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When it comes to sport and exercise, one of our biggest mental blocks can be ourselves. Whether it’s our inner critic telling us we’re not quick enough, strong enough, talented enough – or the pressure of disappointing our teammates or ourselves, this blockage is more common than you might think.
Having worked at the highest level of sport for almost 20 years and having attended multiple Olympic Games as a psychologist with Team Ireland, Dr Kate Kirby is one of the country’s top sports psychologists. She is also currently the Head of Performance Psychology at the Sport Ireland Institute and works privately with athletes in both individual sports and team sports, so she has vast experience and knowledge in helping high-performance athletes with personal development.
Here we sit down with Dr Kirby to discuss just how important mindset is when it comes to sport and physical fitness, including how to overcome self-doubt under pressure and build up our confidence both on and off the pitch.
A lot of people wait passively for their confidence to grow, but it’s possible to be more proactive in how you increase your self-belief. The key is accumulating evidence for where you can derive confidence from and looking for as many sources of it as possible. For example, most athletes base their confidence most strongly on recent results, but when you are in the middle of a performance slump, focusing on this reinforces your lack of confidence. So, it’s helpful to put more weight on other areas, such as things you’re doing well in training, positive feedback you’ve had from coaches or teammates, what your unique strengths as an athlete are etc.
It’s important to remember that pressure is your perception of a situation, and you can influence this perception of pressure by focusing on a few aspects of your performance that you can control, instead of fixating on the result. Doing this should help you to relax and enjoy the experience more.