🧠 The Science Behind Sports Performance Journaling
Why the world’s best athletes write things down — and how you can too.
When we think about athletic performance, we often focus on talent, training, and coaching. But the science is clear: one of the most powerful tools in your performance toolkit is something personal, simple, and often overlooked — a journal.
At MySportsNotes, our planners are built to help athletes perform better by becoming more self-aware, intentional, and consistent. And there’s plenty of research that proves just how effective journaling can be.
📘 1. Setting Goals Boosts Results
Athletes who write down specific goals are more likely to achieve them.
Research by Locke & Latham (2002) found that goal-setting can improve performance by up to 30%. The more specific and challenging the goal, the more likely it is to drive focus, motivation, and follow-through.
— Locke & Latham, Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance
📊 In one study, basketball players who used written goal-setting improved their free-throw shooting by 22% in just four weeks.
✍️ 2. Handwriting Improves Learning and Retention
What you write by hand, you remember.
Studies from Princeton and UCLA (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014) show that handwriting activates more complex brain processes than typing — leading to better memory and stronger learning.
— Mueller & Oppenheimer
🧠 Writing by hand can boost memory recall by 15%, helping athletes internalize key feedback and coaching moments more effectively.
🎯 3. Intention Setting Sharpens Focus
Your mindset before a session matters.
Athletes who mentally prepare and set intentions before training show more consistent performance and better emotional control. A meta-analysis by Weinberg & Gould (2018) found that mental skills training can improve outcomes by up to 23%.
— Weinberg & Gould, Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology
Even just 2–3 minutes of intention-setting before a game can help you focus, reduce stress, and perform more confidently.
✅ Built for Athletes. Backed by Science.
At My Sports Notes, we don’t just sell notebooks — we create performance tools designed using research-backed methods that help you:
- Set clear goals
- Reflect with honesty
- Track habits and training quality
- Prepare mentally with intention
- Learn and retain feedback faster
Whether you're chasing a personal best or building team culture, journaling helps you make real progress — and actually see it happen.