7 Strategies to Help Athletes Manage Negative Thinking

Everyone struggles with negative thoughts sometimes. Even the most elite athletes can find themselves in a pattern of negative self-talk, saying things like “I’m not good enough,” “I’ll choke,” “They’re better than me.” This is perfectly normal, but, if these thoughts go unchecked, they can derail confidence, kill motivation, and stifle impact performance. The good news is that you don’t have to be ruled by your negative thoughts. Thoughts can be checked, challenged, and replaced.

Negative thoughts may happen from time to time, but they don’t have to create a spiral and control your performance. By building a toolbox of strategies and training your mental game with the same intention you train your body, you’ll start seeing real change in your confidence, focus, and results.

Here are 7 strategies to help you transform your self-doubt into drive and turn your mental game into a competitive advantage.

1. Identify the Thought Triggers

Negative thoughts aren’t random. They often show up after:

• A mistake or loss

• Comparing yourself to others

• Feeling pressure from coaches or parents

• Fatigue or injury

Strategy: Keep a mental performance journal. Write down when these thoughts appear and what triggered them. Once you see the pattern, you can intervene sooner—before the spiral.

2. Name the Thought, Don’t Become It

You are not your thoughts.  This is an important point, so I am going to repeat it: you are not your thoughts. If you experience frequent negative thoughts, you may have developed a habit of thinking this way. But these are just habits and reactions, not fact. When athletes learn to step back and observe their inner dialogue instead of getting absorbed in it, they reclaim control.

Strategy: Give the thought a label to create some distance from it. For example, “There’s that perfectionist voice again,” “That’s my fear talking,” or “This is a feeling, not a fact.” Creating this distance takes you out of emotion and activates your rational brain so that you can objectively respond to your situation.

3. Replace “Don’t” With “Do”

The brain doesn’t do well terms like “not” and “don’t.” When you tell yourself “don’t mess up”, your brain doesn’t recognize the “don’t” and is primed to only focus on “mess up” and will increase your performance anxiety.

Strategy: Reframe your internal commands with language that focuses on what you can actually do and control in a situation. Instead of “don’t choke,” try “stay loose.” Instead of “don’t mess this up,” try “my training prepares me for this.”

4. Use Pre-Performance Routines

Pre-performance routines and rituals are great ways to shift your mindset to a positive performance mode. Our nervous systems like predictability and these routines take our minds off internal chatter, direct us toward controllable behaviors, and help us to feel grounded and focused. These routines act as mental anchors and can become powerful “reset buttons.”

Strategy: Create a short, consistent routine before games or pressure situations (e.g., breathing, visualization, cue words, motivating music). Find what works best for you and practice it consistently.

5. Work With Thought-Performance Cueing

Mental cueing is a tool used by top sports therapists. It links specific cue words to actions and can be especially helpful when under pressure. With practice and repetition, our minds and nervous systems link these words to specific mental states and help us to respond quickly and effectively.

Strategy: Pick 2-3 performance cue words that relate to how you want to show up: “explosive,” “calm,” “sharp,” “locked in.” Use them in your training so they become automatic on game day.

6. Use Visualization to Rewire Mental Scripts

The brain doesn’t fully distinguish between imagined and real experiences. Visualization can retrain your mind to respond to old triggers with more effective responses.

Strategy: Spend a few minutes each day visualizing successful performances under pressure, as well as before a competition. Be sure to use sensory detail in this process. Imagine what you would see, hear, smell, physically feel, even taste as you are successfully responding to pressure in a way that helps you and your mental game. Daily visualizations help you to develop a consistent script that you can easily repeat at game time.

7. Seek Support

Some athletes fall into the trap of thinking they have to "figure it out " or that mental struggles are a weakness. That couldn’t be further from the truth. You don’t have to do this alone. Mental toughness is developed through training, not by pretending you don’t need it.

Strategy: Work with a mental performance coach or therapist who understands sports psychology. Just like you'd get help for a sprained ankle, don’t ignore mental injuries or mental “conditioning gaps.”

Interested in professional support to help with negative thought patterns? Reach out today!