Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Confidence



I have always been a fan of quotes, my favorite ones being about inspiration, love, and life. I know that one of my classmates writes about quotes in her blog, so I enjoy seeing the quote she picks for each week.

A couple weeks ago I was at a leadership conference when a baseball player told us a quote. This leadership conference was about confidence, and how important confidence is to a student athlete. His quote was "practice like you’re in second, play like you’re in first." I really like this quote! I don’t know if it is because it can be applied to my athletics at the moment or if it is just that great of a quote.

Confidence is something that can make a big difference in an athlete’s performance. I believe that there is a strong line between confidence and cocky, and if you’re not careful it is very easy to cross it. Confidence is something that can really mess with your performance, especially when stepping up to the college level.

Obviously when an athlete comes to a college they most likely were considered very talented from where they are from, but college can either destroy your confidence or boost it. In most cases I think that confidence is something that disappears for a while until you become comfortable in your new home and with your new team. When a freshman enters college athletics, they are crazy if they think they can run the team right away. This can only place a negative effect on the athlete. Of course they can enter the team with the attitude that they are willing to do whatever it takes to play, but when they become cocky, they are most likely going to be put right back into place by the upper class men.

This quote is so true, an athlete wants to focus everyday and practice like they are in second place for a position, or for a team view, in second for the ranking. Thinking that you are in second, will make you work harder or make you push your teammates to become the best team possible. If you are already in first or have that mindset, then what are you work for? Also when the competition comes, you have to believe that you are in first, that you are the best, and play like it. If you have the mentality that you are in second then you are just handing the win to the opponent. And if you have trouble being confident in what you are doing, fake it!

2 comments:

  1. I agree that there is a fine line between confident and cocky. Not only in athletics but in day to day life as well. Confidence can be a very attractive quality to many people while cockyness is a complete turn off. finding the diference is a hard thing to do.

    I believe that in order for someone to remain confident without being cocky, they need to believe that they are capable of success, but also that they are capable of defeat. This balance will allow them to push forward and strive for that goal, while at the saem time giving them the ability to do so.

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  2. I know what you mean about there being a fine line between confident and cocky. I don't know how many people I've played against that have given me a really bad impression just because they are cocky. The people themselves might actually be really nice, but it's hard to get past first impressions. I think being involved in sports really teaches people a lot about this kind of thing.

    I always enjoy reading your entries. I can usually relate to the topics you talk about. Keep up the good work!

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