Mental Performance Training for Young Female Athletes: A Starter Guide for Coaches

Introduction

Girls' sports have never been bigger. But the mental support for girls hasn’t kept up. By high school, a lot of sporty girls quietly step away—not because they stopped caring, but because the pressure, body image stuff, social drama, and constant judgment add up.

This guide is a starting point for coaches and directors who want to support girls 12-22 on the mental side of sport.

1. What’s Really Going On With Girls in Sport

If you coach girls and feel like something is off, you’re not imagining it.

Common patterns:

• More anxiety, more stress. Girls report higher levels of anxiety, depressive feelings, and feeling emotionally overloaded than their male peers in sport.
• Body image and being watched. A lot of girls worry about how they look in uniforms, who’s watching, and what people are thinking about their bodies and their ability.
• Social pressure on top of performance pressure. Teams can feel like social minefields—cliques, group chats, shifting friendships. One bad social experience can make a girl rethink the sport she used to love.
• Puberty changes the game. Menstrual cycles, growth spurts, and changing bodies all affect energy, mood, and confidence. Most programs never talk about it.

Stack all of that on top of school, family expectations, and trying to figure out who they are… and it’s no surprise many girls feel like sport is just “too much.”

2. Why the Usual Mental Training Misses the Mark

Most mental skills work was built on studies of boys and men.

That shows up as:

• “Tough it out” coaching. Emotions are seen as weakness. The message is: hide it, grind harder, don’t complain.
• One-size-fits-all tools. Goal-setting, visualization, and breathing are taught the same way to everyone, without any real talk about body image, periods, or social pressure.
• Invisible double standards. Girls are expected to be serious competitors and also “easy to coach,” likable, and not “too much.” That’s a lot of rules to navigate.

The tools aren’t inherently flawed, they’re just incomplete. Girls are not small men. Their mental game shouldn’t be a copy-paste. The result: girls get tools that weren’t built for their bodies, their social world, or their reality.

3. What Better Support Actually Looks Like

You don’t need a full-time sport psychologist to start moving in the right direction.

Three shifts make a big difference:

a) Train the whole athlete, not just the performer

• Talk about identity beyond sport: “Who are you besides an athlete?”
• Treat confidence as “I can handle whatever happens,” not “I have to be perfect.”
• Celebrate effort, learning, and courage—not just stats.

b) Make communication and safety non-negotiable

• Build regular 1:1 check-ins into your season, not just when there’s a problem.
• Normalize talking about nerves, body image, and the menstrual cycle as part of performance.
• Make it clear how athletes can raise a concern—and what will happen when they do.

c) Use female-informed content and role models

• Bring in examples and stories from women’s sport.
• Whenever possible, give girls access to women who’ve been there—assistant coaches, mentors, or mental performance staff.
• Use language and scenarios that actually reflect their lived experience.

These aren’t “extras.” This is the foundation that lets any technical or tactical work take root.

4. How to Start With Your Team This Month

Keep it simple. Think in weeks, not years. You don't need a curriculum. You need a few new habits.

Week 1: Listen before you fix

Ask your team two questions:

• “What’s one thing that makes sport harder as a girl?”
• “What kind of support would actually help this season?”
• Listen without defending or explaining. Take notes. Thank them for their honesty.

Week 2: Run a 15-Minute “Feelings and Performance” Conversation

• Ask: “What do you feel before games—nerves, excitement, dread, all of it?”
• Normalize it: “Nothing is wrong with you for feeling this way. All athletes do. Our job is to learn how to work with it.”
• If it fits your context, name the menstrual cycle as part of performance: “It affects energy, mood, sleep. We can talk about that here.”

Weeks 3-4: Make one small change and keep it

Pick one of these and commit to it:

• A pre-practice check-in question: “On a 1–5, how full is your tank today?”
• A team agreement about how you talk about bodies (no comments on weight, only on strength, health, and readiness).
• A short end-of-week reflection: “What did you handle well this week that used to throw you?”

Small, consistent changes build more trust than one big workshop.

The Female Athlete Mindset Project (Mettle)

When you’re ready for more, Mettle is here to help. We’re developing tools and training to support girls more intelligently—starting with their mental game. The Female Athlete Mindset Project aims to:

• Collect better data on what girls are actually experiencing.
• Provide teams with a clear map of their athletes’ mental strengths and stress points.
• Help coaches transition from guessing to guided support.

If you’d like your team to be part of this work, [tell us about your team] and we’ll follow up with a short briefing for your staff and options for using our mindset assessment with your athletes.

FAQ: Female Athlete Mindset Support

Do I need to be a mental health expert to start this?

No. Your role isn’t to diagnose—it’s to notice, listen, and create a safer environment. Simple habits like regular check-ins and better language around mistakes can make a big difference. When something feels beyond your lane, your job is to connect athletes with qualified help, not fix it alone.

Will focusing on mindset take away from winning?

In practice, it’s usually the opposite. When girls feel seen and supported, they stay in sport longer, take more healthy risks, and perform better under pressure. Mental support becomes a performance advantage, not a distraction.

At what age should I start mental performance work with girls?

You can start as early as 10–12 with simple language and short activities. If they’re old enough to feel nervous before a game, they’re old enough to start learning how to work with that feeling.

How much time does this take during a real season?

You can make meaningful progress with 10–15 minutes a week. The bigger shift isn’t more meetings—it’s weaving mindset into what you already do: the way you give feedback, the questions you ask, and how you respond when things go wrong.