Top Five Mental Mistakes Athletes Make, and How to Avoid Them

In this article, we will be exploring some of the most common mental mistakes that I see athletes of all levels in various different sports make. It is not too useful to know what they are, so we are also going to go over how to avoid them. Lets get started so you can grow your mental toughness!

1) Getting Angry and STAYING Angry

Have you ever gotten angry or upset while playing or competing in your sport? Most of us have- it’s common. The mental mistake here is not getting angry, this is something that happens normally and is not really that big of a deal. You can get angry as many times as you want and still be super mentally tough. How? The mental mistake that will drag down your game here is not getting angry, but STAYING angry. Being mentally tough does not consist of avoiding anger and upset, but giving it up quickly once it happens. As long as you can give up before it is time to perform, then you are good to go!
Most of the time we deal with being angry in three ways.
1) Yell, scream, break or throw something in hopes that this will get it out of your system. It won’t, it will only add fuel to the fire.
2) Try and stuff it down and suppress it. This does not work either. You only get “pressurized anger” inside of you, which just makes you more high strung.
3) Keep playing while being angry. Of the three, this may be the best strategy, but still certainly not recommended. It is still likely that you will keep being angry, play worse and tire out more quickly.
So if these three strategies do not work, what do I do? Check out my article on how to give up being angry or upset.

2) Skipping Post Match Analysis

Each game or match is a great learning opportunity, but a lot of times we do not take full advantage of it. The mental mistake here occurs after competing. When we lose, it is common to kick ourselves, second guess, replay parts in our head, sulk, or apply positive thinking. Underneath this, we are blaming ourselves, thinking we did or are bad or wrong in some way. If we win, we go celebrate and bask in our own glory.

Now don’t get me wrong, celebrating is great and you can kick yourself if you want, but each approach to winning or losing that we often take is missing something. We often do not implement the discipline to see each time we compete as an opportunity to expand our mental and physical game. If we lose, a big mental mistake is kicking ourselves instead of looking to see what was missing in our physical or mental game that would have made a difference, which we can do for the next time so that we never lose for that same reason again.

On the other hand, the mental mistake when we win is to completely ignore any lesson to learn. When we win, a great way to solidify and expand your mental and physical game is to look at what was at the root of having us win. This way, it is no mystery why we won, and we know exactly what to do again in the future to win again. Then celebrate!

3) Choking

Have you ever blown a lead? Many athletes have- it is an incredibly common pitfall in sports. And it is an entirely mental mistake. To learn how to avoid choking, check out a previous article specifically on this topic.

4) Having Your Focus on Winning, Losing or Results, Not on what it takes to produce the results.

To get your focus on the process and off the results, check out a previous article about this topic.

5) Negative Visualization

Negative visualization is a mistake that many athletes unknowingly make. It is picturing or visualizing the opposite of what you want to have happen by telling yourself to NOT do something. For example, it is common to say to ourselves, “don’t miss,” “don’t mess up” or “don’t choke.” However, the mind cannot hold a negative thought, so when you tell yourself to not do something, it pictures or visualizes doing it.

A simple example is if I say, “do not think of a school bus.” The image of a big yellow bus probably just entered your mind. Same goes with sports.
Visualization is great, because it makes you mind used to having what you want to happen, happen and in turn more likely. The pitfall here is getting your mind used to and making more likely the things you do not want to have happen through negative visualization.

So what is the fix? Visualize what you DO want!

Now that you know what these mistakes are, go, compete and avoid them!

The Mental Game – Giving up Anger and Upset

Are you ever playing or competing and you get angry or upset?  And you can’t shake it?

If so, read this article because getting angry and upset drags down your performance big time!

As mental toughness has a lot to do with breaking down what gets in the way or the trap that we fall into first, lets deconstruct what happens.

1) We make a mistake or mess up- this is what happens.
2) We get mad at ourselves and play badly afterwards for some amount of time.

The Trap

Underneath or behind us getting angry or upset, there are a number of nasty benefits that keep us in the trap.  Here they are:

The first part of getting angry or upset that lies under the surface and keeps us stuck is we immediately think that we are or just did something wrong or bad (note- this is in our heads, not in the read world, but we collapse the mistake with that we are bad or wrong. The fact is we just made a mistake. That’s it.).  So we start kicking ourselves.

In kicking ourselves, we get ourselves off of the hook from actually facing that we just did something that gets us closer to losing, not winning.

Wait! There is more!

When you are being angry or upset, you are dominating and controlling what is going on around you.  Not in a productive dominating the opponent and kicking butt kind of way, but more like you are having a tantrum and making every one pay attention to you kind of control.  You make everyone look at you, and you even dominate your coach or teammate because when you are angry or upset, they definitely cannot talk to you.  This is another one of the nasty benefits of being angry/upset.

The last and maybe the biggest nasty benefit of getting mad is you get to make a communication to everyone else around, including yourself, that you are better than what you just did.  This gets you to look good for anyone watching.

These are the parts of the trap that get us stuck in being angry and upset.  What is there to do next?

The Solution

First, start to recognize and give up indulging in these nasty benefits when you are getting them. You will know it is time to give them up when you are angry or upset.  It takes  practice to do this. Mental toughness is a muscle, just like any other, so it needs attention and intention to grow it and improve.  Once you give up stewing in being upset, then you are free to focus on you game plan, being a leader, great teammate or kicking butt!