Breaking the Cycle: How Core Beliefs Reinforce Themselves — SS #45

Welcome back! Last time, we explored how core beliefs and schemas shape our thoughts, emotions, and performance. But knowing your beliefs is one thing—changing them is another.

Today, we’ll look at how these beliefs reinforce themselves, why they’re so difficult to shift, and what we can do about it. (I recommend reading last week’s issue if you haven’t already so that you can fully benefit from reading this!)

Make Sure You Understand This + The Self-Referential Nature of Our Cognitive Structures

All right, I know we covered quite a lot of information last week. So let’s have a quick summary from McArdle and Moore (2012) on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

This is just a compressed version of what we have covered:

1. Cognitions (thoughts) influence emotions and behaviors. Your emotions on the court (and in life) don’t just occur in a vacuum. Thoughts are heavily involved

2. Cognitive restructuring is one of the keys to change.

3. We process information at different levels (automatic thoughts, cognitive distortions, core beliefs).

4. Cognitive content matters—specific patterns relate to specific challenges (e.g.: anxiety, perfectionism).

I also want to add that our thoughts (cognitions) and subsequent emotions and behaviors are self-referential and self-reinforcing in nature.

In other words, as we experience events and occurrences in our lives, we unknowingly refer back to our core beliefs to validate their existence.

For example, a player with the core belief that “I don’t have the killer instinct or the x-factor. That’s why I’m not really successful in life…,” is likely to engage in distortions when they’re playing tennis matches—distortions like overgeneralization.

Maybe their inability to close out a close match once has led them to the belief that they just aren’t good in those tight and tense moments.

And because they believe this, they are less likely to execute when it matters. And because they are less likely to execute when it really matters, this reinforces their deep-rooted core belief: “I don’t have the killer instinct or the x-factor. That’s why I’m not really successful in life….”

It is cyclical.

And it is powerful.

Unless we learn to become more aware.

“I Am Only Worthy If I Win.”

Let’s hammer it home with another example: the player who derives self-worth from winning and losing. Full transparency. This is something I’ve struggled with!

Have you ever walked off the court feeling like it meant something about you? Not just your performance on that particular day or for those particular hours—but as a reflection on you as a human being?

If so, I hope the following helps.

One of the most insidious beliefs an athlete can hold is, “My worth as a human being is defined by my achievements.” Conversely, “If I don’t achieve things or am not successful, it means I am lesser than.” It’s a core belief because it isn’t just about tennis. It’s bigger than that. It’s about your entire identity. For a player who thinks like this, winning is not about success necessarily; it’s a form of validation.

Losing? It’s not a simple failure. But it’s proof that they are not good enough—not just as a tennis player but as a person. This core belief fuels the cognitive distortion that the athlete can derive their self-worth from winning more (winning more matches, and tournaments, improving their ranking, etc.). If winning is validation, then every match is a measurement of personal worth.

From there come the NATs. Before a match, it might be, “I have to win.” During the match, let’s say they make a simple mistake, “Why can’t I do this? Why can’t I get it in? Why do I always fail?” And after a loss? “I knew it.” “I am a failure.”

The problem is that this approach makes every match feel like a pressure cooker where losing isn’t an isolated issue in performance or execution.

It’s castigation from the sporting gods.

And winning doesn’t solve the problem. That’s the worst part. It just delays it and masks it with a temporary salve. Based on everything we’ve covered so far, imagine what having this core belief does to your emotions and behaviors. It’s going to play havoc upon them. Insidious. Disturbing. And challenging.

The reality is that this belief needs to be carefully dismantled. It’s not about lowering standards or accepting loss and mediocrity. But it is about detaching self-worth from winning a fucking tennis match.

It’s just a tennis match. In the words of Ash Barty, “The sun’s [still] going to come up tomorrow.”

It’s about rebuilding a new core belief: “My value is not tied to winning and losing tennis matches. Nor is it tied to achievements and gaining status etc.”

This isn’t a self-help cliché by the way. Because if your entire identity hinges on something as unpredictable as tennis match results, you’ll always feel like you’re one loss away from devastation.

If this is you… you need to ask yourself if this belief is serving you or causing you more pain.

A Work Sheet to Help You Figure Out Your Core Beliefs

And, again, I’ve made a worksheet for you to help you figure out your maladaptive core beliefs! Feel free to download it.

I’m making it available at no cost to you.

Sports Psychology’s Obsession With Self-Talk

If you’ve spent any time reading and exploring mental skills training and sports psychology, you’ve probably come across the idea of trying to improve your self-talk. Interpretations of this go something like, “Replace negative thoughts with positive ones,” or “Tell yourself how confident you are,” or even, “Use affirmations.”

And, sure, that might help in the short term. But here’s the problem for me. Self-talk is essentially attempting to restructure NATs—but it does nothing to address the deeper distortions and core beliefs that create those NATs in the first place.

Think about the cognitive structure we have spoken about: Core Beliefs → Cognitive Distortions → NATs. Now let’s take an example. A player struggles in tight matches. They’re told to use self-talk by a sports psychologist or sports psychology practitioner—so maybe they start relying on the phrase, “I am confident.” Or maybe they’re calling on motivational self-talk like, “You can do it.”

But… deep down… when it really matters in a super pressure-filled environment… they still believe that they don’t have the killer instinct or the personality type to execute when it really counts. So, that belief doesn’t just disappear because they’re saying some words to themselves.

This is the fundamental flaw with how self-talk is often used: when it’s treated as a quick fix, it only scratches the surface and doesn’t address deeper cognitive distortions or core beliefs.

That said, research has shown that when used strategically—such as instructional self-talk for technique or motivational self-talk for persistence—it can enhance performance. The issue isn’t self-talk itself, but rather the idea that positive affirmations alone can resolve deeply ingrained thought patterns. For lasting change, self-talk should be paired with restructuring deeper beliefs and maybe even behavioral change.

If the player misses an easy approach shot to take the lead in a tiebreaker or starts falling behind in the score, they’re going to suffer.

Old patterns might emerge. Anxiety might spike. Self-doubt works its way back in. And suddenly the self-talk isn’t enough, and it might even feel like you’re constantly trying to lie to yourself.

McArdle and Moore (2012), citing research in psychopathology, argue that self-talk interventions alone might be ineffective because they fail to produce lasting emotional change. If an athlete’s cognitive distortions aren’t assessed and their core beliefs remain uncovered, self-talk can be like wallpaper, used to hide faulty foundations in what could potentially be a house of cards.

Instead of relying on self-talk as a primary intervention, here’s a more effective approach:

• Identifying and challenging cognitive distortions

• Testing beliefs through behavioral experiments

• Use structured sessions and on-court training to shift thought patterns over periods of time

I want to be clear: I’m re-reading the section above and it does come across as a little harsh. Self-talk isn’t useless. It has a place as a supplemental tool, and it has value when applied strategically, such as using instructional cues for technique or motivational statements to push through fatigue. (An important point to note is that must generally align with an athlete’s underlying beliefs.)

But the idea that it can be a foundation for mental and emotional resilience is flawed.

We know what the foundations are! And we need to challenge and assess the distortions and core beliefs and schema which make them.

References

McArdle, S., & Moore, P. (2012). Applying evidence-based principles from CBT to sport psychology. The Sport Psychologist, 26, 299-310. https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.26.3.299

Disclaimer: I am not an Association of Applied Sports Psychology CMPC, certified sports psychology practitioner, nor am I a licensed mental health counselor, PsyD, or clinical PhD. I am pursuing a master’s in sports, exercise, and performance psychology, and I am a sports psychology practitioner-in-training. I have over 20 years of experience in tennis, including playing, coaching collegiately and with professional players, along with club management experience as a director of programs. I am certified by the Professional Tennis Registry and am a member of Tennis Australia. My aim is to bring the best information to tennis players around the world so that you can apply it for long-term improvement—but sometimes I will make mistakes. If this is your area of research or expertise, and you feel I’ve misunderstood something, please get in touch with me and if required I will happily issue a correction.