Confidence Comes From The Work

Confidence in the game comes from putting the work in during practice and on your own.  If you put the time in doing something over and over again in practice, you will feel more comfortable performing that skill in the game.

But if you really want to get ahead, don't wait until practice to work on your game.  Work on your game BEFORE practice and OUTSIDE of practice so that when practice starts, you are better and more ready to perform the drills and more ready to compete.

Change how you look at practice.  It is a chance to work on your game, it is a chance to improve how you play as a team, but it is also a chance to COMPETE, and anytime that there is a chance to compete, you want to make sure that you are ready and prepared to perform.

NBA legend Kevin Garnett recently said that he would get to practice 30-45 minutes early to work on stuff on his own.  Then he would practice with the team.  During practice, they would COMPETE with each other.  Then after practice he would spend another 30-45 minutes on his own working on the things that he would need to perform in the game.  He said that his team counted on him to do certain things during the game, and he had to make sure that he was ready to perform, so he had to put in the work to master those things before, during, and after practice.

To be ready to perform, work on your game BEFORE you start practice and BEFORE you leave practice.