YOUR ATHLETE DOESN’T NEED A SHORTER MEMORY. THEY NEED A BETTER RESET

How to help get their brain and body back to a place where training, instincts, and talent are available again.

“Forget about it.” “Shake it off.” “Next play.” Or, as Ted Lasso famously tells his players, “Be a goldfish.”

The message is simple: Don’t let what just happened interfere with what happens next. And he’s right. Except for one problem. No one tells athletes how to become the goldfish.

In my work with athletes, I see this all the time. One mistake isn’t usually what hurts performance. It’s what happens in the seconds after that mistake.

An athlete misses an easy shot. Immediately, the internal commentary starts.

How did I miss that? I cannot believe I just did that. Coach is going to take me out. What is wrong with me today?

When an athlete makes a mistake, the brain can interpret it as a threat. Heart rate increases. Muscles tighten. Breathing changes. Attention narrows. The athlete can move into what I call the Red Zone, a psychological state in which stress begins interfering with the very abilities they need to perform well.

I often remind athletes that their talent didn’t disappear in the last 30 seconds. Their state changed.

That distinction matters because when athletes believe a mistake means something about their ability, they often start trying harder. They force the next shot. Overthink the next serve. Instead of playing the game, they start monitoring themselves playing the game. That’s when one mistake becomes two or three.

The goal isn’t to become an athlete who never gets frustrated. That athlete doesn’t exist. The goal is to become an athlete who knows how to reset.

A reset isn’t pretending the mistake didn’t happen. It’s the ability to recognize that your internal state has changed and intentionally get your brain and body back to a place where your training, instincts, and talent are available to you again.

That is a skill. And like every other skill in sports, it can be trained.

You cannot train an athlete to eliminate every mistake. You can train an athlete so that a mistake doesn’t determine what happens next.

Mental toughness isn’t never getting rattled. It’s recognizing when you’ve been knocked out of your optimal performance state and knowing how to get yourself back. Ted Lasso was right. Athletes do need to become the goldfish. But moving on from the last play isn’t a personality trait. It’s a performance skill.

And the athletes who learn how to develop it are far less likely to let one mistake make the next one for them.

Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo, better known as Dr. E, is a sports psychologist and founder of EleVive. She helps athletes master the mental game, so pressure doesn’t sabotage their talent. Learn more at EleVive.com.