What Is the MSA?
A research-backed, online assessment that takes just 25-30 minutes to complete. The MSA measures nine (9) critical mental skills across six (6) real-life situations — and delivers a personalized report showing exactly where an athlete excels and where they can grow.
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Built on decades of sports psychology research
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Validated by leading professional standards
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Available for individual athletes and full teams
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Designed for athletes ages 12 and up
Why Mental Skills Matter
The best athletes in the world aren't just physically gifted — they're mentally tough. Confidence, focus, composure under pressure — these aren't personality traits you're born with. They're skills. And like any skill, they can be identified, measured, and developed.
The MSA gives you the roadmap.
How It Works
1. Take the Assessment
Complete the online assessment — available for individual athletes or full teams.
2. Receive Your Report
Get a personalized, comprehensive report delivered straight to your inbox — for the athlete, the coach, or both.
3. Build Your Mental Game
Access development exercises, coaching tools, and resources to start strengthening the skills that matter most. (Registration Required).
Who It's For
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Athletes — Discover your mental strengths and unlock your full potential.
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Parents — Give your child the tools to compete with confidence, on and off the field.
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Coaches & Performance Teams — Get the diagnostic insight you need to develop your athletes where it counts most.
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Higher Education and Elite Programs — Scalable packages designed to bring mental skills development to your entire roster.
"Exceptional Measures. Superior Performance."
The MSA
The MSA measures nine (9) mental skills proven critical to peak athletic performance — identified through thousands of scientific studies. This online assessment takes roughly 20-30 minutes, and is available in individual and team sport versions.
Your MSA Score
Once complete, a personalized report with an interpretive guide is emailed directly to the athlete, coach, or both. Register on MSA4Sports.com to unlock development techniques and deeper insights from your report.
THE NINE MENTAL SKILLS
There are nine mental skills measured in the MSA:
*Note that occasionally we are asked why a particular attribute or skill is not included. The answer is that actually, the skill or attribute in question often is included; we just use different terminology, or it is represented by a combination of two or more of the mental skills above.
The Foundation of Mental Skills
BITEs is short for Behaviors, Images, Thoughts, and Emotions — the four characteristics every athlete must learn to manage to perform at their best.
Research has long shown that these four factors directly shape how we learn, handle pressure, and succeed under stress. For athletes, managing BITEs is the foundation of mental performance.
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BITEs are learned — and they can be changed
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Every mental skill has its own set of BITEs (e.g., Confidence BITEs, Goal Setting BITEs)
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BITEs influence each other — your thoughts affect your behavior, which affects your goals
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The MSA measures your BITEs so you know exactly where to focus
Cognitive behavioral psychologists (Beck, 1976) have known for a long time that a person’s behaviors, imagery, thoughts, and emotions (physiological arousal) greatly determine their success in learning, response to stress, and, more generally, a person’s overall mental health. This is true for athletes as well. Sports psychologists (Dorfman, 1989) have written about and work with athletes to help them manage their imagery, inner talk, and reaction to physiological arousal more effectively to improve performance.
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Any corrective action an athlete takes requires him/her to learn to manage BITEs better.
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There are different types of BITEs. There are different BITEs for each Mental Skill, like Task Confidence BITEs, Goal Setting BITEs, etc.
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BITEs are learned and can be changed through awareness (seeing the MSA report) and a program of change (MSD).
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Sports psychologists help athletes improve their BITEs.
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BITEs influence each other, for example, Task Confidence thoughts influence Goal Setting thoughts which, in turn, influence Goal Setting behavior.
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Managing BITEs successfully is the basis of the MSA4Sports Mental Skills Model (MSM).
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The MSA measures BITEs.
Beck, A.T. (1976). Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders, New York: International Universities Press.
Dorfman, H.A. & Kuehl, K. (1989). The Mental Game of Baseball. Diamond Communications, Lanham, Maryland.
Four Ways Athletes Build Mental Skills
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Mastery Experience
The most powerful way to grow. Succeeding at a skill builds confidence; repeated success accelerates it. Structure practice so athletes succeed more than they struggle.
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Vicarious Learning
Watching a live or on-demand performance of a respected athlete succeed at a task builds both skills and confidence — especially when the athlete sees themselves in that role model.
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Social Persuasion
Genuine praise and encouragement work. Empty flattery doesn't. Make it specific and credible.
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Physiological Arousal
Butterflies, a racing heart, sweaty palms — these are normal. How an athlete interprets these signals has a big impact on their confidence and performance.
MASTERY EXPERIENCE
Mastery experience is the most effective way to learn skills and increase an athlete's task confidence. Success increases task confidence, failure lowers it. When possible, manage the athlete’s experience of success. When the athlete practices the task or skill he or she should succeed significantly more often than fail. This will increase skills and task confidence more quickly and effectively than any other method.
VICARIOUS LEARNING
Learning through vicarious experience, observing a role model, is an effective method of increasing skills and task confidence. When an athlete sees a respected athlete succeeding at a skill or task, the athlete gains skills and increases task confidence. Vicarious learning is more effective when the athlete sees him or herself as similar to the role model.
SOCIAL PERSUASION
Social persuasion (verbal and non-verbal) is providing praise and encouragement to an athlete. Athletes cannot be persuaded by praise and encouragement that is insincere or false. Care should be taken to make statements of praise and encouragement that are credible to the athlete.
PHYSIOLOGICAL AROUSAL
Athletes commonly experience physiological arousal in the form of “butterflies” in the stomach, sweaty palms, increased heart rate, and in more extreme cases distress; shakes, fatigue, fear, nausea, etc. An athlete’s awareness of these physiological signs can have a large impact on an athlete's Task Confidence.
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