If I could remove one stupid idea from the minds of athletes who are struggling around the world, it would be to stop you from thinking mantras are effective.

Shock.

Gasp.

Horror.

You may be experiencing this upon reading my words

“Aren’t mantras important?”

“Aren’t affirmations the backbone of great athletes?”

“Aren’t these phrases the key to making sure that I finally start believing in myself?”

I’ve spoken to a few athletes by now who’ve said things like, “I just need some mantras to make sure that I start playing good.” Or even parents who’ve commented to me, “I think once my child has some mantras that they can count on…then they’ll start really playing their best.”

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Mantras don’t create beliefs… but only work to reinforce existing ones. But before we get there…

Mantras are short affirmations that convey positive goodwill or regard toward the self or the situation you’re in. For tennis players and athletes, this could mean saying things to yourself like:

Etc. I think you get the idea. In fact, if you go into the kookier side of the internet, you will run into “mental coaches” and “performance coaches” who advocate for the use of mantras and also neurolinguistic programming (NLP). If you speak to any respectable person in the psychology space, or survey the literature, you will find that the evidence for things like NLP “working” is actually extremely weak. Yet the myth persists that it works… and so it goes for mantras.

If you’re with me so far and haven’t wandered off to start mumbling negative mantras about me—”That guy is a piece of shit! What does he know? I love mantras. He’s a piece of shit. He’s a piece of shit. He’s a piece of shit.”—you may be wondering why I’m making the case that mantras don’t work.

Well, they work for some people. But often, for the ones who need it the most, the ones who have the lowest self-esteem or the ones who don’t have the belief in what they’re saying to themselves, they can backfire in many ways.

If you’re a generally confident person and have never had the experience of not being able to perform your best on the tennis court, then a) you’re probably a sociopath (this is a joke—calm down!) and b) mantras will be effective for you. They’ll be useful in that they’ll solidify existing belief.

This idea about mantras isn’t just my belief… it also shows up in research. For example, Wood et al. (2009) ran an experiment where they first assigned individuals to complete a measure of self-esteem and then after splitting them study participants into a high-self esteem and low-self esteem group, asked participants to repeat affirmations/mantras to themselves about being lovable. The experiment design is a little more complex than what I’ve just explained to you, and there are obviously limitations to consider—as with any scientific study—but the researchers found that those with high self-esteem generally benefited from mantras… those with low self-esteem did not. And, in fact, the process often backfired and created more challenges and problems.

Why is that?

Because belief change is experiential. In other words, for whatever reason, a large part of how human beliefs are formed are based upon experience. Someone can tell you that fire is hot but if you’ve never experienced its heat or the pain of your skin blistering, there’s a part of you that won’t buy it.

Here’s a more apt example: if the only experiences that your brain has to draw on are events where you’ve struggled to perform your best when it counts, or you’ve consistently underperformed in match-day and tournament events, the experiences you have is that you’ve not shown up how you wanted to.

Of course, if you’ve read my writing on cognitive behavioral training, you’ll understand that there is a large interpretive element to how we see the things that happen to us. But even with that being said, no amount of telling yourself, “I’m a clutch competitor,” “I’m a clutch competitor,” “I’m a clutch competitor,” is going to change your mind… because, frankly, you’ve never had the experiences to confirm it.

That’s why it’s different when Federer or Serena mumble affirmations to themselves compared to someone who doesn’t consider themselves “mentally tough.” Because the athletes I just mentioned have hall-of-fame careers and more grand slam titles that I can count on two sets of hands which confirm their beliefs; they have the experiences to back it up.

While you just have a string of underperformances.

As you know, this isn’t a publication designed to just tear down common myths and tropes in psychology and sport psychology—but to get you to start taking the mental side of competition and performance seriously.

With that in mind, hopefully you’ve understand that mumbling useless mantras to yourself won’t really help you. That is, unless your athletic self-belief is already high enough.

What will? Using concepts from sport and performance psychology that actually replicate:

That’s a non-exhaustive list. You can find much more for free on my website—close to 100,000 words, in fact, at the time of writing. Until next time.

Reference

Wood, J. V., Perunovic, W. Q. E., & Lee, J. W. (2009). Positive self-statements: Power for some, peril for others. Psychological Science, 20(7), 860–866. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02370.x

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed psychologist, mental health counselor, PsyD, or clinical PhD. I am currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology and am a sport psychology practitioner-in-training, working toward the Certified Mental Performance Consultant® (CMPC®) credential provided by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). My work focuses on applied, non-clinical mental performance consulting, using evidence-based techniques grounded in psychology, sport science, and applied sport psychology to help athletes enhance focus, manage pressure, build confidence, and improve performance. I do not provide mental health counseling or clinical therapy. When needed, I will always refer clients to licensed mental health professionals for concerns beyond the scope of performance consulting. I have over 20 years of experience in tennis, including as a player, collegiate and professional coach, and director of programs. I am certified by the Professional Tennis Registry and am a member of Tennis Australia. My goal is to bring athletes the best research-backed insights to support long-term development and performance. If you are a researcher or practitioner and feel I’ve misunderstood or misrepresented any concept, I welcome you to reach out, and I will gladly review and issue corrections if appropriate.