Laura Ann Giraldi Sports in Society Sports Psychology: Self -- Confidence in Sport Activity November 21, 1996 Sports Psychology is one of the most up and coming sciences of the This practice focuses on training athletes to use their mentalcapacities along with their physical talent to reach what is known as peakperformance. Sports Psychologists analyze the performance of athletes and usemotivational, cognitive, and behavioral principles to teach them peakperformance levels. Sixty to ninety percent of success in sports is due tomental factors and psychological mastery. Sensing the importance of mentaltraining in recent years, scientists have developed mental training programs.These programs all vary in technique, however, they all include skills focusedon mastering the art of self-confidence. There are considerable amounts ofevidence in sports literature that there is a direct correlation between self-confidence and peak performance.Self-confidence exists in all walks of life. It is defined as: thestrong relationships between a person's thoughts, feelings, and behavior whichif motivated correctly can help an individual excel with confidence in anythingthey try to do. Most of the time self-confidence is viewed in accordance withhow well an athlete performs at a certain sport activity. To examine thisfurther one must look at how an athlete prepares themselves before the task inorder to understand how their self-confidence reigns so high when it comes timefor them to actually compete. An athlete must trust what enables them tobuild their self-confidence.(2) To start, an athlete needs to know themselves and what their limitations are. Through personal experience an athlete will know what they are capable ofdoing, and also what challenges them. From such personal experiences an athletecan recall past success as well as past failures. Therefore, an athlete muststrive off that knowledge of past success to reassure themselves that they...
