The Top 5 Reasons Athletes Fail When They Are Under Pressure

Only one person or team will win a certain competition. All the others will lose.

But is losing the same as failure?

Some perceive it like that, so let me tell you today the five biggest reasons, why athletes fail in sports and cannot perform at their highest level during competitions.

Let me tell you that I speak out of experience. I am not perfect at all, but have made many of those mistakes myself. That is why I have outgrown my old self and learned how to improve those issues. Surely I would have loved to know them earlier, but it is how it is and I have learned to accept and love the situation. Having gone through those experiences did put me in the perfect spot to help you out.

Maybe you are an athlete. Maybe you are not getting the results you desire? Are you unsatisfied with where you are right now in your career? Are you injured or sick quite often and not fully enjoy what you are doing right now?

There almost certainly are some deeper reasons that you have to learn, before you can completely unleash your full potential and get your desired success as an athlete in sports. So listen closely now!

1. They don’t prepare properly

Proper preparation is key. Success is when opportunity meets preparation. You can’t always force your success and there are times where things are just not going your way. When you start to prepare just 5 minutes previous to the start of your competition you are already far behind your major competitors.

Have you ever heard that Pele was lying on the floor of the changing room at least one hour previously to every match?

Check out how negative self-talk can be battering your performance

What was he doing down there you might ask …

He was going into a heavy visualisation process. Preparing all kinds of situations, he could potentially face, he was recalling his skills mentally and anchoring strong positive emotions. With that practice he was setting himself up for becoming one of the best strikers in history.

The best of the best, make sure they start the competition with having experienced all kinds of situations in their mind days, weeks and months before. How fast do you think they are able to react when a specific situation occurs? Competition is fast and athletes have to operate on a subconscious level. Consciousness is way too slow. Never rely on your consciousness alone.

2. They struggle to stay calm when the pressure is high

Competition causes high pressure for most people. Pressure is good, since it creates alertness and arousal to really increase focus and muscle tension. This is only true up to a certain point, where it can become overwhelming. Then the tension increases so that the quality of movement and coordination can suffer and so subsequently does performance. Pressure really does not come from the outside. In reality it is only a consequence of the perception of the situation we find ourselves in. If we can change that pressure is lowered significantly.

“Usually the team that makes the most mistakes win” Coach John Wooden

Therefore we are able to learn to stay more calm and master the pressure to perform more effortlessly.

3. They give up themselves too early

Sometimes you see athletes obviously talking to themselves negatively. That can happen once in a while and if the inner emotional reaction is low that is not big of a deal, but most often you see athletes failing in competition having strong emotional reactions to what is happening outside and they still confirming those events outside by verbalising them out loud. That only makes the situation worse, but it is a way of giving up. They don’t show it, but they actually have no clue how to get out o

f their negative mindset and tap into their abilities and skills anymore. In the end they can at least officially tell others that they tried everything at least ...

IMPORTANT FACT: In truth – they didn’t!!!

4. They are afraid of victory

What?? Afraid of victory, you might ask now!

Isn’t that what they are working for all the time? Yeah that is true, but actually being ready to win requires being ready to lose. You can’t always win, but competition is f****** honest. Finding out the truth can be very hard for many people.

There is this famous quote I came across some years ago.

“Truth is like poetry, and most people f****** hate poetry!”

It’s really like that. Many athletes on top level have been told since many, many years that they are high talented and can make it to the top. Going into competition in the end makes them face the truth. Is their talent really as big as they believe? Do they have it all to make it to championship level?

Believe it or not, but many athletes don’t realise that, but they subconsciously prefer to live in the dark and believing their identity, rather than finding out the truth and know where they really are at.

Crazy, but that’s how human minds protect us!

Let’s check out the last reason for today …

5. They are aiming for the wrong goals

Goal setting actually is an art itself. I could talk the whole day without any kind of preparation about goalsetting and my experiences with it. It is highly complex and that is why so many people in this world can talk about it without providing evidence of achieving goals.

You might say now, that setting a goal such as winning a certain competition is everything you need, right?

Well, that is an approach, but you’re almost certainly setting yourself up for failure.

The world is uncertain and there might also be some others who set themselves up for winning the same competition so if let’s say 50 competitors enter the competition and 25 are aiming for victory, then at least 24 will fail. During preparation and within competition lots of things can happen that are out of your control. Trying to control the world is setting yourself up for failure.

A better goal for you would be “being the best you can be” for example and you can only be your best self if you are ready to lose it all. Whenever you attack you also run into a counter attack and concede a score-point. But without attacking you can’t score yourself.

You are always at risk and whenever you aim for winning it’s all about increasing your chances and not about becoming certain about something.

Just keep in mind and evidence is clear: The higher your skills, the better your preparation physically and psychologically and the more you can recall your skills during competition, the higher the chances of winning. Whoever promises more, should be doubted – there is no other certainty than aiming for the best and trying to enjoy the ride and see what you can achieve when being your best self.