Tips From a Psychologist Who Trains Olympic Athletes

"If you're watching the Olympics this year, or have watched in the past, you've probably wondered how the top athletes in the world bolster themselves emotionally for high- stress situations, being exposed and visible to millions of viewers in difficult moments, and how they deal with failure and defeat and become resilient. Dr. Cindra Kamphoff, whose MD-level background in sports psychology, two decades of work with professional and Olympic athletics, and The High Performance Mindset podcast, has developed techniques that are helpful to people inside or outside of the sports arena."

"Her mental performance training begins months or even years before the Olympics. She typically supports athletes during the Olympics by phone or Zoom. "After the Olympics, we debrief," she says. "We evaluate what worked, what didn't, and how to grow from the experience. Then we reset goals and begin preparing for the next competition. Confidence and mental performance are ongoing processes, not event-specific interventions.""

"Setting clear goals with a plan to achieve them. Athletes cannot control outcomes like making it to the podium as a winner-but they can control effort, focus, attitude, and execution. When athletes become overly outcome-focused, motivation and confidence decline. Confidence grows when attention is placed on controllables. Ensuring you're always prepared. Preparation builds earned confidence and quiets doubt. Top athletes make consistent sacrifices, such as time, energy, and comfort, to ensure they are ready."

Mental performance training begins months or years before major competitions and often includes remote support during events and structured post-event debriefs to evaluate outcomes and reset goals. Training emphasizes focusing on controllables—effort, focus, attitude, and execution—rather than outcomes, because excessive outcome-focus undermines motivation and confidence. Preparation and sacrifice build earned confidence and reduce doubt. Developing the ability to release judgment and recover quickly from mistakes addresses perfectionism and strengthens resilience. These techniques for building confidence and managing high-stress visibility transfer to non-athletic contexts such as interviews, public speaking, and interpersonal situations.

Read at Psychology Today