Mind Hacks to Effectively Boost Confidence in Martial Arts

Instantly boost your confidence as a martial artist with these mental tricks.

For privacy reasons YouTube needs your permission to be loaded. For more details, please see our Privacy Policy.

#1 – Fake it.

When you’re performing in martial arts—whether at a belt test or tournament—you’re not just showing off your skills: you’re actually performing. So pick a persona, a character who’s confident, focused, and a total badass, and play it like you’re an actor on a stage. You’ll instantly feel a surge of confidence if you can pull this off. And over time, with practice, your actual identity will start to merge with this persona, until eventually you won’t feel like you’re acting anymore.

#2 – Change the label you give yourself and make it as strong and powerful as possible.

Take some time with this one and be honest with yourself. What label do you give yourself? Is it flattering? Does it make you feel good about yourself? Or does it cut you down and kill your confidence? If it’s the latter, think of a new one that makes you feel awesome.

When we change that label we give ourselves, we can actually change our behaviour. We tend to behave in ways that support the labels we give ourselves, positive or negative. So, if you call yourself lazy, you’ll start to internalize that label and behave in ways that are consistent with what a lazy person would do. On the other hand, if you call yourself a fighter or martial artist, you’ll instead internalize THAT label, and behave in ways that are consistent with what those people would do.

This is incredibly powerful, because if you believe you are a martial artist, you will start to become one. You’ll no longer be someone who just trains in martial arts; you will actually BE a martial artist, and start to live your whole life in a way that supports this powerful identity.

And then whenever you’re struggling with a decision or action, ask yourself this simple but powerful question: what would a martial artist do? And then do it.

If you’re still struggling with confidence after doing all this, your goals might be the problem. Check out this blog post to find out how to optimize those goals so you can have a much more gratifying martial arts journey.

What mindset techniques do you use to feel confident while performing and competing in martial arts? Please share in the Comments section below.

Recommended Resources

Mobility Course Bundle

6 courses to help you improve mobility throughout your kinetic chain. Awesome for improving posture, balance, and stances for karate, and generating more power in your techniques!