You know the skill is there. You have done it in training countless times. So why, when the moment comes, does your body suddenly hesitate?
One mistake happens, you think about it a little more than usual, and before the next attempt you are already wondering, “What if I mess it up again?” A movement that once happened naturally now feels like something you have to consciously control.
For athletes, that shift can be deeply frustrating because they haven’t forgotten how to perform—they have started questioning whether they can trust themselves to do it when it matters. Dr. Swaroop Savanur looks at mental blocks not as something an athlete should simply “get over” or fix by being told to “be confident,” but as an experience that needs to be understood in the context of the athlete, the skill and the situation.
At MyMentalCoach the focus is on helping athletes understand what has changed, rebuild trust in an ability they already possess and learn how to return their attention to performance. Sometimes the skill hasn’t disappeared. The trust around the skill has.
What Are Mental Blocks in Sports?
Mental blocks are that frustrating point when an athlete knows they have the ability to do something, has done it before, but suddenly cannot seem to access it with the same ease. The skill has not necessarily disappeared; what has changed is the athlete’s relationship with it.
A movement that once felt natural may suddenly come with hesitation, extra thinking or a fear of getting it wrong. The athlete may start breaking down every part of the skill in their head, hesitate before attempting it, or avoid it altogether.
Sometimes it shows up most clearly in competition, when the same skill that felt comfortable in training suddenly feels unfamiliar.
After one mistake or difficult experience, an athlete can also begin watching themselves too closely—thinking about how they are performing instead of simply performing.
That is why mental blocks can feel so confusing: “I know this. I’ve done this. So why can’t I do it now?” For the athlete, it can be more frustrating than simply making a mistake because they may begin doubting something they once trusted.
At the same time, it is important not to label every difficult phase or poor performance as a mental block.
An athlete can have an off day because of fatigue, inadequate preparation, a technical problem, injury, physical discomfort, competition pressure, anxiety or several of these factors coming together. Sometimes the mind is blamed for a problem that actually needs a technical or physical solution.
A genuine mental block needs to be understood in the context of the athlete, the skill and what has changed around it.
The right question is therefore not simply, “Why has this athlete lost confidence?” but “What is happening between the athlete, their skill and their mind when they try to perform?” That shift matters. It moves the athlete away from feeling that something is wrong with them and towards understanding what they can work on.
How Does a Mental Block Start?
Mental blocks often start with one moment that an athlete cannot quite let go of. It could be a missed skill, an unexpected error, a poor performance, or simply one attempt that felt very different from usual.
The mistake itself may not be the biggest problem; what follows can be. The athlete begins to worry about repeating it, becomes more careful, and starts paying extra attention to what they are doing.
Instead of being fully involved in the skill, part of their mind is now checking, “Will I make that mistake again?” This is where performance can gradually become less natural.
The athlete starts trying to control an outcome that they previously trusted their training to handle. With every hesitant attempt, self-doubt can grow, and something that was once familiar starts feeling uncertain.
For an athlete, this can be particularly frustrating because they may know perfectly well that they are capable of the skill, yet feel unable to reproduce it when they need it most.
Another common part of mental blocks is that a familiar skill becomes too conscious. A movement that was once performed without much thought suddenly gets broken down in the athlete’s mind: “Am I doing this correctly? Where should my hand be? What if I mess up?”
The athlete is no longer only performing; they are also watching and judging themselves while performing. Even advice such as “Don’t make that mistake again” can unintentionally keep the mistake at the front of their mind.
The focus shifts from ‘what needs to be done’ to ‘what must not go wrong’. This does not mean the athlete has lost their skill or that something is fundamentally wrong with them. It means their attention and trust have become tangled with the fear of making a mistake.
Understanding this difference is important because the way forward is not simply to tell an athlete to stop thinking or become confident overnight. They need to gradually rebuild trust in their ability and learn to return their attention to the task in front of them.
Mental Blocks and Self-Doubt: Are They the Same?
They often appear together, but mental blocks and self-doubt are not the same experience.
Self-doubt is mainly about what an athlete believes about their own ability: “Can I really do this?” “Am I good enough?” “What if I fail?”
A mental block can be more specific. An athlete may still know they are capable, may have complete confidence in their overall ability, and yet struggle to perform a particular skill or respond naturally in a particular situation.
They might think, “I have done this so many times. I know I can do it, but something is stopping me today.” Performance anxiety is different again. It is more closely connected to the pressure surrounding performance—the importance of the competition, expectations, selection, spectators, a particular opponent, or the consequences the athlete attaches to the result.
These experiences can influence each other, but they should not automatically be treated as one problem. Understanding mental blocks properly starts with recognising what the athlete is actually experiencing rather than giving every difficult performance the same label.
This distinction matters because an athlete can experience a mental block without thinking, “I am a bad athlete.” They may have a strong record, good training habits and plenty of belief in themselves, yet suddenly struggle with one skill, one phase of competition or one situation.
Telling that athlete to “believe in yourself” may therefore miss the real issue. What they may need is help understanding why a previously trusted response has become difficult, what their attention is doing in that moment, and how they can gradually regain a sense of control.
For coaches and athletes, the more useful question is not “Is your confidence low?” but “What exactly changes for you when this happens?” That question opens the door to a much more individual and practical approach to mental blocks—and helps the athlete feel understood rather than judged.
The 5 Ways to Work Through Mental Blocks
1. Stop Making the Block Your Identity
One of the most damaging things an athlete can do when facing mental blocks is turn a difficult experience into a statement about who they are. “I couldn’t do that today” slowly becomes “I can’t do it anymore,” and then “Maybe I’m not good enough.”
The skill hasn’t just become difficult; the athlete has started carrying a judgement about themselves every time they attempt it. This is where you need to create some distance between the performance and the person.
One difficult attempt is information, not a verdict on your ability or your future in the sport. After a tough session or competition, instead of analysing yourself with labels, sit down and ask four honest questions:
What actually happened? What did I feel at that moment? What was going through my mind? What can I control in my next attempt? Keep the answers factual and specific.
“I hesitated before starting” tells you something you can work with; “I am a choker” tells you nothing useful. You don’t need to protect yourself from every mistake—you need to stop turning every mistake into evidence against yourself.
That small change in the way you speak to yourself can create the space needed to work through the block and rebuild trust in your game.
2. Don’t Fake Confidence Before You Act
When an athlete is dealing with mental blocks, there is often an unspoken condition attached to performance: “I’ll do it when I feel confident again.” The problem is that confidence rarely arrives as a switch that suddenly turns on.
Waiting for the perfect feeling can make the skill feel even bigger, because every attempt becomes a test of whether you are “confident enough” yet. You don’t have to convince yourself that you are fearless, and you certainly don’t have to pretend that doubt isn’t there.
What matters is whether you can take the next manageable step with the doubt still present. A committed attempt, a familiar routine, or one well-executed part of the skill can give your mind fresh evidence that you are still capable.
These experiences help rebuild trust far more honestly than repeatedly telling yourself, “I am confident, I am confident.” So don’t make 100% confidence- the entry ticket to performance.
Sometimes the more useful thought is simply: “I don’t feel completely sure right now, but I know what I need to do next.” That is not weakness; it is confidence being rebuilt through action.
3. Bring Your Attention Back to What You Need to Do
When an athlete has been struggling for a while, the mind can become more interested in checking the performance than actually performing.
You start watching your hands, questioning your timing, predicting the mistake before it happens, or wondering how the coach, teammate or opponent will react. This is often where mental blocks become more noticeable because attention gets pulled away from the task itself.
The athlete is physically present, but mentally caught between the last mistake and the next possible one. Instead of trying to control every part of the skill, bring your attention back to one clear performance cue—something you can see, feel, hear or consciously respond to in that moment.
It might be the target, the rhythm of your movement, the ball coming towards you, your starting position or simply one word that reminds you to commit. Keep it simple. When your mind is already crowded, adding more instructions only creates more noise.
The aim is not to stop every doubtful thought from appearing; it is to stop those thoughts from deciding where your attention goes. Your job is not to monitor yourself perfectly. Your job is to return to the next action.
4. Build a Reset Between Attempts
A poor attempt can stay in an athlete’s mind much longer than it actually lasts. You miss the shot, lose the point, mistime the movement or make an error—and suddenly the next attempt is being played against the memory of the previous one.
This is where a practical reset can prevent mental blocks from taking over. Start by acknowledging what happened without analysing it repeatedly: “That didn’t go the way I wanted.”
Then physically and mentally leave that attempt behind—take a breath, reset your posture, look at your target and allow yourself to become present again.
Finally, choose one controllable cue for the next attempt: “Watch the ball,” “Stay balanced,” “Play the next point.”
The purpose is not to pretend the mistake never happened or convince yourself that everything is fine. It is to stop giving one attempt control over the next.
This ability to reset is something athletes can deliberately practise, because confidence is not about never making mistakes; it is about knowing how to return to the task after one. The previous attempt is information—not an instruction for what happens next.
5. Rebuild Trust Gradually—Don’t Keep Testing Yourself
When an athlete experiences a mental blocks, it is natural to start checking whether the skill is “back” yet.
“Can I do it now?” becomes the question behind every attempt, and suddenly the athlete is no longer simply performing—they are evaluating themselves while performing. One attempt feels like a test, the next attempt becomes another test, and even a small hesitation can feel like proof that something is still wrong.
Instead of repeatedly demanding evidence that you can perform perfectly, rebuild trust gradually through manageable steps and consistent repetition, ideally with the athlete’s coach and appropriate professional support.
Bring attention back to execution rather than constantly checking confidence, notice small improvements that may otherwise go unnoticed, and allow successful experiences to accumulate naturally.
You don’t rebuild trust by demanding proof from yourself every five minutes. You rebuild it through repeated experiences of safe, committed execution.
“I Can Do It in Practice, But Not in Competition.”
One of the most confusing experiences for an athlete is knowing, “I can do this in practice. Why does it disappear when it matters?” Usually, the skill has not suddenly vanished. The environment around the skill has changed.
In competition, the outcome carries greater meaning, mistakes may feel more costly, there may be spectators, selection pressure or expectations from coaches and parents, and the athlete becomes much more aware of how they are performing.
That can change where attention goes. Instead of being fully involved in the execution, the athlete may start watching themselves, thinking about the consequences of a mistake or trying too hard to control a movement that normally happens naturally.
A skill that felt automatic in practice can therefore start feeling unusually deliberate. This is one reason mental blocks can become more noticeable in competition: the athlete is dealing not only with the skill itself, but also with pressure, self-monitoring and the meaning they have attached to the outcome.
This is also why mental training should not begin only after an athlete has struggled in a match or tournament.
If competition changes the psychological conditions around performance, athletes can prepare for those conditions before they arrive.
Alongside technical practice with the coach, they can develop simple pre-performance routines, attention cues, breathing strategies and reset routines that give them something familiar to return to when pressure rises.
The goal is not to eliminate nervousness or guarantee that every competition feels like practice. It is to help the athlete recognise pressure without allowing it to take over their attention.
With consistent mental training, competition becomes another environment in which the athlete has practised how to respond, rather than a completely new psychological challenge.
You don’t need to feel exactly the same in competition as you do in practice; you need to know how to perform when the feeling is different.
“When an athlete’s mind is filled with doubt, overthinking and uncertainty, performance can become difficult to access. Our video, A Directionless Mind, explores why having clarity and direction matters when you want to perform with greater purpose and control.”
What Overcoming a Mental Block Actually Looks Like with MyMentalCoach
Overcoming mental blocks does not mean an athlete suddenly stops feeling nervous, doubtful or uncomfortable. Real progress is often much quieter.
You may notice that the athlete hesitates less before attempting the skill, recovers sooner after an error, spends less time analysing every movement and becomes more willing to trust the routine they have practised.
They may still have a difficult attempt, but they no longer treat it as proof that they cannot perform.
Gradually, the athlete shifts from needing constant reassurance that “I won’t fail” to having confidence in their ability to respond when something does go wrong. That is a much stronger form of mental confidence because performance no longer depends on everything going perfectly.
The real change is not “I know I won’t fail”, but “I know what I will do if something goes wrong.”
At MyMentalCoach, we work with athletes to understand what is happening beneath mental blocks and build practical mental skills alongside their sporting preparation.
The focus is not on forcing confidence or asking an athlete to simply “forget the fear.” Through structured mental training, we help athletes develop better attention control, reset after mistakes, rebuild trust in their abilities and gradually become more comfortable performing under pressure.
If you or your child is struggling with a recurring performance difficulty and you want to understand what may be happening mentally, book a Free Call by calling +91 91122 20823 to explore how professional mental training can help.
