Performance anxiety and confidence

Ever try to search for self-confidence by channeling your inner Beyoncé while blowdrying your hair only to immediately feel like a fraud and hope no one saw you? No? Me neither… There’s this massive myth floating around sport that confident athletes have zero doubts . Like they wake up, eat pressure for breakfast, and walk onto the pitch radiating main-character energy (like Beyoncé). But in reality every athlete will have doubts at one point or another. Being confident doe

You’ve probably heard the advice: “Just calm down.” Lovely idea except your heart is racing, your hands are sweating, and your brain’s doing the 100m freestyle. Athletes spend hours training their bodies and minds to perform, but often forget that the body is   part of the mind. When stress hits, it doesn’t always start with a thought; it can also start with a physiological (i.e., body) signal. And if you can learn to tune into those signals early, you can stop anxiety from h

If I had a euro for every athlete who told me, “I just need to be more confident,” I’d probably own a Formula 1 team by now. Confidence is often seen as a magical state where doubts vanish and everything feels perfect. However, most of us experience doubt, especially when the stakes are high. The truth is, confidence isn’t about never doubting yourself; it’s about performing even when those doubts creep in. What Confidence Really Is (and Isn’t) So, what is confidence, really?

If you’ve ever caught yourself daydreaming about scoring the winning goal or smashing a perfect routine, congrats! you’re already dabbling in visualisation techniques. But in sport psychology, this isn't just fantasising. Visualisation (or mental imagery) is a powerful, science-backed tool that athletes use to boost performance, accelerate recovery, and sharpen skills, without even breaking a sweat. Let’s dive into the why, when, and how of this mental magic. What is Visualis