Mental Health Plays a Crucial Role in Athletic Performance

By Z. Arwas

Mental health is a key part of all our lives. It not only affects our way of thinking but also influences our behaviour. It can be especially important in sports because it impacts an athlete's performance, well-being, and overall success. Having a positive mindset and thinking clearly enables athletes to enhance their focus, decision making, and resilience. However, neglecting your mental health can lead to burnout, hinder performances and, in extreme cases, increase the risk of sustaining an injury.

Participating in sports can have many protective benefits for your mental health which is why many people turn to them when feeling down or deenergised. Exercise has been proven to significantly boost your mental state by releasing mood-enhancing endorphins, reducing stress and anxiety, and improving sleep, cognitive function, and self-esteem. Another advantage of playing a sport can be being surrounded by a supportive environment. For example, depending on teammates or being advised by a coach. Regardless of all these positives it can be difficult to maintain strong mental health in competitive sports. Risk factors can include the time and physical demands of competition and travel, the stress of high competition levels, which can contribute to fear of failure, pressure to meet expectations, or worries about letting down other people in practices or games. This is why more and more athletes are becoming aware of their personal mental health issues and being encouraged to take action. A quotation that encompasses the importance of taking care of yourself in athletic environments is “Mental health is like a muscle. Just like we physically train and condition our muscles, it’s also important to practice and develop these mental skills. The more you practice them, the stronger and more effective they become” - Dr Rachel Vanderkruik (2024).

An example of this is Dele Alli, once seen as one of football’s potential young talents, debuted professionally at 16 and joined the Tottenham Hotspur in 2015. His fame rose with amazing performances, playing for England in the 2018 World Cup and helping the Spurs reach the Champions League final in 2019. However, his career started to decline after a transfer to Everton in 2022 which eventually led to a loan to Turkey’s Beşiktaş. Amid tabloid rumours of partying, Alli later revealed deeper personal struggles behind his downturn. In an interview he decided to open up about his mental health struggles, many of which stemmed from having been abused as a child. In 2023, Alli took a break from playing competitively and revealed that he would be pausing football for his mental health and attending rehab to deal with his addiction to sleeping pills. Alli said “Hopefully me coming out and speaking about it can help people ... To take a sleeping tablet to sleep and be ready is fine but when your dopamine system is broken as I am, it can obviously have the reverse effect because it does work for the problems you want to deal with and that’s the problem. It works until it doesn’t.” This reflects how taking time as a professional athlete to care for your mental health is important and can affect your career if it is not monitored.

​