Self-Belief and the Canadian Journey

Its seem fitting on Canada Day that we celebrate the success thus far of the Canadian Men’s Soccer team at the World Cup. One would argue that they did not necessarily have the toughest first round group, however they more than demonstrated that they deserved to get to the knockout round. It was clear in the game versus South Africa that Canada were the better team but there still that elusive goal that needed to be found. Step up Stephen Eustaquio just one of a strong generation of players that Canada has produced. In the moment he produced what is called in sport performance as a ‘clutch’ moment that involves a mental process to occur. At the right time and in the right space he held his nerve to hit the winner against a resolute South African defence. After the game he talked about the self-belief of the Canadian squad and in a twist of fate, whether he knew it or not, he honoured the great Canadian Psychologist, Alberta Bandura who talked about the power of ‘self-efficacy’, known as self-belief. Once one has confidence, you then build self-belief that you can execute a specific task successfully. Indeed, the Canadians were able to do this with Eustaquio’s goal and move on to a tougher task facing Morocco where self-belief will be needed more than ever.

In building confidence and self-belief it is a road that is always being built and reinforced as the dynamic nature of the sporting environment continually changes for an athlete. To do this it is a mixture of developing and sustaining a series of mental skills and not just a series of repetition. The human brain and how it responds under pressure is more complex than that. Yet developing your elite performance in a consistent and effective manner can be broken down into tasks that combines the full workings of the brain so it can be translated into practice.

Sport as Life will help you develop these skills, through self-awareness and self-regulation, for success in sports and in life.

Go Canada!!!