Confidence coach Tom Bushnell has worked with teams from the Premier League to the Blue Square South, including AFC Wimbledon’s reserve team, managed by Dons legend Marcus Gayle. Tom’s work has been featured across the national media.

I am usually an extremely confident player, but recently I have lost this. How do I get my confidence back for running at players and scaring defenders?
Dominic Clarke, via e-mail
Confidence is all about momentum. When we are winning, we feel confident and play well; when something happens that knocks our confidence, it can seem difficult to regain it.

The key is learning how to reproduce feelings of confidence within ourselves, even when we don't feel confident. Close your eyes and remember a time you felt supremely confident while playing football, running at players and scaring defenders.

How does it feel? It feels good doesn't it? Now hold onto that feeling and make the feeling more intense, start to get your heart pumping and your adrenalin going, while vividly imagining yourself plying full of confidence start jumping on the spot and with a big smile on your face shout YES!

Keep doing this for a few moments remembering times when you are confident. If it helps, think of your favourite player and feel how they feel when they are confident and taking on defenders.

You could imagine you are Ronaldo or Messi taking on defenders in the Champions League. Keep visualising this making the image and feel more and more real, at the same time as jumping and shouting YES! Do this for a few minutes and your feeling of confidence will have returned.


"Run for your lives! Robben is coming!"

I’m the manager of a Sunday League team. A few of the players are struggling for confidence. How can I go to them individually and rebuild their self-belief?
Alex Jennings, via e-mail 
Talk with the players; find out what it is that is hindering them. It could be football-related, or it could be something outside of football that is having a knock-on effect into football.

This will create trust and show you care about your players. Then the prescription is to get them to change their emotional state.

The answer to the previous question is a great and very quick way to change their emotional state into a state of excitement and confidence once more. I suggest you do this with your players.

You can do it as a group or individually, whatever you feel is best. It's important to make sure the players really push themselves when doing this.

It’s like training – the more you put in the better you will get and the more you will get out of it. It's the same when working out mentally: the more concentration, emotion and mental effort they put in, the
stronger mentally they will be and the more confident they will feel.


"It's ok Gareth - one day you're going to manage a really successful Premier League team in the north-east."

Do you have any confidence-building methods suitable for the whole team?
Dean Murphy, via e-mail 
Yes I do. I do group confidence-building sessions with pro clubs. Last month I wrote about how I did a confidence building session with Marcus Gayle and his reserve team at AFC Wimbledon.

It involved me getting the players into a highly charged and confident emotional state, and then I proceeded to show and teach them how to break through 20mm pieces of pinewood with their bare hands.

This roused them into a confident and winning mindset. It worked a treat as the team went on to win five of their next six games and draw one.

I would suggest something similar for your team. If you would like me to do this with your team you can get in touch with me through my website http://www.tombushnell.com/ or through Weekend Wonders.


No pain no gain