Helping Players to Develop Their Self-Esteem
All footballers across the world will have to explore and look deeply at their own competencies and beliefs at some point in their football journey. For those who begin their sports voyage at Alliance Football Club, Dubai, there are a number of great benefits from the very start. Our world-renowned coaches are trained in the most useful techniques and methods to help young athletes build confidence in themselves and their skills. Let’s take a look at why this is important and how we can help players to develop their self-belief.
Some athletes will naturally be confident, and have a high level of self-belief, whereas other athletes may struggle to see their own worth and value in their team, and find it difficult to believe in themselves and their own ability. There will be times in a player’s journey where their self-belief may be on a high, and, suddenly, due to a negative moment, it drastically decreases, making them start all over again. In trying to work out how to boost their self-belief and find that confidence in themselves all over again, young athletes need all the support that we can give to them.
Self-belief is described as being able to trust in our own abilities and capabilities to meet a task, and having the confidence that we will do whatever it takes to try and achieve success. Without having that natural belief in one’s self, players will struggle to progress and develop, and also unlock their full potential. When self-belief doesn’t exist, or isn’t as prominent as it could and should be, this hinders players’ ability to grow and become successful. For young girls in football, this is a trait that many struggle to tap into, and appreciate the importance of. Being more introverted than boys, who are typically in their comfort zones on a football pitch, and under pressure, they typically strive and exceed expectations set for them. Whereas, with many young girls, it is natural for them to feel doubtful and have many demons to fight with in order to believe in themselves and trust in their own abilities. However, in a sport that continues to be so male-dominated, the football environment presents a different set of obstacles for female players to deal with.
As a result of this, at Alliance Football Club, we strive to make the environment for all of our players a safe place to learn, grow and achieve success. We support players as individuals and as team mates in order to delve deeper into the needs of each person, rather than assuming that they all require the same as their friends. The coaches and team at Alliance FC make a conscious effort to tailor session plans to include moments for every young girl to shine. Whether that is in a warm up activity and allowing them to have fun with their friends so they feel positive about practice, or in the main session through asking someone to demonstrate an activity, which gives them a confidence boost as a result of being selected to show their talent and understanding to their friends. Other simple tasks will be put in place by our coaches, and unconsciously help to boost the self-belief and confidence of your children.
Some individuals may require more time or guidance to work on their self-belief, and this is where we will communicate with all of our players individually, to see what they are feeling in that moment, and if they are feeling positive or are struggling. In asking players this, we are showing them that we are open to talk about good and bad moments, and that we have their best interests at heart. To develop a player, you also need to learn about the person. Therefore, players have to feel safe in their environment to feel confident enough to share their feelings. We support our players and give them the time they need to be honest and share their feelings, but also, we recognise through their behaviours at training sessions, whether they are struggling with their self-belief and need guidance.
Behaviours that players show can explain to a coach what they are thinking or experiencing at that moment in time. If someone doesn’t have self-belief, they may struggle to show demonstrations to their friends, or struggle in conversations to share their thoughts and opinions. If they are not able to trust in their knowledge and abilities, then they will naturally shy away from putting themselves on a platform to showcase themselves or their opinions. This is as a result of being scared of failure, and not trusting that their belief is correct. At Alliance FC, we encourage all players to join in conversations and activities, so that if failure takes place, it’s in a safe environment, where the individual will be encouraged and congratulated for trusting the process and taking part. Coaches are also trained to identify moments of low self-belief and help players to build up courage. Players will not be disheartened for answering incorrectly, or not showing the right technique, as we know that for someone with low self-belief, this would have been a huge accomplishment to undertake in the first place.
For all of us at Alliance FC, we recognise the importance for players to completely embrace and genuinely feel the significance of self-belief, and the positive actions it can have on your everyday life. Individuals with high self-belief and confidence typically deal with stressful situations and difficult emotions a lot better than those who have low self-belief. They also have a greater ability to concentrate more, especially when tasks get challenging, due to their belief in themselves that they will accomplish the activity set in front of them. They also have a greater ability to lead and positively influence others, as they have the confidence in their own ability to share their experiences with their friends, in a mission to help improve their self-belief too. And lastly, young people with high self-belief, typically become more fearless, where they strive to be challenged in order to overcome and succeed. They have a desire to face difficulties, as they know how amazing it will feel when they get to the other side and achieve success.
At Alliance FC, we take time IN every single session to get to know our players better, both on the pitch, and off the pitch. We value the importance of self-belief, and find ways to encourage and improve each and every one of our players to help them see their value at the club, with their team, and for themselves. In order to positively influence player development and make football culture and environment a more positive place to be, rather than an unconstructive, negative one.
Read more about our training, methodology, and core values here: www.alliancefootballclub.com
