🏒 What if confidence isn’t something a coach, parent, teammate, or scoreboard can give you—or take away from you?
Olympic gold medalist and Walter Cup champion Hayley Scamurra joins the conversation for a powerful look at one of the most important—and misunderstood—parts of being an athlete: building confidence from within.
Even at the highest levels of hockey, doubt doesn’t disappear. Hayley opens up about seeking approval from coaches and parents as a young player, struggling with public speaking, learning to trust her own assessment of her game, and discovering that confidence isn’t about never making mistakes. In many ways, it’s built because of them.
The conversation also explores the experience of girls in hockey, including the pressure many young female athletes feel to be perfect, follow every instruction exactly, and avoid mistakes. Hayley explains why giving girls permission to experiment, create, fail, and learn can be critical to developing both confidence and long-term success.
🔥 In this episode:
Why external validation can make confidence fragile
How athletes can reset after a bad play or mistake
The power of asking, “Are you proud of yourself?”
Why coaches and parents should help athletes evaluate their own performance
How mistakes can become evidence that an athlete is growing
Why girls may feel extra pressure to be perfect
How coaches can create environments where young female players feel safe being creative
Why comparing your everyday game to someone else’s social-media highlights can destroy confidence
How even Olympic champions still whiff pucks, get nervous, and have imperfect practices
Why real confidence is less about praise and more about learning: “I can figure this out.”
For parents and coaches, this episode is an important reminder: our job isn’t to manufacture confidence for young athletes. It’s to create the conditions where they can discover it for themselves.
📖 Want a written version you can reference anytime? Check out our companion blog: How Girls Hockey Players Can Build Real Confidence: Lessons From Hayley Scamurra
🎧 Listen, share this episode with a hockey parent, coach, or young player who needs the reminder, and subscribe to Our Girls Play Hockey for more conversations supporting girls at every stage of the game.
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