What outcome-focused mental rehearsal actually does to your brain — and what works instead. You’ve been told to picture yourself winning. So you do. Eyes closed the night before competition. The finish line. The shot dropping. The medal. You see it all. Then competition starts and you tighten up. You’re not weak. You followed the […]
The Monitoring Trap: Why Watching Your Heart Rate Mid-Race Can Make You Worse
By Dr. Trent Claypool, PsyD · Sport Psychologist, Colorado Springs · Endurance Athlete 5-minute read Mile 12 of a long climb. You feel strong. Legs are working, but not screaming. Breath is deep and even. You glance at your heart rate monitor. The number is higher than you thought. Zone 4 when you wanted Zone […]
What Does a Sport Psychologist Actually Do? (And When You Might Need One)
By Dr. Trent Claypool, PsyD · Clinical Sport Psychologist, Colorado Springs I help athletes compete from freedom instead of fear. I help them learn their own psychology — how their nervous system functions under pressure, what to tune into, and how to compete well no matter what they’re thinking or feeling. I help them let […]
Why You Dominate in Practice and Disappear in Competition
You’ve said it. Your coach has said it. Your parents have definitely said it. “You’re a completely different athlete in practice.” In training, you’re automatic. Confident. Loose. You make plays without thinking about them. Then you show up to a game, a race, a qualifier — and something shifts. Your body tightens. Your timing is […]
Beyond Grit: The Mental Skills That Actually Get Ultra Runners to the Finish Line
By Dr. Trent Claypool, PsyD · Sport Psychologist, Colorado Springs · Endurance Athlete It’s 2:47 a.m. You’re 63 miles into a hundred-miler and your headlamp is cutting a tight circle in the dirt ahead of you. Your quads stopped talking to you an hour ago. Your stomach is questionable. And somewhere in the last three […]
Why Good Teams Stay Silent — And What It Actually Takes to Build Psychological Safety in Sport
There’s a moment most coaches and team leaders know, even if they’ve never named it. Something happens in the room — a comment that lands wrong, a teammate cutting someone down, a culture norm that quietly contradicts everything your program says it stands for — and the room goes still. Not because nobody noticed. Not […]
Performance Anxiety in Athletes: The Two Minutes That Changes Everything
Category: Sport Psychology · Psychological Flexibility · Performance Anxiety By Dr. Trent Claypool, PsyD · Sport Psychologist, Colorado Springs · February 2026 12-minute read As a sport psychologist, I have watched the same scene play out hundreds of times. An athlete is standing behind the blocks, sitting in the bullpen, or crouching at the start […]
Stop Trying to Conquer Your Feelings: Why the Best Athletes Perform With Emotion, Not Against It
After 15 years in sport psychology, the biggest performance killer I see isn’t weak mental skills — it’s the war athletes wage against their own inner experience. Trent Claypool, PsyD· 5 min read You’re standing over your bike. Or sitting in the dugout waiting for your at-bat. Or lacing up before the biggest match of […]
Fear-Based Coaching Doesn’t Build Champions: Why the Best Coaches Lead From Values
Nobody ever performed their way to greatness because they were afraid of their coach. Yet somehow, the myth persists. The screaming sideline coach. The halftime tirade. The belief that if you just make an athlete feel bad enough about a mistake, they’ll magically stop making it. We’ve romanticized this fear-based coaching model for decades — […]
How to Break a Mental Block: A Nervous System Approach for Athletes
You’ve probably heard it before—from a coach, parent, or that voice in your head: “Just push through it.” But here’s what 15+ years of working with athletes has taught me: mental blocks aren’t solved by pushing through. They require a nervous system approach. If you’re wondering how to break a mental block, this guide will […]