Confidence and Sports

Alex Maroko

As I was enjoying this Arizona-Green Bay football game, I had a sudden jolt of inspiration to crank out something here for you on Game Speed Insider…

Now, I’m from Michigan. My dad spent some time back in the day with the University of Michigan football team (at 5-9, 170 lbs., he was a beast of an O-linemen…ok, he was actually a punter), when good ‘ol Bo Shembechler was coaching and it rubbed off on me growing up…we always cheered for the Wolverine football team on some fun, fall Saturday afternoons.

So as I was watching the Cardinals mollywamp the Packers, a familiar name kept coming up from the Cardinals…Steve “hands off my” Breaston.

Breaston played at U of M (and absolutely dominated special teams for them…sidebar: watch the guy run, no, GLIDE, around the field when he plays and that should probably re-iterate to you the importance of stride length when it comes to serious top-end speed) and coming out of college, Breaston was pegged as middle-round draft pick…he ended up getting picked up in the 5th round.

Watching the playoff game today, you would have never guessed the guy was a late 5th round pick.

Making guys miss left and right and walking around the field with a confident, undeniable swagger (not to mention more than 1,000 yards receiving in just his 2nd year in the League), he simply looked like a guy who belonged at the absolutely highest level of the professional ranks, on the brightest stage around.

Now, why am I telling you about Steve Breaston?

Because the guy represents something a lot of athletes are missing out on; something you can’t buy, or sell; something that continues to hold a lot of athletes back; something that you can’t even really talk about (although I sure as hell am about to try): it’s that C-factor (confidence), that unbreakable, unwavering and unstoppable belief in one’s self, with complete disregard for what everyone else says, thinks or projects.

Athletes with real confidence:

* Believe in themselves, ALWAYS

* Forget about the mistakes they make, and instead, focus on their successes

* Sometimes write down their goals, sometimes they don’t, but they ALL know exactly what outcome they’re looking for and KNOW that they are going to make it a reality

When I set that giant goal for myself to be the absolute best basketball player I could possibly be years ago, I was completely and consciously aware of what everyone around thought about me as an athlete. I knew they thought my head was in the clouds…I was cool with it, because I *knew* what I was going to be.

It was a never a question of “Can I do it?” or “Will I do it?’; it was “This is what’s going to happen, and nothing is going to change that. You can believe whatever you want, you can think whatever you want, hell, you can even say TO ME whatever you want, but it absolutely has no effect on me…this my journey, my goal and my life.”

A guy like Steve Breaston is the same way…how many 5th round picks end up either getting the axe or never contributing in the NFL? The answer is a lot…Breaston could have been the same way, but like I started to talk about before, he has that C-factor, that unbreakable wealth of confidence that seems to always separate the cream from the rest of the crop.

While it’s likely that success in whatever sport it is that you play is largely based on how you do relative to other people and other teams, YOUR success starts with you.

You have to concretely believe in yourself and your goals, above all else.

And only when your goals have already been achieved inside your head can they began to unravel around you.

Because who’s gonna believe in you, if you don’t even believe in yourself?

So how do you up your confidence?

Here’s one trick that might help you:

Think back to a time where everything went right for you in a game. You felt great, your team played great and you kicked some serious butt out there. Really visualize it and go back there…

(seriously, STOP, take 15 seconds and visualize it right now)

…now come back.

You may feel a little bit better already.

You’ve proven to yourself that even if you don’t always feel insanely confident and amazing, you have been there before, your body knows exactly what it feels like and you’re clearly capable of being there again.

So the next time you’re feeling a little passive or under-confident, go back to that time where it was the complete opposite and you were the baddest dude in the game. Re-live it.

Then come back to the present, but carry that same swagger back with you and use it to your advantage (you do deserve the advantage, right? I mean, how many of your teammates or colleagues are reading about confidence and sports right now like you are? You clearly have that extra passion and motivation for success…TAKE advantage of it!).

Here’s to confidence…

Laterz,

-Alex

PS – Note that I’m not actually this deep in real life nor do I necessarily believe in new-agey, mental magic type stuff, lol…but I sure as hell believe in confidence….straight-up, if you ain’t got some, go get it.

PPS – When I said in the email that it “…makes coaches and teammates like and respect you more,” I wasn’t implying that they don’t already, lol…I was just saying that if you like it when people like and respect you, here’s a good way of getting that.