Underdog Stories / Sports analysis & explainers

How Do Athletes Handle Criticism and Stay Confident?

Athletes who stay confident under fire separate a bad game from who they are, filter what's useful, and return to their evidence.

By Brett Hanson · Underdog Podcasts · September 25, 2026

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Confidence is easy when the highlights are good. So how do athletes handle criticism and stay confident when the highlights stop? The harder test comes after a missed shot, a costly interception or a rough season start, when some of the same people who were praising you suddenly have questions.

On the Mental Health Playbook, host Coach Trav, a mental performance coach, built an episode around that moment. His central idea is that criticism isn't the problem. The problem is when outside voices become your inner voice. What follows is how that works in practice, drawing on the episode and on some outside context.

How do athletes handle criticism and stay confident? Start by separating performance from identity

The episode's first step is to treat a performance as an event rather than a verdict. Coach Trav puts it this way: you can play badly without being a bad player, make a mistake without becoming a mistake, and struggle without losing everything that made you successful.

That distinction matters because the alternative is a spiral. If one bad game means "I'm not good enough," every poor outing becomes evidence about your worth. If it means "I didn't play well," it becomes information you can use.

The episode is careful to say this isn't a way of dodging responsibility. Accountability and confidence, Coach Trav says, can exist at the same time. Some criticism is legitimate, such as a missed read or a throw you'd like back. Confidence doesn't require pretending you played perfectly.

How do you own a mistake, learn from it and release it?

When the mentions are blowing up, the episode offers a three-part routine.

Own it. Ask what you actually did poorly. This is specific and honest, not a general feeling of failure.
Learn from it. Ask what the film shows and what your coaches are telling you, then decide what to work on before the next opportunity.
Release it. Ask what noise you're carrying that serves no purpose. Coach Trav calls this the most important step. If something is bothering you in a way that does nothing for your next performance, you can't keep carrying it.

The order matters. The routine doesn't ask athletes to ignore everything. It asks them to take the useful part, which usually comes from the film room and the coaching staff, and put the rest down.

The episode adds a warning about time. Don't spend more time consuming criticism than you spend correcting what needs correcting. Football makes this harder, Coach Trav notes, because a bad game can mean waiting six or seven days to play again, or longer going into a bye week. Basketball players often get another game within days.

How do you tell useful criticism from noise?

The episode also gives a set of questions for deciding what deserves your attention:

Is this true?
Is the source credible?
Can I learn from it?
Is there something I can actually do about it?

The point is to avoid two mistakes: dismissing everything as hate, or absorbing everything as truth. Take what is useful, apply it, and let the rest go. Coach Trav frames the idea as a vote: everyone will have an opinion, but not everyone gets a vote in how you see yourself.

That filter works best with a trusted circle around you. The episode recommends people who will tell you the truth and correct you, but who won't let one bad moment erase everything you've done to get where you are.

Why does social media make criticism harder to shake?

Coach Trav contrasts today's athletes with an earlier era. A bad game used to end when you went home. You might see it on SportsCenter or in the next day's paper, and you would face it in the film room with teammates. Now, he says, the clip, the memes, the comments, the sports-show segments and the direct tags are waiting on your phone. He also points out that many of these athletes are 18, 19 or 20 years old, still figuring out who they are while strangers tell them.

Researchers are studying the same problem, though the picture is less tidy than the episode's framing. A 2026 systematic review of athlete social media research found that negative experiences, including exposure to criticism, comparison, or performance-related commentary, have been linked to higher anxiety, stress, and poorer well-being. The same review is cautious. It notes that the predominance of cross-sectional designs, heterogeneity in measurement, and the still limited number of studies mean the findings should be read carefully. It also found that passive engagement, appearance-based comparison, and problematic use patterns were more consistently linked to poorer psychological outcomes, whereas active engagement and context-dependent use showed mixed or potentially protective associations.

A separate survey of 912 athletes aged 12 to 24 described a dual role for social media, offering connection and support while also exposing young athletes to psychological vulnerabilities and digital pressure. In that survey, 57.1% reported receiving encouragement or sport-related support online, whereas 47.7% reported negative effects on sleep quality.

Coach Trav makes a similar point in his own words. Social media has real benefits, including community, brand building and access to information. But everybody having a voice doesn't mean everybody's voice deserves access to you.

“Confidence isn't saying everybody else is wrong about me. Confidence is being able to say, I know what I need to improve, and I still believe in who I'm becoming.”
— Coach Trav, on The Mental Health Playbook

The episode adds one more observation. Athletes often say they tune out the noise, but Coach Trav's view is that they hear it. That is why having a routine for it matters more than a vow to ignore it.

How did John Thompson Jr. keep outside voices from becoming his inner voice?

The episode's opening spotlight is the late Georgetown coach John Thompson Jr., whom Coach Trav describes as carrying a confidence rooted in knowing exactly who he was.

The moment he highlights is from 1982. Thompson was asked about being the first Black head coach to reach the Final Four, and he pushed back on the premise.

Thompson did not take pride in becoming the first Black coach to take a team to the Final Four, and he made that clear to a room full of reporters at a 1982 news conference. In his reported answer, he said, "I resent the hell out of that question" if it implied he was the first Black coach competent enough to get there.

He said plenty of others could have gotten there if they'd been given the opportunity they deserved. That matches the episode's paraphrase: he wasn't the first capable coach, just the first given the chance.

Two years later the results backed him up. Thompson became the first Black head coach to win the NCAA National Championship in 1984.

The lesson in the episode is that confidence doesn't require everyone else to believe in you. You can listen, learn and adjust when necessary, but you don't hand someone else's opinion the power to define you. Thompson's answer in 1982 wasn't a defense of his résumé. He rejected the framing of the question, and that is the same skill athletes need when a headline or a viral clip tries to tell them who they are.

Does failing at something make you a failure? Oprah's answer

The episode's second example comes from outside sports. Coach Trav points to Oprah Winfrey and the Oprah Winfrey Network, OWN, as proof that this isn't only an athlete's problem.

OWN launched on January 1, 2011 and was soon suffering from low ratings. Winfrey herself conceded that she had made a lot of mistakes, including launching OWN before it was ready. She also admitted the press had affected her. In a TV interview she said some critical stories had "knocked me off center."

Her answer, in a 2012 interview, is the part Coach Trav draws on. She said that "because you've failed doesn't make you a failure", and that when you know that at your core, you can keep trying or decide you need to move in a new direction.

That fits the own-it, learn-from-it, release-it routine. Winfrey didn't claim the network was fine. She named mistakes and changed course, and she kept her sense of herself separate from the network's results. OWN did eventually find its footing. By the second quarter of 2012, it had started to steady itself, helped by stronger programming. Coach Trav's version of the lesson for athletes is that a bad game, month or season is something you experienced, not something you are.

What is the difference between accountability and self-doubt?

The most useful distinction in the episode may be this one. "I didn't play well" is accountability. "I'm not good enough" is self-doubt. The first points to something you can fix. The second points to nothing.

Coach Trav uses two current NFL quarterbacks only as illustrations. He describes Cam Ward as a No. 1 overall pick in his second year, facing heavy criticism and pointed questions from reporters. He describes Justin Herbert as a veteran in his seventh year whose individual throws are now being replaced by bigger narratives like "Can he win?" and "Is he overrated?" His point is that quarterbacks should still evaluate their own play with their coaches and the film, but they don't need to evaluate everything they see on TV. It's also a position, he says, where doubting yourself is especially costly.

What do you do when your confidence shakes? Go back to your evidence

When confidence shakes, the episode's advice isn't to think positive. It is to go back to the evidence: the preparation, the previous success, the adversity already overcome and the work already put in. Positive thinking can feel hollow when you just played badly. A record of what you have actually done is harder to argue with.

The episode also suggests that sometimes you need a sounding board. A mental performance coach, Coach Trav says, can help separate emotion from reality, useful feedback from criticism, and one bad performance from identity. You still do the work and make the corrections, but you don't have to process all of it alone.

What is the short version to keep?

A performance is an event, not an identity.
Own what happened, learn from it and release what doesn't help.
Filter criticism by truth, credibility and usefulness.
Decide who gets a vote in how you see yourself.
When confidence wobbles, go back to your evidence.

Coach Trav ends the episode on the idea in the pull quote. Confidence isn't believing everyone else is wrong about you. It is being able to name what you need to improve while still believing in who you're becoming.