Jake Yono

JY Journalism

10/20/25

Sports Psychology and how it can make or break an athlete

At the introductory level, when we think of sports as physical games involving focus, speed, strength, and balance, or qualities such as patience, maintenance, fortitude, innovation, and discipline, which lead to success. Think deeper because when an athlete has been constantly pushing themselves to improve and not seeing results, this is where sports psychology comes in. When everything feels hopeless, what do athletes do in the current moment and the long term? I will be referencing examples from the professional sports world of how psychology shapes athletes in all forms, and displaying examples from my high school running career while referencing impactful sources.

At the professional level when everyone is good, what separates the good from great is how they handle setbacks because no one is truly a superstar, the media portrays them as such as they’ve all gone through major setbacks and this is where they’ve found themselves and developed: I could be like other media companies and talk about “Brady being benched to the GOAT”, Tyrese Haliburton being voted the most overrated NBA player then showing them why he’s not with his floor general skills into the NBA finals, or Tiger winning the 2019 masters of years of still some success but nowhere near his peak but my stories have never been talked about in this depth. First, we go to the track where in 2024 he finished 2nd at the NCAA Outdoor Nationals in the 800 and this set him back as he couldn't even qualify for NCAA Indoor Nationals with the same competition in which he dealt with WPW and doubt in himself that came along with that, in outdoor the school record holder came back and won the NCAA Championship never giving up staying patient, not overtraining and trusting in the process. Another reason why I choose Sam Whitmarsh is that he always has a natural smile on his face, during interviews, and even on the track in one of the hardest races he praises God and the entire way is not afraid to let someone else lead and makes his move at the perfect time while staying so positive and relaxed, something utter worldly in a sport where athletes push themselves to the limit and are very selfish and envious towards competitors. Sam is the opposite, when he finished 2nd and got beat by University of Virginia's Shane Cohen in a last-second kick he smiled as he came across the finish line, this doesn't mean he wasn't trying it means his attitude is in the right place and he has balance between life and track and even though he didn’t win he still did his best and it wasn't worth it to beat himself up about it as he knew he would be back by thrusting in the process and his faith that led to success. (Men's 800m final - 2024 NCAA outdoor track and field championships) Next, we go to the sport of MMA where the current #4 ranked bantamweight contender in the world Corey Sandhagen was speaking on the Joe Rogan experience about how it took a loss to reset himself after consecutive losses against T.J Dillashaw and Petr Yan which were both decisions that caused a lot of self-doubts which often are decided by a couple of strikes or control time and how the ego was his and many other athletes worst enemy and having full control over himself and not letting inner ego’s take over himself such as doubt, pride, anger, and belligerence he spoke about being better than these and this ultimately led to a belief system that he questions but did develop an inner peace with himself and he stated that true love is being committed to something even when the moment overtakes you because that’s when the most failure happens but true love is sticking to the sport either way in Sandhagan's eyes as he’s won recently and will fight next for the bantamweight title.

These 2 athletes conquered failure, doubt, and high-pressure moments, and now I will be displaying moments where athletes fell short of this mark. On the track first U.S middle distance runner Athing MU has been competing professionally since 2019 and slowly rising to the top: winning a world championship and 2 Olympic gold medals after she set PR at the U.S outdoor nationals and broke the American record in the 800 had a hamstring injury which sidelined her for 9 months until the trials where in the race she fell and got spiked to let the emotions overtake her as she clearly was not at her pace the rest of the way after the fall and ever since that she competed in 2 meets with decent competition and is still a long ways from her lifetime bests ever since her injury which led her to worry too much into the future and doubt herself leading to despair. Next is a personal experience I recently had while volunteering as a standard bearer at the Rocket Classic last week, as I was holding the sign for OWGR #52 Stephen Jaeger for the 2nd round. Coming into the day, he was -2 par and in contention to cut. Starting on the back, he couldn't get the birdies rolling, and he wasn't on pace to get around the -5 or -6 projected cut range, and he was -1 through 9 on the day, so he had some sort of chance. At this point I could see it start to linger in their attitude as he couldn't control his driver, the distance was there but it was going everywhere as he was neglecting himself and barely social until on his 13th hole of the day his drive went way left he slammed his driver on the ground 3 times and continued moving along and birdied the hole but he was still even at this point and couldn't get any momentum going to the driver so on his final hole he hit it inside 20 feet on the par 3 then put and then walked right up to his ball and put again not waiting for any players who were outside of him an absolute rude thing to do in golf and scored a bogey on that hole. Stephan Jaeger mentally broke down throughout the round, and it showed on this last hole, if he controlled himself in the moment he could have maybe not made the cut but I'm guessing -3 on the day instead of +1 and going home after 2 days.

In my short career, I've dealt with many ups and downs, but nothing compares to what professional athletes go through periodically. From coaches not thinking I could do something, to losing hope in a specific meet or campaign, to not fully trusting in the process and remaining patient, injuring myself too quickly, and harming my performance, although I have substantially progressed in my high-school career, these factors are lingering, and I know to know how to stop them. A recent experience turned for the worse for me when, already at the end of my season, I was getting drops in fitness as the season carried on, and I was going to be on a star-studded relay team until my coach let our top runner drop out of the relay, meaning we had no chance to make it to the state meet. Along with this and with overtraining over time, I suffered a stress fracture, which took me out for 4 weeks, and I cannot run. I truly believe this is God’s way of testing if I really like the sport and if I'm willing to stick around and persevere. This taught me not what to do in the future, as I will get a specific training plan for workouts after practice once I get back, and not overtrain. To complete this every athlete needs some sort of setback to have the opportunity to innovate and get better after a loss and some handle it better than others the solution is that athletes don’t let the competition take over their thoughts and not think too far in the future they can control them, there's a high chance they will beat someone more skilled than them because most athletes don’t know this skill at the professional level, Thank You.