Hello! I’m Katya, a mental coach for athletes of all levels: from amateurs to professionals. I practice in France and online worldwide, offering sessions in Russian, French, and English.
In my work, I help athletes better understand themselves, develop mental skills, and maintain effectiveness in situations of pressure, uncertainty, and change — during competitions, after failures, injuries, and during transitional phases of their athletic careers.
My approach lies at the intersection of coaching and mental skills development.
Coaching helps clarify the individual mechanisms of the athlete: what happens to them in specific situations, what influences their reactions and decisions, and what helps or impedes their desired actions.
Working on mental skills allows for the development of specific abilities needed in sports: attention management, concentration, self-regulation, working with internal dialogue, recovery from mistakes, adaptation to pressure, and other skills depending on the athlete's request.
That’s why it’s important for me not just to propose another technique for concentration, breathing, or visualization. First, it is essential to understand what is happening with this individual and why they need a specific tool.
In this article, I want to explain in simple terms: why an athlete needs a mental coach, what issues they can address with them, and how this work differs from that of a sports psychologist.
What Mental Coaching in Sports Means to Me
One can be physically prepared, have a good understanding of tactics, and technically know how to perform what is required. Yet at a certain moment, one may find that everything works during training but falters during competitions.
After making one mistake, it is difficult to get back into the game. When in the lead, thoughts arise: "Now the main thing is not to lose" — and actions become more cautious. Before an important start, the body stiffens. After a series of failures, doubts arise not only about the result but also about one’s own abilities, making it increasingly difficult to turn the game around.
This is often where the phrase crops up: "The problem is in the head."
But what to do about it? And who to turn to?
To me, mental coaching is both understanding oneself and developing skills that help the athlete remain effective under challenging conditions.
However, I do not aim to turn an athlete into someone who never fears, doubts, gets angry, or is always confident in themselves. Such an athlete likely does not exist.
Pressure, nervousness, fear of mistakes, disappointment, anger, doubts — these are natural parts of sports. The question is: what happens to my actions when I experience all this?
Can I return to the next action after a mistake?
Can I continue to play my game when the score equals?
Can I make decisions when I am pressured by the expectations of a coach, team, family, or my own?
Thus, in our work, we explore the mechanisms behind the athlete's reactions: what a mistake means to them, why certain situations evoke particularly strong responses, what beliefs affect their decisions, and what happens to their confidence after a failure.
We can also refer to past experiences. But not to analyze the past endlessly, rather to understand what from it impacts me today and what I can do moving forward?
Simultaneously, we work on specific mental skills: attention, concentration, self-regulation, managing internal dialogue, recovery from mistakes, adaptation to pressure, and other tools necessary for the specific athlete.
How Does a Mental Coach Differ from a Sports Psychologist?
It is vital not to create an artificial boundary here.
Both a sports psychologist and a mental coach can work on similar topics: confidence, motivation, pressure, concentration, attitudes towards mistakes, injuries, transitional periods.
The difference lies primarily in the professional framework, the specialist’s training, and the nature of the inquiry.
A sports psychologist works based on psychological education and knowledge of mental processes and human behavior. Their work can address not only athletic performance but also anxiety, emotional difficulties, self-esteem, relationships, traumatic experiences, psychological distress, and other processes that may extend far beyond sports.
However, it would be incorrect to think that a sports psychologist is approached only when there is a psychological disorder. They can also work on motivation, confidence, concentration, pressure, recovery from injuries, and other issues directly related to athletic activity.
In my practice, a mental coach primarily works with how the athlete functions here and now and how they want to act moving forward.
We explore their perception of the situation, reactions, habitual mechanisms, goals, resources, and decisions, and then translate this understanding into specific actions while developing the necessary mental skills.
This combination of understanding one’s mechanisms and training mental skills is the foundation of my work.
Whom Should You Turn To?
To put it simply, I would not focus on the question of “How deep is my problem?”, but rather on “What help am I currently seeking?”
It makes sense to contact a mental coach if you generally handle everyday life but want to better understand yourself and act more effectively in specific situations in sports.
For example:
- you perform well during training, but tighten up during competitions;
- you struggle to recover from a mistake;
- the pressure of results significantly alters your decisions;
- after a series of failures, your confidence has weakened;
- you find it difficult to cope with the expectations of others;
- physically, you are ready to return after an injury, but psychologically have doubts or fears;
- you anticipate a club change, a period without a contract, or another transitional phase;
- you’re contemplating retirement from professional sports and unsure of what comes next;
- you find it hard to separate your own desires and goals from the expectations of your coach, club, or surroundings;
- you wish to better understand your reactions and develop skills that would assist you in your athletic endeavors.
That said, the depth of conversation does not, by itself, turn coaching into psychotherapy.
We can discuss fear, doubts, beliefs, past experiences, relationships with a coach, or what the athlete thinks about themselves.
The boundary appears where the inquiry requires psychological diagnosis or treatment, or when psychological distress becomes so pronounced and persistent that work strictly within coaching no longer meets the person's needs.
If I understand during my work with an athlete that their inquiry exceeds my competence, my task is to express this and refer them to the appropriate specialist.
Working with a psychologist and a mental coach does not necessarily exclude each other. It can proceed in parallel, especially when the specialist works within their competence and understands the boundaries of their work.
Therefore, when choosing a specialist, I would look not only at the title of their profession but also at their education, training, working methods, experience in the sports environment, and, of course, how comfortable and trustworthy you feel with the specialist.
Ekaterina Kudunova
Mental Coach for Athletes
Professional • Semi-Professional • Amateur Sports
France & Online | FR • RU • EN
If you are unsure whether your inquiry is suitable for mental coaching, you can write to me and briefly describe your situation.