Benefits of Journaling for Athletes: What the Research Actually Shows

Ask around any competitive gym or team and someone will tell you journaling helps. The research on the benefits of journaling for athletes is more specific than that, and more mixed. Some kinds of writing have solid evidence behind them. Others rest on small studies, studies of non-athletes, or a popular statistic nobody can trace back to a real paper.

If you compete and your training time is limited, it helps to know which is which. Below are four kinds of writing athletes do, ordered roughly from strongest evidence to weakest.

The short answer

• Strongest evidence: setting goals, especially process goals, and tracking your progress in writing.
• Good evidence: self-talk cues you plan and practice. A journal is a natural place to plan and track them.
• Promising but limited: writing about worries before you compete, and expressive writing after an injury or a hard stretch.
• Least direct evidence: everyday training reflection on its own, though it's where the stronger habits actually happen.

1. Goal setting and tracking (strongest evidence)

This is the best-supported use of a journal. A meta-analysis by Williamson and colleagues (2024) pooled 27 sport studies and found goal setting improved performance. The largest effects came from process goals, the actions you control in a session, like "win the grip before I shoot." Outcome goals on their own, like "medal at nationals," had a very small effect.

Tracking matters as much as setting. A meta-analysis of 138 studies on goal monitoring (not limited to sport) by Harkin and colleagues found that checking progress toward a goal made people more likely to reach it. The effect was stronger when progress was physically recorded or shared with someone else. That is the practical case for a journal over a mental note.

A smaller sport study points the same way. In Zimmerman and Kitsantas (1996), high school students learning to throw darts improved more with process goals than with outcome goals, and recording their own practice raised both their skill and their confidence.

One caution: you may have seen the claim that people who write goals down are 42% more likely to achieve them. That number has a shakier history than most people realize.

2. Self-talk cues (good evidence)

A 2011 meta-analysis of 32 studies by Hatzigeorgiadis and colleagues found that self-talk interventions had a moderate positive effect on sport performance. Two details make this relevant to a journal.

First, self-talk worked better when athletes trained it, rather than simply being told to use it. Second, short instructional cues ("eyes on the hips," "long exhale") were especially effective on fine, precise skills. Writing your cues down, testing them in practice, and noting which ones held up under pressure is a simple way to do that training. We cover the details, including when positive affirmations backfire, in our post on self-talk for athletes.

3. Writing about worries before you compete (promising)

In a 2011 study published in Science, Ramirez and Beilock had students write about their worries for 10 minutes right before a high-pressure test. The writing group improved on their earlier scores, while a group that didn't write scored worse under pressure.

These were students taking math tests, not athletes on a mat or a start line, and the direct evidence in sport is still thin. The idea is cheap to test, though, and it pairs well with research on reframing nerves as excitement. Both are in our guide to dealing with nerves before a competition.

4. Expressive writing about hard experiences (promising, small effects)

Expressive writing means writing honestly about your thoughts and feelings around something difficult, usually for 15 to 20 minutes per session over a few sessions. It has the longest research history of anything here, going back to James Pennebaker's work in the 1980s, which we covered in the science of expressive writing.

It also comes with the most important caveat. A 2006 meta-analysis of 146 randomized studies by Frattaroli found a real but small average benefit. Expressive writing helps some people some of the time. It doesn't transform everyone.

Sport studies are small but interesting. In a randomized trial of injured student-athletes, Duncan, Gidron and Lavallee (2013) found that three weekly 20-minute writing sessions led to better mobility at the injury site, measured by a physiotherapist who didn't know which group each athlete was in. Self-reported distress didn't change. In a qualitative study, Hudson and Day (2012) had 16 athletes write about competitive stressors. Athletes described changes in perspective, problem solving, and managing emotions, and the authors concluded expressive writing "may be a technique that is useful for some athletes." There's more on the injury research in our post on coping with a sports injury mentally.

What about everyday training reflection?

Short daily reflection after practice is what most athletes mean by a training journal, and it has the least direct research of its own. Its support is borrowed from the sections above. Your post-session notes are where goal tracking and cue testing actually happen. A quick entry that asks "did I do my process goal today?" and "which cue did I use?" puts the strongest findings to work in about two minutes.

For a simple format, see how to reflect on training sessions. For what changes over the first few months, read what happens when athletes start journaling.

How to start journaling as a competitive athlete

Make goals and tracking your daily habit. Set one process goal before a session, check it afterward, and look back weekly. This has the best evidence and takes the least time.

Keep a short list of cues. Test them in training, keep what holds up, and bring them to competition.

Use expressive writing selectively. Save it for an injury, a painful loss, or a stressful stretch. Davis and colleagues (2020), writing about athletes, suggest 15 to 20 minutes for three to five sessions and caution that it can stir up difficult feelings at first.

Know the limits. A journal supports your coach, physio, and support team. It doesn't replace them. If you're struggling with your mental health, talk to a qualified professional.

Start with the parts that have the best evidence

You can do all of this in a notebook. If you'd rather not, Sherpa is a free athlete journal built around the best-supported habit on this list: set an intention before training, reflect afterward with a few ratings and notes, and see patterns over time with AI insights. Download Sherpa free on the App StoreSherpa is coming to AndroidSherpa is coming to Android.

Studies referenced

• Williamson, O. et al. (2024). The performance and psychological effects of goal setting in sport: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 17(2). doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2022.2116723
• Harkin, B. et al. (2016). Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin. APA summary
• Zimmerman, B. J., & Kitsantas, A. (1996). Self-regulated learning of a motoric skill: The role of goal setting and self-monitoring. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 8, 60-75.
• Hatzigeorgiadis, A. et al. (2011). Self-talk and sports performance: A meta-analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(4), 348-356. doi.org/10.1177/1745691611413136
• Ramirez, G., & Beilock, S. L. (2011). Writing about testing worries boosts exam performance in the classroom. Science, 331(6014), 211-213.
• Frattaroli, J. (2006). Experimental disclosure and its moderators: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(6), 823-865.
• Duncan, E., Gidron, Y., & Lavallee, D. (2013). Can written disclosure reduce psychological distress and increase objectively measured injury mobility of student-athletes? A randomized controlled trial. ISRN Rehabilitation. doi.org/10.1155/2013/784249
• Hudson, J., & Day, M. C. (2012). Athletes' experiences of expressive writing about sports stressors. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13(6), 798-806. doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2012.05.005
• Davis, P. A. et al. (2020). Written emotional disclosure can promote athletes' mental health and performance readiness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.599925