Drey Ricks Tells ESPN Confidence is Most Important

Drey Ricks tells ESPN it does not matter how hard you work if you don’t  believe in yourself. When the lights are on and you tense up under pressure all your hard work  will go unnoticed without the right mentality and approach. The younger a person starts and perfects the positive Mentality the more successful they will be in sports and life. It’s not always the  best person on the court who performs the best its the most comfortable who performs the best.  

Drey Ricks knows those who are self-motivated and take part in sports and activities for the pure enjoyment of it; they do not need rewards to participate. To succeed, it’s important that you love to play or perform. It’s not a good idea to take part because you want to make others happy. 

“When you have a real passion, you’ll have more staying power and feel more committed over time. Passion works in your favor, it makes learning fast and fun. Confidence is the single most important mental factor in sports and life. I define confidence as how strongly you believe in your ability to achieve your goals. Confidence is so important because you may have all of the ability in the world to perform well, but if you don’t believe you have that ability, then you won’t perform up to that ability.” For example, a gymnast may be physically and technically capable of executing a back somersault with a full twist on the floor exercise, but he won’t attempt the skill in a meet if doesn’t have the confidence that he can successfully execute the skill.

Too often people are their own worst enemy rather than their best ally. When you compete, whose side are you on? Remember that opponents are against you and want to beat you badly. If you’re also against you, you don’t have a chance of performing your best and finding success.  Prime confidence is a deep, lasting, and resilient belief in one’s ability. With prime confidence, you are able to stay confident even when you’re not performing well. “Prime confidence keeps you positive, motivated, intense, focused, and emotionally in control when you need to be. You aren’t negative and uncertain in difficult competitions and you’re not overconfident in easy competitions. Prime confidence also encourages you to seek out pressure situations and to view difficult conditions and tough opponents as challenges to pursue. Prime confidence enables you to perform at your highest level consistently.”, Drey Ricks.

Prime confidence is the belief that if you do the right things, you will be successful. Prime confidence demonstrates faith in your ability and your preparation. It should not, however, cause you to expect success; this belief can lead to arrogance and overconfidence. It can also cause you to become too focused on winning rather than on performing your best. This perception can lead to self-imposed pressure and a fear of failure. “A misconception that many athletes have is that confidence is something that is inborn or that if you don’t have it at an early age, you will never have confidence. In reality, confidence is a skill, much like technical skills, that can be learned. Just like with any type of skill, confidence is developed through focus, effort, and repetition.”, Drey Ricks.