“Once I feel confident, I’ll be able to do it.”
I would turn that around. Give yourself opportunities to do it, and let confidence develop from the evidence.
If the high ball worries you, telling yourself to be confident offers very little help. You need to understand what makes it difficult — then practise that situation in a way that prepares you for the game.
This follows a question I put to Glanworth Ladies: what could you improve over the next four weeks that would make you a more effective player?
Work on the skill you avoid
It is tempting to spend extra practice time doing what already feels good. You can leave the pitch satisfied without ever touching the part of your game that makes you uncomfortable.
If your weaker-side kick limits your options, work on it. If your first touch deteriorates when a defender closes you down, bring that situation into training. If you rush your strike because you feel tightly marked, practise recognising the space and making the decision.
Start by being specific. “I need more confidence” is difficult to act on. “I rush my first touch when someone is behind me” gives you and your coach something to investigate.
Is the problem capacity, skill or pressure?
If you struggle with an action even when fresh and unopposed, there may be physical or technical work to do. If you can perform it comfortably in training but hesitate when the stakes rise, adding strength work alone may miss what is holding you back.
Ask what changes when the situation becomes difficult. Do you stop scanning? Rush the decision? Avoid contact? Worry about what will happen if you make a mistake?
That conversation helps you choose the practice you need. The GAA’s coaching resources offer football and hurling skill material to discuss with your coach.
Make practice progressively more like the game
Begin with a challenge you can manage, then change one demand at a time. For a high ball, establish position and timing before adding an opponent. For shooting, add a defender or a decision once the basic action is familiar.
Time pressure, limited space and an opponent create different problems. Choose the one that resembles the situation you need to improve, rather than making a drill harder for its own sake.
There may be a place for practising skills under fatigue within a planned session. That does not mean exhausting yourself before every drill or adding punishment for mistakes. Pressure practice should prepare you, not humiliate you.
Do not just practise until you can do it. Practise towards being able to do it when the game makes it difficult.
Rehearse the response as well as the performance
Visualisation need not be a highlight reel of yourself playing brilliantly. It can be a way to rehearse the moments you find difficult.
Picture the pitch, the opposition jersey and the ball arriving. Imagine receiving under pressure and making a decision. Then include the imperfect version: the touch gets away from you, or the pass misses its target.
What happens next? See yourself recover your position, communicate and get involved again. You are rehearsing a response to a realistic game, rather than expecting the game to follow a perfect script.
Try a short rehearsal before training, then practise the action on the pitch. If imagery is unhelpful or distressing, leave it and discuss another approach. Sport Ireland’s psychology service describes the place of focus and responding to setbacks in performance preparation.
Look for evidence, not a perfect feeling
After practice, identify what changed. Did you judge the flight earlier? Offer for the ball again after an error? Make the decision before the defender reached you?
Those details matter more than asking whether you suddenly feel completely confident. Progress might mean doing the useful action while still feeling uncertain.
If injury is part of that uncertainty, follow an agreed rehabilitation plan; fear is not a reason to force contact before you are ready. Support with returning to sport can help you plan that progression.
For what to do once the match starts, use the focus cues and reset routine in our match-day performance anxiety guide.
Choose one situation. Practise it deliberately. Notice the evidence. Confidence has something to grow from when you can say, “I have worked on this, and I know what to do next.”
Continue the series: Read about championship training and recovery and competing without chasing perfection.
Written by Johnny Wilson, physiotherapist and Sport & Exercise Medicine specialist.
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