When athletes are afraid of making mistakes, their entire game often changes. Instead of playing freely, they begin playing cautiously. Instead of trusting their skills, they overthink what might go wrong.
That is why understanding fear of failure is so important. Once you understand what it really is, you can begin seeing why it affects confidence, focus, and performance during games.
In the video below, I explain what fear of failure in sports is and why it causes athletes to hold themselves back during competition.
What is Fear of Failure in Sports?
Fear of failure in sports is the fear of making mistakes and the negative consequences that may follow. The mistake itself may be small or large, but either way, the fear surrounding it can have a major impact on performance.
To understand fear of failure, it helps to look at what athletes are truly afraid of. In most cases, it is not the mistake itself they fear, but the consequences of that mistake.
That’s where fear of messing up truly thrives in sports: when you think about all the possible things that could happen or all that could go wrong if you fail.
Here are some of the most common fears athletes experience when dealing with fear of failure:
- Feeling embarrassed if they make a mistake.
- Getting benched if they make a mistake.
- Having teammates mad at them if they make a mistake.
- Messing up and never being able to reach their goals.
- Getting yelled at by coach for making a mistake.
- Letting their parents down if they fail.
- Beating themselves up (negative self-talk) if they make a mistake.
- Having their stats drop if they make a mistake.
- Having all their training not be worth it if they fail.
- Losing their starting spot for next game if they fail in practice.
Do any of these sound familiar?
These fears are common because every athlete wants to do well. But when fear of failure takes over, your focus shifts from wanting to succeed to not wanting to make a mistake.
That shift in focus tells us a lot about what drives fear of failure in sports.
The Cause of Fear of Failure in Sports
When you read over the fears listed above, is there anything you notice that’s similar between them?
That’s right, they’re all focused on the future.
That shows us a major part of what drives fear of failure in sports: during a game or practice, your mind becomes focused on what might happen.
The more you think about what may happen, and how much you don’t want to make a mistake, the more fear you are creating.
It is your focus on the future that drives the fear of failure.
I go deeper into this in my article on the cause of fear of failure in sports.
But that’s not all. There’s another piece that works to truly solidify the fear of failure in the mind of an athlete.
That piece is a negative past experience.
Just as focusing on the future drives fear, thinking too much about the past will also lead to fear. Especially if what you’re focusing on is a time when you failed.
When you have a negative past experience, that can be the leaping off point for fear to develop.
Let’s say you made a mistake to end the game and coach yells at you. Not only are you embarrassed, but you’re also incredibly disappointed in yourself and you feel like you let your teammates down.
If that moment isn’t processed correctly and then left in the past, it can keep haunting you in games moving forward.
Even if you’re not consciously thinking about it, it may still be lurking in the back of your mind.
When you have a past negative experience, coupled with a focus in the present about what you don’t want to have happen in the future, that’s what causes you to experience fear of failure in sports.
The Dangers of Being Afraid to Fail
Now, why is it that fear of failure is bad? Since you obviously don’t want to make a mistake, how come it’s such a terrible way to be thinking during a game?
Well, it goes back to what I stated in the introduction. When you are afraid to fail, you underperform. This is because fear of failure causes you to play timidly.
If you’re afraid of making a mistake, you’re likely going to hold yourself back. It can be like you’re playing with your foot on the brake.
You won’t be as aggressive and you won’t be playing with as much conviction and confidence.
There are a few examples I can give from athletes I’ve worked with that help to show how hurtful fear of failure can be.
I had a basketball player who was afraid of missing shots and turning the ball over. So, during games, he passed the ball when he had open shots and was afraid to drive past defenders even when he knew he could.
All of this was due to fear. Since the image he held in his mind was one of him failing.
Another example is from a tennis player. She had developed fears surrounding her serve. She was afraid of double faulting and losing the point. So, she served much more timidly, especially during her second serve.
Instead of trusting in the serve she’d spent hours upon hours working on in training, she took away some power and simply tried to get it over the net.
The only problem was, when she did this, she actually had a lower percentage of successful serves. That shows how playing timidly typically only ends up causing you to play worse.
I explain this in more detail in my article on how fear of failure sabotages athletic performance.
A third example is from a baseball player. As a catcher, he grew to fear throwing the ball to first base to pick off the runner. Even though he could do it during practice, he hesitated during games.
What this caused were more bad throws during games. Because he interrupted his natural throwing pattern with negative thoughts and he tried to force a perfect throw.
Those three examples highlight the main reasons athletes struggle to perform well in games when experiencing fear of failure.
- Failing is on the mind: when you are afraid to fail, what you’re thinking about is the possibility of failing. This causes you to hold the image of failing in your mind which lowers your confidence.
- Fear leads to timid play: if you are worried about making mistakes, you will hold yourself back. You will play tentatively and timidly since you’re trying not to make a mistake.
- The body doesn’t perform naturally: you train hard to build muscle memory. But when you play with fear, you try to force outcomes, which inhibits natural play and you do not allow muscle memory to take over.
This is also why many athletes feel like they perform much better in practice than they do in games.
Knowing the cause of fear of failure and how much it negatively impacts your play, what can you do about this?
Overcoming Fear of Failure in Sports
Managing fear of failure takes work. There’s no doubt about it. Because you’re dealing with focus and internal beliefs about yourself and your game.
Since thinking too much about what could go wrong and what may happen is a leading cause of fear of failure in sports, changing what you’re thinking about during games will help.
You want to work on removing your focus from the outcome and placing it more on the present moment and the process of your performance.
Simply focus on what you’re doing. If you give more attention to what you’re doing, that will put you in a better position to get the outcome you want.
The other aspect of working through fear of failure is building your confidence. The more confidence you have in yourself and your skills, the less you will worry about making mistakes.
To learn the full process for managing this fear, read my guide on three steps to overcome fear of failure in sports.
The other option you have is to work with a mental performance coach to overcome your fear of failure.
I offer one-on-one mental performance coaching for athletes who want to overcome fear of failure in sports.
First, I help identify what is causing your fear. Then, using mental performance tools and strategies, I help you build confidence, reduce fear, and perform more freely during games.
Fill out the form below to learn more about one-on-one mental performance coaching and see how you can get started.
Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of success in all that you do.
