“Mind is everything: muscle – pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.” – Paavo Nurmi
Nicknamed the “Flying Finn,” Paavo Nurmi dominated distance running in the early 20th century. Hailing from Finland, he set 22 world records and won nine Olympic gold medals. Not bad for someone who said his biggest weapon wasn’t his legs – it was his mind.
So what does that mean for you as a young athlete today?
Sport gives us the chance to use our bodies in ways that are physically exhilarating and mentally rewarding. Winning is great. But the real game happens between your ears. Here are three mental strategies that can transform how you perform – on the field, in the pool, or on the court.
1. Power talk – the words you say to yourself
The most important conversations you will ever have on the sporting field are the ones you have with yourself. Think about it – the words running through your head shape how you feel, and how you feel shapes how you perform.
“Words create worlds.” – Abraham Joshua Heschel
A mindset filled with negativity or self-doubt will produce results far below your potential. However, a confident and driven mindset will have you perform at your best. It’s that simple.
Language shapes your world. Before you compete, ask yourself: am I walking out there with a sense of possibility or a sense of catastrophe? That choice alone can determine the result.
“The world is made of words. And if you know the words the world is made of, you can make it whatever you wish.” – Terence McKenna
Here’s a simple reframe: if you call a problem a problem, it becomes a problem. But if you call it an opportunity, your whole psychology shifts. For example, an injury can feel like a disaster – or it can be a chance to strengthen the weaker parts of your game. How you talk about it determines how you respond.
Positive self-talk doesn’t create talent. Instead, it releases the talent you already have. Research shows it decreases anxiety, improves concentration and helps you perform at your peak.
Muhammad Ali understood this better than anyone. Before fights he would say, “I am young, I’m handsome, I’m fast, I’m pretty and can’t possibly be beat.” Was he showing off? Maybe. But more importantly, he was loading his mind for victory.
Similarly, Australian netballer Sharni Layton would look herself in the mirror before a game and say, “You got this – and whoever you’re playing today has not got this.”
So be careful of the words you use. Every day, every training session, every game – you are either building the mindset of a champion or tearing it down. Make your self-talk work for you.
2. Think straight – get out of your head
“Tennis is mostly mental. You win or lose the match before you even go out there.” – Venus Williams
Have you ever heard of a flea circus? In the 1920s, a flea trainer would put fleas inside a glass jar with a lid. The fleas would jump and bang their heads. After a while, they learned to jump just below the lid to avoid the pain. Then – here’s the remarkable part – even when the lid was removed, the fleas still didn’t jump high enough to escape. They were trapped by an invisible ceiling. A mindset.
That’s exactly what happens to many young athletes. When you first start out, your dreams have no limits. You simply believe. But over time, you miss a shot, drop the ball, don’t make the team. And you start to adjust your expectations downward. You set smaller goals. You play it safe.
The result? You never discover your true potential because you stopped believing in it. Champions, however, find a way to get their thinking straight – and keep it that way.
There are two parts of your mind in play when you compete: your observing self and your thinking self. Your observing self is completely in the moment – watching the ball, reading the play, responding instinctively. Your thinking self interrupts: “I hope I don’t drop it” or “I need to score here.”
That inner chatter is the enemy of great performance. As soon as thinking takes over, it drains energy from your body. So instead of thinking, observe. Be present. Let instinct lead.
Andre Agassi described this perfectly in his book Open: “Freed from the thoughts of winning I instantly play better. I stop thinking, start feeling. My shots become a half-second quicker, my decisions become the product of instinct rather than logic.”
Furthermore, your instinct grows through visualisation. Michael Phelps – the most decorated Olympian of all time – would programme every race in his mind before it happened. He said, “I visualise how I want the race to go. I can see the start, the strokes, the walls, the turns, the finish – all of it. It’s so vivid that I can see the incredible detail, down to the wake behind me.”
So, start visualising your performances. Run the race in your mind. See yourself making the play. The more detail, the better.
3. Finding flow – get in the zone
You’ve probably felt it before. You’re playing so well that everything feels effortless. Time either slows down or disappears completely. You’re not thinking – you’re just doing. That feeling has a name: flow.
Flow is the scientific word for being “in the zone.” It was first studied by Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, who described it as a state of total immersion where you feel your best and perform your best. Athletes call it “runner’s high,” “being in the groove,” or “weightlessness.”
To access flow, you need total focus on what you’re doing right now. Not the crowd. Not the scoreboard. Not your opponent. Just your current and next move.
Legendary hurdler Edwin Moses said, “Your mind has to be absolutely clear. The fact that you have to cope with your opponent, jet lag, different food and personal problems has to be erased from consciousness – as if they didn’t exist.”
Importantly, flow is rewarding in itself – regardless of the outcome. In fact, ironically, if you focus too much on winning, you actually make it harder to win. The scoreboard pulls you out of the present. Moreover, it pulls you out of flow.
Instead, stay fixed on the process. Make each action deliberate. Breathe. Move into the moment and become totally absorbed in what is happening right now.
Cathy Freeman described her experience of flow beautifully: “Running is where I found true peace. That is where I felt so completely free and so completely happy. It is a beautiful feeling – almost like falling into a slipstream that leads you straight to heaven.”
Finally, legendary basketball coach John Wooden put it simply: “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
So next time you step up for a big game or race, reset yourself. Think positively. Stay in the moment. Let your body do what you’ve trained it to do. That is the mindset of a true mental athlete.
Want to build a winning mindset in your school?
I deliver powerful, life-changing presentations to students across Australia. Book a school presentation or visit The HopeFULL Institute to learn more about what I do.
