Confidence: Annie Vernon

Don’t Tell Me The Score

What is confidence and how you can develop it with Olympic rower Annie Vernon. Annie won silver at Beijing in 2008, which was actually a huge disappointment for her, as she had expected to collect gold. However, it did prompt her to write the book Mind Game, which explores the psychology of elite sport, so every cloud and all that. In it, Annie spoke to more than 60 elite athletes, coaches and psychologists from diverse sports to find out their secrets, and one area she explored was confidence. Generally speaking, it is the feeling or belief that you can rely on someone or something, but beyond that it's quite tricky to define. Annie found that some elite athletes and coaches refuse to use the word at all, preferring to focus on things like composure or momentum. Annie explains that confidence isn't the absence of self-doubt, it's about being 'good enough'. Annie outlines the 9 sources of confidence in sport, and reveals It's about self-questioning rather than being self-critical, and a good barometer of your confidence is actually your ability to say no.