Here you are. Enjoy the article.
Seven Steps to
Improving a Volleyball Player's Self Confidence
An article
written by Dave Cross
Building
Self Confidence in Volleyball Players
"Geez, she has the ability, if I could only get her to believe in
herself!" How many times do you remember muttering this frustrating
phrase-or sitting there listening to a colleague lament the same
thoughts? We have all worked with young players whose own worst enemy
is themselves - they constantly hold themselves back unwittingly from
even coming close to reaching their potential due to a simple lack of
self confidence.
As coaches, we will invariably try our best to get this young person to
see they are actually much better than they think they are. We
constantly tell her that she is good, that she needs to believe in
herself-have more self confidence. But, usually after a period of time
we become frustrated in their lack of progress and inconsistent play
and simply throw our hands up and say, "she's just a head case".
You see, it takes up a lot of our time and energy working with a player
like this. And we do get frustrated with the situation-we start to
focus on the other players we could be spending this extra time
helping. We start to compare the un-confident player with others on the
team that seem to pick up things and improve more quickly. We ask
ourselves, "Why can't 'Suzy' just do things like 'Jill' does?"
Coaches: No matter what, you simply can not do this! You must keep in
mind that you are the one this young player looks up to - the one she
is looking to for guidance. If you give up, she will pick up on this.
Then what do you think will happen? (It surely won't be what either of
you really want to happen.)
And please, whatever you do, don't allow yourself to be one of those
coaches who dismisses the situation by saying, "I don't have time for
this mental stuff, I've got skills to teach, we've got some big matches
coming up, either she gets out of it or she doesn't." Whether you like
it or not, helping this young player is part of the coaching job you
accepted. Making the effort to help this player will not only help her
and your team - it will make you a better coach in the long run - and
the next time you run into this situation you'll be better equipped to
help the player more quickly!
Steps
to Improve Self Confidence in Volleyball
Take the following steps to teach the un-confident player how to change
her mental state. You will see improvement in her game - and at the
same time you'll be teaching both her and yourself some valuable tools
that can be used in any area of life.Please remember that how long it
takes to develop self confidence as a player varies. You have to take
into
account the player's personality and any and all outside influences,
also.
1. Visualizations-teach her to visualize herself performing each skill
perfectly in competition. Tell her to watch herself making the play to
win the match-and watch the celebration after the win. Make sure to
include seeing the score before and after the play, hear the crowd,
watch the reactions of all to her match winning play. This should be
done every day as she lays down to go to sleep at night, when she first
wakes up in the morning, or during a quiet time during the day when she
has time for a break from her schedule. When I teach this technique at
camp, I am always asked, "How many should I do?" I always answer this
question with one of my own: "Well, how good do you want to be?" It is
very easy to do one hundred repetitions of a visualization in ten
minutes time-does your player have at least ten minutes to give to her
own improvement? Of course, they do-you just need to help them look at
it this way.
2. Self-affirmations-teach her to use short, positive statements, and
repeat these to herself over and over daily. Things like, "I'm
an awesome hitter". These statements should be said with a positive,
energized tone of voice. These can be done at any time, at home, during
school, in the lockerroom before practice or a match, during warmups,
and even during the dead time between plays or at time-outs. Remember
one of our key teaching points: The sub-concious believes what you tell
it! Hint: Sometimes girls will resist doing this because they have the
idea that doing this is acting "cocky", or "stuck-up". If this is the
case, point out that only when you make statements such as these to
others can it be perceived this way-because your making the statement
in an attempt to impress others-but when you are saying these things to
yourself you are not trying to impress anyone else- just
yourself.
3. Make sure to continually praise her for nice plays. Make sure to do
this in front of her teammates. Take the time to point out to her what
she has done-and how good it was. It is very important to praise the
effort-not just the result. If a player goes up aggressively and hits
down the line as you want her too, praise her for the effort- whether
she was successful or not. In doing so, you will reinforce her efforts
to improve and she will continue to focus on improving-and not the fact
that she's not there yet in terms of successfully executing the skill.
4. Enlist others on the team to help-explain to them why they need to
help- that in helping their teammate they are in turn helping the team-
and themselves. Keep in mind that peer pressure has a huge influence in
any team sport situation. Negative reactions from one's teammates can
have a huge effect on a players performance. Again, point out to her
teammates that this is only hurting the team they are a part of.
5. Talk to her parents and enlist their help- and make sure they are
not actually hindering the process with their comments and actions.
Sometimes parents actually impede the process unwittingly with their
comments. Now, the vast majority of parents
actually mean well and want nothing but for their daughter to play well
and be happy. Sometimes they just don't know how to go about it-that's
exactly why they aren't coaches themselves!
6. Have her set short-term, attainable goals and track their progress -
and make a big deal out of it when she attains them. These
goals should be focused on skill improvement and include a specific
plan on how that improvement will be accomplished. Have your player
write these goals down and make copies. Then have them placed in
strategic spots at home and school where they
will be seen on a daily basis.
7. Talk to her about her self-talk and help her to see that talking
negatively to herself is hurting her-not helping. Remind her to use our
"clearing" method whenever frustration starts to build - and then rely
on her self-affirmations and visualizations to make it through this
rough period.
Lastly, sit her down and chat with her informally about why she feels
she has no self confidence. Don't let her pass on an answer with
"I don't know." If she says that, reply with, "I know you don't know,
but what do you think?" Use this phrase exactly - you'll be amazed at
the
information you will get out of her. Whenever she makes a statement ask
her, "How do you know this?", or, "What makes you say that?".
Give her time to think of a response-and never put words into her
mouth-you want to get her thoughts out-not give her your thoughts. By
doing this, you can get past the "generic responses" she has developed
to cope with others who have tried to talk to her about this and get to
her real thoughts on the situation.
Dave
Cross
National Director
Yes I Can Volleyball
More Pages about
Self Confidence and Mental Training
Volleyball
Quotes
Volleyball Self Confidence under "Mental Traning Skills".
