Self-confidence is considered to be one of the leading elements in a successful skater. Belief in one's self is at the center of sports performance. One of the most important factors determining self-confidence involves trust in our ability to execute a task. Skaters involved in our program are introduced to “mastery based learning”… this is basically a repetition of drills until the skater is able to perform them “without thinking.”

Success in sport depends on trust in your own strengths and abilities. If a skater is well prepared for competition from a physical, technical and tactical point of view, the most important factor deciding about their degree of success is self-confidence. To understand the true expression of self-confidence lets look at a simple example. If someone came to your home and asked you to stand on one leg in the middle of your living room, you would probably consider this to be a simple, unchallenging task. You would have confidence in your ability to perform it. However, what would happen if you were asked to do the same task on the edge of the roof of a hundred-story building? Would your legs start shaking? Would you think about the consequences of loosing your balance? Would you still have enough faith in your abilities to do it? Environment and perspective make self-confidence a somewhat relative and dynamic trait.

Self-confidence is a part of a broader concept of the "ego", which is deeply connected to our self-evaluation or picture of us. There is also a dynamic dimension to it in regard to specific learned abilities and the level of our present effectiveness in executing specific tasks. The feeling of our effectiveness in regards to specific activities expresses itself in our attitude and motivation or will to do the task. We are born with a certain amount of self-confidence. Through our life experiences this is either developed or lost. Self-confidence or lack of it is built based on our interpretation of our experiences. People who carry authority in our lives such as coaches, family, friends and even other competitors can influence it. These people can positively or negatively influence our perception of our experiences and can, therefore, change our level of self-confidence. There is also room for outside influences on a skater’s confidence through training, usually with help from a coach or sports psychologist. In fact, a big part of a coach's responsibility should be to develop self-confidence in their skater’s throughout the development process using a variety of tools. Although it is always advisable to build on your own positive experiences, sometimes learning based on the observation of successes by other athletes can be a useful tool as well.

Self-confidence for sports is dynamic and, like other characteristics, may be too low, too high or at an optimum level at the time of the competition. Optimum confidence levels allow a skater to choose realistic goals, tactics and techniques based on how well they are prepared at the time of the event. Skaters who believe in their abilities to achieve planned goals are excited about the competition. Self-confidence at optimum levels is always accompanied by positive self-talk and a desire for success. Occasional defeats and successes of rivals only make skaters in this state more motivated to get better and train harder. On the other hand, self confidence which is too low results in negative thoughts like "I can't do it…what am I doing here…I knew this would happen… etc. ". Skaters with low confidence do not enjoy themselves or the competition, which exhausts them and leaves them feeling drained. They cannot wait to "get it over with". Often lack of confidence comes from unrealistic goals, lack of preparation or lack of experience. There is also a situation where a skater can be too confident, which is destructive to performance as well. In this situation, over confidence usually comes from overestimating your own capabilities and readiness or underestimating the competition. This can lead to nonchalance, which comes from a casual approach to the opponent or the event. Lack of motivation, tactics or concentration as well as disregard for a warm up or race preparation is all signs of over confidence. You often see skaters in this state make mistakes in heats during big events, when, as a favored skater or team; they are eliminated by their unproven, less skilled competition. Occasionally, what appears to be over confidence is, in fact, only a cover up of fears and actual lack of confidence. In this case, the skater tries to avoid facing obvious problems or uses excuses like " I really haven't been training much lately" or "I wasn't really trying". Sometimes skaters may even intentionally fake injuries or eliminate themselves through disqualification before the competition is finished.

The level of confidence a skater has is one of the main factors influencing their perception of reality. In consequence, confidence decides about the level of stress the individual carries. The higher the level of confidence, the fewer stimuli that will be interpreted as potential danger. This means that in very stressful situations, the level of fear will be substantially lower if the confidence level is higher. In effect, high confidence will leave more room in the mind for rational evaluation of a situation and will allow the skater to make correct decisions. This ability to think clearly under pressure is critical in highly tactical and short duration events. In fact, in some sports such as automobile or motorcycle racing, small mistakes can literally be deadly.

Optimum confidence brings happy and positive emotions from training and competition. It allows us to reach full concentration without the interruption of doubtful and self-critical thoughts. Confident skaters select more challenging goals and have the ability to take more risks during performances. They are often able to surprise their opponents, to try newly learned technique or add difficulties to their programs. Perhaps the most important thing to remember here is that the level of self-confidence, like other characteristics, may vary depending on the training stage and the skater’s life outside sport. That's why it is important to work on building confidence and train your ability to control this level in changing environments. Bringing self-confidence to the right level just before the start of a competition is a skill, which must be mastered to be a champion.

Our program stresses the importance of giving 100% effort during practices. When a skater is on the line getting ready to race an event, when he or she knows they have trained as hard as they possible could have, his or her confidence level is high and typically translates into a good performance. He/she is confident that they have given 100% and they deserve to be in this race.

Many parents are amazed at the level of self-confidence most participants develop. Parents often say they have tried other team and individual sports but nothing has given their children the level of self confidence inline speed skating has.

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