Volume 25, Issue 33 | April 28, 2026

Modeling Composure

By their very nature, sports throw unexpected challenges our way all the time. A ball takes a bad hop in the field, a player trips on a breakaway, teammates miscommunicate…

Composure is a tool that all athletes can use more of. Mike Edger, writing in the online blog Sports Psychology Today tells athletes that "to gain maximum composure in competition you must accept that you are going to make mistakes and experience setback in competitions. Remember you are human and that you can’t be perfect. Learn to be more accepting of mistakes and encourage the ability to move forward and focus on the next play, shot, race, or routine. When you do make a mistake have a strategy that helps you regain composure" (The Key to Composure in Sports, www.sportspsychologytoday.com).

The 3 R's for Composure

Edger teaches athletes the 3 R’s for Composure to help them maintain composure after making a mistake or error. The 3 R’s stand for: Recognize – Regroup – Refocus. 

1. Recognize when you are dwelling on a mistake, which limits your ability to focus on the next play. 
2. Regroup by interrupting that chain of thought. This requires the athlete to battle their own emotions and dispute their irrational thinking. 
3. Refocus on the next play. This last step is most crucial. Ask yourself what you need to focus on right now to do your best on the next play?

Stephanie Chuna and Lisa D. Lucchesi, co-authors of Maximum Composure: Dominate emotions with the adaptive mindset system (2020, Mental Accelerator), suggest that athletes need to take ownership of their own self-confidence, including composure. One of the ways to do this is create practice situations that mimic challenges and allow you and your team to practice and build composure. Ask your coach to create these practice opportunities so that you can practice not reacting but being proactive after bad calls, managing loud noises or other distractions and regrouping after unexpected challenges. The goal in these practice sessions is to recognize your emotions (including anger, fear and anxiety), acknowledge them, and then choose to refocus your mental state to look forward to the next play with confidence.

                           Modeling Composure

Additionally, athletes need to model composure. Emotions are contagious on a team. If you express anger, that feeling can be “catchy” and others around you might feed on that negativity. If you remain calm, your composure will also be infectious helping your teammates control their emotions.

A Real-World Example: Head Coach Nick Saban tells a cool story about former Alabama quarterback Mac Jones, who just completed a successful rookie season with the NFL's New England Patriots. “So, every time he would throw the ball, I would just look at Mac,” Saban said [on] his weekly radio show. ”I could tell whether it was complete, or incomplete based on his body language. And I told the film guy, film this.” Saban later sat down with Jones and reviewed film of his play. “I said, “ This is how you’re affecting everybody else,’” Saban said. “‘I can’t even see whether you threw the ball complete or incomplete, and I can tell if it was complete or incomplete by how you’re acting.” Saban went on to tell Jones that this behavior wouldn’t work at the quarterback position. Figuring out how to control his emotions was one of Jones’ biggest hurdles for the quarterback to overcome, Saban said (SB Nation, November 19, 2021).

As this example illustrates, maintaining composure can have a significant impact on both your own performance and that of your teammates. Review the 3 R's above and consider how you respond to mistakes or distractions. Then commit to working on this important area, gaining control over your emotions and modeling composure during practices and games.

"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control." ~ 2 Timothy 1:7

A Prayer for Athletes

The significance of oneself cannot be measured by the fame and glory of my athletic accomplishments but by the love and compassion I have shown to others every day of my life, without fame or glory or thanks just in the name of love. May all the little things we do for one another count as the most significant thing we do in our life time. Amen.

Adapted from poem by Mi Sun Ellis