Seychelles athletes from Commonwealth Games |11 August 2022
How to evaluate performance and maintain your confidence
Seychellois athletes back from the Commonwealth Games, are you self-critical after the games? Many athletes bounce back, no matter how well they perform.
These athletes create a mental list of every little aspect they didn’t perform at the highest level. You do not need to be perfectionist to be highly self-critical. The point is that most athletes ignore the positives and highlight the negatives.
When you do not see the whole picture or evaluate your performance objectively, your confidence will be adversely affected.
Let us look at how harsh self-evaluation affects confidence.
Perhaps your coach or supporters nagged you after a competition and pointed out your mistakes. You may have achieved a personal best, beat a rival or made it to the semifinal, but you were told if you had done this better you would have achieved certain results. Unfair assessment of your performance hurts your confidence. However, many athletes do the same things to themselves. A negative assessment is short-sighted. Partial assessments rarely provide feedback on how to improve your game.
How to effectively assess your performance after a competition?
Here is an effective assessment model. After each competition, ask yourself the following four questions:
- What did I do well? When you identify positive aspects of your performance, you reinforce those actions in future training.
- What needs improvement? When you recognise areas that need to be improved, you gain a clear sense of focus for future training or practice sessions.
- What is my plan for improvement? An action plan provides directions for how you intend to improve on these areas.
- What are the three biggest successes from my performance? When you highlight your accomplishments, you keep your confidence high.
Objective evaluation of competitive performances helps you maintain confidence and sustain motivation to improve your game.
How do elite athletes evaluate performance?
Elite athletes achieve elite status because they see the good and not so good in their performances.
Objectively evaluating your performance is a mental skill that produces better performances and improves confidence. Without proper evaluation the results could be the same.
Looking forward to helping you improve your mental toughness.
Your Mental Coach
Maurice Denys