Confidence: hard to get, but easy to lose

By Michael Voss
June 26, 2005


One of the most commonly used words in football is confidence. A winning team is full of it; a losing team is down on it. But what does it really mean?
Look in your dictionary and you'll find "the belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something; self-assurance arising from an appreciation of one's abilities".

I reckon that isn't too far off the mark, but in a football sense, there is more to it. Confidence is a generic word used almost as a throwaway line at times, but really it is a combination of so many different things that it's difficult to really pin down.

How do you get it? How do you lose it? How do you get it back? These are questions which are all part of the equation.

To me, confidence is about preparation. At least that's where it starts. If you've done a really good pre-season, and you have total faith in your body and your capabilities, you have every reason to be confident at the start of a season. And you are likely to play accordingly.

very week, as the season unfolds, I try to make sure I have done everything I can to give myself the best possible chance of playing well. This gives me confidence that I am ready for the contest.

Confidence levels vary so wildly - mainly according to whether you are rewarded with success or not. If you win, it grows; if you lose, it diminishes. It's such a fine line.

When you are confident, things always seem to click. The target is hit and the loose man is found not ignored. You play boldly. You run hard and hit hard. The faith in your teammates, your coach and your game plan is unquestioned. It's just worked on.

During the week, there is a buzz about the place. Training is high-tempo and everybody does the right things and trains hard. Life is a lot better.
But what about the times when you struggle? Motivation wanes. You still love your football, but training becomes harder. Your attention begins to suffer and fall away. You become sloppy. Maybe you turn up late for training or skip a couple of exercises in the gym. Or stay out later than you should, and have a couple of drinks.

This carries into game day. The game plan is questioned and you don't play well. It's a tough time.

To resist the temptations is often hard, especially when you are not being rewarded, but it is most important when it is hardest. That's when you've got to be more diligent. The less you believe in yourself, the more likely you are to look for negative things in others.

At the risk of sounding like Lions mental skills coach Phil Jauncey, when you stop doing the things that make you confident in the first place, you start losing confidence.

very team experiences this at one time or another, and Fremantle is feeling the heat right now and confidence levels must have taken a dip. As an outsider, of course, it's impossible to know the inner workings at the Dockers and not for one moment would I try to tell them why they've lost five of their past six games.

But a team under pressure must have the confidence to stick together. A coach must have faith in his methods, and players must have faith in the coach. Together, they must resist the outside factors and rely on their inner strength. They must focus more than ever on the team, and it's got to be about actions and what everyone can do to turn things around rather than words.

A perfect example of preparation, dedication, sacrifice was swimmer Kieren Perkins who, in 1995, spoke to the Brisbane Bears players about the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He recalled standing on the blocks, knowing even before the start that he was going to win the 1500 metres freestyle gold medal. And he did. Why was he so confident? Because he had total self-belief in his preparation. I would love to talk to Kieren about Atlanta in 1996, when he'd been sick in the lead-up to the Games, only just made the 1500 final and swam from lane eight in a race in which Daniel Kowalski was the hot favourite.

Perkins won again, of course. Why? I don't know for sure, but I suspect it had a lot to do with his total self-belief, his absolute confidence. He knew he had to trust that he had done everything possible to get the most out of himself. And he did.

In a team environment, there is maybe an even greater need for confidence. Because not only must you be confident in yourself, but you must be confident in those around you. And it's something that can come and go quickly.

In my opinion, when Peter Schwab said at the start of last year that Hawthorn would win the 2004 premiership, he was sending a message to his players - they'd done the work, they were good enough and had to back each other to be successful. They had to believe it.

Certainly this type of confidence had to evolve at the Lions this year. We had been a pretty settled side over the last few years and had been to the top of the mountain. This made you feel comfortable with certain players because there has been a level of trust and confidence in each other. You are aware of their capabilities, rather than an unknown player who hasn't been tried at the level.

When a new group of players comes along, that trust and confidence in each other has to be established - not just from the senior players to the younger players, but vice versa.

Confidence is a necessary commodity for success - that is a given. When you have it, you have the freedom without fear of failure getting hold of you. And wouldn't we all love that.