© Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.

Nothing is more important than the feeling of confidence before the start of the race. What is confidence?

Confidence is the belief in your ability and it can include two areas: (1) a general belief in your ability to win; and (2) a task-specific belief in your ability to pass, break, steer, and strategize. How do drivers develop confidence? Confidence comes from many sources and it varies from person to person. Most drivers get confidence from one or more of the following: (1) past success, (2) experience, (3) performing well in the immediate past, (4) other persons, (5) practice, and (6) having a good support team.

Here are some ideas to help you feel confident at the start of the race:

Believe in your skills. This is really the definition of confidence. If you believe in your driving skills and physical talents, then it is said you have confidence. If you back yourself more than anyone on the track, then you have confidence. This comes from your belief in driving skills, such as braking, turning, steering, maneuvering, etc.

Reinforce why you will succeed. I ask athletes to list the reasons to succeed—sort of a self-help exercise. Many athletes don’t give themselves enough credit for the successes and other skills that contribute to good racing. Athletes sometimes overlooked their own mini successes. Other drivers disqualify positives in their career. What is your list for the reasons to succeed? It can be comprised of your ability, car, the team, past success, good support crew, practice, fitness, and many other areas that contribute to confidence.

Battle the doubt. Part of staying confident is battling your own internal doubt. No one is perfect and in times of adversity it’s tough not to have any doubts about winning. The first place to start it to identify any doubts you have had in the past and that are themes in your career such as “My car is just not fast enough to win.” The next step is to counter the doubt with statements that turns the situation around into an advantage such as: “I have the confidence that I can win behind the wheel of any car.”

You have to see it before you can achieve it. It’s so easy for kids to have big dreams about the future, but as adults that same ability gets beaten down by others. Keeping the dream alive means seeing and feeling success close in hand. To win at your sport, you have to see yourself win over and over again. With the vision, comes confidence that it is all possible.

Use the past to feel confident today. Most drivers would say that past success and experience in driving is the number one source for confidence today. You can tape into your success in the past to help you feel confident today by replaying successful races, practices, conversations, and kudos from others. In today’s race, you might recall a successful race you had on a similar track or similar conditions.

Patience in a form of confidence. A patient driver is a confident driver. The challenge in racing it to stay patience when thing are not going your way today. It’s easy to give in to internal doubt and criticism when you are not on top in your sport. But the better choice is to stay patient with results and wait for good things to happen. A patient drivers says to himself that it might now be happing right now, but I know my racing will take a turn for the better.

This article is courtesy of Dr. Patrick Cohn of www.peaksports.com. Dr. Cohn is a leading mental game coach and sports psychology expert.

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