1. Hike to your heart’s content at Chautauqua Park

There’s no better spot in Boulder than Chautauqua Park. Nestled at the base of the iconic Flatirons, Chautauqua offers breathtaking views and a rich history that draws locals and visitors alike. Established in 1898 as part of the nationwide Chautauqua Movement, the park remains a vibrant gathering place for education, recreation, and community events. Chautauqua Park is known for its extensive trail system, suitable for hikers of all levels. The Chautauqua and Bluebell Trail Loop is a 1.5 mile climb to get a closeup look at the Flatirons and incredible bird’s eye views of Boulder valley. You’ll find trail routes for of all levels offering the perfect balance of challenge and relaxation. Beyond hiking, the park features picnic areas, a historic auditorium with year-round performances, and the charming Chautauqua Dining Hall, perfect for a post-hike meal.

2. Ski & ride at Eldora Mountain & Nordic Center

Eldora Ski Mountain in Colorado offers visitors 680 acres of alpine terrain with a unique blend of natural beauty and rustic mountain vibes. With its convenient location near both Boulder and Denver, Eldora is an accessible destination for a mountain experience that avoids all the traffic of Interstate 70. The ski area boasts a variety of terrain suitable for all skill levels, from gentle slopes for beginners to challenging black diamond runs and tree-lined glades for advanced skiers and snowboarders. If downhill isn’t your pace, you can also enjoy over 40-kilometers of terrain at the Eldora Nordic Center at the base of the mountain. The Eldora Nordic Center offers world-class cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Eldora Mountain is a must-visit destination for anyone looking to hit the slopes, explore scenic trails, or simply relax in a picturesque setting,

3. Get a taste of Colorado at the Boulder Farmer’s Market

If you’re looking for healthy and delicious local food and Colorado grown peaches, look no farther than the Boulder Farmer’s Market. The Boulder Farmers Market is a must-visit destination for locals and visitors between months of April and November. With its vibrant atmosphere, fresh produce from local growers, and a variety of handcrafted goods, the market offers a unique opportunity to experience Boulder’s lively community spirit. Visitors can enjoy live music, sample seasonal foods, and meet the friendly vendors who make the market truly special. The Boulder Farmers Market is the perfect place to embrace the best of summer in Colorado and get a taste of Colorado’s famous peaches.

4. Listen to your favorite music artist at the Boulder Theatre

Nestled in the heart of downtown Boulder, the historic Boulder Theatre is recognized locally as a vibrant centerpiece for arts and entertainment. With roots dating back to 1906, this beautifully restored Art Deco venue features a diverse lineup eclectic music shows, avant-garde films, and community events year-round. Since is opening, the theatre has featured a variety of artists including Johnny Cash, Counting Crows, Tori Amos, Blues Traveler, and more recently Joy Oladokun, Neko Case, and Khruangbin. With its stunning architecture and welcoming atmosphere, the Boulder Theatre always promises an experience that captures the creative spirit of Boulder.

5. Stroll, sip & shop on Pearl Street

Take a stroll along Pearl Street, Boulder’s lively pedestrian mall, where you can sip, shop, people-watch. Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado is an experience every vintage enthusiast and coffee lover should savor. The vibrant pedestrian mall is lined with charming vintage shops offering unique finds, from retro clothing to quirky home décor, each store bursting with personality. For LGBTQ+ friendly vibes enjoy thrifting at Apocalypse and then enjoy a sip of sustainably sourced coffee from Boxcar Coffee & Bakery. Whether you’re hunting for rare treasures or simply enjoying a cup of coffee while people-watching, Pearl Street’s eclectic mix of boutiques and cafés promises a delightful and restful outing on your day off.

6. Catch the Buffs’ Spirit

Pay a visit to the University of Colorado at Boulder to experience a beautiful blend of nature, stunning architecture and a variety of event options. Begin your adventure with a leisurely stroll along Boulder Creek which conveniently winds through the center of campus. After taking in the university’s iconic sandstone buildings and lively green spaces, consider catching a concert at the renowned Macky Theatre which plays host to the Bluebird Music Festival every spring. To round out your visit, don’t miss the chance to cheer on Coach Prime and CU football at Folsom Field. Or check out a Buffs basketball or CU Boulder volleyball game at the CU Events Center. The enthusiastic crowd and spirited traditions promise an unforgettable taste of Boulder pride. The collegiate excitement and Buff Spirit is contagious with any visit to CU Boulder.

Take the Next Step

Prioritizing your mental health and physical recovery is one of the most important commitments you can make to yourself as an elite athlete. Sometimes rest and a day dedicated to self-care can do wonders for your mind and body. However, if you find that rest is not enough and you need more support to help you recover mentally, consider reaching out for mental coaching or sports counseling . If you are ready to improve your mental health and well-being as an elite athlete, exploring mental coaching or sports counseling for athletes in Boulder, CO, could be your next most important step.

Here at Headstrong Mindset, Dr. Brooke Rundle specializes in support athletes and coaches with mental health and mental performance. As a Colorado-licensed sports counselor, Dr. Rundle is trained in both clinical mental health counseling and sport performance psychology. Together, we can help you improve your mental health, strengthen your mental resilience, and achieve a life balance that supports career longevity.

• Schedule your complimentary 15-minute consultation today.
• Learn more about how mental coaching and sports counseling can support you on your journey in Boulder, Colorado.
• Improve your mind and body health through sports counseling and mental performance coaching.

The post 6 Activities to Enjoy in Boulder, Colorado on Your Day Off appeared first on Headstrong Mindset LLC.

Photo Credit: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

The Comeback Story of the Winter Olympics

The incredible comeback story of Alysa Liu at the 2026 Winter Olympic games in Milan Cortina has a lot to teach us all. Liu became the first US women’s figure skater to win singles gold since 2002. Multiple times throughout the Olympic event, television announcers and analysts commented on how relaxed, carefree, and playful she seemed in the lead up to the competition. It was as though Alysa Liu was completely detached from the weight of the outcome and genuinely thrilled to get to skate in the Winter Olympics again.

When asked about how she was able to maintain her sense of calm, Liu answered “Winning and losing don’t affect me anymore… Medalling doesn’t fulfill me. I skate because I like to skate.”

But this wasn’t always the case for Liu who retired from figure skating at the age 16 after competing in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Prior to retirement Liu described the intense pressure as “traumatizing” and talked about feeling like her life was on the line when she skated.

Stepping away from the sport for two years allowed her to gain a sense of control over her life and pursue other interests including fashion, travel, attending college at UCLA, and frequenting karaoke bars with her friends which ultimately made her a much more well rounded person. Pursuing a balanced life outside of the ice rink allowed her to rediscover her love of staking and return to her sport with a renewed sense of creativity and passion.

When she took the ice for her final skate in Milan, her mindset had completely changed. “I didn’t need a medal,’’ she said. “If I fell on every jump, I would still be out there wearing this dress, so no matter what, I was all good.’’

The Unexpected Key to Resilience

Liu’s journey to the Olympic podium reminds me of a talk I heard given to a room full of coaches at the American Volleyball Coaches Association Convention. Let me introduce you to Dr. Roberta Kraus, PhD., the President of the Center for Sports Psychology in Colorado Springs. Dr. Kraus’s presentation titled Resilience Tools and Techniques was focused the importance of giving yourself adequate recovery time and having a balanced athletic identity to avoid career burnout.

“We have to spend time getting them back to the love of their sport, the love of performing and the love of participating the sport,” said Dr. Kraus. “Versus worrying about a ranking, a world record or a podium. As soon as you start focusing on an outcome, you’re adding additional pressure that starts in the mind, and the mind and the heart always decides what your body does.”

Dr. Kraus is a sports psychologist renown for helping athletes and teams reach their peak performance through a holistic approach to mental wellness and mental toughness. The mental training programs that she’s designed and implemented have a proven track record of improving player performance, communication and team dynamics under pressure. She’s worked hand in hand with Olympians and Paralympian’s at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center to support athlete mental health and help athletes achieve their dreams. Given her extensive experience in working with world class athletes, she could have talked about any aspect of sport psychology but she chose to focus on recovery and resilience strategies because career burnout is the greatest threat to your athletic career.

How to Avoid Burnout

According to a poll from the National Alliance for Youth Sports, approximately 70 percent of kids in the United States drop out of sports by time they turn 13 because, “it’s just not fun anymore”.  Staleness syndrome starts at a young age and continues to plague players and coaches at every level. Athletes and coaches who overtrain, lack life balance and deny themselves critical space for rest and recovery experience burnout.

In other words, players and coaches lack resiliency. Dr. Kraus defines resiliency as, “the capacity of a department, team, coach or athlete to maintain their emotional balance, to empathize, to hope and to persist in the face of frustration”. So how we cultivate healthy patterns and habits within our team to support resilience training for elite performers?

The solution is a combination of rest and balance. Rest is critical because it helps prevent injuries, reduce fatigue, and enhance mental clarity, allowing you to bounce back from setbacks and perform your best when it matters most. However effective recovery strategies include more than just your physical needs like sleep, proper nutrition, hydration, rehab and active rest days. Incorporating practices of mindfulness, imagery and individual sports counseling can further support your healing process, reduce stress, strengthen your mental toughness and help you overcome burnout. By prioritizing your mental health and wellness, athletes and coaches not only recover faster but build a foundation for enduring resilience—both physically and mentally.

Let me put it simply, if you want to stay in the game long term, you’ve got to have balance. Allow yourself time to physically recover and explore other passions in life.  Having a balanced athletic identity and being intentional about your recovery time are a critical components to developing resiliency in players and teams. 

Get the Support You Need

Maybe as you read this, the story feels familiar —a spark of recognition that you know there is more to life than your sport, but you don’t know how to access it. The good news is that you don’t have to retire or step away complete, there are other ways to find balance, build mental resilience and extend your career by overcoming burnout. Choosing to invest in your mental health and wellness could be the most important investment you make in your career. You deserve to be in control of your own life and pursue your athletic career with joy and creativity.

At Headstrong Mindset, Dr. Brooke Rundle specializes in guiding elite athletes and coaches, through this very process. As an AASP Certified Mental Performance Consultant and licensed sports counselor in Colorado, Dr. Rundle is dually trained in both clinical mental health and sport psychology. This holistic approach to sport psychology can help you reconnect with your true self and rediscover your passion.

• Schedule your complimentary 15-minute consultation with Dr. Brooke Rundle today.
• Learn more about how mental coaching and sports counseling can help you build resilience and overcome burnout.
• Embrace the next chapter in your athletic career: one rooted in joy, resilience, and a deep love for your sport.

Other Services and Resources

In case you missed it, you can watch Alyssa Liu’s gold medal performance and learn more about her career as a member of the US National Figure Skating Team here.

For more tips on how to avoid burnout during your season, check out this interview with Utah University’s Head Volleyball Coach Beth Launiere on how to avoid burnout during your college season.

If you don’t already have it, make sure to download the free workbook that provides mental training worksheets to help you improve focus, increase confidence and balance your athletic identity.

Post originally written in 2020 and updated in 2026 in response to Alysa Liu’s Olympic Gold medal performance. Dr. Brooke Rundle is a former collegiate and professional athlete, an AASP Certified Mental Performance Consultant and Licensed Counselor in the state of Colorado. Dr. Rundle provides sports counseling and mental performance consulting to coaches and athletes to optimize mental performance and improve mental health.

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What does it mean to have an athletic identity?

Your athletic identity is the degree to which you identify with your role as an athlete competing in your sport ¹ It’s basically a framework for an athlete’s self-concept. Sometimes, being an athlete can become such a big part of who you are that it overshadows other aspects of yourself and life can feel unbalanced.

Evaluating your athletic identity.

To assess athletic identity you can use the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale, also known as (AIMS) ².  AIMS is a 10 item self-reporting assessment based on a 1 to 7 Likert-scale that athletes can do to determine their level of athletic identity. The assessment includes statements such as “I consider myself an athlete”, “most of my friends are athletes”, & “I spend more time thinking about sport than anything else”. However the simplest way to check if your athletic identity is out of balance is to describe who you are without mentioning your sport.

Can you do it?

If you struggle to describe yourself without reference to your sport, that might be a sign that you have an unhealthy or imbalanced athletic identity and it’s time to balance the scale.

Warning signs to watch out for.

There are several risks and costs associated with having an imbalanced or unhealthy athletic identity. Athletes with an imbalanced athletic identity are more susceptible to depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and early burnout from sport. Signs to watch out for include reduced self-esteem or low confidence, irrational fear of failure, feelings of guilt, increased aggression, and difficulty in decision-making.

Finding a healthy balance.

One of the most of effective ways you can balance your athletic identity is to make and maintain friendships outside of your sport that don’t care about your performance or the amount of playing time you get. ³

Another way to maintain a healthy athletic identity is to find hobbies to do outside of your sport like cooking, gardening or making art and music. Having a healthy balance will not only improve your overall mental health, but it will also strengthen your mental toughness and resilience in sport during transitions in playing time, during periods of injury and retirement from sport. ⁴

Your sport should not define you. As an athlete, or a coach, your athletic identity is just one of part of you are. ⁵ A healthy athletic identity maintains a balance between your sport and life outside of sport. This includes prioritizing family, maintaining friendships outside of your sport, hobbies that have nothing to do with your sport. ⁶ It is critical to have a social support network that extends beyond on your sport or professional career. It is also important to have some ideas about what you might want to do after your athletic career is over. That’s what a healthy balance looks like. You are more than just your sport.

Are you ready to the take the next step?

Maybe you read this and resonated with the difficulty of balancing elite sports with your personal life. Conscious awareness is the first step to achieving personal growth and professional balance. Choosing to invest in your mental health and well-being can be life-changing and life-giving as an athlete and a person.

At Headstrong Mindset, Dr. Brooke Rundle specializes in supporting athletes, performers, and coaches with sports counseling Denver. Ask any sports expert who has been in the game a long time and they will tell you that balancing your athletic identity is the secret to enjoying a long career in sports and avoiding burnout . You deserve to walk away from your sport on your own terms. As a mental coach for athletes and sport psychology provider in Denver, Dr. Rundle can help you balance your career demands and learn to thrive. You don’t have to search any farther for sport psychology services in Denver.

• Schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation with Dr. Rundle.
• Learn more about how a mental coach for athletes can support you on your journey.
• Learn more about the importance of having a balanced athletic identity to avoid experiencing the yips.
• Start a new chapter in your athletic career by finding balance in your professional career and personal life.

References

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What is self-talk?

Self-talk is dialogue that athletes have with themselves in their mind (Lodato, 2022). It is a form of intrapersonal communication that impacts athlete emotions, behavior, actions, and motivation (Lodato, 2022). Self-talk often surfaces within athletes in reaction to the outcome of a play, situation, or event in competition in which the athlete desires change for the future (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). Self-talk can enhance concentration, assist with breaking bad habits, sustain athlete motivation, and increase effort (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). As an athlete, it is critical to develop awareness and control over self-talk in competition.

3 Types of Self-talk

Coaches and players often think self-talk as either positive or negative. However, there is actually a third category that often gets missed. Self-talk generally falls into the following three distinct categories: positive and motivational, instructional, and negative (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). Developing an awareness of these three categories is the first step to self-awareness which eventually leads to self-regulation during competition.

1. Positive or Motivational Self-Talk

Positive or motivational self-talk is general, optimistic and supportive. It maintains a positive attitude and is typically directed towards increasing one’s effort (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). Research suggests that positive and motivational self-talk is mostly effective for increasing motivation and psyching up athletes prior to competition (Hatzigeorgiadis et al, 2014).

Here’s a few examples: “I am doing the best I can“, “I’ve got the next one!” or “I am getting better.“

2. Instructional Self-talk

Instructional self-talk directs the athletes mind toward specific and strategic task-oriented aspects of performance (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). In other words, instructional self-talk provides either technical or tactical feedback on a specific skill. If you’re trying to think of an example of instructional self-talk for your specific sport or position, think back to things you’ve heard your coaches yell at you during practice.

In volleyball, hitters often use the cue word “reach” to remind themselves to extend their arm before contact or “snap” to give the ball top spin. Similarly, setters might tell themselves to have “high hands” as a reminder to refrain from dropping their elbows, or “quick release” to speed up the pace. Each of these examples serve as mental coaching cues to improve and execute the desired technique or skill. Instructional self-talk utilizing task-relevant cues is most effective when you are in the process of learning new skills or trying out a new technique.

Here’s a few examples instructional self-talk for volleyball: “high hands”, “reach and snap your wrist“, or “keep your eye on the ball“.

3. Negative Self-talk

Negative self-talk is notoriously self-critical, destructive, and ultimately counter-productive (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). You are most likely to experience negative-self talk after you make an unforced error. We often get stuck over thinking about the negative. Negative self-talk often cultivates anxiety, promotes self-doubt, and can erode confidence (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). Negative self-talk can also deteriorates team cohesion if you are playing a team sport. There are some circumstances in which negative self-talk can help by serving as a wake-up call, adding pressure, or creating tension. However if negative self-talk is used during competition, it should be intentional and productive (Lovato, 2022). Otherwise, negative self-talk is generally something you want to avoid and learn to maintain control over when you are competing.

A few examples of negative self-talk include: “How could you miss that ball?!”, “You don’t belong on this team” or “You’re such a __(fill in the blank)_____!”

Negative Self-Talk Interventions

There are numerous interventions and strategies to improve self-talk habits within athletes. Mikes (1987) outlined the following six guidelines to apply self-talk techniques in sport: (i) keep phrases short and specific, (ii) speak to yourself in the first person and present tense, (iii) construct positive phrases, not negative ones, (iv) state the phrases with intention and attention, (v) be kind to yourself when you speak, and lastly (vi) repeat your phrases often before, during and after competition (Weinberg & Gould, 2019).

As a mental performance coach, teaching negative self-talk interventions and helping athletes manage their internal dialogue is one of the most foundational mental skills that make up sport psychology.

Never forget that how you speak to yourself matters. Personally I love Brené Brown’s mantra, “Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.” My guess is that most of you would never speak to your teammates or friends, the way you speak to yourself both on or off the court or field. I challenge you to commit to changing the content and tone of your inner voice and learn to speak to yourself with respect and encouragement. Positive self-talk is more than just a mantra, it’s an intentional way of being.

Download a FREE WORKSHEET to improve your internal self-talk by creating a negative thought replacement plan.

Schedule a free 15-minute consultation with Dr. Brooke Rundle to discuss how mindset coaching and mental performance consulting can help you stop negative self-talk in competition.

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The impact of gratitude in sport is often overlooked by players and coaches. Gratitude is so much more than just a temporary feel-good emotion in response to counting your blessings. Gratitude has the potential to be a consistent character trait developed with intentionality over the course of a season or a lifetime.

The term gratitude comes from the Latin word “gratia” which means thankfulness or gratefulness . “The gratitude muscle is like any other muscle, in that it must be flexed periodically to remain strong”. The key takeaway here is that you can cultivate gratitude and become a more grateful person, athlete, and teammate by treating gratitude like a skill you train in your sport. In other words, the more you practice gratitude, the more naturally and consistently it will come to you.

The Benefits of Gratitude

The benefits of gratitude in sport are countless. Research shows that practicing gratitude promotes mental and physical health, improves relationships, leads to more social connections, increases self-esteem, enhances mental resilience, improves sleep, and reduces student athlete burnout. Gratitude is also considered a natural antidepressant and has been shown to reduce toxic emotions such as feelings of envy, resentment, frustration, and regret that be harmful disruptors to team-cohesion and accessing a flow state of mind for optimal performance. Cultivating gratitude helps athletes shift focus from what’s lacking or stressful to what’s available and motivating.

What happens in the brain?

Expressing positive emotions such as gratitude and thankfulness can actually change the neural pathways in your brain. Researchers have found that expressing gratitude produces higher levels of activity in the hypothalamus which influences your metabolism and stress levels. Expressing gratitude also releases dopamine and serotonin in the brain causing people to feel happier, less depressed, and less stressed out.

Expressing and receiving gratitude can immediately improve a persons’ mood, but it can also have a lasting impact on your relationships. In the context of team sports, gratitude can significantly improve the interpersonal relationships within your team. In sum, grateful players make better teammates and team leaders. They will also enjoy their sport more, be more mentally tough, and less likely to burnout.

3 Tips to strengthen your gratitude muscle

When getting starting with a gratitude routine for sports, keep these simple tips in mind to set yourself up for success.

1. Express gratitude towards the people in your support system including coaches, teammates, athletic trainers, sport psychologists, opponents, parents, etc.
2. Reflect on your past achievements and growth over the course of your season and your playing career. Focus on more than just wins, consider how you have improved and what you have learned.
3. Be specific! Specificity matters.

5 Exercises to cultivate gratitude

Integrating gratitude into daily routines doesn’t require much time or effort, but the effects can be profound. Here are 5 strategies for athletes:

1. Write a hand-written letter thanking a person who has impacted your athletic career and explain why you are thankful they are in your life.
2. Keep a gratitude journal writing down 2-3 things a day that you are thankful for related to your sport such as qualities in your teammates and coaches, or what you love about playing the game.
3. Take a gratitude walk either before or after trainings and competitions to reflect on why you are thankful to play your sport.
4. Do a daily mindfulness exercise bringing to mind all the things you are grateful in your sport.
5. Write gratitude sticky notes and leave them on your teammates lockers or on their bags to communicate your teammates (and coaches) that you appreciate them.

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In the 2018 Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), Dr. John Amaechi’s keynote presentation defined vulnerability as anyone who is not able to protect themselves against exploitation. As evidence for the vulnerability that athletes endure, Dr. Amaechi points out that student-athletes are unpaid, prohibited from unionization, unable to move freely without permission from their coaching staff, and often reminded they should just be grateful for the opportunity to participate in sports as if they have not earned the right to compete.

Each of these circumstances, Dr. Amaechi noted, would be considered egregious in circumstances outside of the competitive sports environment, however within the context of athletics, emotional, psychological, and verbal abuse are culturally condoned. To put it simply, athletes expect to get yelled at by their coaches, suffer through painful injuries for the greater good of the team, and make personal sacrifices to their education and social lives that extend far beyond the scope of athletics.

Research conducted by Stirling and Kerr (2008) points out that the coach-athlete relationship often demonstrates a gross imbalance of power dynamics with coaches maintaining absolute control over an athlete’s access to resources, rewards, and future career opportunities. Within this imbalanced power structure, psychologically abuse coaching behaviors such as belittling, name-calling, degrading, humiliating athletes in front of their teammates, hitting or throwing objects, yelling in an athlete’s face, and ignoring them completely are normalized (Stirling & Kerr, 2008). These common coaching behaviors threaten both the emotional and physical well-being of athletes and ultimately impact their sense of self-worth, self-esteem, and athletic identity. As a result of these culture expectations and the disproportionate power dynamics at play in sport between coaches and players, psychological maltreatment, verbal, psychological, physical and sexual abuse is oftentimes overlooked, ignored, and even covered up.

The multiple accounts of systemic abuse in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) uncovered by Sally Yates is yet another example of the consequences of unchecked power in sports. It is devastating that systemic abuse in sports still exists in the wake of the Me Too Movement . If our athletic heroes who compete on the world stage are vulnerable to this type of abuse in sport, then how much more vulnerable are our young athletes? When will it end? The system needs to change. The culture of coaching needs to change. The mental health, physical safety, and well-being of athletes needs to be prioritized.

References

Association for Applied Sport Psychology. (2018, December 4). AASP 2018 keynote: John Amaechi OBE- Overpromise and underdeliver. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7z-toAoj_I 

Stirling, A., & Kerr, G. (2008). Defining and categorizing emotional abuse in sport. European Journal of Sport Science, 8(4), 173–181.

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Perfectionism is characterized by unrealistically high expectations of self and a tendency to be over critical of one’s performance (Madigan et al., 2016). Within the last decade, the number of research studies conducted on perfectionism in sports has increased significantly (Vicent, Sanmartín, Vásconez-Rubio, and García-Fernández, 2020). In 2005, Flett and Hewitt coined the term “perfectionism paradox” to describe how the environment of competitive sports encourages perfectionism in athletes (Flett & Hewitt, 2005). Since the emergence of Covid-19, researchers Flett and Hewitt are now referring to the phenomenon of widespread rates of perfectionism among athletes as a “perfectionism pandemic”.

Perfectionist Strivings vs Perfectionist Concerns

Perfectionism is not necessarily good or bad. The term perfectionism describes an individual’s tendency to set unattainable standards. In sports, in can mean athletes are highly motivated and hardworking, but it also typically means that athletes;

• play tentatively and avoid taking risks for fear of making mistakes,
• avoid trying new techniques or skills because they are afraid of failing,
• fear judgement and rejection from their teammates and coaches,
• experience constant and harsh negative self-talk or self-scrutiny.

However, not all forms of perfectionism are maladaptive for athletes. Perfectionism can be deconstructed into the following two dimensions; perfectionist strivings and perfectionist concerns (Madigan et al., 2016). Perfectionist strivings, also known as a positive form perfectionism or self-oriented perfectionism, refer to a pattern of exceedingly high personal standards and often result in positive processes and outcomes such as adaptive coping skills (Madigan et al., 2016).

On the other hand, perfectionist concerns, negative form perfectionism or socially prescribed perfectionism, reflect a fear of making mistakes that include chronic fear of judgement and rejection (Madigan et al., 2016), in addition to constant and harsh self-scrutiny (Moore et al., 2018). In the context of athletics, it is important to distinguish between the two dimensions of perfectionist tendencies because they often produce opposite results among athletes and coaches.

The Research

A 2016 longitudinal research study of 141 junior athletes conducted by Madigan, Stoeber, and Passfield found that athletes with high levels of perfectionist strivings are more likely to have higher levels of intrinsic motivation and are less susceptible to feelings of burnout, while athletes with higher levels of perfectionist concerns had higher levels of external motivation and increased burnout rates (Madigan et al., 2016). Another 2017 research study conducted by Lizmore, Dunn, and Dunn of 140 college athletes found that a correlation between heightened perfectionist concerns and negative reactions to poor performance or reaction to error (Lizmore et al., 2017). Conversely, perfectionist strivings demonstrated a positive correlation with higher levels of self-compassion and optimism, and lower levels of pessimism (Lizmore et al., 2017). In summary, the study concluded that perfectionist strivings tend to result in more positive failure response patterns in contrast to perfectionist concerns (Lizmore et al., 2017).

While it should come as no surprise that maladaptive perfectionism leads to negative reaction to error and increased burnout rates among athletes, it may be news to some that perfectionist concerns among coaches also lead to increased rates of burnout. A 2020 research study conducted by Vealey, Coppola, Martin, Ward, & Chamberlin on the correlation between perfectionism, motivation and burnout among 311 high school and collegiate coaches, found that maladaptive perfectionism among coaches was the greatest predictor of emotional exhaustion, reduced motivation, and burnout (Vealey et al., 2020).   

The Solution

How do we, as mental performance consultants, help players and coaches shift from experiencing perfectionist concerns, aka forms of maladaptive perfectionism, to perfectionist strivings? Here’s a few tools to help athletes (and coaches) deconstruct their maladaptive perfectionism tendencies to ultimately improve their reaction to error, increase motivation, decrease burnout, and enjoy competing more.

1. Increase self compassion through negative thought replacement: Increasing one’s self-compassion means replacing the merciless judgement and negative self-talk from your inner critic with an internal voice of kindness, understanding, and encouragement. In sports it often looks like talking to yourself the same way that you talk to your teammates. For example, instead of allowing the voice of your inner critic to say something harmful such as, “You’re not good enough to be here, you’ll never be good enough. You don’t belong in the starting line-up or on this team.” (Most athletes would never dream of saying that to their teammates, and yet similar sentiments are constantly running through their minds during competition!) Try replacing those thoughts with positive affirmations such as, “You are constantly improving. Your hard work is going to pay off. You belong here.”

2. Increase self compassion through a “Metta Meditation” : The purpose of a Metta Meditation is to cultivate compassion through awareness. The practice of a Metta Meditation can be traced back to the original Buddhist tradition in which one first cultivates compassion toward oneself; then towards family and friends (teammates); then eventually toward one’s enemies (or the case of sports we’ll focus on opponents); and ultimately, toward the earth and all living beings. You can listen to a recording of a Metta Meditation here, or use this Metta Meditation script for athletes which I have adapted specifically for sports teams.

3. Use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques to deconstruct maladaptive perfectionist thought patterns : Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is a form of talk-therapy that connects the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In CBT you are encouraged to identify, dismantle, and replace your negative, irrational, and catastrophic thoughts. The negative-thought replacement identified above is just one exercise of many that can be adapted for athletes to change their thinking and gain control over their maladaptive perfectionist tendencies. My free mental performance workbook contains many more exercises and worksheets to help athletes deconstruct maladaptive perfectionism that impacts performance. If you want to dive deeper, I also recommend checking out The CBT Workbook for Perfectionism.

References:

Flett, G.L. & Hewitt, P.L. (2005). The perils of perfectionism in sports and exercise. Current Directions Psychological Science, 14(1),14-18.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00326.x

Lizmore, M.R., Dunn, J.G.H., & Causgrove Dunn, J. (2017). Perfectionist strivings, perfectionistic concerns, and reactions to poor personal performances among intercollegiate athletes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 33(2017)75-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.07.010

Madigan, D. J., Stoeber, J., & Passfield, L. (2016). Motivation mediates the perfectionism-burnout relationship: A three-wave longitudinal study with junior athletes. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 38(4), 341–354.

Moore, E., Holding, A. C., Moore, A., Levine, S. L., Powers, T. A., Zuroff, D. C., & Koestner, R. (2021). The role of goal-related autonomy: A self-determination theory analysis of perfectionism, poor goal progress, and depressive symptoms. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 68(1), 88–97. https://doi-org.uws.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/cou0000438

Vealey, R. S., Coppola, A., Martin, E., Ward, R. M., & Chamberlin, J. (2020). The Slippery Slope: Can Motivation and Perfectionism Lead to Burnout in Coaches? International Sport Coaching Journal, 7(1), 1–10.

Vicent, M., Sanmartín, R., Vásconez-Rubio, O., & García-Fernández, J. M. (2020). Perfectionism Profiles and Motivation to Exercise Based on Self-Determination Theory. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(9). https://doi-org.uws.idm.oclc.org/10.3390/ijerph17093206

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Athletes and coaches alike experience a fight-or-flight response when their sympathetic nervous system is activated. Physical symptoms of stress can include increased heart rate, stomach nausea, shortness of breath, muscle tension, and unwanted arousal. There are evidence-based muscle-to-mind techniques that you can use to help athletes reduce their levels of performance anxiety and stress.

For starters, it can be helpful to break down the techniques into two distinct categories: muscle-to-mind techniques and mind-to-muscle techniques. Muscle-to-mind relaxation techniques focus on relaxing the body as a means to calming down the mind. Examples of muscle-to-mind techniques include diaphragmatic breathing and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). On the other contrary, mind-to-muscle techniques such as meditation and imagery, start with calming the mind as a way to relax the body. As a mental coach for athletes, I recommend integrating both types of techniques to improve emotion regulation and manage athletes stress.

There’s a ton of websites and apps boasting about strategies to de-stress however, before implementing any relaxation technique in practice or competition, it’s critical to understand the difference between total relaxation and rapid relaxation techniques. The goal of total relaxation is to help athletes completely relax by achieving maximal relaxation, while the goal of rapid relaxation is to reduce stress quickly without depleting one’s energy level (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).

The process for total relaxation typically between 10 and 20 minutes and can help athletes reduce chronic stress and anxiety (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). Total relaxation techniques are ideally performed after practice or competition to help them recover from intense workouts or just before going to bed to improve sleep. Total relaxation techniques should not be done prior to workouts because they leave players feeling lethargic, sluggish, and passive (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).The benefits of total relaxation techniques include chronic stress reduction, promotion of recovery from workouts, improved sleep, and the development of relaxation skills (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).

On the other hand, rapid relaxation is ideal for athletes and coaches to do prior or during practice and competition for example – during a time-out. Rapid relaxation can be done in any environment in a matter of 3 to 5 seconds and the benefits of rapid relaxation include reduction in muscle tension, arousal control, disruption of the stress spiral, energy conservation, and ultimately increasing athlete enjoyment in sport (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).

One effective muscle-to-mind total relaxation strategy that coaches can teach players to use is called progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). The premises of PMR is to flex individual muscle groups and then passively releasing the muscle group to promote deep muscle relaxation (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). When flexing one’s muscles, the tension should gradually build-up for 5 to 7 seconds and then released abruptly. After releasing the muscle, the athlete should direct their attention towards relaxing that specific muscle group for a minimum of 20 seconds and up to 1 minute (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). The athlete can continue this process of targeted muscle tension, followed by focused muscle relaxation for muscle groups (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).

Cued relaxation is an example of a rapid relaxation technique that can be used before or during competition (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). In cued relaxation, the goal is for athletes to identify a cue word that triggers the desired relaxation response (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). Cued relaxation should be paired with a total relaxation technique such as PMR. Once the athlete gets comfortable achieving a relaxation level of 8 or more on a 10-point scale with 10 being completely relaxed, they should start to repeat their cue word in their mind at each exhalation for 15 or more repetitions. With practice, eventually the athletes will be able to stimulate the relax response within 3 to 4 seconds by combining their cue word with 1 or 2 diaphragmic breaths.

Sometimes athletes need to be fired up and energized, rather than relaxed before competition. The term energization is the opposite of relaxation, it involves intentionally speeding up one’s heart rate to increase blood flow to muscles and stimulate brain activity (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). Energization can help athletes improve concentration, increase their energy level, motivation, and confidence level (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). One example of an energization strategy that athletes can use prior to or during competition is a technique called psych-up breathing. In psych-up breathing, the athlete is instructed to take quick and shallow consecutive breaths to inhale as much as oxygen as possible in a short period of time. During psych-up breathing, the breaths are shallower and taken in with the lungs as opposed to the diaphragm (Burton & Raedeke, 2008).

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In the 2019 NCAA tournament your team beat BYU 3-0 at BYU.  How did you prepare your team for that big match-up? 

There were a number of factors. We had very high goals for the season and expectations for ourselves. We were ready for the NCAA tournament. We finished 3rd in the PAC-12. We were ready to make a nice run (in the playoffs) and we felt really confident. We really thought that we had a shot at hosting, and found out that we were going to BYU for the 3rd time in 4 years. I couldn’t have been more proud of my team for the way they handled that. I had very strong leadership.  Right from the start they were like, it’s a bummer but it doesn’t matter. I’ve been doing this long enough now to know that if you start getting too worried about where you’re sent and what your seed might be, then you’re probably starting from behind right off the bat. So we just had a really great mindset going into the tournament right away.  We took the mentality of wherever, whoever and whatever it takes.

We took the mentality of wherever, whoever and whatever it takes.

I felt like it was a calumniation of the whole season, what our goals were and what our expectations were.  We had a plan in place for the season.  Part of executing our plan was to make a nice run. Losing can be a great motivator too and we had lost to them the year before.

There was a lot of media and our fans that tried to make a big deal out of it. Everyone was like hey congratulations and I’m so sorry that you have to go back to BYU.  We just made a decision really early that we wouldn’t let anybody talk to us about the seeding issue.  I was nervous because we had won a big five set match the night before against Illinois and we were tired.  It was one of those things where less is more. We kept our scouting very limited. We let them have time for a nap after a little serve and pass. We were just ready to go. 

How do you prepare your team game after game throughout the long season and prevent player burnout?

The grind of a season is so great that every week you’re looking to find that place where you can play fresh, free and have a great weekend. Especially in the PAC-12. Every week is a different beast and it’s a long season. Sometimes you just grind matches out and that’s what you expect. And then sometimes you have something that’s really exciting happening, like the NCAA tournament.

We had a weekend where we were celebrating my 30th year and we were retiring our first ever volleyball jersey in our arena – Kim Turner. Our team really bought into the excitement of that weekend and had a great week of preparation. At the end of the day it always comes down to if you have a great week of prep, you’re probably going to play really well on the weekend. If you don’t, if you’re good enough you can find a way to grind it out but if you’re not then you’re going to lose. We beat UCLA 3-0 that weekend too and it was a flawless match.

I think it was a combination of you’re constantly doing the work that you do and then you find some places within the season that are you know, players get really fired up about. Maybe it’s an opponent you’re playing that the players like to play. We seem to play pretty well against Washington. We have great matches with them all the time. So in the course of a long season, it’s important to find weekends that are a little different than the other ones because otherwise it’s just a grind weekend after weekend. I would say that UCLA match was pretty similar to our BYU match in that we just came out, we executed, we had a great mindset and a great week of practice. 

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And by the way, you don’t need their permission anyway.  Your life is your own and you can just do it. 

There will also never be a perfect time. 

Waiting for permission to speak will silence your voice when authority overlooks you.  

Holding out for permission to rest will exhaust your motivation and steal away your passion. 

Abiding by an unequal status quo that you don’t agree with until equality is granted, will not pave the way to the social justice you want to see. 

Change, real change, isn’t granted by a permission slip.  It happens through through hard conversations, uncomfortable transition and the disruption of an existing cycle. Change happens because a person decides to challenge the norm and do things differently.  Change is more likely to come up against opposition, rather than consent… at first.  

You may never get permission, but you will get affirmation.  Unfortunately affirmation only comes afterwards.

Affirmation rewards bravery. 

Affirmation reveals allies that were once invisible. 

Affirmation offers clarity on the importance of your cause and fuels you with encouragement. 

Instead of waiting for permission to create the future you want, trust that your courage will be affirmed if you take the leap of faith.

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