Emma Raducanu is a great example of someone whose career was on an upward trajectory, after winning the US Open tennis championship in 2021, aged 18 years old.  Since then, her career has been dogged with setbacks and challenges.  At Wimbledon this year it was nice to see her perform near to her potential reaching the last 16.  Without knowing the detail of what has happened in Emma’s world since her big breakthrough I discuss as a Sport Psychologist the types things we may look at to help athletes such as Emma to rekindle their love for the sport and navigate the challenges that inevitably occur.  You’ll note in the episode people are complex and supporting athletes in this way can be multifaceted with their unique experiences, personality, environmental preferences, support network and culture of the sport shaping our support.

Key Learning Points:

• When success arrives an athlete’s personal identity can shift a great deal.
• High and rigid expectations can cause athletes challenges as they come to terms with success.
• Self-esteem and mental health challenges can occur for some athletes when they don’t perform to the standards that they expect of themselves.
• Sports psychologist often use counselling style approaches to help athletes process difficult experiences and emotions associated with them.
• Clean language is a helpful too for practitioners to use during this process.
• Shifting expectations and talk of outcomes to small process goals can be beneficial for athletes to stay grounded and remain present.
• Visualisation can be a useful tool in rekindling thoughts and feelings associated with being in love with your sport.

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Related resources to help you navigate the challenges that sport provides.

Podcast Ep042: Mark Bennett MBE – Characteristics of High Performance Athletes

Podcast Ep140: Chris Cook – How to Improve Your Mental Strength: Secrets from an Olympian

Podcast Ep186: David Charlton – Intrinsic or Extrinsic Goals: Do You Set Goals That Harm Your Performances?

Blog: Are you Motivated or Committed

Blog: Developing your Mental Game in your Downtime

Blog: How to Set Goals for Netball Success