Most athletes will admit that a great percentage of their success is due to their belief in their ability to achieve success.

Confidence is the belief that you can be successful at a task. A confident individual in sport has strong positive thoughts about his performance.
Confidence leads to proper mental images useful for skill execution.

Confidence allows you to perform your skills with a "carefree" attitude, not thinking about the actions, but as Nike says, just doing it. Nothing brings on confidence more than success. Achieving success is a crucial component of achieving confidence. Achieving success requires effort and preparation.

Sport is different than many other aspect of things we may try to accomplish in life in that success, is not always determined by the individual. To achieve success in sport, it's often helpful to try and focus on things within the individual's control and to not rely on factors happening that are outside of one's control. Repeated success outcomes will lead to the development of confidence.

Having the right mental attitude can also help you build confidence. The way we think has a great influence on our level of confidence. It is important to monitor the type of self-talk that occurs within your mind.

Anytime you think of something, say something to yourself, you are engaging in self-talk. It is important that you keep a positive focus when engaging in this type of talk as it will influence your confidence.

Try these recommentations to try and introduce positive thoughts into your sport performance.

• Repeat positive words to yourself, over and over, Try saying, things like "keep it up," "I can do this," and "I'm confident"
• Saying words to yourself that remind you of what you need to do as you execute a skill
• Use self-talk that reassures yourself that you are ready for competition
• Use words that remind you of aspects of skills you are trying to learn.
• Use self-talk to help you achieve the proper mood for your performance.

  Consult with a sport psychologist for assistance with this