Skip to content
White TrueSport logo.
Search
Close this search box.
  • About
    • Ambassadors
    • Award Program
    • Media
    • Partnerships
    • True Experts
    • TrueSport Team
  • Learn and Teach
    • For Coaches
    • For Educators
    • For Parents
    • Train the Trainer
    • Mindset of a TrueSport Champion
    • Publications
    • Videos
    • TrueSport Topics
      • Sportsmanship
        • A Good Sport
        • Bullying Prevention
        • Conflict Resolution
        • Leadership
        • Respect & Accountability
        • Teamwork
      • Character Building & Life Skills
        • Decision Making
        • Goal-Setting
        • Mental Wellness
        • Performance Anxiety
        • Perseverance
        • Shortcuts
      • Clean & Healthy Performance
        • Body Image
        • Clean Sport
        • Dietary Supplements
        • Energy Drinks
        • Hydration
        • Nutrition
        • PEDs
        • Preparation & Recovery
  • Join Us
    • #ShowYourValues
    • Cohort for Change
    • TrueSport Talks
      • TrueSport Talks – RESOURCES
    • Newsletter Sign-Up
    • Events
  • Shop TrueSport
Menu
  • About
    • Ambassadors
    • Award Program
    • Media
    • Partnerships
    • True Experts
    • TrueSport Team
  • Learn and Teach
    • For Coaches
    • For Educators
    • For Parents
    • Train the Trainer
    • Mindset of a TrueSport Champion
    • Publications
    • Videos
    • TrueSport Topics
      • Sportsmanship
        • A Good Sport
        • Bullying Prevention
        • Conflict Resolution
        • Leadership
        • Respect & Accountability
        • Teamwork
      • Character Building & Life Skills
        • Decision Making
        • Goal-Setting
        • Mental Wellness
        • Performance Anxiety
        • Perseverance
        • Shortcuts
      • Clean & Healthy Performance
        • Body Image
        • Clean Sport
        • Dietary Supplements
        • Energy Drinks
        • Hydration
        • Nutrition
        • PEDs
        • Preparation & Recovery
  • Join Us
    • #ShowYourValues
    • Cohort for Change
    • TrueSport Talks
      • TrueSport Talks – RESOURCES
    • Newsletter Sign-Up
    • Events
  • Shop TrueSport
Search
Close this search box.
Facebook X.com Logo (formerly Twitter.) Youtube Instagram Linkedin Pinterest
Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Linkedin Pinterest

How to Cope with Too Much Pressure from Your Sport Circle

  • May 1, 2023
  • Performance Anxiety
Athletes

Dr. Kevin Chapman headshot.Content Warning: This article contains mentions of bullying.

It can sometimes feel like you’re under pressure in every aspect of your life, from your grades to your sport to your social life. And to some extent, pressure is a normal and even positive part of your life, pushing you to reach your potential. But there is a point where pressure can become negative, causing you to feel stressed out and anxious rather than motivated.

In sport, pressure most commonly comes from our coaches, our parents or guardians, and our teammates and friends. Most of the time, the people pressuring you aren’t trying to make you anxious, and rarely are they even aware of how they’re making you feel.

Here, TrueSport Expert Kevin Chapman, PhD, clinical psychologist and founder of The Kentucky Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, is sharing a few ways to confront the pressures in your life in an active way. He’s also sharing tips for handling continued pressure if the people in your life simply don’t understand how their actions are affecting you.

 

CONFRONTING PRESSURE FROM YOUR SPORT CIRCLE

 

Dealing with too much pressure from a coach

Baseball coach on third base.Assess it: Before you approach the coach or lodge a complaint—which may be the right thing to do!—take a moment and think about what exactly is happening between you and the coach. A coach’s job is to help you improve, and you might be feeling a certain amount of perceived pressure to perform. But is that pressure in your head, or is the coach actively making you feel as though you’re falling short?

“Good coaches tend to have the right expectations of athletes, and clearly explain them,” says Chapman. “What are the expectations that your coach has for all the athletes on the team? If you’re not abiding by those expectations, that’s when a coach should be telling you to make a change. But if you feel like you’re being singled out and held to a different standard, or you’re unclear about the expectations, that’s when there is a problem.”

Handle it: Often, coach-athlete issues arise from a lack of communication. Ask your coach to lay out a specific list of expectations for the team. Ideally, this would happen at the start of the season, but there’s no wrong time to clarify expectations. “You’ll be surprised how much pressure gets taken off when you have a clear set of expectations to work with,” Chapman says.

 

Dealing with too much pressure from a parent

Assess it: Unfortunately, parents often put pressure on their athletes for all the wrong reasons, but with the best of intentions. They want to see you succeed, whether it’s to live out their athletic high school dreams, or because they want you to get that scholarship, or simply because they believe that winning is more important than anything else in life. There are dozens of reasons a parent may mistakenly put pressure on you to perform, says Chapman. And unfortunately, the pressure often backfires and makes you perform worse rather than helping you live up to your potential.

Handle it: In this case, the recommendation means taking on more responsibility than you should have to, says Chapman. “It can feel like you have to be the adult here, but communicating you already have a lot of pressure to perform is so important to changing your parents’ behavior,” says Chapman. “Explain to them that you feel pressure from social media, from your coach, from your teammates—and you don’t need it from them as well. If you can, lay out for your parents exactly what you want from them. Say, ‘I need you to be supportive, listen, and encourage me.’ Make it clear to them exactly how they can best support you.”

 

Dealing with too much pressure from a teammate

young black women on tennis court upset with racket.Assess it: Teammates can create a huge amount of pressure, whether you’re the top player on the team or you’re the one who’s struggling the most. As one of the top players, you may feel pressure from your peers to win the game for the team, or to ensure that the team makes it to the championships. If you’re having a hard year, maybe due to illness or injury, you may feel like your teammates are frustrated with you and pressuring you to recover faster than is possible for you. Pressure from teammates can also involve peer pressure to take part in things like hazing or partying, or other negative behaviors that you’re not interested in.

Handle it: First and foremost, if you feel as though you’re being bullied, let a coach or administrator know. There’s a difference between unintentional harmful pressure from teammates and bullying behaviors. If the pressure isn’t bullying, then Chapman suggests first talking to your teammates who may not realize how their comments are making you feel. But second, it’s important to do the internal work of remembering who you are in addition to being an athlete. “Remember that you are so many things outside of sport,” he says. “Having a broader perspective on who you are as a person helps insulate you when things don’t go well in a game.”

 

COPING WITH CONTINUED PRESSURE

 

Develop a new mantra

To stop outside pressure from peers, coaches, and parents turning into internal pressure, Chapman recommends repeating the mantra of ‘progress, not perfection.’ Often, the pressure we feel from others internalizes as a need to always be perfect, but that’s unrealistic. “That perceived pressure can easily become self-pressure, but if we can chisel away at this notion of perfectionism for ourselves and for others, we can handle those pressures more gracefully,” he says. “We’re all going to have bad performances, but a bad performance doesn’t mean you’re a bad athlete.”

This new mantra can also help you take that pressure and apply it in a positive way. Sometimes, the comments and criticism that feel like attacks and unwarranted pressure when you’re anxious can actually be constructive to your performance with the right mindset. “There’s a difference between constructive criticism and unwarranted pressure, but if you’re feeling a lot of anxiety, it can be hard to tell the difference,” Chapman says. “If you can separate yourself from the feeling of pressure and focus on what a coach or teammate is saying, you may realize that they’re just trying to help you with a specific technical skill.”

 

Feeling too much pressure from anyone? Seek help.

Young man with amputated arm sitting outside on laptop.Sometimes, people in your life simply won’t hear what you’re trying to tell them. Parents will continue to make comments about scholarships, teammates will still expect you to be the athlete who wins the game, and coaches will still have high standards that are impossible to meet. That means part of coping with too much pressure is going to be an internal battle for you, says Chapman. Learning to not internalize when a parent makes that offhand comment about college scouts can be as helpful as having those honest conversations.

Chapman recommends looking for the people in your life who don’t cause you to feel pressured. This could be certain teammates, assistant coaches, teachers, relatives, and non-sport friends. Develop this social support structure so that for every high-pressure relationship you have, you have even more positive relationships that make you feel motivated rather than anxious.

Seeking outside help from a school therapist or guidance counselor can also help you deal with the pressure. “If the pressure you’re feeling is causing emotional distress and impairment in performance—you’re not keeping your grades up, your performance is suffering, you’re struggling with sleep—then you should seek additional professional support,” recommends Chapman. “As a student-athlete, you have access to a lot of great resources at school, including counseling, so take advantage of that.”

 

___________________________

Takeaway

As a young athlete, it may feel like pressure to perform is coming from all directions. Your coach, parents, and teammates may not even mean to put you under pressure, but their comments about your athletic career can make you feel stressed and anxious. Often, a simple conversation can make a big change—and even if the person in your life continues to pressure you, you’ll know that it’s more about them than it is about you.

Related Content

Loading...
Young male teen writing in a notebook at a desk.

How Can Athletes Ditch Procrastination in Sport and Life?

  • May 1, 2025
Athletes
TrueSport Expert Kevin Chapman, PhD, is explaining why young athletes tend to procrastinate and how to stop procrastinating once and...
Read More
Football practice empty field.

9 Ways to Help Athletes Cope with Anxiety Around Tryouts

  • August 1, 2023
CoachesParents
As a coach or caregiver, it’s easy to forget the anxiety and nerves that come up for athletes around team...
Read More
Young male basketball player sitting on ground with head on arms.

6 Reasons Performance Anxiety is Higher than Ever in Youth Sport

  • May 1, 2023
CoachesParents
Now more than ever, young athletes are feeling pressure: Pressure to perform in sport, to have a certain image on...
Read More
Young female athlete sitting on track.

Athletic Trainers: Tips for Helping Athletes Avoid Risks from Perfectionism

  • May 1, 2023
CoachesEducators
Content Warning: This article contains mentions of suicide and eating disorders. Being a perfectionist might sound like a positive trait,...
Read More
1 2 … 4 Next »

Join Us

Subscribe
Shop TrueSport
Host TrueSport

TrueSport logo without icon in white.

© 2025 TrueSport | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Sitemap

Goal-Setting Lesson Video Transcript

Hi. I’m Trevon, Trey, Jennifer. Team USA wheelchair basketball player, paralympian, and true sport athlete. Today, I want to talk to you about goal setting. And there are three things that I would like you to know. First, successful athletes set goals and a planned roadmap. Second, goals should be written down, assessed over time, and changed if necessary. And third, goals need to be challenging in order to be worthwhile. As a freshmen at Edinboro University, I was a part of a team that made the national championship game. And at that time I recognized I was the low man on the totem pole, but I felt in my heart that I knew my dreams were so much bigger than winning a national title. I wanted to make Team USA. I knew what achieving my lofty goal was not going to be easy and that I would need to work hard every day.

So, as a reminder, I created a pyramid of goals that I kept right above my bed. This pyramid reminded me of the accomplishments that I was working towards and visually represented my need to create a solid foundation underneath me before reaching the top. In the bottom roll of my pyramid of goals I listed goals such as obtaining my bachelor’s degree, becoming a scholar athlete award recipient, and becoming an All-American. The middle row listed winning a national title and playing for a professional team. And at the top row, the most challenging of them all, I listed becoming a gold medalist for Team USA.

By understanding that there are smaller stepping stones to achieving my ultimate goal of being on Team USA, I was able to stay motivated and to stay focused on completing the smaller stepping stones fully before moving onto the next one. Now I’ll be the first to admit that not every goal that I listed on my pyramid was accomplished, but seeing my goals every day when I went to bed, I was able to push through the days that I felt like doing nothing in hopes of achieving the bigger picture. Remember, create a clear goal roadmap, assess your goals often, and continue to challenge yourself. I hope that you never stopped dreaming big or reaching for the stars. And I look forward to seeing where your roadmap takes you.

Body Image Lesson Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Kara Winger, Olympic javelin thrower, and true sport athlete. Today I want to talk to you about body image and I have three things I’d like you to know. First, healthy thoughts often lead to healthier bodies. Second, there are varying body types and no one’s body is exactly like another. And third, true beauty goes deeper than the skin. As a multi-time Olympian, I’ve experienced a lot of variation and progression in my training. My coaches and I adapt to my training frequently, all with the goal of supporting my long-term success and health in the sport of javelin. I’m talking to you about body image today because sometimes even with the best of intentions and a common goal in mind, the changes you make to your training habits can prove to be detrimental if made for the wrong reasons. In the lead up to the 2012 Olympic trials, I was told in order to improve my performance on the field, I should try to become a leaner, skinnier version of myself.

So I changed my diet. I went along with what I was being told to do, even though I’d had great success at a slightly heavier weight and higher body fat percentage, and became much leaner than ever before. It seemed like a successful change at first, but I didn’t have nearly the results I’d had before. And I believe becoming leaner than my body naturally wanted to be was what caused my ACL to tear. In the end, it cost me heavily going into the 2012 London games. The takeaway for me, and hopefully for you, is that it’s important to know what works for you and your body and to not compare yourself to others. You should do your research and experiment with your diet to find what makes you feel the best, rather than focusing on what you look like. Today, if I feel like having a chocolate chip cookie, I have one, just not every day.

I’ve learned what a properly balanced meal for my body looks like and I recognize food as the fuel that keeps me throwing. I hydrate and allow myself time to recover. And I listen to and communicate with my body so that I can be the best version of myself. In the end, you are in control of how you see, treat, and respond to your body. We only get one and it’s amazing to discover how many things our bodies can do. Be a true sport athlete. Love who you are in this moment and get excited for all the places your body will take you.

A Good Sport Lesson Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Izy Isaksen, Team USA, Modern Pentathlon, Olympian, US Army Sergeant, and True Sport Ambassador. Today, I want to talk to you about being a good sport. There are three things I’d like you to know. First, real winners act the same toward their opponent, whether they win or lose. Second, follow the rules and be a gracious winner and respectful loser. And third, sportsmanship reveals your true character.

I started competing in Modern Pentathlon eight years after my older sister and three-time Olympian, Margaux Isaksen, began competing. I soon realized that people often compared the two of us. I would overhear spectators and teammates asking, “Who’s the better athlete,” and “Who’s going to beat the other.” Instead of letting outside pressures create a negative experience for us, I chose to practice winning and losing with grace and respect. I know that it would have been easy to let our hyper competitive mindset affect our relationship, but instead we decided to support and cheer for each other, regardless of our own performance. My experience of competing against and being compared to my older sister, taught me to focus on how to perform at my best, rather than putting wasted energy into wishing for others to fail.

I believe that sportsmanship reveals true character. So, no matter what situation I encounter during competition, I know it’s important to always treat people with respect and be a good sport. Remember, be a fierce competitor, find grace in all your victories and losses. And I hope to see you out there.

What Kind of Coach Do You Want to Be? Video Transcript

Edwin Moses: You’re a coach. Maybe what you want is very simple, for everyone to just run in the right direction, score for their own team, to try and try again and again. Maybe you want your athletes to become all stars. You want them to earn trophies, medals, win titles. You want them to reach the highest height their sport allows. And wanting all of that, of course, that’s good. But as every great coach discovers, developing a great athlete means nurturing, nurturing the even greater person within. Truth is, you have even more influence than you know.

You have the ability to affect even deeper change, to take what’s in your hands and do something even more extraordinary. You can be both the coach who provides the skills needed to win the game and the coach who helps them learn and succeed beyond the sport, to become all stars wherever they land in the future, and to enjoy their lives more now, because the confidence and courage they find working with you will stay with them when they need it the most. There are games to be won, lives to change. Coaches have the power to do both.

I’m Edwin Moses, and the lessons I’ve learned through sport have challenged me, guided me, and shaped my life forever. What kind of coach do you want to be?

THE SIMPLE TRUTH: DECODING THE SUPPLEMENT INDUSTRY VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

At first glance, dietary supplements look the same. They seem safe and healthy, but just because the label says a product is a dietary supplement, that doesn’t mean it’s safe. Unfortunately, you can’t tell whether a product is safe or not just by looking at the label. Most vitamins, minerals, fish oil, and other supplements containing nutrients are probably just fine, but supplements are not evaluated or approved by FDA before they are sold. Although it is rare for vitamins or minerals to be contaminated with drugs, there has been at least one case of a vitamin containing an anabolic steroid.

At the other extreme are products that contain drugs, stimulants, anabolic steroids, or other hormones. Even though these are not technically dietary supplements, many of them are labeled as supplements. For example, body-building products sometimes contain anabolic steroids or Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators, known as SARMs, or other hormones. Some pre-workout or energy products contain illegal stimulants like DMAA, ephedra, or other amphetamine-like stimulants. Weight loss products might contain prescription drugs like sibutramine, or hormones, like human chorionic gonadotropin, also known as hCG. All natural or herbal sexual enhancement products might contain hormones or Viagra-like drugs. Products like these can harm your health and career, but they’re for sale online, in some nutrition stores, and they’re labeled as dietary supplements.

When you pick up a supplement, especially one that promises performance enhancement, you don’t know if it belongs in the “Mostly O.K.” pile or in the “Dangerous” pile. After all, two products might look the same, but one might contain just amino acids and other legitimate ingredients, while the other also contains anabolic steroids. Because of this, FDA has issued a warning about certain categories of supplements: body building products, weight loss products, and sexual enhancement products. Be extremely careful when considering a supplement in one of these categories. We strongly recommend that you avoid products in these categories.

Even when FDA tests supplements and finds dangerous ingredients, companies sometimes refuse to recall them. Sometimes, they simply repackage their product and continue selling it under a new name. Just because a product is on a store shelf doesn’t mean it is safe. You need to do your research and be an informed consumer. The dietary supplement industry is enormous. Supplements that appear to be safe could actually be dangerous products in disguise. If you use dietary supplements without doing your research, you may be taking serious risks with your health and your career. Please visit USADA’s Supplement 411 for more information about dietary supplements.