Self-Esteem
Matthew Finnighan considers that high self-esteem is always great for sports.
Confidence and high self-esteem have always been promoted as the best, most important aspects of one's personality for numerous positive reasons. Self-love has become a major sociological and societal movement primarily targeting the youth of the world in terms of helping everyone feel satisfied, confident, and in love with who they are. It applies to people in different industries, careers, genders, etc.
Traditionally, those in sports are usually seen as members of society who do not have issues with self-esteem. Some of them even go over the top and claim to be the 'God' of a particular discipline, such as Zlatan Ibrahimović. Of course, when you play football that well, you might as well confuse yourself with a higher being, but such high self-esteem is always good to have in sports. Let us find out.
The 'Better Than Everyone' Phenomenon
Sometimes, high self-esteem might be associated with overconfidence and the so-called 'better than everyone' phenomenon of illusory superiority. The reason is that a certain person, in this case, someone in sports, believes things would fall apart without them. These people also believe that a certain discipline would not exist without them or that the world will never see someone as good as they are.
Usually associated with a lack of humility and commonly based on outstanding results, this phenomenon has proven several times to be a rather big disadvantage to one's ability to continuously provide exceptional performance. The need to stay at the very top of the game can be overpowering for one's physical and mental health, as well as for one's social relationship with the team. Not to mention that it can disrupt the team due to the self-centeredness of such a personality.
Self-esteem and ego
It is essential to mention that, at times, high self-esteem is completely undeserved. Let us take football as an example; a football player can find greatness because they are a football player. It is enough to feed their ego to a great level, even though they might be bad or, at their very best, mediocre players.
Moreover, let us not forget how lucrative sports can be, as it can cash in millions for players in the more significant leagues and hundreds of thousands for those in lower leagues. Either way, these can all contribute to transforming a fairly confident player into an ego monster, especially if there is no base for such behaviour.
The psychology behind high self-esteem and its benefits, as well as downsides, is quite simple. If one's high self-esteem is based on nothing, it might be bad for the player, the game, and the teammates.
But, if there is a valid reason someone shows higher levels of confidence but is easily manipulated by the fame, the money and the power sports bring, then high self-esteem might not work either. Either way, for high self-esteem to create a positive outcome for a player, it must be based on valid examples of hard work and one's ethical codes, humility, and morality.
The States and Their Differences
First, it is essential to distinguish between high self-esteem, ego, and confidence in sports. Of course, each of these states requires a basis, which is their primary connection. Second, they do not necessarily have to be bad, but they all carry certain downsides.
For example, self-esteem and confidence can be gained through extensive training and testing, showing whether a person is respectful towards the opponents or compensating and treating the opponent badly and disrespectfully.
Both the negative and the positive can be recognized easily. Luckily, we have numerous psychological researches, books, and essays written on this behaviour today, so it is easy to spot, look into and understand.
Unrealistic Expectations
High self-esteem can be beneficial if you want to convince people that you are good at something. Of course, you need also to prove it, but chances are that the player with higher self-esteem might make it into the team. Those are usually the people who, when said they cannot do something, do it anyway and have everyone convinced initially.
However, this can also be devastating in the most critical moments when everyone has high expectations of you due to your high self-esteem and confidence. It can help the player deny their shortcomings and put the game at risk of losing.
Moreover, the saddest part is that many other players would love to be a replacement for such an egotistical player, which shows that no matter how confident you are in your game, if you are not good, you are replaceable.
This realization can negatively affect a person's psychological health and leave deep scars of disappointment. Nothing good comes out of this, so overly confident people sometimes need strict and harsh coaches who can immediately see through their weaknesses and possibly fix them.
No Room for Growth
Another thing about overly high self-esteem in sports is that it leaves no room for growth. A player who is so confident in their abilities and believes there is no need for improvement will eventually become mediocre and fall behind the rest of the team. A true sports player understands the importance of constant training and improvement and will not miss a chance to try and achieve greatness.
However, an overly confident and borderline egotistical player will use every opportunity not to do those above; they already feel like they are shining the brightest. Not to mention these players can also use their self-esteem and confidence to hide the fact that they're not prepared, do not train, are weak, and are not up for the game.
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- FINNIGHAN, M. (2019) Self-Esteem [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article446.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Matthew Finnighan is a skilled freelance writer with extensive experience in journalism. He is educated on various topics, such as psychology, literature, education, and sports.