The limits of a subjective approach: The feeling of progress is not enough.

In mental preparation, many athletes rely solely on their feelings to assess their progress. They often say:

• "I feel more confident than before."

• "I feel like I manage my stress better in competition."

• "I think my concentration has improved."

The problem? The feeling of progress is not always faithful to reality.

🔍 1. The illusion of progress: Why feelings can be misleading?

🧠 The brain is not a reliable measuring tool

The human brain is biased by many factors that influence the perception of progress:

✅ The placebo effect: Believing that one is progressing can sometimes be enough to feel more performant, without any real improvement.

✅ Temporary euphoria: A good training session, a victory, or a general state of well-being can give the illusion of progress, while they are simply linked to the emotions of the moment.

✅ Selective memory: Athletes tend to remember their good days and minimize their poor performance days, which skews their perception of progress.

✅ Habituation: When an athlete repeats a mental exercise several times, they may feel that it has become less effective, while in reality they have simply integrated the technique and no longer perceive the initial benefits as much.

🎯 Concrete example: A long-distance runner thinks they have improved their ability to stay focused thanks to a breathing exercise. They feel calmer during training. However, in competition, they still get distracted by intrusive thoughts. Their feelings have deceived them, as they did not objectively measure the effectiveness of the technique in real performance conditions.

🔄 2. The impact of emotions on self-assessment

The emotional state strongly influences the perception of mental progress.

🔹 An athlete motivated and confident will often overestimate their progress.

🔹 An athlete demotivated or in a period of doubt will tend to minimize their advances, even thinking they are regressing, while their mental level is stable.

Why is this a problem?

✔ An athlete who overestimates their progress will not see the need to adjust their mental training.

✔ An athlete who underestimates risks getting discouraged and abandoning certain mental routines that are actually effective.

✔ A coach cannot base their support solely on the athlete's feelings, at the risk of making poor strategic decisions.

🎯 Concrete example : A gymnast feels very confident during training and thinks that her stress management has improved. But before a major competition, she feels a lot of pressure and starts to doubt. Without precise monitoring, she might think she has regressed, while it is simply the pressure of the stakes that alters her feelings.

📊 3. The risks of monitoring based solely on feelings

Not objectively measuring one's mental progress exposes the athlete to several dangers:

⚠️ 1. The inability to detect true mental weaknesses

Without clear data, the athlete may focus on the wrong aspects and neglect essential points.

🔸 Example : A tennis player thinks that their main problem is stress during matches, while in reality, it is a lack of concentration that causes them to lose key points. Structured monitoring would have allowed identifying the true source of the problem.

⚠️ 2. Ineffective adjustments in mental preparation

Without objective measures, the athlete risks adopting inappropriate strategies.

🔸 Example : A football player who thinks that visualization does not work for them might abandon it too early, while monitoring would have shown a gradual improvement in their performance with this technique.

⚠️ 3. An invisible stagnation

Without concrete benchmarks, an athlete can stagnate without realizing it and believe they are progressing simply because they train regularly.

🔸 Example : An athlete has been doing concentration exercises for months, but their performance scores remain the same. They still think they have progressed. Detailed monitoring would have allowed them to realize that they need to modify their techniques or test new ones.

💡 4. How to avoid these mistakes? The necessity of structured monitoring

To counter the biases of feelings and obtain a reliable assessment, it is essential to structure regular monitoring with objective tools:

✅ Numerical self-assessments: Rating one's level of stress, concentration, and confidence on a scale of 1 to 10 allows identifying trends over several weeks.

✅ Mental performance tests : Concrete exercises measuring skills such as concentration time, stress management under pressure, or resilience to failure.

✅ External feedback : A coach can provide a more objective analysis of an athlete's progress.

✅ Mental training log : Recording one's feelings and comparing them with actual results allows seeing if impressions align with progress.

🎯 Concrete example: An athlete fills out a monitoring sheet each week, where they assess their stress management before and after each competition. After 3 months, they observe that their stress has decreased from an average of 7/10 to 5/10. This monitoring allows them to concretely measure their improvement and adjust their strategies if necessary.

Why the feeling of progress is not enough?

🔹 The brain deceives us: Our emotions, motivation, and memory bias our perception of progress.

🔹 Poor monitoring leads to poor adjustments: Without objective measurement, an athlete may persist in ineffective strategies or abandon techniques that work too early.

🔹 The best athletes quantify their mental progress: Structured monitoring allows obtaining precise data, adjusting training, and evolving with a true improvement plan.

"What gets measured improves. What is not measured remains an impression."