Athletes are routinely asked to explain their mental state on camera, minutes after a loss. No other profession faces that demand. Maybe none of them should.
It is always interesting to me to see a post-game press conference where an athlete is put on the stand and asked to open up about their personal struggles. In no other walk of life does this seem to be the norm. Rarely, if ever, do we see politicians, CEOs, or other professionals being asked about their personal challenges, and if so there is very little to no expectation that they would answer. Most of those professionals even have a shield they can hide behind, a press secretary or similar assistant who handles things for them. Yet in sports, we expect the player, and sometimes the coach, to share how their mental state impacted their performance. In some interviews it crosses from an expectation to a demand, with reporters badgering the athlete until they give some sort of answer. "No comment" is not an acceptable answer for athletes, though it should be.
As a public, we have no right to know about someone's personal wellbeing, whether that is physical or mental. There is no expectation that we'd ask someone in another walk of life how their mental state is impacting their job performance. Think about it for a minute: what would happen if you asked your child's teacher, the person changing the oil in your car, or your mail carrier whether their mental state was impacting their performance? It seems absurd because it is, and it should be just as absurd for athletes. Athletes, like all of us, have a right to privacy. While we know mental state has a huge impact on performance, it simply isn't anyone's business whether that's why the puck got away, the shot rimmed out, or the ball sailed wide of the strike zone.
The same moment, four different sports
This dynamic shows up almost identically across sports, even though the specifics look different on the surface.
In every one of these cases, the question that follows is rarely just "what happened." It's "why," and increasingly, "how did that make you feel," asked on camera, often within minutes of the mistake itself.
Why asking for disclosure backfires
Asking for disclosure has real, negative impacts on an athlete's wellbeing and performance. It adds significant pressure before and during the next game. Before the game, the athlete starts thinking about how, if they don't play well again, they'll have to talk about it more. Each time they don't perform, a tendency builds, and the public wants to know more and more.
In some sports we call this the "yips," a mental performance block unrelated to physical ability. Think of the hockey player who can't shake the stickhandling error, replaying it on the bench instead of resetting for the next shift. Or the basketball player at the free-throw line, suddenly aware of every eye in the building after missing the front end of a one-and-one. The yips are often the result of an athlete thinking more and more about what people will say if they don't do well, and then they don't do well. It's a vicious cycle.
During the game, the same dynamic applies. At the first mistake, an athlete can start thinking about what they'll be asked about it later. There's an anticipatory anxiety around not playing well, followed by a self-fulfilling prophecy. A pitcher who walks the leadoff hitter starts pressing for the strike zone instead of trusting their mechanics. A tennis player who double-faults at deuce starts protecting rather than playing freely. Afterward, depressive feelings can set in as the athlete looks back at how they performed. None of this helps with play, and when I work with athletes, I'm actively teaching strategies to deal with these concerns after assessing what impacts that athlete the most.
What we're actually reinforcing
The idea that an athlete should be required to divulge this information is counterproductive if what we actually want is for them to perform better next time. Now the player has to reflect not just on their performance and mental state, but on how it will all be discussed publicly. If we really want to see top athletes perform their best, we should want them to talk more about what's working, not what isn't. This is a simple behavioral principle: the behavior we talk about most is the one we tend to reinforce.
Athletes absolutely have a right to silence, and should be given training on how to answer questions when they don't want to disclose. We all have a right to privacy, and that doesn't disappear because someone is good at a sport, no different from the teacher or the mechanic or the mail carrier above.
A better way to ask, and answer
I'd encourage those asking the questions to shape them in a way that respects privacy and supports athletes, and encourage athletes to shift their answers toward what went well and why.
Acknowledging that things didn't go as expected can be a helpful strategy for athletes, without getting into the why as much as the public may want. Sharing a bit to be authentic, as long as the athlete is comfortable with it, can strike a happy medium.
Some athletes are also very open to talking about their mental state and become strong advocates for mental health, and that's great too. It comes down to the athlete and whether it aligns with their values. If talking about it is helpful for them, they should feel free to do so. If not, we should respect that decision and move on. It's easy to forget that athletes are people, not superheroes who lost their ability to feel and be human.
If we can all work to respect personal boundaries and accept that there's going to be variability in how comfortable athletes are with speaking about their emotions, we can find a way to support wellbeing and high-level play at the same time, whether that's on a tennis court, a basketball court, a baseball diamond, or the ice.
Frequently asked questions
If you work with athletes, teams, or organizations navigating the pressure of public performance and disclosure, our team offers consultation and direct support for building mental skills that hold up under scrutiny.
Get in touch
