🧭 A 9-Time Olympic Coach on Confidence and Pressure

Ken Ravizza on the Mental Game

"That’s what the ‘mental game’ is: constant compensating and adjusting, it’s an on-going process!

It’s not: ‘I take a breath, I’m in the zone, I’m a champion!’

I mean, it’s not that simple! It’s hard, it’s complex!”

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Ken Ravizza on Confidence and Pressure

Failure doesn't define you. How you handle it does.

Most people think the mental game is about staying positive or "bouncing back" quickly. But Ken Ravizza - the pioneer of sports psychology who worked with 9 Olympic teams and authored the legendary "Heads Up Baseball" - knew better.

He understood that champions aren't the ones who never fail. They're the ones who extract value from every failure while everyone else is still stuck in the emotion of it.

Why this matters: We live in a culture that treats failure like a disease to avoid rather than information to use. But in sports, business, parenting, and life, you get immediate feedback on your performance. The question isn't whether you'll fail - it's whether you'll learn from it or let it paralyze you.

As Ravizza put it: "You're going to get immediate feedback on how you did... feedback is information. Sometimes we fail but we can learn from that information to get better."

📑 What to Know

Ravizza's approach to failure was built on a simple but powerful distinction that changes everything:

Results vs. Outcomes - "Outcome is a closed deal - we won, we lost, successful, unsuccessful. Results are information - how do I use that information to get better?"

Most people confuse these two, and it costs them their growth. When you focus on outcomes, you're trapped in binary thinking: good or bad, win or lose, success or failure. But when you focus on results, every experience becomes data you can use.

Here is the 3-Steps framework that Ken Ravizza developed for handling setbacks:

1. Get the Information "This is not just about flushing it, letting it go and moving on. No - get the information."

   Don't just move on. Extract the lesson. What specifically went wrong? What can you control differently next time? What worked that you want to repeat?

2. Forgive Yourself "Don't personalize it and don't beat yourself up because you didn't do well. That doesn't mean he or she's a terrible, rotten person. All that means is they didn't perform well at that time."

   The mistake is not your identity. It's just information about what happened in that moment.

3. Play Forward "Get the information, forgive yourself, and play forward. Next pitch."

   Take the lesson and redirect your energy toward what you can control next.

The Practice Connection: This only works if you approach practice with the same mindset. Ravizza emphasized that just working hard isn't enough.

"Just because you were out there working hard doesn't matter. What matters is - was there something you learned from what you did today?"

Every practice needs a mission. Every rep needs intention. Because if you're not learning from success, you won't know how to learn from failure.

🔖 So what can we learn from this?

Great performers don't avoid failure - they mine it for gold. They understand that the gap between good and great isn't talent or even effort. It's the speed and quality of learning from setbacks.

This shifts everything about how you handle pressure moments. Instead of fearing mistakes, you're hunting for information. Instead of being devastated by poor performance, you're asking: "What can I take from this?"

The key is having a system. When emotion hits after a failure, most people either shut down or spiral. But with Ravizza's framework, you have a clear process: information first, forgiveness second, forward third.

➡️ If you’re interested in more mental skills…This week inside Premium, we’re looking at breath work and what champions do when they don’t feel too confident. → Start your free trial today! 

❓Questions to Ask Others You’re Leading

• If you're a manager or coach: Are you teaching your team to see failure as information or as identity? When someone struggles, do you help them extract the lesson or just move on?

• If you're a parent: How do you respond when your child fails? Are you modeling the process of getting information, forgiving yourself, and playing forward?

• If you're a leader: Are you creating psychological safety for your team to share what they learned from mistakes? Do people feel safe to fail forward in your culture?

• If you're an athlete: Are you approaching practice and competition with a learning mission? When you fail, are you asking "what can I take from this?" or just trying to forget it happened?

Final Takeaway: Failure isn't the opposite of success - it's the raw material of it. The champions aren't the ones who never fail. They're the ones who fail better, learn faster, and play forward with intention.

Source: 15 Critical Questions on the Mental Game of Baseball

Favorite Posts I Found This Week

Free Mental Fitness Links 👇

For coaches and leaders:

• How Shaka Smart defines culture with just 3 actions

• Kirby Smart on the biggest lie we tell ourselves about success

• Jim Harbaugh on the 5 truths of life

• The 4 truths of success and consistency

For athletes and performers:

• Mike Bianco with an amazing story on the power of commitment

• 5 silent forces rewiring our brains for fear and distraction

• 5 things you need to know to live a life of character

• Terrell Davis’ story of 6th-string RB about to be cut to Hall of Fame

What I am reading and listening to:

📚 Book: Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others by Stephen Covey

🎥 Video: Harvard Professor reveals the Science of Happiness in 15 minutes | Arthur Brooks [ARC 2025]

🎧Podcast: Ep. 46 | PJ Fleck: Minnesota Gophers Football | It’s All About the Team
 

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