Improving Self Confidence in the Volleyball Players

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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 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 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
www.yesicanvolleyball.com
dave@yesicanvolleyball.com