Seeing Beneath the Surface
Helping Young Athletes Explore the Patterns Beneath Performance
Athletes often take themselves out of the game psychologically before they ever come out physically. And even when they do not fully take themselves out, they can still limit their impact by the way they relate to themselves, their mistakes, their pressure, and their performances.
This matters because the habits of mind athletes are forming through sports do not stay neatly contained within the lines of the field, court, pool, mat, or track.
They carry these habits with them.
The habits of mind of an athlete are carried into each new experience. They are patterns being shaped and strengthened through repetition, emotion, pressure, relationships, and meaning. They are being engrained in their brains and bodies over time, which means they do not simply disappear when the game ends.
They travel through time and space.
They show up in practice. They show up before games. They show up after mistakes. They show up during tryouts, injuries, slumps, big moments, and transitions. Eventually, they show up in life beyond sport.
Going Beneath the Surface
A big part of my work is helping young athletes become aware of their habits of mind. This means helping them explore what is happening beneath the surface.
The surface is the layer everyone can see. Parents, coaches, and professionals can see the body language, the effort, the frustration, the hesitation, the outburst, the shutdown, the overthinking, or the moment where an athlete seems to disappear from the game.
But beneath the surface is a much deeper world.
There are thoughts, beliefs, fears, expectations, memories, doubts, desires, emotions, and interpretations moving around inside of the athlete. This deeper world may not always be visible, but it has a profound impact on what happens at the surface. The way an athlete thinks, believes, remembers, and interprets can shape how they move, respond, compete, recover, and relate to themselves in the middle of performance.
This is why awareness is so important.
How do athletes typically view themselves? What do they hear in their heads after a mistake? What beliefs or doubts show up before a big game, a big moment, or a new level of competition? How do they interpret struggle, failure, pressure, or not being where they want to be yet?
These questions help athletes begin exploring the inner workings of their minds, not so they can become self-absorbed, but so they can become more free, steady, and responsible in how they respond.
Without awareness, no real change can be made. Athletes cannot work through what they are unwilling or unable to see. Self-awareness opens the door to self-understanding, and self-understanding allows them to see that their minds are not random. Their reactions, fears, doubts, and patterns usually make sense when they slow down enough to uncover the connections.
I want athletes to understand why their minds work the way they do. I want them to see the connections between past experiences, present reactions, and future possibilities.
This opens up a whole new world of inquiry.
It is like diving beneath the surface of the sea for the first time. At first, it may feel scary, unknown, and powerful. But then a whole world of color and clarity begins to open up before them. There is more happening beneath the surface than they realized. There is more to understand, more to explore, and more to grow through.
And there is support for the journey.
Athletes are built for this kind of adventure.
Patterns Across Time
Specifically, I want athletes to become aware of their patterns.
The way their minds work in games often resembles how they operate between games. And the way their minds work between games or weeks often reflects how they operate throughout entire seasons, from one season to the next, and sometimes from one stage of life to another.
Habits of mind do not just vanish. Athletes do not outgrow them overnight simply because they get older, change teams, move up a level, or start a new season.
This is why self-awareness and self-understanding matter so much.
How am I thinking about myself as a player? What am I believing about myself as a person? Why does my mind get fast and overwhelming in moments where I lack trust in myself? How can I think differently about last season so I am more prepared for the upcoming one? What do I need to do to let go of past mistakes or performances so they do not keep draining my energy, confidence, and enjoyment?
These are not soft questions. They are developmental questions. They are performance questions. They are formation questions.
They help athletes become more honest about what is happening inside of them so they can begin responding with more freedom, steadiness, and intention.
Helping Athletes Connect the Dots
The role of parents, coaches, mentors, and professionals is not simply to tell athletes to be confident, stay positive, or move on.
A deeper role is helping athletes uncover the dots and connect them.
This is part of why sports exist. Perhaps even the reason sports matter so much: the development of mind and body through challenge, relationship, effort, failure, and growth.
It is easy to say that sports teach life lessons. That line gets repeated in speeches, banquets, social media posts, and motivational moments. But what is the actual reality of how sports transfer to life?
How do these experiences embed value into an athlete’s life beyond the memories, trophies, stats, and stories?
Where are the connections?
The connections are inside the athlete.
They are in the formation of the athlete’s mind and body. They are in the way the athlete learns to relate to difficulty. They are in the way mistakes are interpreted. They are in the way athletes handle being seen, challenged, corrected, praised, criticized, or compared. They are in the way they learn to trust themselves, work with others, and keep going when things do not unfold the way they hoped.
The habits of mind cultivated through sports can be seen in what athletes do outside of sports, and later in life when they transition away from organized competition altogether.
Where does their mind go when they feel overwhelmed? How do they see themselves when they are doing something new or difficult for the first time? How do they relate to others when they are working toward the same goal? Whose perspective do they care about, and why? What does it mean to them when they miss the mark, mess something up, or fall short of what they wanted?
These questions matter because the athlete is not just learning how to perform. The athlete is learning how to become.
Carrying Something Better
This is what I help athletes do in my work. I help them become more aware of their own minds, understand the patterns beneath the surface, and connect the dots between what they experience in sport and who they are becoming through sport.
This should also be part of the work of parents, coaches, and professionals who support young athletes.
Not every adult needs to be a mental performance consultant, counselor, or psychologist. But every adult can become more curious about what is happening beneath the surface. Every adult can learn to see beyond the behavior and wonder what thoughts, beliefs, fears, pressures, or expectations might be shaping the athlete’s response.
This does not mean excusing poor behavior or lowering standards. It means seeing more of the person in front of them so they can be called into growth with greater wisdom, support, and understanding.
Athletes need help connecting the dots. First, by becoming aware of their own minds. Then, by understanding why these patterns matter across time and space.
And then, with that awareness and understanding, they can begin building healthier relationships with themselves, their sport, and the world around them.