A Map to Understand How a Champion Is Built From Within
The key question is simple yet immense:How do we ensure that, in moments of maximum pressure, the body is not betrayed by the mind?
Why has this orientation become dominant in high-performance sport?Because it dismantles one of the biggest myths about athletes: the belief that they are naturally mentally invincible. They aren’t. They train to become that way.
It’s not always about “fixing” something that is broken, but about optimizing something that already works.The difference between repairing a regular car and fine-tuning a Formula 1 engine.The ultimate goal is to create an optimal performance state, what some refer to as flow.
To achieve it, athletes train three fundamental pillars:
- Self-regulation of internal processes: confidence, focus, and attention.
- Emotional and physiological regulation: managing what you feel without letting it control you.
- Effective behavior under pressure: executing what you’ve trained without interference; in other words, transferring training into competition.
Facts vs. Beliefs
In sport, you cannot avoid making mistakes; that is a fact.What you can train is your mind’s ability not to create a negative interpretation that sabotages your performance.
The Three-Stage Process
1. Education and Personalized Assessment
This is the “detective phase.”First, the athlete learns how their performance mind works.Then, a precise map of their current state is built:
- What mental skills do they already possess?
- Is their confidence stable, or does it collapse after the first mistake?
- How do emotional dips affect their performance?
- Which behaviors limit their game, and which can be changed?
The aim is to obtain clarity, identifying strengths and weaknesses.
2. Skill Acquisition
Here, the athlete develops tools to manage thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.All training follows a progressive structure, gradually increasing pressure using the model of conscious/unconscious (in)competence.
Athletes often arrive with thoughts such as:
- “Here we go again. I can’t handle big moments.”
- “One mistake and everything falls apart.”
This creates a vicious cycle and a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The solution is to train a three-step process:
- Catch the thought.
- Question it with data:
- Replace it with a constructive, actionable instruction.
We shift from ego-based judgment to technical, task-focused guidance.
This isn’t toxic positivity; it is strategic thinking: constructive realism vs. blind optimism.
3. Application & Transfer to Competition
This is where everything consolidates:
- Self-talk: turning your inner voice into your best coach.
- Visualization: refining neural execution and reducing the novelty of high-pressure situations.
- Disciplined repetition: thousands of reps until the skill becomes automatic.
All of this leads to the true objective:SELF-CONTROL — inner mastery.
A Shift in Paradigm
It means learning to:
- Become the engineer of your think → feel → act chain.
- Work with objective data, not emotional bias.
- Generate real, measurable behavioral changes in performance.
- Master the internal and external variables that sustain self-confidence.
The athlete stops being a user and becomes the programmer of their own system.
Final Question for Reflection
If we can program our thoughts and decisions with precision to perform at our best on the field…how much of that programming can we take into our daily lives?Where is the line between becoming a better competitor and becoming a more efficient machine of competition?
By Selena Salas,
Professional Footballer & Sports Psychologist.
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A Map to Understand How a Champion Is Built From Within
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