Dealing With Setbacks

Slumps and Poor Performances

Strategies From Psychologists

Strategies Given by the Psychologists of Olympic Medalists

Setbacks, whether due to injuries, poor performance, or other factors, are inevitable in sports, and psychologists emphasize resilience as a key to overcoming them. Some sports are even made for mistakes; sports like tennis are played until someone makes a mistake. One psychologist used the example of a young soccer player who was prematurely given the opportunity to start a professional match. After having a very tough outing, the athlete was completely run down by his mental breakdown and technical mistakes. The psychologist’s approach to counseling this particular athlete was to entirely separate the technical mistakes from the mental mistakes. He noted that the technical mistakes are much more objective, and need to be analyzed with a professional who understands the nuances of the sport. However, the psychological mistakes also need to be looked at independently. To do so, the psychologist asked the athlete to recall every single one of the negative thoughts that led to his psychological meltdown, and to write them down on a sheet of paper. For each negative thought that the soccer player wrote down, he was tasked with writing down 3 examples to counter that negative thought. As homework, that athlete was told to keep engaging in the same exercise after every one of his next few games, until finally, his confidence was fully recovered, and he knew that when his negative thoughts surfaced, he had already addressed them prior to the event, and was more than prepared to deal with them.

The psychologist advocated for a mindset that views setbacks as opportunities for growth rather than as failures. He encouraged athletes to analyze what went wrong objectively and to develop a plan to avoid similar issues in the future. This approach not only helps in bouncing back from setbacks but also builds long-term resilience. Slumps are part of improvement, and by analyzing the psychological and technical mistakes independently, athletes prevent periods of underwhelming performances from affect their confidence in their abilities.

Athletes are also taught to separate their self-worth from their performance, understanding that a single failure does not diminish their overall potential or value as an athlete. Because humans tend to have a subconscious recency bias, it is easy for the mind to forget about the successes of a whole career and dwell on the miseries of a particular performance, which is why it is important for an athlete to consistently remind themselves of their talent, and recall their best moments when they are enduring a tough period.

Advice From Current Athletes

Examples of Strategies Used by Select Athletes

The athletes’ narratives around consistency and navigating slumps reveal a resilience formula that combines a positive mindset, tactical adaptability, and a return to fundamentals. Gunnar views bad days as indispensable learning opportunities, a perspective that transforms challenges into stepping stones for growth. This approach to slumps—a blend of psychological resilience, tactical reevaluation, and foundational focus—offers a blueprint for aspiring athletes facing their own periods of downturn.

Actionable Insight: In the face of slumps, athletes are encouraged to maintain a growth mindset by encouraging themselves to make mistakes, while simultaneously assessing and adapting their strategies, and anchoring themselves in the basics of their sport and the areas that they consider “strengths.” This resilience formula is not just about bouncing back but about emerging stronger, more versatile, and more mentally tough.

Cole Oberg (Tennis) – When going through a slump, Cole focuses on working extra hard on the basics and focusing on high-percentage plays to regain form, highlighting the importance of simplifying one’s approach. However, he also recognizes that all it takes is one good practice or match to significantly boost his confidence and remind him of how good he is. For this reason, he makes sure to reset during a tough period, emphasizing practice on the fundamentals of tennis (forehand and backhand) and making sure to get extra comfortable with those before progressing to more advanced shots. He also mentions his procedure of reverting back to his strengths and sharpening those so that if he starts to play poorly, he always has a couple of strengths that he knows can bail him out of any situation. When working upwards from the basics and having several shots that he knows he can always rely on, it is impossible for him to stay in a slump for long.

Madeline Egan (Lacrosse) – When Madeline is going through a tough period, she becomes very meticulous about cleaning up her mistakes. She goes back to the games that she did not play up to her standards, and looks at all of the moments that she made a mistake. The, in training, she goes to the field and repeats each of those moments over and over again in the exact same way that they happened, making sure to execute them to perfection before deciding that she has fully learned from them. Mentally, Madeline tries to take 10-15 minutes to visualize herself playing in a previous game where she had a lot of success. Reliving these moments before playing gets her in the right headspace to be able to flush her poor performances and move forward with confidence in her abilities. She also makes sure that as she is moving through a dip in form, she celebrates every improvement in her performances, even if it is miniscule. Remaining positive at all times is key for her.

Educational Takeaways:

Overcoming slumps and periods of bad form requires a multifaceted approach that includes simplifying tactics, focusing on core strengths, and reframing your mindset. When athletes performances are consistently underwhelming, that points to a major fundamental flaw that needs to be addressed. For this reason, many of the athletes mentioned a tendency to return back to the basics of their sport and to build up from the bottom as if they are re-learning how to play. Once that piece of the puzzle is addressed, the next important step is to return to the areas of your game that you consider “strengths.” Making sure to work on your strengths enough that you know they will be able to bail you out of trouble will prevent future slumps from happening. For example, in Tennis, Cole mentioned how his dominant first serve is a strength that he has full faith will consistently get him out of trouble even when the other parts of his game aren’t sharp. He dedicates a small part of all his trainings towards maintaining this first serve, and having that tool under his belt at all times allows him to still win matches and play well while addressing the weaknesses that he needs to improve on.

Conversely, sometimes during a slump all you need is a refreshment period to give your mind a short break and give it the chance to reset. Slumps are often associated with burnout, a period during which athletes start to lose their excitement for their sport and it starts feeling more like a chore. To avoid this kind of burnout, during a slump, giving your body and mind a couple of days to reset may be the solution to remotivating yourself. If taking this kind of break is not possible, finding a way to fall back in love with the activity is really important – whether that is through some reflection, or through playing recreationally with some friends, or even through watching some professional competitions to remind you of why you play your sport. Reminding yourself of why you decided to dedicate yourself to that sport in the first place is a great way to remotivate yourself to continue pushing through adversity.

One common theme that all of the athletes talked about in relation to slumps was how important their growth mindset was to their ability to get out of a period of bad form. The best athletes in the world are often known for being composed at all times, because keeping a level head during a tough period is really important. When performances are off, self-doubt and excuses will always creep in, so it is crucial to reframe your mindset; look at a slump as a challenge now that gives you the opportunity to see tremendous improvement later on. A slump is simply a period of development where an athlete goes through a series of poor performances that reveal a flaw in the fundamentals of their sport; it is something that every athlete has gone through in their career. However, what is easily noticeable is that the reaction of these athletes is active rather than passive: they realize that there is a problem, and they do something to strengthen that area of weakness, yet they do that without losing confidence in their abilities.

At the same time, the best athletes are able to celebrate every small glimpse of improvement, because they recognize that being negative only hampers progress. Through visualization strategies and hundreds of game-like repetitions in practice to address the problem, athletes are able to battle through the tough period while staying positive and celebrating the chance to take their game to the next level.

Advice From Coaches

Insights From Former Athletes Who Are Current Coaches

Coach Arturo Solis (Former College Soccer Player) – To succeed in your sport, Coach Solis believes that positive self-talk is the most important tool that separates the good athletes from the great ones. When mistakes inevitably happen, the athletes who talk down on themselves and see mistakes as a negative are often the ones who allow themselves to fall into a period of poor performances, rather than actively fighting to break out of it. The athletes who are always positive in the way that they talk to themselves and the way that they think ahead to future events are much more inclined to embrace poor performances as opportunities to learn, rather than obstacles in their development.

So what is the ideal mindset to have? Coach Solis says that for him, walking into games and training sessions expecting (and actually wanting) to make mistakes was a way of reframing his mindset in a way that made him unafraid of failure. Once you stop fearing failure, Coach believes that there is nothing that can stop you anymore. Athletes who are insecure about their weaknesses tend to frustrate themselves quicker, because they are hoping to have an immaculate performance without making any mistakes. In contrast, Coach Solis knew that he would make mistakes, as that’s part of the game, so for him it wasn’t about seeking perfection, it was about seeking precision. It was about seeing how precise he could be, emotionally, physically, and psychologically on any given day. “Don’t aspire to play the perfect game, adjust that self-talk, keep yourself up rather than beating yourself down” he says. Positive self-talk was the tool that Coach Solis says was his biggest ally throughout his career, and reframing your mindset in the way that was just described allows you to be much more likely to unlock your potential.

Coach Sarah Demers (Lacrosse) – For Coach Demers, not making a big deal out of mistakes is really important in order for her to avoid spiraling into self-doubt and self-criticism. Instead, she likes talking to someone about her thoughts after a rough performance, whether that is a parent or a teammate. She feels that keeping thoughts to herself leads to her overthinking issues and mistakes that actually aren’t as big a deal as they seem. Having someone who can offer a second opinion was crucial for her. Equally important, as a Coach, she values offering her athletes second chances after they make mistakes, allowing kids to try again in practice doing something that they were unable to do in the game. Nine out of ten times, they perform better the second time, and that second successful attempt tends to be what the mind remembers; instead of dwelling on a mistake, the mind will remember your ability to overcome that mistake by succeeding when you tried again.

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Dealing With Injuries:

Strategies From Psychologists

Strategies Given by the Psychologists of Olympic Medalists

Injuries can be a really tough period mentally for all athletes, but especially younger ones who are enduring a critical stage in their development. Recovering from injuries is incredibly difficult because some athletes doubt their ability to recover to their previous form. For this kind of issue, read more on the confidence information page. However, here we will talk about how to deal with injuries while playing the sport you love. Psychologists mention that what is often most difficult for athletes is being able to play through bothersome impediments that get in the way of their focus. In order to do this effectively, an athlete needs to create a game plan to work around and adapt to the particular injury.

Psychologists mentioned that a common way to do this is through a practice called autogenic training. The athlete needs to visualize themselves playing through the injury, imagining only positive situations where they are successful and able to play through the injury. What often happens is that injured athletes approach an event hoping that their injury will miraculously disappear or not bother them, and then when it inevitably does, they panic. Instead, engaging in the practice of autogenic training helps the mind associate the upcoming pain with calm and success rather than with panic and defeat. Embracing the worst case scenario and planning ways to work with it in order to be successful is the key to overcoming this challenge.