Self-confidence is a psychic phenomenon to take into account when we ski because it affects other mental aspects. After self-motivation it is the most important factor in skiing. It is often confused with courage but in reality it is considered an important component of sporting behavior. A particularity of this belief is our evaluation of ourselves as to whether or not we are capable of carrying out the actions in question.
Achieving solid recreational skiing or consistency in obtaining results in competitions is achieved through various cognitive mechanisms and self-confidence is one of them. It is not simple optimism: it is the firm belief that good performance can be successfully achieved. It is the strength of our conviction in our ability to achieve a goal. Beliefs are an early part of our life and can be said to be learned but they can also be modified if they do not contribute to establishing a healthy mindset. We will have confidence if we firmly believe that will achieve the desired result.
When we have self-confidence, we exhibit the tendency to show enthusiasm and perseverance even if there are deviations from the plan and to take responsibility for both success and failure. Self-confidence is the conviction that our own abilities are greater than or equal to the requirements of the context in the sense that we can execute the desired behavior for the situation we face. There is a tendency to possess confidence only in some aspects of our skiing but not in others. For example, confidence in balance tends to decrease in situations of significant challenges with respect to those less significant.
Self-confidence builds as we progress and achieve those desired goals. If we are self-confidence we know that we can count on what we have learned, while the beginner skier it is more difficult to demonstrate this, since he is taking his first steps in the activity. It is not frequent to undertake any activity with full confidence in reaching the proposed ambitions.
The positive thing is that confidence is learned, that is, it is a skill that we can acquire and develop. It is a key factor that determines our performance. It can be considered as one of the major difficulties in our progress if we don’t have a solid root because a single failure can dilute the confidence acquired through many previous achievements. A drawback of its deterioration lies in the fact that we tend to establish it based on the results of our performances. When one performance is poor, we already begin to wonder if the next attempt will also be flawed. This way of thinking gradually fosters a decrease in our confidence and an increase in self-doubt and pessimism.
Self-confidence and performance are interdependent and can generate both a vicious and a virtuous circle of cause and effect in that diminished self-confidence generates impoverished performance, which in turn leads to a loss of our confidence; and vice versa with robust self-confidence. A decline in our performance can generate a loss of our confidence such that it leads us to seek challenges that are beyond our current level therefore, self-confidence should be related to realistic judgments in terms of choosing performance conditions appropriate to our own ability. The tendency to confuse a breakthrough with a confidence spike is normal, so we should not take a good downhill in isolation with having mastered a particular technical element we are practicing.
Being self-confident, we should possess the following traits:
- Orient our thoughts toward changes that can be made.
- Think of past successes to recover from present failures.
- Exhibit a behavior of effort and commitment.
- Experience feelings of enthusiasm and optimism.
- Take failure as a lack of effort.
- Being prone to explore new technical aspects.
- Set attainable goals.
- Persist in the face of adversity.
- Recover reasonably quickly from failures.
- Remain composed in situations under pressure.
- Show perseverance.
- Ski to excel by pushing our own limits.
On the contrary, if we exhibit diminished self-confidence we may display the following:
- Orient our thoughts toward uncontrollable aspects.
- Think of past failures when experiencing a current one.
- Recognize feelings of avoidance.
- Exhibit behaviors characterized by lack of effort.
- Take failure as a lack of ability.
- Doubt our own abilities.
- Tend not to communicate with our instructor, coach, or group mates.
- Blame external conditions for our performance.
- Experience frustration and anger when making mistakes.
- Ski always within our limits.
Factors influencing diminished self-confidence and excessive self-confidence
The following factors predispose to diminished self-confidence:
- Negative internal dialogue in terms of thinking or speaking negatively to ourselves.
- The vicious cycle generated by negative thoughts leading to faulty performances and these in turn lead to more negative thoughts.
- High demands can further affect confidence.
- Negative emotions caused by low confidence.
- A low level of concentration, which is caused by low confidence, in which we tend to focus on detrimental aspects rather than those that improve our performance.
- The low motivation generated by negative thinking participates in the aforementioned vicious cycle, which produces anxiety and frustration, preventing concentration and enjoying the activity.
On the other hand, being overconfident does not mean not having doubts and concerns about our own ability. Everyone has them to varying degrees but this avoids becoming overconfident. When overconfidence takes hold, we believe that we don’t need to try any harder because our ability is enough. In this case, we overestimate ourselves and underestimate the context. By losing respect, we lose our concentration and our performance degrades. Ideally, we should reach an optimal self-confidence with which we set realistic and achievable goals, taking into account our own limits.
The drawbacks of excessive self-confidence are:
- Grandiose inner conversations, i.e., we think and talk outside of reality about our own abilities believing we are better skiers than we really are.
- Tendency to demand less of ourselves because we are overconfident that will ski well.
- Exhibit poor concentration which causes us to be distracted.
- Display diminished motivation and effort in thinking we are going to perform well.
We may lose self-confidence for the following reasons:
- Our expectations do not relate to our own reality.
- Have difficulty in demanding situations.
- Are too critical of our own skiing.
- Have insufficient experience or inadequate ability to achieve the proposed objectives.
- Are disturbed by family or work problems.
Strategies to develop self-confidence
- Cultivating optimism in terms of taking mistakes and failures as essential steps in the learning process or as experiences that contain valuable information. Adopting this attitude will help reduce frustration and anger.
- Using mental visualization to focus on correct executions.
- When losing confidence there is a tendency to exaggeratedly increase the effort. In this case, it is convenient to stop for a moment and reflect on this aspect.
- The positive inner dialogue, by means of internal affirmations or aloud, generates the possibility of arranging our mind and body in positive states.
- Bringing previous successful performances to the present.
- Imitating the performance and attitude or thinking of someone who demonstrates a high level of self-confidence.
The strategies we apply for everyday skiing directly influence our self-confidence. There are general guidelines that may help:
- Start skiing on slopes where feeling confident and progress as becoming more confident.
- Ski regularly on more demanding slopes.
- After an unsatisfactory experience, resume skiing in less demanding conditions until enthusiasm is regained.
- Practicing a certain aspect of our skiing until a reasonable mastery is obtained before moving on to the next.
