How Can You Overcome Challenges in Sports?

Throughout any athlete's journey there are obstacles and challenges that need a solution. Overcoming them is necessary, but you don't have to view them as something negative...
How Can You Overcome Challenges in Sports?

Last update: 29 July, 2020

Coming across challenges is something unavoidable in sports and even in life itself. During training and competitions, there will always be situations that are out of your control. These have the potential to hold you back. However, it’s possible to train your personal abilities to be able to overcome these challenges, minimizing their impact.

Challenges don’t necessarily have to be seen as something negative. These challenges can become opportunities to discover new skills and to improve personal qualities, such as resilience.

The best way to overcome challenges in sports is working on what you can control. This includes your emotions, behavior, and thoughts. In the following article, we’ll give you some tips to help you learn how to overcome challenges.

Improve your coping strategies

Coping strategies are certain mechanisms that a person can put into practice to be able to face the demands of their environment. Improving positive coping strategies is very important. Why? This can influence the way you perceive and react to difficult situations you come across in your sport. Good coping strategies can positively affect performance.

Along these lines, according to a study carried out by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, training in coping strategies has proved extremely useful in helping to reduce anxiety before a competition. The athlete who uses practical ways to deal with challenges will be more sure of him or herself and therefore feel less anxiety.

Overcome challenges in sports: take control of negative thoughts

Negative thoughts are a primary source of unpleasant feelings and stress. On many occasions, unpleasant feelings are caused by negative thoughts, not by the actual situation itself.

Frustration at failure can be overcome

It’s unavoidable to have passing negative thoughts. However, you don’t want to allow them to take control. Working to modify your thoughts is one of the most difficult things to achieve, but it’s also something that brings the most advantages over time.

There are many techniques to achieve a more positive way of thinking. The key is choosing a technique that you can adapt to your goal, that is if you want to either change or eliminate certain kinds of thoughts.

Work on your reactions using simulations

An effective way to overcome obstacles is by anticipating them. When you come across difficult situations, this will help you to know how you should behave and be conscious of your reactions. You can then avoid the negative impact on you as an athlete.

How can you use simulations? Work on thinking of different scenarios where it’s likely that a problem will arise. Try to be as realistic as possible, even remembering past situations and challenges.

By doing this, it’ll be possible to see your emotional reactions and responses to challenges. You’ll also be able to change the reactions that aren’t appropriate and decide on how to respond in a better way.

What about challenges such as an injury? Well, it’s even possible to aid your recovery by appropriate use of your imagination, using visualization. This is what a study published in the Journal of Sports Science explains.

Don’t forget about strengthening your self-confidence

A healthy level of self-confidence is very important for athletes. It can mean the difference between overcoming a challenge or not in sports.

Improving your attitude can help you to overcome challenges

Athletes who believe in themselves have a more resolute and proactive attitude when it comes to resolving problems. On the other hand, those who doubt themselves or their abilities tend to try to avoid facing difficult situations.

Often, success or failure in facing challenges is all a question of attitude. Athletes who are sure of themselves make use of more resources and are more persistent when facing adversity. But those who are less sure of themselves will look for excuses to avoid it.

Work to overcome challenges in sports

As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, often challenges are unpredictable and unavoidable. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to resign yourself to doing nothing about the problem.

There are many things that an athlete can control: self-confidence, coping skills, a positive attitude. These are the variables that should be strengthened with psychological work. In fact, it’s often said that what defines an athlete isn’t how many challenges they have to face, but rather how many they’ve been able to overcome.


All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.


  • Driediger, M., Hall, C., y Callow, N. (2006). Imagery use by injured athletes: A qualitative analysis. Journal of sports sciences, 24(3), 261-272.
  • Urra Tobar, B. (2014). Evaluación de la efectividad del entrenamiento de estrategias de afrontamiento en el nivel de ansiedad precompetitiva en tenimesistas. Revista de psicología del deporte, 23(1), 0067-74.

This text is provided for informational purposes only and does not replace consultation with a professional. If in doubt, consult your specialist.