Self-Belief in Sport using NLP

These distinguishing beliefs are called self-efficacy or expectancy beliefs.
This means that you not only believe that a particular outcome is possible
(whether that means winning the league or winning an Olympic Gold) but you
also know that you have the necessary resources to achieve it.
Our beliefs represent one of the larger mental frameworks for our behaviour.
When you truly believe something, you tend to behave in a way that supports
that belief. The contribution of belief in one's capabilities to athletic attainment
is most clearly demonstrated when someone pursues a seemingly impossible
goal. Many performance levels in sport were considered to be physical,
impenetrable barriers, seemingly unattainable before they were achieved.
Perhaps one of the greatest examples of this was the belief that running a
mile under four minutes was impossible – reflected by the hundreds who tried
and failed. However, Roger Banister decided that this daunting barrier was
surpassable. After he smashed the record in his exhausting, historic
performance, people immediately believed that it was now possible. Even
students now started beating Bannister's record.
Regardless of athletic activity, immediately after a seemingly impenetrable
barrier is broken it is often rapidly surpassed by others. A famous African
runner named Kip Kpinto bettered the under-four minute mile record fifty
times, without even breaking sweat. Once extraordinary performances are
shown to be doable they become commonplace.

Sidebar Technique

The SportSuccess(tm) system was created by patterning top performing athletes in
many sports. The system allows athletes to systematically create repeatable
competitive mindsets which enhance their abilities to succeed.
Here is a basic exercise which you can use to prepare the ground for creating
strong self-efficacy beliefs.
Efficacy Search
1. Think through the experiences of your life, both sporting and otherwise, and find
as many experiences as you can where:
• You performed well at any task
• You were praised for a task
• You persisted in the face of obstacles or difficulties
• You gave 110% to some endeavour
• Any activity that you performed that would be worthy of praise if you noticed it
happening in someone else.
We are interested in quantity of positive experiences first, then size or "grandness"
of experience. It doesn't matter how small or apparently trivial the experiences are
to start – as long as you start somewhere.
2. Write them ALL down in a list and add to the list as you recall more experiences.
3. You are now going to make a movie of all of these experiences – a documentary
where you are the director. Arrange all of the experiences into a single movie.
4. Watch that movie in your mind from beginning to end several times. On the
basis of what you have seen in the movie, what can you truthfully say about the
person in that movie? e.g. "They really stick with it even when things aren't going
http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/NLP/cohen39.htm (2 of 6) [11/01/2001 3:17:57 PM]
Self-Belief in Sport using NLP
well." "He's got a tremendous amount of focus and concentration on what he
wants." "She's got great dedication to learning and improving."
5. Now take that movie and this time go through it as if you are experiencing the
events in the movie as you experienced them when they happened. But this time
the events happen in the order of the movie rather than the way they happened in
life. It's as if you are the actor in the movie and you see everything from that main
character's perspective.
Run through the movie to the end, and when you've finished say to yourself the
phrase or expression that you said from #4 but say it as an "I" statement. e.g. "I
really stick with it even when things aren't going well." etc.
By paying attention to and choosing to dwell upon as many positive reference
experiences from your personal life and sporting activities as you can, you begin to
build a foundation for strong self-efficacy beliefs which will serve you in your
sporting activities.