This is part 2 of a 6-part series I will be writing this winter, defining, comparing, and contrasting confidence and the way I see it evolving in 2026.
​
Confidence - How Does it Work? 
Part 2 - General vs Specific

​We all want our child's confidence to be generalized, don't we?

We want the kid that is confident in their grades to also be confident in sports.

We want the athlete that is confident in soccer, to also be confident in basketball.

We want the player who is confident as a ball handler, to also be confident in finishing at the rim.

The truth is, confidence is highly specific!

Not just confident shooting, but
shooting this exact shot
in this game situation
from this spot on the floor
at this speed
against this size/ level of defender
in this team environment!

Some common examples I see:

- They could have been a stud in the rec program, but are acting scared of their own shadow on the school team.

- They could be a great shooter in practice, but totally out of rhythm in games

- Maybe they drive to the basket in most games, but vs a tall team - forget it!

However it shows up for your player, the attempted solution everyone tries is telling them "you already know how to do this, just do it again!"

But that never works.

Confidence is specific! And most practice is general

Coaches say:
"make this shot at half speed, with no defense in sight, from this spot on the floor that makes sense for the drill"

An analogy for generalizing skill and confidence is the fad of training "reaction time" with blinking lights and/ or coach commands. The questions is... reacting to what? Decision-making reaction time is also highly specific, so that never translates to game situational decisions.

Dribbling a ball in the garage staring at the wall involves none of the chaos, pressure, vision, decision-making, and speed changes that ball handlers see in a game - so it doesn't translate.

Translating to games
Confidence is like that, if they haven't done the skill in the real situation, dozens or hundreds of times, enough to prove to themselves that they can do it with certainty, they won't have confidence.

Generalized confidence comes from going through that process dozens of times with dozens of different skills, and starting to feel that they can do ANY skill in ANY situation, and they will figure it out. That takes years.

In the meantime, we need to allow our players time and specificity to become confident in one thing without expecting them to be generally confident in everything they do - even within one sport!

See you on the court,
Coach BJ