Can You Believe It!

This chapter examines self-efficacy beliefs in detail: what they are and how to develop and utilise them when it matters most. Focusing on Bandura’s original work, with recent updates for endurance athletes, the four sources of self-efficacy are highlighted. This is developed into the Your Best Self template to start to build a living document that can be updated race by race, season by season. Exploring the power of beliefs on performance culminates in the development of the Athlete/Performance/Result (APR) model. A self-efficacy scan scales an athlete’s degree of belief in five key areas and, when used in conjunction with the APR reflection worksheet, identifies which beliefs need to be strengthened. The Reasons to Get Results worksheet, together with a process to vicariously model key mentors, is a method that can be used to strengthen any belief. Perseverance in the face of challenge is a requirement of elite athletes. Knowing that ‘whatever happens I can find a way through’ is a vital self-efficacy belief to embody. The final process in this chapter is a powerful method to do just that.