Confidence In and Out of the Ring

“I am the greatest; I said that even before I knew I was.” - Muhammad Ali

Building confidence in and out of the ring is an interesting topic to explore. We tend to think and believe that we need confidence in order to do something rather than focusing on how doing something builds confidence. We can even use not having confidence as an excuse to not do something we so badly would like to do. How many times have you heard someone say, "If I had more confidence than I would do ____."? Well the problem with that is confidence is not something that we just always have, it is built much of the time by doing the very things we believe we cannot do.

So people tend to "naturally" have more confidence than others. This can be the result of a variety of things including upbringing, experience, willingness to take risks, and positive support in one's life. The great thing about confidence is it can be built just like a muscle. And when it comes to fighting in the ring its important to work on building your confidence just like it is important to work on building your phsycial skills. Building confidence takes practice, work, and time just as skill development does. And just as building our muscles can result in post exercise soreness, you better believe that building confidence comes with its own post

"exercise" soreness as well!

Confidence is the result of taking risks and learning that you can survive and thrive in all areas of your life. Let's say you are terrified of the idea of competing, taking small risks to get you to the point of competing is how you build your confidence in your ability to take on this task. You must be disciplined in your path towards building confidence just as you maintain discipline in your training program. If you aren't challenging yourself daily, even in small ways, you will not reap the benefits of heightened confidence.

So how do you build confidence in and out of the ring? Here are a few easy steps to start the process...

1. Ask yourself, "Where am I lacking confidence?"

2. Then ask yourself, "If I had confidence (in that area), what would I be doing differently?"

3. Decide what your goal is (how do you want to show up?).

4. Think of 3-5 things you could do daily that involve some level of perceived risk (no matter how small)

5. Do one of those 3-5 "risky" things daily

Again you must take risks in order to build confidence. You don't just get to be confident in the ring because and have nothing to back it up...that is false confidence! You must believe in yourself on a deep level! You must know that you can do things and thrive because you have taken risks and survived. At Warrior, we want you to be successful and confident in and out of the ring. Getting in the ring can be a huge confidence builder whether you choose to compete or not. Training like a fighter also promotes confidence within. The combat sports and martial arts training at Warrior are designed to challenge you and bring out the best, strongest you!