effect on confidence because they are based on the internal perceptions of the big three. Remember 1- Competence, 2 - Control and 3 - Optimism.

A coach that can design a session that can progressively provide both stress and success will increase of self-confidence by utilizing the big three.

Editor’s Note: We will continue in DTL #11 with Part 2 of Dano’s article where he gets into the practicalities of developing Competence, Control and Confidence.