Too much confidence

I was thinking about something that is making me want to talk about having too much confidence. I usually talk about not having enough, but you can definitely have too much of it too.

Having confidence is important. Many athletes struggle with having enough. In order to win in most sports you have to be confident enough to make smart risks in order to win.

However, having too much confidence will lead to a person taking dumb risks. A game is never about an individual putting on a show, it's about a team. Showing off in practice or a you tube video is fine, but trying to show off in a 1 on 1 or 1 on 2 situation in a game when you have an open teammate is not good. It's at this point that you have too much confidence if you continue to be about yourself. It's like the ball hog in basketball that always has to have the ball. The team plays so much worse with a player like that. It becomes too much about one player. As a teammate you feel pressure to get that person the ball at all times, even when it doesn't make any sense.

To me assists are just as important as the goal. If your teammate can't get you the ball in the right situation at the right time, you won't score. On offense you always want to get the ball to an open teammate if you don't have a scoring opportunity. You need to be smart enough to know when to force it and when not too. I believe that as a team the goal is always to take the first high percentage shot you see. As a player that often means having vision, having the ability to see that one of your teammates will have that high percentage shot if you pass them the ball.

Having too much confidence will also lead to complacency. You will forget that it takes hard work in order to win. You relax too much, you take things easy and you lose the edge that got you ahead in the first place.

To me the coaches hardest job is to get the correct balance of confidence for a team and it's players...and many times this means treating players differently. Putting pressure on the players who have enough confidence to take the heat and nurturing those who can't handle the pressure and scrutiny.

I think that Coach Auriemma is a master at handling his team well.

You need confidence in order to be a good athlete, but just like in life, too much of it...putting yourself so far ahead of the team...is not good.

Don't get me wrong though...you do need that really confident player to show up at the end of a game or tough situation and put the games result into their own hands. Like most things in life, you need to find the right balance.