Curiosity is the engine.Tools · ATHLETE
Refocus on your next move
Decide what the current task needs you to do next
During a performance, pressure or a mistake can pull your attention away from what you need to do. Use these questions to identify the next task you can actually carry out. You can practise them beforehand so you do not need to write during a performance. After missing a pass, a player notices the thought “I am letting everyone down.” They look for the ball and their position, then call to a teammate and get ready for the next play. A performer could instead look at the score and prepare the next entry.
Before you type anything
This worksheet does not send, save, or track anything you type. Entries stay in the page until you clear it or leave. Your own browser, keyboard, or extensions may still process what you type, so do not enter anyone's name or identifying details.
What this tool can't do
- Injury assessment, return-to-play decisions, diagnosis, treatment, crisis response, or performance prediction
- Overriding pain, medical advice, safeguarding concerns, concussion protocols, or an athlete's choice to stop
- Deciding whether a coach, team, organization, or athlete acted appropriately
- Entering details about an athlete, teammate, coach, club, competition, or incident
When to stop and use another route
- Pause immediately for injury, concussion concern, breathing or cardiac symptoms, altered awareness, immediate danger, maltreatment, coercion, or any situation where continuing may be unsafe. Use the relevant medical, emergency, safeguarding, or trusted-person route.
- For immediate danger call 9-1-1. In Canada, call or text 9-8-8 for suicide crisis support. This public tool does not replace individualized care or qualified performance support.
The questions
The whole exercise stays visible, and every question is optional. Start with the question that catches something useful, leave anything blank, and stop when the exercise stops helping.
Describe what is difficult right now
Start with what matters or feels hard without requiring a complete explanation.
A few words are enough. For example: I made a mistake and I am still thinking about it.
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Look for what needs your attention
Use an external cue and a little distance from the commentary only if those moves are useful.
For example: the ball, a teammate's position, the target, the next whistle or the first note. Keep your eyes open if you use sight.
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Name the thought without treating it as an instruction you must obey.
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For example: I notice frustration and an urge to rush. This describes what is happening, not what kind of person you are.
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Write the next action you can take
Name how you want to show up, then make the action observable and small enough for this moment.
Choose a quality such as patience, precision, courage or care. For example: patient enough to wait for the pass.
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Name something you can actually do within your role and current instructions: move into position, ask a question, get set or begin the next phrase.
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Decide when to pause or ask for help
A medical, safety, safeguarding, capacity, or consent boundary remains larger than the routine.
Record a relevant health, safety, capacity or consent limit and the role you would approach. Do not write a person's name here.
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What you have so far
Your next-action note
Your own words, kept in order — not a score, an interpretation, or a recommendation.
- SEE
- No entry yet
- BRING
- No entry yet
- DO
- No entry yet
- PAUSE / ASK IF
- No entry yet
This is a structured copy of your own entries. The tool does not score, interpret, diagnose, predict, or recommend.
Keep it or clear it
There is no submit button. Use Print if you choose to keep a copy, then Clear before leaving.
Before you use this to make a decision
Use the action only while it fits the task and the situation is safe enough to continue. A performance routine never overrides medical advice, consent, a need for help or a decision to stop.
Sources and limitations
What the evidence does not establish
- The cited sport studies are small and context-specific. They do not show that this exact routine improves performance or works across sports, ages, identities, or settings.
- One cited ice-hockey trial involved 34 male junior elite players; objective effects were not maintained at follow-up. It cannot support a general performance claim.
- A pre-performance routine study found no between-group benefit on its primary accuracy comparison; routines should not be sold as reliable performance enhancers.
- The exercise produces no score, diagnosis, treatment recommendation, selection judgment, or outcome promise.
- Every prompt is optional. “Not now,” “skip,” pausing, or asking for help can be a values-consistent response.
The sources behind the structure
- IOC consensus statement on mental health in elite athletes (2019) ↗Supports athlete-centred, biopsychosocial care and attention to the sport environment.
- Sport Integrity Canada — Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport, version 7.0 ↗Current Canadian safe-sport boundary for in-scope national organizations; applicability depends on the setting.
- Acceptance and Commitment Training for ice hockey players: randomized controlled trial ↗Small, specific trial; direct performance evidence remains limited and objective effects were not maintained at follow-up.
- Wergin et al. (2020) — pre-performance routine interventions in beach volleyball serving ↗Randomized study with null between-group findings; constrains performance claims.
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