Psychology Trick: Cut The Sandbags!
A sports psychologist that I consult with, Alex Bolowich of Elite Mental Performance, taught me a powerful lesson earlier this year.
We were discussing my eventual return to soccer after my long injury absence (right knee ACL reconstruction, medial meniscus repair, lateral meniscus repair, and IT band tenodesis in August 2025). Specifically, I was asking for help about the psychological piece of returning to play, knowing that I had been working hard on the physical piece of rehab but still had a lot of work to do on the mental piece.
You’ve probably seen this picture in my office! Does it look familiar?
“How do I learn to trust my right knee again? How do I build my confidence enough to help address my fear of reinjury?” I asked.
He gave me a simple yet eloquent analogy: the hot air balloon.
“What two things does a hot air balloon need to get off the ground?”
1. Hot air
2. Cut the sandbags
Regarding the hot air, you need to add heat to make the balloon rise. As it pertains to mental health, this is “adding the positive”: listening to motivational speeches, vibing to good music, adding positive affirmations, etc.
But here’s the trouble: you can add all the hot air in the world but it’s not going to make the hot air balloon rise. Not at least until you cut the sandbags that keep the hot air balloon anchored to the ground: you need to “remove the negative.” This includes not allowing yourself to spiral when negative thoughts arise, but instead to stop the thought and shift it towards something more positive.
An example of this is “I don’t know if my right knee will hold up during my first game back. What if I get hurt again and have to start over?” Let’s stop these negative thoughts (in my case, with the addition of snapping my fingers to “snap” out of it) and then shift it towards something like “I warmed up well today. I’m motivated and confident without being arrogant. I can only control my hard work and attitude, so let’s give it my best shot!”
This hot air balloon analogy is genius.
I’ve been searching for something like this for years, not just for myself but for the thousands of people I’ve treated over the years. It’s akin to Occam’s razor, which is a rule stating that the simplest explanation is usually the best explanation.
The genius of the hot air balloon analogy is that it’s so simple! It makes perfect sense and is relevant to a wide range of topics.
So as you relate this back to yourself, ask yourself this: “Do I struggle with adding the hot air or do I struggle with cutting the sandbags?” If the answer is “cutting the sandbags”, use some of these above tools to help you grow into that potential you always knew you had. We’ll be watching your beautiful hot air balloon fly high in the sky!