Topic: Confidence do you have it all the time

[MR.STEVE]

Do you have it all the time or do you loose it after you miss a shot or two .I will loose it at any given time during a match,I need to learn to trust my shot more, and not switch shots every second theres trouble.My pull shot is slow my back pin is not up to par my euro pin I loose lot of faith in that my push cant hit the split.so I already practice but then  uggg wth. I swear I will switch to goalie I have been playing it a lot ....

[foozkillah]

Easy turning point.

I am a tactician and love the technical/physics side of foosball.

Confidence in getting it together grew over the years with each semipro, pro, and promaster I went up against, with better results.  Florida States 06, came back through the losers after going four games up.  Double dipped to win, after going through at least 4 proM forwards and a scad of pros.

Never lost my confidence ever again.  It's the same thing.... you gain it as you get used to stronger and stronger competition, and then you make a breakthrough, to give out 2 scoops, from the losers...  Everything after that is just candy.

You get to meatball in final sets and final games, especially in the pits enough times, (you have to win at least once ... always losing will not do the trick) and yazzzzzz, you can always say, "Been there, blocked that, hacked them, scored ugly, don't really care... let's play."

[bbtuna]

by that do you mean do you get nervous or scared feeling pressure? because that happens to everyone at every level at some time or another and it is how we deal with this that makes the difference of how competitive we are - I can loose control mentally and be nervouos loosing focus and that of course impacts my game...in my mind, I always, even when I am choking from the pressure, believe I can come back

for me, the issue is about mental toughness and how do I deal with pressure and fear

the winningest player of all time, a person who seems cold as ice always under pressure, when asked about handling pressure and fear said,

“The key is to embrace it (fear) as a normal part of fighting to win. Expect it, look forward to it.  And then understand that the fear is the reason you practice and play. And obviously the fear is where the pressure comes from. So when you feel the most fear, you know that you have arrived to the place where you can face it and do something about it…”     Todd Loffredo

no single statement I have read has meant more to me...everyone has fear and fear leads to mental let downs and mental let downs lead to physical let downs...this is choking - what do you do with your fear?  Do you look forward to it? 

It gets to me even now, I can't wait to play again so I can look for the fear and face it becuase fear is always around the corner waiting to see what I will do when it shows up...

I LOOK FORWARD TO IT and you?

[foozkillah]

Very nicely put.

After having battled off & on over 20 years, I can still hardly believe when I'm playing with relative beginners how palpable the lack of confidence, or fear, still is.  The tightness of their grips, the whiteness of the knuckles, especially in a tight meatball 3rd or 5th game, actually makes me want to chuckle.

When I'm managing a beginner or rookie right, I find it really helps to just break out laughing.  I explain that these moments, when you're on the hill, 4-4 against a highly favored team or at least the forward who's been drilling your team, are why we drove to get there.  Perhaps some sick twisted players come and enjoy playing if they just drub all whom they face, but I always remind myself that a tough tight match, or even just the fighting to keep alive when you and your team are being overwhelmed, is EXACTLY why one plays.  That is what really matters.  You and your team might still get crushed, and have to accept that, but you must really really force yourself to enjoy the battle, to win the tight ones and also to survive the ones where you, your partner, or both of you are just screwing everything up and every break falls the other way.

That is what I travel and pay the entrance fee for.  That is the entertainment.  It would suck if you just kept losing, but I relish few matches more than when I drew a beginner, got him/her to do some basics, and still won through.  You usually have to put a heck of a lot more than you would with a more experienced partner,  but it is just worth more.

I would just let the fear wash over and all around me.  And when it all passes, that's where you find you're by yourself, realizing how alive you felt and feel, and it is really exhilarating!  After I realized how fun this was, I just never lose that confidence anymore.  You want to play those favored teams, you want to get in really tight matches, and you anticipate that time.

[thebodygroove]

I like Todd's statement a lot, but there's a different way to look at it, taken from "The Inner Game of Tennis": Fear comes from your ego focussing on something it can't fully control, in this case scoring the next point or winning the match. Lots of factors contribute to the outcome of these events, e.g. your opponent and some unpredictable physics.

So the suggestion is to completely focus your ego on factors it can control, which are the shots you've practiced over and over, and your own mental state. Let go of any judgements, good or bad, and direct your entire awareness to an aspect of your game which you've picked before, like the imagined trajectory of the ball, and let the shot execute itself. Don't try to be the one who executes it, trust your body and your nervous system to do what you trained them for. Just observe carefully what happens and don't value it as good or bad.

That's some kind of Zen approach which takes a lot of practice since we're all used to feeding our egos with the credits for our success. The irony lies in the fact that when you manage to keep your ego out of the game your body will play much more relaxed and in a natural way - which results in greater success!

[bbtuna]

Body,
Well said, that Inner Game is a thinkers book that tries to expalin how to get your conscious mind out of the way of what your unconscious mind and body already know...the best players I have ever known, the best "pressure" players, those people who seem to play better under pressure, never have to think through all this stuff...it is ironic to me that the Inner Game tries to inform your mind on how to stay out of the way...

many people need to discover the best side of themselves and learn how to play in the moment without thought of outside influences, mechanics, people's opinions, outcomes, future or past - some come to this point more naturally and others have to fight to obtain it and fight to keep it but it is clear that winners are there much more often than those they win against and this is true at every level

Killa,
Really liked that...I love great quotes and you have several worth keeping in there but this is my favorite...

"I would just let the fear wash over and all around me.  And when it all passes, that's where you find you're by yourself, realizing how alive you felt and feel, and it is really exhilarating!" Brian Uytiepo , 9/18/08

[thebodygroove]

Well said, that Inner Game is a thinkers book that tries to expalin how to get your conscious mind out of the way of what your unconscious mind and body already know...the best players I have ever known, the best "pressure" players, those people who seem to play better under pressure, never have to think through all this stuff...it is ironic to me that the Inner Game tries to inform your mind on how to stay out of the way...

Yes, at first glance it seems like a paradoxon. And of course it doesn't work in a way that you read the book, then you know what you have to do and you just do it. It's more like your ego has to learn a new role, much like a manager can learn to motivate his staff members instead of trying to control them. When they are doing their work for him, he doesn't interfere, he just watches and points their attention to aspects that can be optimized.

The problem is that our egos tend to identify with what we do, which often leads to frustration and a loss of confidence when we fail. But I'm not my 5-row! I'm not the ball that missed the goal! I think a book like that can widen your understanding of how things work and offer a new perpective, but it's still you who has to do the work. And a lot of work it is...