r/sportspsychology

I’m 18 years old and I play basketball at a high level. I’ve been playing the sport since I was a kid, and over the years I’ve dedicated a huge amount of time to basketball, training even during the summer and making a lot of sacrifices.
The problem is that when I step onto the court, I very often struggle to play at the level of my actual abilities.
Last season, after playing a really good game, I had a period of 4-5 games where it finally felt like something had clicked. I was playing with much more confidence, taking initiative and managing to show what I was capable of. Then I had one bad game and I basically went straight back to where I started.
Since then, I often have games where I’m just “okay.” I don’t necessarily play badly, but it always feels like I’m just doing the bare minimum without really making an impact. The frustrating thing is that I know I can do much more. I also train with a Serie A2 team, so I know I have the ability to play at a higher level.
There’s also something else that might play a role. My father cares a lot about my basketball and sometimes gets angry with me even over very small mistakes. I’ve tried talking to him about it, but he doesn’t always understand how much it can affect me. Especially during practices, I feel a certain amount of pressure because he talks to me as if certain things were extremely easy to do.
I don’t think this is the only reason for the problem, but it definitely doesn’t help.
Has anyone experienced something similar? How did you manage to stop thinking so much about your performance and just play at your actual level?

I compete at a high level and no matter how much I prepare, I still get hit with nerves right before it's go-time — racing heart, tight chest, mind going blank for a second. It's not debilitating, but I know it's not helping my performance either.

Curious what's actually worked for people — athletes, performers, public speakers, anyone who deals with high-pressure moments regularly. Do you use breathing techniques, visualization, a pre-performance routine, reframing the anxiety itself, or something else entirely? And did it take practice to make it stick, or was there something that just clicked?

Looking for what's worked in real situations, not just theory.

Hi everyone, I'm a sport science student with a very tight budget since I'm overseas (Asia). Is there any way I can get the book "Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology 7th Edition." I can't really afford its price. Any help or suggestions is appreciated!

My apologies it’s a bit personal,I’m still confused if i want to quit or not because i don’t wanna lose the money my parents spent or the efforts in all of the 10 years that will be wasted.
In competitions it’s so unfair and they cheat alot and i had multiple injuries last year and no one in my coaches seem to care or help,so because of the environment this year i started to hate the sport and after every single session i used to go home crying and begging my mom to quit and after multiple arguments with my parents i finally got a 5months break from it. But tbh i always feel guilty, it’s like I’m missing a part of myself and my personality. This month i realized that i love running but im a little overweight and slow but i really wanna try track and field because i want to feel like im working on myself and i want something to be passionate about but still deep down i think about my old sport and feel guilty about it. And i started playing tennis as well but im not feeling the passionate feeling, im just doing it for fun and not MY THING.

I hope some people can relate and tell me about their stories and hope you all the best.

And if there’s any track and field people to tell me if they recommend it and what should i do to get better and how do they train.

Overall i need advices because deep down if there’s no unfairness i will still love the sport.

I have tennis tryouts in a day and im so scared I can’t sleep at all, I have extremely bad performance anxiety and I’ve barley ever played in-front of a group of people, and I’ve only ever played a few matches in my life so im terrified. What’s the worst part is I have no idea how good the other students there will be so I have nothing to measure myself against, and I very well might be the worse trying out. Im so scared of embarrassment and not making the team (I’ve been wanting to for years) and I know my anxiety will weaken my playing abilities. Any advice?? I’m so so so scared.