I Work With Elite Athletes—Here’s Why I Sometimes Ban Wearables
During one Grand Slam week, I told an athlete to take his fitness tracker off and put it in a drawer. Not because the data was wrong, but because it was becoming the problem. The modern athlete often wakes up and checks their score before their feet hit the floor: sleep quality, HRV, readiness. A small device has already delivered a verdict on the night. In theory, that should make performance management simpler; in reality, it can make it more complicated.
The issue isn’t accuracy. Wearables are remarkably good at tracking sleep, heart rate variability, and physiological stress, and over time, they provide valuable insight into training patterns. Used well, they help coaches spot trends, adjust workloads, and manage recovery across long seasons. The challenge begins when short-term numbers start influencing day-to-day behaviour more than live physical feedback. This shift from insight to anxiety is a documented risk. Recent research has even shown that people using fitness trackers to monitor heart conditions like AFib often feel more anxious about their health simply by having the data constantly available.
Related: Obsessing Over Your Health? It Might Be Time to Break Up With Your Tracker, Experts Suggest
When Your Data Starts to Overrule Your Physical Intuition
For elite athletes, recovery is already a psychologically loaded part of performance, particularly during competition periods when cognitive and emotional stress are elevated. Athletes are wired to optimise, and many operate with a powerful mix of ambition and fear of underperforming. When a recovery score appears first thing in the morning, it can quietly shape the tone of the day before the athlete has checked in with how they actually feel. What looks like neutral data can subtly alter confidence.
A low score rarely stays neutral. It becomes a narrative carried into training, influencing decisions in ways that aren’t always rational. Intensity may drop unnecessarily, or minor fluctuations in sleep metrics can create disproportionate concern. Over time, the data stops informing behaviour and starts driving it. In high-pressure environments, that extra layer of evaluation can add noise to a system that depends on clarity and trust.
Performance psychologist Michael Gervais has said that on game day, athletes shouldn’t look at external readiness indicators at all because their job is simply to compete. That principle reflects what I often see during major tournaments or demanding training blocks. Athletes are already managing elevated arousal, travel fatigue, and disrupted sleep. Waking up to an immediate performance score can create unconscious pressure to “fix” something that may not need fixing, shifting focus away from execution and toward self-monitoring.
Related: Is Your Fitness Tracker Actually Hurting You?
Why Execution Requires Removing the Noise of Constant Monitoring
This is why I sometimes recommend removing continuous monitoring devices during competition periods. It isn’t about rejecting data or dismissing technology, but about understanding timing and context. I often compare it to receiving a test result the moment you wake up: if it reassures you, confidence rises; if it doesn’t, the brain shifts into correction mode. That shift can happen even when the body feels physically capable and ready. In elite sport, that subtle psychological tilt can be the difference between calm execution and hesitant performance.
Sleep expert Stephanie Romiszewski makes a great point about the risks of overtracking your sleep, which can sometimes create psychological overload, increase stress, and leave you feeling mentally foggy at the start of the day. She also notes that simply seeing a low score on your wearable can trigger a negative feedback signal, potentially influencing your stress response and nervous system state, something that can happen even if the data itself isn’t the full story.
High-performance coaching isn’t about eliminating information; it’s about managing cognitive load so attention stays on execution, recovery habits, and competitive clarity. Wearables are powerful tools when used to guide long-term decisions, but they shouldn’t become judges of daily readiness. Recovery is not a score to achieve; it is a biological and psychological process that unfolds after consistent work. Data can support adaptation, but confidence ultimately drives performance. Sometimes the most effective coaching decision isn’t adding another metric, but removing the one that’s quietly undermining belief.