In the martial arts, you often see someone in a belt test who absolutely owns the floor. They are precise, intense, and commanding with their mastery of the moves they perform.
The seems to exude an intangible quality that transcends their physical ability. Their physical performance has everything to do with how they perceive themselves and the confidence they have in themselves.
Do you wish you had that same confidence in the material?
Here are 5 tips to improve your self confidence so you too can own the floor come test time:
1. Recognize your accomplishments.
You have accomplished a lot in your martial arts training. Think about when you first started and compare that to what you know and can do now. You’ve come a long way! You now have greater balance, reflexes, flexibility, coordination, speed, power, and accuracy. It’s amazing just how far you’ve come!
2. Have faith and and believe in yourself.
This is something that my instructor Mr. Mills shared with me a long time ago that really helped me put things in perspective. Simply put, increasing your self confidence has more to do with what’s going on in your heard than anything. How you perceive yourself has everything to do with how confident a person and martial artist you become.
3. Face your fears.
Becoming a more confident person requires that you begin to overcome your fears. Start slow buy push yourself past your self imposed limits. Seize every opportunity to grow. I had trouble speaking in public until I started teaching martial arts. I went from teaching a handful of people to teaching and demonstrating in front of hundreds of people in a seminar.
4. Eye contact and body posture.
When you make regular eye contact and have an erect, upright carriage, you project confidence. It has long been known that posture can impact your mood which can lead to you feeling more confident. When you demonstrate the traits of a confident person, those around you start to take you more seriously. In a self defense situation, projecting confidence is paramount to projecting a strong, dominant vibe that makes attackers less likely to attack you.
5. Practice a little bit everyday.
To achieve self confidence it takes dedication and regular practice. Like any skill, it doesn’t happen overnight. However, you can chip away at this each and every day. Do you have a technique that you fumble all the time? Practice it at home… study it in your belt manuals… take notes on it … ask questions in class. Every little bit helps improve your confidence in the material.
Each step will bring you closer to having more confidence in the martial arts. And that confidence, in turn, will help you become a more confident martial artist.
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