Last summer I was at one of the best soccer camps in the United States, Florida. At camp, we had a mental conditioning class in which they taught us some tips that they teach to pro soccer players on how to be more confident in the field. What I learned in that class was tremendously useful for me, and I decided to share that with you today.
So, how can you be more confident in soccer? First, you have to understand that confidence starts with you. The best athletes in the world believe in their abilities and they understand that confidence comes from within. They constantly use tools to build and re-establish confidence.
These are the 3 pillars you must work on to improve confidence in soccer:
- Self-talk: You are the most important person you speak to every single day.
- Body Language: Fake it until you become it. Where the body leads, the mind follows.
- Mental Rehearsal: Confidence improves by visualizing success. Where the mind leads, the body follows.
I’ve been there, I was a very shy player. I always feared to commit a mistake, and that same fear is what made me did the mistakes. Not feeling confident is one of the worst sensations a player can feel in a soccer field and can dramatically affect your performance when playing. There is a lot to learning on how to be more confident, and it is a fundamental skill to develop if you want to improve as a player.
The tools to improve your confidence
You have to understand that fear will always be there. No matter what you do, fear of failure and pressure are always going to be present. In fact, most soccer players say that critics, fear of not winning, and pressure is like fuel that motivates them to be better everyday. The moment when a person gives the best out of him or herself is when they are most pressured and with most fear.
But, why if all the professional athletes also feel fear, why when you feel it, it makes you play even worse? The difference between you and them is how each one handles this fear of loosing. Elite athletes, even when they have fear things might not work out, they feel confident about their capacities. They always remember what they are made of and what they are capable of.
So, the key to overcome fear is to be confident in yourself. However, this is not an easy task for many people. After you finish reading this article, you’ll realize that being confident is easier than you think, and you’ll have the tools to apply this every time you step out to play in the soccer field.
The importance of Self-Talk
When we are at the soccer field we talk with a lot of people: the coaches, teammates, rivals, referees, etc. But, guess who is the person that you talk to the most every every single second? It’s yourself. You need to create the idea in your mind that self-talk needs to exist and that it has to be positive. That you are the most important person you talk to everyday, and what you say to yourself truly matters.
What you say to yourself will impact your emotions, how your body feels, and how you perform. Some common self-talk phrases that we say at soccer games that might help improve your confidence and motivate you are simple like: “We got this”, “I’m going to get there first”, “Let’s do this”, “Fight for the ball”, “Get that header”, “Get there first”.
All of this phrases have an impact in your mind that can significantly help you elevate your game more than you might expect. As you see, some of these phrases are to win 50/50 balls. Teams that win those balls tend to have majority possession of the game, majority of possession means you win the majority of the games, winning the majority of the games means you win championships.
Confidence should come from practice
I want you to watch this video of a little girl’s first ski jump. This girl had already done a 20 meters ski jump before, and now she was trying to attempt a 30 meter jump. She is speaking to herself out loud, which is also self-talk, just as we would do in our mind. You can hear that she is scared, but watch carefully what she does to gain confidence.
At the beginning, you can see that she was very nervous and had zero confidence. What did she do? She started asking questions to gain confidence from past experiences like: “Is it any steeper?” “Do you go faster in the end?” She is trying to gain confidence and see how is it alike or different to past experiences she’s done before.
That’s what us, the soccer players, also do. We build our confidence according to past games or tournament’s outcomes. Which is not bad at all, because games are there to test you along the way, but where you’re confidence really should come from is from your soccer practices and trainings. I want you to see the following image to better illustrate what I am trying to say.
Imagine that each soccer ball in the image is an important tournament and that each soccer cleat is practice that takes place between those tournaments. Let’s say that at tournament #1 you did a great job and had an awesome tournament. At #2 you had a very regular or bad tournament but you still learned a lot, and tournament #3 you are about to play it next week.
Our mistake is that, when we are about to go play tournament #3 we look back at our performance at tournaments 1 and 2. However, I am sure that each one of us, after we’ve had a bad game or tournament, we went out and practice even harder, and learned from the mistakes we made.
Being said this, it makes no sense to keep looking back and building up your confidence from tournaments 1 and 2 when you are actually at a higher level than that now. Your confidence should come from practice #2, which is the real level you are at right now, higher than past tournaments that you had a bad performance from which you’ve learned and make the necessary corrections.
So, the next time you have a big game or tournament, remember to build your confidence from your latest soccer practices, because that is were your true level is and where it demonstrates what you are truly capable of.
Does confidence boost success?
At the end of the video the girl said: “60 seems like nothing now”. Because she did so good at the 30 meter jump, now she was hyped to do a 60 meter jump. That’s why every time we score a goal, the whole team gets motivated and we start playing even better. So, does confidence boost success? Yes, it does.
You’ll see that the more you keep growing and improving as a soccer player, the more confident you’ll be when playing. That is one of the best tips I can give you to improve confidence, play and train as much as you can, make the most mistakes you can at training and learn from them. The most successful people are those who have made the most mistakes and learned to overcome them.
Body Language matters
Soccer has no language. There can be 11 players in a field that speak in eleven different languages, and all 11 players might be able to understand each other just with pure body language. For example, everyone understands emojis, no matter what language we speak. They are able to transmit a message without saying a word.
But, what does body language has anything to do with confidence? Well, absolutely everything. You see, it doesn’t matter how many times you tell everyone out loud that you are confident, what truly demonstrates everyone if you are confident is your body language.
Let me ask you a question: When do you think a soccer/football game starts? In the kickoff? Well, absolutely not. A soccer game starts the moment the team gets out to warm up before the game. When the players start getting ready for the game with such a confident, secure body language that lets the other team know that they are coming for them.
Also, when both teams are in the tunnel or singing the national anthem, you see all these players holding the kid’s hands (kids that are super happy and laughing around), meanwhile the players are stone-faced, with big body languages letting the other team know that they are absolutely going to get beat.
With a confident body language, you score the first goal before the game even starts.
How’s a confident body language?
From the image above, I want you to take a minute and try to guess which of both you think is a confident body language. Obviously the one on the left is more confident. It has been scientifically proofed that, not only humans, but most of the creatures in the animal kingdom adopt a big stance when they feel confident and a small stance, like the one on the right, when they feel fear.
Take a minute to search in google an image of super man and wonder woman. How is their posture and stance? Big right? That’s because that is a natural response our body has to empowerment, and getting small is our response when we feel scared or perceive danger.
I bet I can ask you right now which are the most famous celebrations in sports and you would automatically have several images. The first one that comes to my mind is Cristiano Ronaldo’s celebration “SIIIU”, Usain Bolt’s every time he wins a race, Mbappe’s or Messi’s. What does all of these celebrations have in common? They all transmit a message that says: “I feel big, strong, and confident”.
I also saw that a group of investigators found out that every time sprinters win a race, they make the same old celebration opening their arms big. This a natural response every human being is born with, a person in this position will always tend to celebrate in this way, even if they had never ever watched that celebration before.
Body Language affects ourselves
As I said before, how you project your image and body language influences how others perceive you. However, you would be surprised to know that your body language also influences your own confidence. Which makes it even more important giving the correct attention to your body language.
Just by adopting a confident body language, even if you don’t feel like it, you are sending a message to your brain that you truly are confident. That’s why I said that where the body leads, the mind follows. When you are not feeling confident, the idea is that you “fake it until you become it”. Fake being confident by adopting confident body language until your levels of confidence actually increase.
Do you think that pro soccer players are always confident? Absolutely not, they get scared and lose confidence the same way we do. The difference between them and us is that they recover a lot faster, using all these tools I’ve mentioned like self-talk and improving your body language.
A real life case
A class was asked to rate from one to ten how confident they felt. Most of the students rated their confidence very low. One half of the class was asked to stand in front of a mirror in a power pose, like the one you saw above, everyday in the morning after they woke up, for six weeks. The other half of the class was told to do nothing at all.
After six weeks, the teacher asked them to rate their confidence again. Surprisingly, those who looked at themselves everyday in a power pose in front of a mirror for six weeks had increased their levels of confidence significantly. In the other hand, those who did nothing didn’t see any change at all. Crazy right? That’s how important body language is for confidence.
Mental Rehearsal
So, the first two pillars of confidence are more external things. For example, people can listen to your self-talk, and can also see your confident body language. In the other hand, mental rehearsal is something more internal. Depends more on yourself and takes place deep inside your mind.
“Successful people use the skill of mental rehearsal or visualization. They mentally go through important events before they happen.”
Put this into perspective: Everyone has local soccer field where their club usually plays games at. Where do you prefer to play, at home or at the away’s team field? Obviously, all teams from all sports will prefer to play at home for many reasons. The first one is because you are more adapted to the field, you know the field by memory. When you play at home you feel more comfortable, and when you are more comfortable you feel more confident.
The more detailed, the better
What if we are playing away? We live in an era where technology can help us visualize everything in a great way. For example, you might be able to look at the soccer field in google maps. Search in google what are the dimensions of the field. If it is any bigger or smaller than your local pitch. You can look at pictures of the field, the bleachers, etc.
We need to be able to use all the tools we have to make a mental image or movie of that soccer game as clear as possible. At what position in the field will you playing? How does it look to score a goal or dribble from that position? Is the game during the day or at night? The more detailed the mental rehearsal, the better.
If you are able to make a detailed visualization in your head of how the soccer game in that field might look like, then, when the day of the real game comes, you’ll be able to feel more comfortable, and prepared because you’re brain feels like he already played that game, and you know what to expect. Resulting in an increase in confidence.
“People believe what they imagine, more than actual reality”.
Other useful tips to boost confidence
Get in a rhythm
One of the hardest things when you start playing a soccer game is to overcome that fear you feel at the beginning of the game. At least in my case, my lowest level of confidence in a game is at the beginning. The worst thing is that if you’re not strong enough to overcome this starting fear, then your confidence will become worst with time, and your performance too.
The key is to start getting in a rhythm as soon as possible. Wha I mean by getting in a rhythm is to get to a point where you feel comfortable having the ball in your feet, and asking for it to your teammates. When the game starts, try to get involved with the ball as soon as possible, don’t hide and run away from it. The more you touch it, the more confident you get.
At the beginning you might have a couple of bad touches. If you have a bad first touch and you lose the ball you have two options: hide the rest of the game or ask for the ball again and overcome yourself. Which one do you prefer? As I said at the beginning, confidence comes from within and you are the one in charge of building it.
Don’t think “Will they judge me?”
One of the things we are most afraid of, not only in soccer, but in life in general, is that we are scared of how people will judge us. In the soccer field, the only people you have to listen is your coach and your teammates. Don’t think that anyone that is outside the soccer field is able to judge you, the only judge you should have is yourself.
At the end of the day, the people you should listen for advice are your teammates and coaches, and you are all playing in the same team. If you do something wrong they will want to see you do better and will help you out, not judge you.
Know your worth
Look, if you are playing in a team and the coach puts you to play, doesn’t matter if its 10 or 90 minutes, you are already worth something. If you are playing soccer for a team is because your coach already saw something special in you. Confidence is not a problem of others, is a problem in yourself, in your own self-esteem.
Know your worth and remember everything you did to be in the position you are right now. Always love yourself as a soccer player and never ever think that you are less than a teammate or a rival.
Remember your best moments
We’ve all had great moments when playing soccer. Maybe it was one incredible golazo your scored once or a great soccer game you had. Remembering those moments gives a boost to your mind, making her remember what you are truly capable of. If you were already able to do that once, then why can’t you do it again?
Your team is your family
There is nothing better than playing in a place where you feel comfortable at. Your team should always have your back and be together as a family. A family is there for each other no matter if one commits mistakes. They understand that we are all humans and that neither of us is perfect. Playing in a team that has an environment like this makes it a lot easier to develop confidence in each player. If your team doesn’t feel like a family, then let me tell you that you are playing in the wrong team.
The moment you get to a new team you have to start building friendships and great relationships with each other. This will considerably help and contribute for your confidence in the future. The moment I was playing my worst games and my confidence was on the floor, the only thing that helped me become confident again was my teammates cheering me up.
Also, when you finally feel confident and you are in a rhythm, make sure to cheer up and help out teammates which confidence is not good in a moment. These will help make your team more of a family and will demonstrate that you have each other’s back.
Rivals are humans too
One great tip is to always remember that rivals are humans too, they feel fear and lose confidence just as you do. It is natural from all humans to feel in this way at one point. When we feel scared we tend to think that the other players are superior or are one step ahead of us in someway. Remember that they are humans too and that they feel the exact same things that you feel.
Think that fear makes it worst
In my article “How to prevent injuries in soccer” I mentioned that one of the tips to prevent injuries was to not play soft. When you play with fear, your mind is indecisive on what to do and starts playing soft. Soccer is a rough game and if you play soft you are more likely to get injured than if you played hard. So, think that lack of confidence doesn’t only affect your performance, but can also put you at risk of injury.
Totally eliminate excuses
When we lose confidence we tend to start making excuses in our head to make us believe that we are playing against someone that is superior to us in someway. With those excuses we are telling our brain that it is impossible to win, which makes your confidence to slowly disappear completely. Eliminate all excuses and you’ll see an instant boost in your confidence.
Keep your focus where it should be
All of the things I mentioned above are things that are outside of soccer: fear of others judging me, of rivals, making excuses. When we feel fear we tend to keep our mind focused on things that aren’t even related to soccer. If we think about it, doing this makes no sense at all and it is why we actually lose our confidence. Keep your mind focused where it should be: playing soccer the way you know how to do it.
Related Questions
How do you not get nervous before a game? There are a lot of things you can do to reduce nerves before a game, but the best one for me is just to talk and relax with your friends and teammates in the dressing room. Telling jokes and just hanging out before an important game can reduce the tension. Also, having a ritual like: tying your laces in a particular way or drinking two red bulls and candy before the game. Having a unique ritual for you can help relieve stress.
How do you avoid being over-confident? The key word for me in this case is respect. To everyone, teammates and rivals. When you are aware that you are human being just as everyone around you, then you’ll realize you are not invincible. It is not a coincidence that the most successful people are also very humble. Never believe that you are more than anyone and over-confidence will never be a problem.