More Than Physical
What Does “Psychological Readiness” Really Mean?
When an athlete is cleared to return to sport after injury, there’s often an assumption that the hardest part is over. The body is healed, the training resumes, and the athlete picks up where they left off. Easy enough, right?
Well, it’s not as easy as it seems. Many injured athletes are aware of the harsh reality:
Getting physically cleared is one thing. Feeling ready is another.
Psychological Readiness Is Not Just a Bonus. It’s Essential.
Psychological readiness refers to an athlete’s mental and emotional preparedness to re-engage in training and competition after injury. Although there is variation in how researchers define it, we use the following definition from Brewer & Redmond (2017):
In short, it’s the mental game of returning to sport.
If overlooked, lack of psychological readiness can show up in unhelpful ways:
Hesitation or re-injury due to movement avoidance
Performance dips even when physically capable
Chronic fear, tension, or distraction in during training or competition
Delays in return or even dropping out of sport entirely
Did you know that even when athletes meet objective physical return to sport criteria, up to 50% do not return to sport or return at a lower performance level, and the primary reason is lack of psychological readiness?!
But listen up. That’s not a sign of weakness.
It's a sign that the psychological recovery process deserves the same attention as the physical.
It’s A Lot More Than “Mind Over Matter”
Psychological readiness is not about suppressing fear or pushing through doubt, nor is it “fake it ‘till you make it.” It’s also different from treatment designed to reduce mental health symptoms that can surface throughout the injury process
It’s about building awareness, flexibility, and trust over time so you’re prepared to return to sport after injury.
Athletes who build these skills are likely to experience powerful benefits:
Confidence in the injured body part and their overall ability to execute
Motivation and sense of purpose in returning to sport
Low levels of fear or an ability to respond effectively to fear
Mental flexibility to manage thoughts and emotions under stress
Identity integration, especially after long a rehab process or role-related changes
And a bonus? These skills not only help when managing the mental side of sport injury, they also help athletes improve their performance!
This is where sport psychology has powerful tools to offer.
An Integrated Approach Is Best
True readiness happens when the body and mind are aligned. An integrated approach means everyone on an athlete’s team supports them through role-specific behaviors during the injury rehabilitation process:
Sports Medicine Professionals track physical benchmarks and check in on mental readiness throughout rehab
Sport Psychology Professionals work collaboratively with sports medicine professionals and teach student-athlete crucial psychological skills
Coaches understand and normalize psychological ebbs and flows.
Athletes learn to notice what’s going on internally, so they move with it toward their goals, not avoid it.
The Takeaway: Cleared to Return ≠ Ready to Return
Being cleared is an awesome and important medical milestone. But being ready is a mental and emotional space that athletes must train to reach.
We KNOW that psychological readiness significantly influences outcomes during return to sport (Tranaeus et al., 2024), yet there is not enough being done to help athletes develop the necessary mental skills to help them return to sport after injury. Accessible, evidence-based programs are needed.
Our team is on a mission to develop a comprehensive, research-backed program to help athletes and professionals build the necessary psychological readiness skills to return to sport after injury!
We support athletes not just by getting them back on the field, court, ice, track, or pitch, but by giving them tools supported by science to navigate the psychological aspect of recovery.
Join us as we dive deeper into what that looks like—fear, identity, confidence, support, and more.
Because real readiness means coming back not just physically able, but mentally ready and values-driven.
Welcome to Ready, Set, Return! We’re a group of professionals and researchers passionate about helping athletes be mentally ready to return to sport after injury.
We’re currently researching a self-directed program for collegiate student-athletes to help them build psychological readiness. We’re recruiting participants through 2025.
Learn more at www.readysetreturn.com.