Changing Your Approach to Confidence Building

 I've spent some time on the topic of confidence building.  Over the many years I have spent coaching I have witnessed all kinds of players.  In general players fall into one of three categories:

1. Player with plenty of skill but no confidence
2. Player with little skill but plenty of confidence
3. Player that has both skill and confidence

The ideal category for a player to be in is category 3.  Between the other 2 categories, I would argue that it is better to have a player with confidence without the equivalent skill level.  This is how valuable confidence is.  Confidence can make an average player so much better and on the other hand a lack of confidence can make a very skilled player look bad.  The question then is how can you build confidence in your players?  Just like every other talent bestowed on people, confidence can be ingrained in some while for others it needs to be dragged out.  How can you as a coach make your players more confident in themselves?

To answer this question will require a 7 step process.

1. Encourage, support, and challenge - Whether in practice or in a game, a player cannot be constantly looking over his shoulder worrying about your reaction.  You need to let your players know that you are not there to yell at them.  Your role on the team is to teach, to encourage, and to push.  Your players need to know that you encourage creativity and are not there to put them on a leash.  Allow them to use and follow their instincts.
2. How to teach - I like to correct players by trying to complement them first and then asking them how they may be able to do that better.  By interacting with them you get them involved in solving the problem.  The key to good coaching is to correct without making them feel that they screwed up.
3. Encourage teamwork - The biggest confidence builder is knowing that you are part of something bigger than you.  When you feel like your teammates are accepting you as part of the team then you are willing to work hard in practice and in games because you won't want to let your teammates down.
4. Change the mindset-Winning is important and it feels good.  However there is such a premium placed on winning that kids get discouraged when they come up on the losing end of a game.  For some this fear of losing can get paralyzing and keep them from playing to their ability.  How much of a cost do we incur for the wins.  Do you as a coach, concentrate on only your best players because you're so caught up in winning and let your other players rot on the bench?  Do you schedule games against teams that don't challenge your team at all?  At the start of the season, I like to tell my teams that I don't get caught up in the wins and losses.  Whether we have a winning season or a losing season does not matter to me.  What matters is the process.  It's about working hard at practice and using the games as opportunities to see where you stand.  When you approach the game like this you'll see that playing tough competition will not be frowned upon by your team but will be used as an opportunity to see how they stack up.  The confidence will be built in as long as you emphasize to your team that this is a great opportunity to see where they stand.  It also helps to let them know that regardless of the score at the end of the game life will go on.  There is no moment you will encounter on a basketball floor that is bigger than your life.
   
5. Challenge them at practice-Make practice challenging.  A lot of coaches do this by having the team go at each other individually but I prefer to do this using small sided games using the full court.  I'll have them go 3v3 full court and force them to guard all the way up and down the floor.  I'll have them run a fast break offense only full court with 3 players on the floor for each team.  I like 3 players on the floor because the team is big enough to give multiple options for the passer but yet small enough to allow every player to get touches.  You can't hide when playing 3v3.
6. Put them in situations where they can prosper-This one is a difficult one to do.  I mean there are games that you as a coach can use to nurture your players.  When I have a competitive team and we are playing a team that is weaker than us I like to use this as an opportunity to give my less confident players a run in hopes that this will boost their confidence.  This is not something that I search for however.  As stated earlier, my goal as a coach is to find games that are challenging to the players.  Remember these games are tests and these tests show us where we stand.  As a coach you need to find the truth about your team and then work on correcting the issues they have.  This needs to be balanced with making sure that you put the kids in scenarios that they can thrive in.  Don't have them play a speed game if they are not fast.  Don't have them play a power game if they are small.  Be flexible as a coach.
7. Skill development-Always push your kids to keep improving.  Tell them to keep working on their game.  When you hear the pros talking about hitting clutch shots, the best ones always say that I was confident I would hit the shot because I've hit that shot thousands of times in practice before.  The best players trust their instincts.  Their approach is the next one is going in and that confidence never wanes regardless of how many they have missed in the game because they fall back to the many hours they have spent on the practice floor preparing for that moment.  When this happens that's where confidence blossoms.
   

In closing, as a coach you can help your team and each player on it improve their confidence.  You just need to be positive, smart, and confident in your skills.