Tuesday 28 May 2013

Ignore your race results to build real confidence

Getting a kick out of a race result is fine, but if you want to set yourself on a path of mastering kart driving then race results need to quickly become an irrelevance.

Developing real confidence in yourself.

Karting requires incredible levels of self confidence. And that self confidence needs to be built from  developing tremendous capabilities in specific kart driving skill areas.  This kind of real confidence I describe as bullet proof, it means it cannot be shaken in the face of adversity.
Results based confidence is completely different. If you allow your confidence to be built on gaining race results you are creating a future disaster. Confidence based on where you finish in a race is the opposite of bullet proof - it is fragile and dependant on factors totally out of your control.

Warning - fragile contents

Now, there are a great deal of drivers out there who feel confident based on their race results. You may look up to them or find them intimidating even.
But when your confidence is based on results, you are hiding a deep rooted fear of getting a batch of bad results.
These guys are fine when in their element, but install a bit of doubt in them by putting them in a new situation and they crumble. It happens all the time, very often when drivers move out of karting and into car racing.
Those kinds of drivers are terribly vulnerable, they took the short cut route to confidence, and they will eventually hit a confidence crisis.

The key to bullet proof confidence

Identify the skills that make a top driver, break them down into small chunks. Set out to master each of those chunks and measure your progress.
That way you build the right skills, and when you measure that progress honestly you self confidence builds on solid ground.

No comments:

Post a Comment