Confidence within swimming Introduction Confidence is not just

Confidence within swimming Introduction – Confidence is not just crucial in swimming; it is crucial in all sports and everyday life in general. Without confidence, sportspeople would not be able to do the amazing things that they do day to day. Michael Phelps for example would not be the most decorated Olympian of all time. That includes both modern and ancient Olympics (Olympic channel 2019) There are 2 types of self-confidence which is state selfconfidence and trait self-confidence. Trait self-confidence – This is part of your personality and is stable. An example of this is your typical levels of confidence. State self-confidence – This is Ryan steven Sport confidence model – Sometimes someone who is overconfident can do something outside of their ability and it goes wrong. This can go the other way too where someone can be underconfident and not reach the top of their ability. This is where Vealey (1986) came up with the sports confidence model. This included personality characteristics, organisational culture, achievement, social climate, confidence in decision making skills and confidence in resiliency (Believe perform, 2020). If the social climate is aligned with the needs of that individual then their confidence will go up, but if they are low on confidence in their skill then confidence will go down. something that you feel today and is unstable. An example of this is increased confidence for the days training session. Why is sport-confidence important • Roger Bannister ran the 1 st 4 -minute mile in 1954. • In the next year, more than a dozen broke it again as the psychological barrier was removed. e ies h T or e h t • This could now be the same for the sub 2 -hour marathon. • “The most recent sport-confidence model posits that sportconfidence is a multidimensional construct and there are multiple types of sport-confidence specific to the task demands” (Vealey & Chase, 2008; Vealey & Knight, 2002). How can you measure self-confidence – This can be done by Vealey’s trait sport confidence inventory (TSCI) assessment. (Vealey 1986) Research of confidence in swimming (Crowcroft et al. , 2020) • Decision making is influenced by confidence. • The aim of the study was to reveal different psychological differences between able body and para swimmers. • The participants were part of the Hungarian swim team competing at Rio 2016. • The findings were “Professional judgment and a coach’s subjective decision making are a crucial component of high-performance sport. A commonality of expert coaches is their ability to recognize relevant cues (e. g. , an athlete’s behaviour or body language) and provide an appropriate course of action based on prior experiences and skilled intuition” Crowcroft, Slattery, Mc. Cleave, Coutts, A. J. (2020). P 847. • They concluded able body swimmers scored higher on selfconfidence compared to para swimmers Applied examples within swimming – This entails how a practitioner may enhance the confidence of their client. The practitioner can give them Vealey’s TSCI. With this, you need a certified practitioner, the individual needs to understand what they are doing and the individual needs to be truthful. You can then go off with the client, do what you can to improve weaknesses and then see what they score themselves after 6 weeks. In a survey of Hungarian swimmers at the 2016 Rio Olympics, they found that Separate comparisons for able-bodied and Para-swimmers showed that ablebodied Olympic medallists only differed in self-confidence from ablebodied non-medallists Szájer, Tóth, Szemes, Nagy, Zala, Köteles, Szabo, (2019). Volume XXIII, Nr 4 Applied Knowledge 1) Sprinter – They need to have confidence in their start, underwater phase, breakout and turns because if these have not been good for them then that will have a devastating affect on their race. 2) Middle distance – They need to have their race plan, if a race plan has not worked then they won’t have the confidence and that will impact the outcome 3) Long distance – Crucial that they have confidence in their fitness. If not then they may psychologically limit themselves at the end of the race Future research – Might consider how a poor performance, where Self-efficacy theory – The self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977) is a model that studies the effects of self-confidence on sports performance, persistence and behaviour. This is a situation specific form of self-confidence. This can transfer to and from similar skills and situations. It cannot predict success alone as the athlete has to have drive, skills and the support to succeed. Self-efficacy theory argues that people with high self-efficacy are more likely to take on a challenging goal, be more involved in the activity in which they participate, quickly recover from disappointment and be committed to their goals, activities and interests. Feelings of self-efficacy are drawn from 6 key sources. there is everything to loose, affects their confidence immediately after and if it affects their following performances. It could be that in some swimmers it motivates them more, in some it could be the opposite. This could be useful for both the coach and the athlete to see how they cope with setbacks like this. Conclusion – To conclude, without any knowledge of the subject and how confidence affects athletes today, then all athletes would not be where they are now. It impacts their focus, motivation, selfesteem and so much more. There still believe there needs to be more sport-specific research in the area to develop a greater understanding. References Bandura, A. (n. d. ). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191– 215. https: //doi. org/10. 1037/0033 -295 X. 84. 2. 191 Crowcroft, S. , Slattery, K. , Mc. Cleave, E. , & Coutts, A. J. (2020). Do Athlete Monitoring Tools Improve a Coach’s Understanding of Performance Change? International Journal of Sports Physiology & Performance, 15(6), 847– 852. https: //www. olympicchannel. com/en/stories/features/detail/most-decorated-summer-olympians-all-time-phelps/ Machida, M. , Otten, M. , Magyar, T. M. , Vealey, R. S. , & Ward, R. M. (2017). Examining multidimensional sport-confidence in athletes and nonathlete sport performers. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(5), 410– 418. Sports confidence theory - Believe. Perform - The UK's leading Sports Psychology Website Szájer, P. , Tóth, L. , Szemes, Á. , Nagy, N. , Zala, B. , Köteles, F. , & Szabo, A. (2019). A comparative analysis of national Olympic swimming team members’ and para-swimming team members’ psychological profiles. Cognition, Brain, Behavior, 23(4), 299– 311. https: //doi. org/10. 24193/cbb. 2019. 23. 17 Vealey, R. S. (1986). Conceptualization of sportconfidence and competitive orientation: Preliminary investigation and instrument development. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 8(3), 221 -246.