BU student Madison Cardaci, head captain of the BU Women’s ice hockey team, addresses the 2024 BU Wheelock Forum. Photo by Dave Green

Sport Psychology

What Athletes Do to Maintain a Winning Mindset

There are certain tools elite athletes must develop—four experts talk about what they are.

It’s not just physical prowess that elite athletes need to reach the peak of their careers. Top performers must also be in the right frame of mind to achieve excellence—and to do this, they rely on a set of mental tools that allow them to build confidence, keep a steady routine, maintain focus, and develop resilience after setbacks.

Recently, BU Wheelock hosted the discussion, “Sport Psychology Insights from an Athlete, Coach, and Consultant.” Panelists explored what athletes can enter and maintain the right mindset they need to win. The discussion was part of the 2024 BU Wheelock Forum, “Thriving Individuals, Teams, and Systems.”

Panelists

• Kamal Bahamdan (ENG’94), five-time Olympic equestrian; vice chairman, the Bahamdan Group; and founder & CEO, Safanad
• Casey Brown (CGS’08, COM’10), head coach, Women’s Soccer, Boston University
• Madison Cardaci, Boston University senior and head captain of the BU Women’s ice hockey team
• Robert Weinberg, professor emeritus, sport leadership and management, Miami University

Highlights from the Discussion

Building confidence

Even if you’re the star player or the new freshman coming in, everyone struggles with their confidence. Even the captain does. Even the coach does. [Focusing] and creating an environment where you can believe in something greater, and that you are capable of doing things and putting action toward it, is the key to successful performance and winning those next games.

Madison Cardaci

Bouncing back from failure

If we start with a confident athlete, how do we give them a specific skill to be able to deal with failure? And failure can be “I gave the ball away,” or “I didn’t have a great practice,” or “I wasn’t the fastest on the team.” After a mistake, [it’s important to be] able to [reframe their self-talk] so that they can stay in that high-performance state.

Casey Brown

Focusing on the process

Focusing on winning doesn’t necessarily allow you to win. Focusing on the process—what did I do right, what did I do wrong, what feedback can I get, how can I get better—[is] going to supersede [that]. If we’re up by six points with only 28 seconds, and you start thinking about winning and losing, usually you’re winding up losing. You want to focus on what you can do. Don’t spend your time on what you can’t control.

Robert Weinberg