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Dr Sanika Divekar | Sports Psychologist | India

@drsanikadivekar

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🧠 Sports & Performance Psychologist
🏆 Helping athletes perform under pressure
👩🏻‍💻 CMPC Supervisor
🥇Working with athletes & coaches
📍Mumbai/Online

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“Not caring” and “protecting yourself from caring too much” look the same from the outside. What you do next is completely different depending on which one it is.

Tag a #coach who needs to read this. Share it with a #parent before they have the wrong conversation this week.

{motivation, burnout, coaches, sports coach, sports parent, sports psychologist, sports psychology, high performance} by @drsanikadivekar

The score is forgotten faster than the silence in that car.

Send this to a sport parent before their next tournament - it’s a small shift that changes a lot.

If your child’s relationship with competition feels like it’s cracking, I work with athletes and parents on exactly this.

#parenting #sports #relationships #highperformance #communication

{sports parents, sports parenting, athletes, communication, high-performance, fyp} by @drsanikadivekar

Dear athlete, this one’s for the days the result doesn’t match the effort.

Working closely with athletes, the pattern I see most isn’t a lack of talent or drive. It’s how tightly self-worth gets wrapped around performance. This is my reminder, out loud, that the two are not the same thing.

Tag someone who needs to hear this after a tough week. 🤍

#DearAthlete #SportsPsychology #AthleteMentalHealth #SelfWorth #MentalPerformance by @drsanikadivekar

The athlete you see under pressure is still the same athlete. But pressure changes the environment in which their skills are being used.

* More attention.
* More consequences.
* More expectations.
* More self-awareness.
* More uncertainty.

That’s why an athlete can look technically excellent in training and struggle in competition.

The question isn’t necessarily: “Why can’t they handle pressure?”

A more useful question might be: “What changes for this athlete when the stakes increase?”

* Their attention?
* Their decision-making?
* Their self-talk?
* Their emotional response?
* Their relationship with mistakes?

Understanding that difference is where meaningful performance work begins. by @drsanikadivekar

If you’ve been saying:

“I know what I need to do, but I can’t do it in competition.”
“I keep thinking about mistakes.”
“I panic under pressure.”
“I’ve lost my confidence.”
“I can’t stop overthinking.”
“I perform differently when people are watching.”

You may have been trying to solve the problem by pushing harder.

More training. More motivation. More self-talk. More advice.

Sometimes the more useful question is: What is actually happening psychologically when you struggle?

That is where sports psychology can help. Not by giving you a magic mental trick! But by understanding the patterns underneath performance and working on them deliberately. by @drsanikadivekar

You make one mistake. Then:

“Forget it.”
“Don’t think about it.”
“Move on.”
“Don’t make another mistake.”

And suddenly the mistake has become the most important thing happening in your head.

The problem isn’t that you remembered the mistake. The problem is what happens next.

* You may start monitoring yourself.
* You may become more cautious.
* You may try to control every movement.
* You may become afraid of repeating it.
* And now one mistake has started influencing the next moment.

Good performance isn’t about having a completely empty mind. It’s about being able to notice what your mind is doing and redirect your attention toward what actually matters now.

The previous point is over. The next one isn’t. That’s where psychological skills become useful! by @drsanikadivekar

A first session isn’t about immediately handing an athlete five mental skills. It’s about understanding the person behind the performance.

⭐ What brings you in?
⭐ What’s happening in competition?
⭐ What’s happening in training?
⭐ When did you first notice it?
⭐ What happens before, during and after the difficult moments?
⭐ What are you saying to yourself?
⭐ What are you feeling?
⭐ What are you doing differently?

And perhaps most importantly: What does this problem mean to you?

Because the same performance problem can have completely different meanings for different athletes.

My job isn’t to make an athlete think positively all the time.

It’s to help them understand their psychological patterns and develop ways of responding that are more useful for them, both in performance and beyond it.

Sports psychology isn’t about removing everything uncomfortable. It’s about developing a different relationship with what shows up.

[sports psych, sports psychology, psychologist, athletes, high performance, therapy, fyp, explore, mental health in sports, coach, parents] by @drsanikadivekar

An athlete says: “I’ve lost confidence.” The response is often: “Let’s build your confidence.”

But confidence isn’t a single psychological skill. It can be affected by:

Performance history.
Fear of evaluation.
Perfectionism.
Self-criticism.
Injury.
Role uncertainty.
Expectations.
Burnout.
Team dynamics.
Identity.
Anxiety.

Two athletes can both say, “I don’t have confidence,” while experiencing completely different psychological processes.

So I don’t want to simply give an athlete confidence exercises. I want to understand:

🏸 What happened to your confidence?
🏸 When did you notice the change?
🏸 What are you expecting from yourself?
🏸 What happens in your mind immediately before performance?
🏸 What do you do when you make a mistake?
🏸 What does a bad performance mean to you?

Sometimes improving performance begins not with building confidence, but with understanding what has made confidence difficult to access in the first place. by @drsanikadivekar

After a disappointing performance, the instinct is often to analyse.

💭 “You should have done this.”
💭 “Why didn’t you do what we practised?”
💭 “You need to focus.”
💭 “You were doing so well in training.”

All of these comments can come from a good place. But imagine what the athlete is already doing internally. They’re replaying the mistake. They’re wondering what the coach thought. They’re comparing themselves with others. They’re worried about disappointing you. They may already know exactly what went wrong.

What they may not know is what to do with what happened emotionally.

Sometimes the most useful thing a parent can provide after competition isn’t analysis. It’s psychological safety.

➡️ “Tell me what that was like for you.”
➡️ “Do you want to talk about it?”
➡️ “I’m here.”

The technical conversation can happen later.

An athlete’s performance matters. But so does the relationship they develop with themselves when performance doesn’t go their way. by @drsanikadivekar

You train well. You know your skills. You’ve performed well before. You’ve probably even been told, “You have everything you need.”

And then competition arrives. Suddenly you’re thinking about everything.

Your technique. Your timing. The score. The opponent. What your coach is thinking. What happens if you make a mistake.

You aren’t necessarily less capable. But your attention may have shifted from performing to monitoring your performance. And that can change everything.

One of the things we explore in sports psychology is what happens to an athlete’s attention, thoughts, emotions and behaviour when the stakes increase.

Because the answer isn’t always: “Be more confident.”

Sometimes it’s about learning how to perform when confidence isn’t particularly high.

You don’t need to eliminate nerves to perform well. You need to develop the capacity to perform with them.

If you’ve been thinking, “I’m so much better in training,” that’s worth exploring rather than simply blaming yourself for “choking.”

[sports psychology, sports psychologist, athletes, high performance, mindset, fyp] by @drsanikadivekar

Been away from here for a while! But I’m doing what I love: sitting beside athletes as they figure out the game within the game.

[sports psychologist, sports psych, mental game, high performance, bts, fyp] by @drsanikadivekar

Inviting all sports parents - register now for our upcoming The Art and Science of Sports Parenting workshop and learn more on how to better support your young athlete with their Mental Game.

The Art and Science of Sport Parenting brings together experts from sports psychology, sports science, nutrition and high-performance sport to help parents better understand the journey of raising a young athlete.

For the course, Dr Sanika will lead two sessions - The Mental Game for Parents and a Game Day Workshop for Junior Athletes (8+).

The Mental Game will explore how confidence, focus, motivation, pressure and emotions affect performance, how these skills develop over time, and the simple tools young athletes can use to strengthen them. It will also look at the parent’s role - how to support confidence, manage our own expectations and emotions, and create an environment that strengthens rather than undermines the mental game.

In the Game Day Workshop, junior athletes will learn to apply these skills before, during and after competition - from managing nerves to recovering from mistakes and staying focused.

11 October – 15 November 2026 | 5-week live online programme

Regular Pass: ₹5,999 | Two Parent Pass: ₹7,999

BONUS: Game Day — The Mental Game Workshop for Junior Athletes (Worth ₹1,499)

Every enrolled parent gets complimentary access for one junior athlete. Junior athletes between 8-18 years can also be registered separately for the Game Day workshop.

Limited seats, register now. DM us for details or click the link in bio to register. See you! by @drsanikadivekar