Why psychological safety matters for athletes
Athletes often have all their physical needs met.
They have training hours, coaches, medical teams, performance analysts and perhaps even a sport psychologist to work on the mental side. These are all essential to high-performance, but an element which is just as important, is psychological safety, and this is often the missing ingredient.
- Training hours
- Coaches
- Medical teams
- Performance analysts
- A sport psychologist
- Psychological safety
The cost is rarely visible at first.
Tap a card to see what might be happening underneath.
Turning up
It shows up in athletes who train on injury because they feel they can't say anything.
Training hard
In athletes who feel that something is wrong but don't have the language or education to recognise abnormal coaching behaviour.
Smiling at training
Or in athletes who quietly disengage long before anyone notices they are struggling.
Unless athletes feel safe enough to communicate with their coaches, raise concerns when things feel off or be honest about how they feel, they can't perform to the best of their ability.
This isn't always as a result of harmful behaviour but due to a lack of space created for athlete voice.
The absence of psychological safety isn't always obvious.
It doesn't always require psychological harm to be present for it to be relevant. Often, it is about the absence of an action (like someone checking in with you often), rather than the presence of a harmful one.
Checklist
- Safeguarding measures
- Policies
- Guidelines
- Feeling safe
Athletes can feel unsafe despite the presence of safeguarding measures and policies.
Athletes may lack the awareness, might be too young or may lack the confidence to speak up on their own, so understanding what psychological safety is and how to experience it, is essential for their autonomy and ownership over their education.
Psychological safety test
How safe do you feel in your environment?
Take the free 3-minute Psychological Safety test.
Take the testWhat the research tells us
Without psychological safety
A lack of psychological safety in sport contributes to increased anxiety, depression and dropout rates. It is also linked to lower self-esteem, motivation and enjoyment.
In elite sport culture where pain and fear are normalised as being 'part of sport', psychological safety for athletes is reduced.
With psychological safety
The presence of psychological safety significantly contributes to sustained performance and wellbeing, and better team functioning.
Athletes training and competing in cultures where they are encouraged to speak up and make mistakes have reported better wellbeing and sustained sport enjoyment.
References: Fransen et al., 2020; Gosai et al., 2023; Jowett et al., 2021; Vella et al., 2024
How Creating Space can help
Creating Space works with athletes to build a shared understanding of psychological safety. Sessions are designed to be honest, grounded, and practically useful.
Sessions explore
- What psychological safety is
- What it looks and feels like in practice
- How to recognise its presence or absence in your own environment
Delivered as
- Standalone introductory workshops
- Part of a longer programme
- For individual groups, mixed groups, or as part of a wider organisational approach
Athletes leave with
- A clear understanding of what psychological safety means and why it matters for their performance and wellbeing
- Language to articulate how their environment is affecting them, with coaches, parents, or support staff
- Greater confidence in recognising when something isn't right, and a sense of permission to say so
- Practical tools for contributing to a safer environment within their team or group
- A stronger connection between their internal experience and their ability to perform at their best