My Confidence Is Severally Down

[Eagle fan 123]

Last couple of year when I was in middle school I played O-line and had my confidence on a high level which lead me to play well. This year Im thinking too much like the dude is bigger than me, the dude is stronger than me, the dude has been here longer than me. Which lead to t perform badly in camp. I know some of ya have went through the same thing I went through and Im asking you to please give me some tips on how you got your confidence back.

I tried not to think about it and just play but that didn't help.

[paki123]

listen to some intense music. eat. lift. think you are better. if you can't think you can't play. same problem here as well but you know what i play dend and i am scared that i will get blocked by the fullback. so yea. i play wr also and i scared that i will screw up in practice. if you read my journal there is this one guy who i hate and i am wanting to be better than him.

[Eagle fan 123]

listen to some intense music. eat. lift. think you are better. if you can't think you can't play. same problem here as well but you know what i play dend and i am scared that i will get blocked by the fullback. so yea. i play wr also and i scared that i will screw up in practice. if you read my journal there is this one guy who i hate and i am wanting to be better than him.


You play WR I play O-line, its way different. O-lineman gets contact on every single down with big ass D-lineman. I understand what you are saying though.

[paki123]

You play WR I play O-line, its way different. O-lineman gets contact on every single down with big ass D-lineman. I understand what you are saying though.

but i play dline as well

[mjoffball]

i highly doubt it's all confidence, not a whole lot of people just go out as a freshmen and dominate. it is some confidence and the fact that they are better then you because you aren't as matured as them. confidence does have to do with it some but if you get confidence you will not go out and dominate ,you will probably just be more aggressive which is good.

[macmoney]

workk your ass off so hard that you know that no one else has worked as hard as you.... and if no one else has worked as hard as you then you will be better then them

[communistpanda]

You can't let a person's appearance change the way you play.

I've played against kids that looked like they were awesome but played terrible.

[xKKx7]

the only thinig i can tell u to do, is be aggressive. aggressiveness and busting ur ass during practice will make u tired and too tired to think about the guy in front of u. its cuz ur still young, but getting over the fear of tackling bigger guys comes wit experience. that's what football practice is for, try hard and u'll be ready by the time ur first game comes. don't worry about it.

[PowerBuilder08]

Last couple of year when I was in middle school I played O-line and had my confidence on a high level which lead me to play well. This year Im thinking too much like the dude is bigger than me, the dude is stronger than me, the dude has been here longer than me. Which lead to t perform badly in camp. I know some of ya have went through the same thing I went through and Im asking you to please give me some tips on how you got your confidence back.

I tried not to think about it and just play but that didn't help.

I play against guys who have 80 pounds on me pretty much every day...I'm the smallest D-Lineman on the team, yet I'm in the 2-deep. Don't worry about that ****, just worry about your job and nothing else.

[Eagle fan 123]

Thanks for the posts you guys.

[Environ]

I copied and pasted this from my notes for my exams. It might help you. Basically, you're caught up in a past experience and it is influencing your current and, potentially, your future performance. You have to break this psychology. Have a read of the following. It is mostly about goal setting and how the achievement of eat little goal and restore your confidence in yourself. It is important to remember that you have to fight the negative thoughts that are going through your head right now and substitute them with positive thoughts (e.g. I can beat him, I'm better than him, I won't let him beat me, etc). If you were, for example, to increase your agility and your 40 time, that would instil a certain level of confidence in you (because you can now potentially run faster than the other guy and dodge him. If you can dodge and outrun him, you don't need to be bigger or stronger than him).

Anyway, I hope the following helps you. (the formatting will probably be distorted).

Mental Management of Physical Resources: Controlling Psychological Processes
? Mental Management: Association v dissociation
? Association: concentrating on an activity to monitor your efforts
? Dissociation: distracting yourself from the activity in an attempt to block out the perceived pain and fatigue associated with the activity.
? Association tends to produce better results.
? How do we achieve self-efficacy and a relaxed, confident mind? Through quality physical practice in which a number of positive experiences are stored in long-term memory.
? The most powerful psychological skills package is quality practice and successful competitive exposure.
? Goal-setting, combined with positive and negative reinforcement processes lead to improved performance.
Goal Setting
? The process whereby progressively more challenging standards of performance are pursued with a defined criterion of task performance that increases the likelihood of perceived success.
Process Goals
? Goals over which the athlete has control. If the effort is made, success occurs with a relatively high probability of success.
Outcome Goals
? The athlete has little control over outcome goals; typically winning is the primary focus.
? Having both process and outcome goals is better than just having process goals (i.e. better than just playing to win).
? Undue emphasis on winning may occupy such a proportion of fixed attentional capacity that it cause narrowing of attentional focus. Task-relevant cues are missed, reaction time is slowed and coordination is diminished by forced movements and compromised automaticity, which alters neuromuscular sequencing.
Short-Term Goals
? Increase the likelihood of success because, although challenging, they are relatively close to the athlete?s present ability level.
? They increase confidence, self-esteem and self-efficacy.
? Short-term and process goals counteract the boredom and frustration that are potential side-effects of long, arduous training regimens.
Long-Term Goals
? The full meaning of the short-term standards of success is framed by an appropriate long-term goal.
? The athlete may see more relevance in everyday practice goals if it is apparent how they help attain the ultimate level of performance.
? An athlete may be more aroused psychologically and physiologically during practice by the perception that today?s activity is another step on the latter to a personal, long-term dream.
Guidelines for Using Goal Setting
? Long-term and short-term goals are interdependent
? Long-term goals provide a sense of meaningfulness for pursuing short-term goals
? The attainment of short-term goals provides a hierarchical sense of mastery and success that builds self-confidence.
? Athletes should define process goals to focus on elements of their performance over which they have control.

[Cowart69]

My thoughts on this are:

- Each and every year there are players that play bigger then they are and players who should play as big as they are but dont.....keep that in mind.

and

- Use this as motivation to work hard in the offseason to be the best at your position....it isn't just about size and strength.....there is a quickness and technique aspect to your position that you need to address and make your strength.

What you need to do is use this season (and you are still VERY young) to be the motivation you need to put in the extra work. My own son (now 15) did that.

3 years ago he was told by a youth coach that he would never be fast enough to be anything other then a linemen (not that there is anything wrong with being a linemen...they are what make the team go) but it severely pissed him off.....that offseason he gave up all the "like to do's" and trained his @ss off....working on his speed, quickness, agility, and strength. That next year he won the award for best offensive back in his division as he played LB and FB.....the next offseason he did the same thing and his HS freshman year he started both ways at LB and FB (and also played some other sports) the next offseason and summer he did the same thing. Now he is 2nd string LB on Varsity as a sophmore who will be playing a lot of special teams and start the following year as a junior for a pretty large Div 5 HS.

You can do it man.....the underlying theme......dont let there be any doubt that you are the hardest working athlete in the offseason. You can make it happen.

[mesayseo]

kid your 220 lbs get that into your head as well. you are not small, now repeat to yourself " i am not small".

you just need to remember why you like to play o-line: you get to hit the hell out of a whole lot of people. just dont even think about anything other then the play at hand and envision yourself blowing your man 5 yrds off the ball. then bite your mouth piece hard, put some weight on your hand and get your butt up and drive your face right into your opponents chest so hard you knock the wind out of him then extend your arms and drive your feet.

that worked for me and i played OT at 175 lbs and i only got beat twice the whole season including practice. i didnt go against any chumps either.
of course i never really had the weight to really knock the windout of people but i caught guys off guard by not holding back and having a good burst off the line resulting in pancakes against guys that were like 6'3-6'4 270-280 lbs.


well goodluck just have fun and you'll get your confidence back eventually.
you'll learn to enjoy embrassing other bigger players. nothing better then the sound of your opponents coach yelling at him "what are you a f##kin P#ssy you cant beat that lil kid get to the d@mn ball d@m it"

[carl.c]

eagle fan 123: Maybe I was a little twisted when I played but I loved it when the guy in front of me was bigger and suposable better then me.
You need to get the mind set that you are the toughtest and best on the field. By toughtest I don't mean you pick fights with everyone but you get knocked down you get right back up no matter how much it hurts and you get right back on the line.
One of are D tackes had the best line when if someone knocked his jock off, He would jump right back up and say " you could'nt wake me up in the morning with a hit like that". this would piss off the o-linemen and he would start to try and knock the d-linemens head off. Once the o-linemen started to do this are d-linemen would blow by him everytime.
Once your apponent looses his cool you own him, football is a game of agreation but controled agreation.
I played nose guard, I loved the challenge of being the one who held the middle and most times had two or three people trying to stop me.

[SoulBurn18]

Last couple of year when I was in middle school I played O-line and had my confidence on a high level which lead me to play well. This year Im thinking too much like the dude is bigger than me, the dude is stronger than me, the dude has been here longer than me. Which lead to t perform badly in camp. I know some of ya have went through the same thing I went through and Im asking you to please give me some tips on how you got your confidence back.

I tried not to think about it and just play but that didn't help.

Hey Bro, I feel you. When I used to fight, I was always thinking "this guy is bigger than me, faster than me, more experienced than me." And in a fight, the last thing you ever want is to think that your opponent has an advantage over you in anything.

And then my trainer would smack me and tell me to snap out of it and go kick his ass. When you're in anykind of competition, the last thing you should be thinking about is how good, big, strong, fast, etc the other guy is. Just focus on what you have to do and your body will do the rest.

[M4D455H0l3]

Man I Get Like This All The Time I Get All Nerves ****ing Start Getting Deyhydrated Because Of Bein Nerves. And Feel Like Have No Energy And Start ****in Up I Dont Know.

[SoulBurn18]

Man I Get Like This All The Time I Get All Nerves ****ing Start Getting Deyhydrated Because Of Bein Nerves. And Feel Like Have No Energy And Start ****in Up I Dont Know.

Just have to learn how to control your nerves. It takes a lot of time and practice, but after awhile you'll learn to just not even worry about it and just think of it as "another day at the office"