Athlete mind games: 3 strategies to stop negative thinking in your competitions

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Most athletes are trained up to a similar physical standard when they toe the line, so how do I cope with my mind games?

Ever been in a competition when what feels like an endless amount of other competitors are overtaking you and you think they’re so much faster than you and you feel like you’re going at a snail’s pace? Perhaps you feel like you’re going to lose, lose your podium place or finish dead last?

To stop these unhelpful mind games you need to train yourself to maintain a performance-enhancing mindset instead of doing unhelpful thoughts, distraction, lack of motivation, self-doubt etc. Here’s how.

First Strategy: Stop All Unhelpful Thoughts

Stop every single thought that is taking you away from achieving your competition goal and sabotaging your athletic performance, for example:

  • They’re running so much faster than me

  • I’m going too slow

  • I’m missing all the shots

  • I’m feeling really nervous, anxious and/or stressed

  • I’m in so much pain

  • I’m breathing too hard

  • My heart rate is too high

  • My muscles are too tired

  • I can’t do this

  • I’m going to lose

  • They’re going to overtake me

To stop these thoughts in their tracks and prevent them from activating and strengthening the unhelpful neuropathway, in a very firm and compassionate voice, say ‘pause’ - either out loud or in your head.

You may think that this is too easy, but trust me, it works.

Second Strategy: Replace every unhelpful thought with a powerful, positive one

Powerful, positive and productive language is VITAL for optimum performance and happiness, because the language you use activates and strengthens the associated neuropathways, which in turn activates the connected feelings, thoughts and actions.

For example, if you say ‘I’m a slow runner’, this will activate and overtime strengthen the neuropathways connected to ‘slow’ and ‘running’, so everytime you think about running or go running, your brain will unconsciously and consciously activate all of the feelings, thoughts and actions you associate with being a slow runner, so you run slower.

However, if you consistently and more often said ‘My running is getting faster and faster everyday’, this will activate and overtime strengthen the neuropathways connected to ‘fast’ and ‘running’, so everytime you think about running or go running, your brain will unconsciously and consciously activate all of the feelings, thoughts and actions you associate with being a fast runner, so you run faster.

Write out all of the unhelpful thoughts you have in and around your competition and turn them into positive, powerful, productive language . For example:

  • I am fast enough

  • I have got this

  • I can do this

  • I'm freaking crush it

  • I will catch them up

  • I am competing at my very best

  • I'm giving it my all

  • I have put in the training

  • I'm focusing on the right things at the right time to be the best athlete I can be

  • I am awesome

This one thing, is going to knock minutes off your time or have you shooting more accurately like never before!

Because if you're consistently saying to yourself, for example:

  • I'm getting overtaken by so many people

  • I'm too slow

  • I'm too weak

  • I’m in pain

  • I’m tired

  • I’m a poor cyclist/runner etc.

You will NEVER push your limits to the max.

And I'm talking from experience.

You may think that when you say things like, ‘Are you weak?’, you’re motivating yourself, but having coached hundreds of athletes, I can tell you now, you’re not going to perform at your absolute best.

It is MUCH MORE performance-enhancing to say positive performance-enhancing things like, ‘you're freaking awesome, you've totally got this, keep going, push through, push your limits, you know why you're doing this, you can achieve your full potential.’

Once athletes have switched to THIS way of thinking, they’re turbocharging their performance like crazy and the results are ‘mind-blowing’.

Replace every single, unhelpful thought you have with one of your performance-enhancing thoughts and you too will be taking your performance to the next level immediately.


Third Strategy: Performance Cues

One of the foundations of a high performance mindset is focusing on the right thing at the right time and staying laser focused. The best way is with performance ques.

Chose 1-3 actions to focus on in your competition that will give you the biggest performance gains, and assign 1-3 words to represent that action.

For example:

  • if you want to remind yourself to be in a more aerodynamic position on the bike, think ‘head down’.

  • Want to run faster and your key technique points are arm movements e.g. think arms, or if it’s feet, think ‘light feet’

  • If you’re an archer and they critical startegy for you to stop doing target panic is to breathe when anchoring, think ‘breathe at anchor’

During 2002 and 2007 of Wimbledon ladies’ singles tennis, Serena Williams was seen reading performance cues during the change-over between games, such as ‘hit in the front’, ’stay low’, ‘get low’ and ‘add spin’. Serena won both matches!

For the 2019 North American Ironman Championships, Allan Hovda and I created cues for him to use such as ‘relax shoulders’ for the swim, ‘activate hamstrings’ for the bike and ‘run as easy as easy as possible’, this helped him enter flow state and powered him to 11th place, breaking the Norwegian Ironman course record by 6 minutes.

Now it’s over to you, let me know how you get on with overcoming your mind games in the comments below!

P.S. Ready to take your performance to the next level? Here are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Apply for a free 30 minute call to discuss your ultimate performance goal and how to get there. Apply now by clicking here.


2. Read one of my most popular blogs: 2 key ways to double your athletic performance this Summer


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