Week 5: Trust. What Do You Trust When the Boule Matters?

It’s 12–12. The opposition is holding one and you have the last boule.

The point is open. You’ve played this shot many times. Seven metres, a landing area you can see, enough room for the boule to finish.

But this one feels different.

The game has made the boule heavier. You begin checking the grip. You wonder whether the arm will tighten. You tell yourself to be confident, then notice that you don’t feel confident at all.

What are you meant to trust?

Not that the boule will finish beside the jack. You can’t know that.

Not that pressure will disappear. It probably won’t.

You need something more honest: enough trust in this shot, in this situation, to choose it and throw it fully.

That’s the confidence I want to explore in Week 5. Not certainty. Not a performance for the opposition. Not a promise that the next boule will be good.

Trust is what lets you commit without knowing the result.

Confidence needs an address

We often speak about confidence as though you either have it or you don’t.

One week you’re confident. The next week you’ve lost it. A good game gives it back. One poor end takes it away again.

That’s too broad to be useful.

You may trust your point at seven metres but not at ten. You may feel settled on a smooth piste, then less certain when the terrain becomes more technical and the landing picture becomes harder to read. You may trust the higher arc in practice and leave it behind when the game reaches its final stages.

Confidence needs an address.

Instead of asking, “Am I confident?”, ask:

What do I trust about this shot, here?

Perhaps you trust the landing picture. Perhaps you trust the slow, complete movement you found in practice. Perhaps you trust your preparation.

Look at the end, choose the shot, see the line and let the arm finish.

That’s enough to work with.

The statement becomes specific: I trust my preparation for this seven-metre point.

It doesn’t claim that the boule will finish close. It names something you can still do before the result is known.

What the research says about this shot

A 2023 research review brought together 44 studies, 55 independent samples and 5,373 people taking part in different sports.

The researchers were looking at what they call pre-event self-efficacy: what you believe you can do before you perform. On the piste, the useful question is simpler. What do you believe you can do before the boule leaves your hand?

Across the studies, stronger belief beforehand was associated with better results. The relationship was modest, not overwhelming. It was also stronger when the confidence question matched the action being measured.

That detail matters.

“I feel confident today” is a long way from “I trust myself to land this seven-metre point in the area I’ve chosen.”

The research supports an association, not a guarantee. You can feel confident and still miss. You can also feel doubt and produce an excellent boule. Confidence doesn’t throw the boule for you. Your skill, choice of shot, preparation, terrain and execution still matter.

So the lesson isn’t to manufacture a large feeling called confidence.

Make the belief smaller and more truthful.

Trust the part of your shot you have evidence for.

Build belief from evidence

Empty encouragement has a short life.

You can repeat “I can do this” ten times, but if the words have nothing underneath them, pressure will expose the gap. Honest trust needs somewhere to come from.

It might come from:

• Preparation. You’ve practised the distance and understand the landing area.
• Previous experience. You remember a similar boule and what helped you play it.
• A clear picture. You can see the line, arc or landing spot you want.
• A simple routine. You know how you will enter the circle and begin.
• Recovery. You’ve missed before and know how to return to the next problem.
• Your team. You trust that the decision is shared and the response will remain useful.

None of those sources promises the result.

Each one gives you a reason to commit.

This changes how you practise. Instead of trying to feel confident, collect evidence. Notice which preparation helps you see the shot. Notice which cue survives when the distance changes. Notice whether your routine is still available after a miss.

The Slow Arm practice does this well. The slower boules aren’t there to prove that your technique is fixed. They help you notice one useful part of the movement, then test whether it returns at normal rhythm.

Trust grows from what remains available.

When the boule feels bigger than the shot

Pressure changes the way you read the boule in front of you.

The same seven-metre point can feel ordinary at the start of practice and threatening when it carries the game. The distance hasn’t changed. The meaning has.

Researchers sometimes describe this difference as challenge and threat. In a 2025 review covering 62 studies and 7,418 people, people generally performed a little better when the situation felt like a challenge rather than a threat.

On the piste, a shot feels more like a challenge when you believe what you have is enough for the problem: the practice, the picture, the decision and the routine. It feels more like a threat when the score, the terrain or the consequence seems bigger than everything you can draw on.

You don’t solve that by pretending the situation is unimportant.

Ask a better question: What is available to me for this boule?

The landing area, your routine, the decision you made with your team and one breath are all still there. So is the feeling of finishing the movement.

Bring the situation back to those resources.

The score can stay important without becoming the only thing you can see.

Protect the next boule

Sometimes confidence changes after the boule has left your hand.

You miss short. Before the boule has stopped, the mind begins writing:

I always tighten when it matters.

The fact is smaller.

The boule landed short.

A large study of elite tennis helps explain why the distinction matters. Harris and colleagues analysed 658,068 points from 3,552 Grand Slam matches. More pressure was linked with more double faults and unforced errors. After one error, the odds of another were higher, and that effect became stronger when the pressure was already high.

This was tennis, not pétanque, and the study can’t tell us exactly what was happening in each competitor’s attention. But one point following another has something useful to say about one boule following another: the last error can travel into your next attempt.

Your job isn’t to erase the miss.

Keep the information without carrying the verdict.

Keep the fact. Let the story go.

“The boule landed short” may help the next decision.

“I always fail under pressure” doesn’t describe the terrain, the release or the choice of shot. It turns one result into an identity.

If you need help slowing that jump from result to judgement, return to The Witness Drill. Observe first. Decide what, if anything, needs to change afterwards.

Give the mind one useful job

Pressure invites too much instruction.

Grip the boule. Keep the wrist soft. Stay low. Don’t rush. Follow through. Don’t leave it short. Remember the score.

By the time the arm moves, the shot is carrying a meeting.

A review of self-talk research found that short instructional cues were particularly useful during precise movements. The studies weren’t testing pétanque pointing or shooting, but the idea is worth testing on the piste. Give your attention one clear job rather than six competing instructions.

That doesn’t mean any positive phrase will work, or that a cue can replace practice.

Use language already connected to experience:

• see the landing spot;
• shape the shot;
• finish the movement;
• soft wrist.

Choose one. Say it before the movement begins. Then let the body throw.

A cue should recall something you’ve practised. It shouldn’t become another correction made halfway through the boule.

A routine is a route back

A pre-shot routine is sometimes presented as a way to control the outcome.

I prefer to think of it as a route back to what matters.

Look at the end. Agree the choice. Enter the circle. See the shot. Breathe. Throw.

The sequence doesn’t have to be elaborate. It only has to be recognisable enough to remain available when the situation becomes noisy.

A review of pre-shot and pre-performance routines found that routines often helped under both lower and higher pressure, although the results varied considerably from one study to another.

A newer 2026 review of ways to respond to pressure also found benefits from approaches including routines, self-talk, mindfulness and quiet-eye training. The effects were more consistent when the action was self-paced and repeatable than when the situation was constantly changing.

That distinction matters in pétanque. You choose when to begin and you throw from a fixed circle, but the problem in front of you isn’t fixed. The terrain changes, the end changes and the best choice must be made again.

That makes a routine useful, but not magical. It should settle preparation without closing your eyes to the problem in front of you.

Trust the team process

Team confidence can also become too broad.

“We’re going to win” may feel good, but it’s an outcome prediction. It can disappear quickly when the opposition plays a great boule.

You can trust your team to:

• read the end with you;
• make the decision clearly;
• support you when you take the shot;
• speak about what happened without blame;
• solve the next problem with you.

A large research review of shared belief and group results found that groups generally performed better when they believed they could carry out the work together. It wasn’t a pétanque study and it doesn’t prove that confident language causes your team to win.

For your team, the useful distinction is between trusting how you will work together and demanding certainty about the result.

At 12–12, your teammate can’t promise that your boule will arrive. Your teammate can help make the choice, confirm what they see and remain with you after the throw.

That’s real support.

One belief, one situation, one honest observation

Try this during your next pétanque training session.

Choose one game-like shot that matters to you. It might be a seven-metre point to an open jack, a shot at the opposition’s holding boule, or a higher point onto a landing area you sometimes avoid.

Then:

1. Name one thing you honestly trust: “I trust my preparation for this seven-metre point.”
2. Make the situation specific: distance, terrain, shot and purpose.
3. Add a little consequence. Give yourself one attempt rather than six.
4. Use one familiar cue or routine.
5. Throw only one boule.
6. Describe the result without judging yourself.

Don’t ask only whether the boule was good.

Ask:

What did I trust, and was it still available?

Perhaps the boule finished short but you saw the landing area clearly. Perhaps the point was good but the movement rushed. Perhaps the routine disappeared as soon as somebody watched.

That’s the information.

Write one sentence in your Pétanque Performance Journal before repeating the test:

I trusted the landing picture, but I stopped the movement when the boule mattered.

Now the next practice has somewhere to begin.

How far can we take this?

Not as far as a promise.

None of these studies put you in a circle on difficult terrain at 12–12.

The confidence studies combine different sports, standards and situations. The tennis study shows a pattern across elite matches, not what happens inside your attention after a missed boule. The self-talk and routine reviews include many different actions and ways of training. Even the newer pressure review warns that the effects change with the type of skill and that more research is needed in realistic competition.

This wasn’t pétanque.

So I’ve taken one useful idea from the research and turned it into something you can try in pétanque practice: make the belief specific, connect it to something you’ve experienced, test it with one boule that carries a small consequence, and write down what stayed available.

If it helps, keep it. If it disappears under pressure, you’ve found something to practise. If the words feel false, make the belief smaller until it becomes honest.

Enough to throw the boule

Return to 12–12.

The opposition is holding one. The last boule is in your hand.

You still don’t know the result.

But you can see the landing area. You’ve made the decision with your team. You know what you’re asking the boule to do. You have one cue that belongs to your practice.

That isn’t certainty.

It’s enough to enter the circle, choose the shot and commit.

Confidence doesn’t have to tell you that the boule will be good.

Trust is enough to throw the boule.

Research

Harris, D. J., Vine, S. J., Eysenck, M. W., & Wilson, M. R. (2021). Psychological pressure and compounded errors during elite-level tennis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 56, 101987. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2021.101987

Hase, A., O’Brien, J., Moore, L. J., & Freeman, P. (2025). The relationship between challenge and threat states and performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. EXCLI Journal, 24, 205–236. https://doi.org/10.17179/excli2024-7995

Hatzigeorgiadis, A., Zourbanos, N., Galanis, E., & Theodorakis, Y. (2011). Self-talk and sports performance: A meta-analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(4), 348–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691611413136

Lochbaum, M., Sherburn, M., Sisneros, C., Cooper, S., Terry, P. C., & Koschate, M. (2023). Pre-event self-efficacy and sports performance: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Sports, 11(11), 222. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports11110222

Rupprecht, A. G. O., Tran, U. S., & Gröpel, P. (2021). The effectiveness of pre-performance routines in sports: A meta-analysis. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2021.1944271

Stajkovic, A. D., Lee, D., & Nyberg, A. J. (2009). Collective efficacy, group potency, and group performance: Meta-analyses of their relationships, and test of a mediation model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(3), 814–828. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015659

Zeng, Z., Yan, W., Mohammadi, A., Toumi, Z., Sun, H., & Soh, K. G. (2026). Counteracting choking under pressure in sport: A meta-analysis of interventions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 85, 103130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2026.103130