The Sports Psychology Blog
This Sports Psychology blog comes as Rochdale manager, Keith Hill, prepares his team for the League Two play-off semi-final at Darlington.
Football: Keith Hill - Confidence v Arrogance
'There is a lot of confidence as we approach the game, but not arrogance'. The words of Rochdale manager Keith Hill, in advance of this weekend's play off clash with Darlington.
But what is the difference, that Keith Hill refers to, between confidence and arrogance? A lot of people tend to misunderstand the two, but they are not the same.
Arrogant teams, for example, tend to assume that they will succeed. They have experienced sustained success before. Because of the regularity of this success, they can think that success is a right. They may have grown fat on success. And teams that grow fat on success, soon lose their hunger and desire. Remember the Australian cricket team, before the second Ashes test at Edgbaston in 2005.
Firstly, Glenn McGrath stood on a rugby ball, in the pre-match warm up, ruling him out of the game. When a team is focused and alert, then this kind of incident simply doesn't happen. Arrogance can lead to poor attention to detail.
Then captain Ricky Ponting inserted England on a good Edgbaston batting pitch. believing, after the massive first test victory at Lords, that England would roll over. Ponting was being assumptive, a sure trait of arrogance creeping in. Victory after victory over England, had softened Ponting's resolve. A mistake he was ruthless to exorcise, in the return Ashes series down-under. Arrogance leads to under-preparation and over confidence.
Arrogant teams often neglect to set themselves new challenging goals, in case they fail, and shatter the illusion of their invincibility. Keith Hill's Rochdale are unlikely to make that kind of mistake.
This week-end they are entering into the unknown of the play-offs. They can do so on the back of a successful season, that should naturally breed confidence. Confidence, supported by a healthy dose of hunger and desire. It's the hunger and desire that prevents arrogance from holding sway.
Hunger and desire creates an appetite for success, that is never satiated. Whatever you have won, it is never enough. They are qualities that remind you of where you have come from. And compel you to fight and scrap, to never return to the dark days of failure. It's that kind of burning desire, you see in the eyes of Sir Alex Ferguson. or Tiger Woods.
Rochdale's history should ensure that they do not enter this week-end's play-offs, with an arrogant mind-set. Like a good team, they should be clear about the outcomes that they want and what they have to do to achieve those outcomes.
In the presence of hunger and desire, assumption cannot occur. And the historical absence of silverware at Spotland, should make Rochdale a very hungry team.
