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Article: Improve Your Mental Toughness for Sports Performance

Many athletes search for the answer for how to become “mentally tough” and many athlete don’t
know how to cultivate it. Even worse, many athletes and coaches don’t know what mental toughness is and
how it can help their performance. Athletes hear professional athletes and Olympians espouse the virtues
of mental toughness training and how mental toughness was the reason for their great athletic
achievements. Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots highlighted the importance of mental
toughness, “Football is so much about mental toughness, it’s digging deep, it’s doing whatever you need to
do to help a team win.”
A lack of mental toughness is the biggest enemy of athletes. Lacking mental toughness causes
athletes to give up, give in, tank the match, and give less. The level of your athletic success is in direct
proportion to your level of mental toughness. To be mentally tough, you must be willing to do what most
athletes don’t do. First, let’s demystify mental toughness. Many athletes believe you are born with mental
toughness. The sentiment is you either have mental toughness or you don’t… And if you were not born with
the mental toughness gene, you can’t succeed in your sport. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You are
100% correct that you need mental toughness training to succeed but you are 100% wrong to believe you
cannot become mentally stronger.
Not only is mental toughness is an attitude and not something you were born with, it is a habit.
Mental toughness in athletics isn’t something you pull out of your back pocket when there are seconds left
in a game… or when you need to sink a 3-foot putt to win a tournament or even when you are up the plate
with bases loaded in the ninth inning. Mental toughness requires an ironclad approach to the challenges in
your sport on a consistent basis. You need to consistently focus, train, and grow your mental toughness
habit. When mental toughness training becomes a habit, you can perform at the upper range of your
athletic ability… And you are better equipped to handle obstacles, interference and difficult circumstances
without losing confidence or motivation. Mental toughness is like your fitness level, the more you train, the
more fit you become. When you stop training your fitness level slips back. If you don’t consistently attend to
your mental fitness, your mental toughness level begins to atrophy. So, in essence, mental toughness is
not an all-or-nothing proposition. There are varying degrees of mental toughness. This is great news
because all athletes can benefit from mental toughness training.

Summary:

Mentally tough athletes don’t make excuses when things don’t go their way. Instead of playing
the blame game, they take responsibility for their performance, go back to the drawing board, right the
ship and try again. Instead of doing things the way they always have, mentally tough athletes find new
ways of challenging themselves, pushing themselves to outer limits of their potential. Mentally tough
athletes understand what they did yesterday got them to where they are today… but more is required
today to get them to where they want to be tomorrow. Expend their energy on things that benefit
performance athletes focus on the things they can control. Mentally tough athletes don’t dwell on the
past or feel sorry for themselves nor do they concern themselves with distractions outside of their direct
control. They focus on what they can do in the present moment to overcome the challenges of
performance and give them the best opportunity to succeed and learn from their mistakes and the
mistakes of others, then the let go of the past and move forward. They also see the past as mental
training for better performance in the future. Mistakes, errors and losses don’t define mentally tough
athletes, these experiences strengthen their resolve and understand that fear of failure prevents fully
committing to and achieving excellence in their sport. Mentally tough athletes seek out opportunities to
move out of their comfort zone, meet challenges with enthusiasm instead of dread and anxiety.
Mentally tough athletes refuse to be average and understand they may miss the mark on occasions but
it is worth taking the chance in order to achieve great things.

Reactions:

Mental Toughness Applied in Sport Competition

In today’s world, it is rare to see individuals competing for pure pleasure, relaxation and innocent recreation.
The world in which we live today is seemingly more obsessed with success and with the desire and drive to “win”.
Perhaps it is the thought of being the best, the thought of being the most powerful or the most intelligent that is
captivating and encompasses our drive for success. In almost every endeavor that humankind embarks on there
exists the drive to be at the top, or to continuously improve at the very least. Top sports people today realize that
winning goes far beyond just technique and further includes a new dimension known as the ‘psychology of winning’
which incorporates a magnitude of different mental ingredients such as context specific mental skills found in tailor-
made Mental Toughness programmes.

Increased mental toughness: Developing mental toughness allows your athletes to perform at their full
potential under pressure, while also remaining calm and being able to bounce back from obstacles and mistakes.
Greater goal-getting: Setting goals provides direction for athletes' training. Mental toughness is “the ability to
consistently perform toward the upper range of your talent and skill regardless of competitive circumstances.”

Until recently, enquiries into the phenomenon of Mental Toughness were inundated with the commonly-held
notion that Mental Toughness was a ‘big cliché’ within the sporting world. The situation today is somewhat different.
The concept of Mental Toughness is no longer new, and for some times now there have existed many applied texts
devoted solely to the development and conceptualization of Mental Toughness. The increased flow of academic
interest in the Mental Toughness phenomenon clearly indicates the significance and importance that sport
psychologists, coaches and athletes themselves place on Mental Toughness. The influence that psychological
factors have on athletic performance is becoming increasingly important and prominent today, so much so that
coaches, athletes and sport administrators recognize that success cannot be guaranteed by raw physical talent
alone. In fact, many researchers have attributed Mental Toughness as being a significant influencing factor
contributing to successful performance excellence as well as a performance enhancer. Although this view is
endorsed by various researchers, within certain contexts such as in South Africa there is still a concerning lack of
belief in the influence of psychological intervention and the impact it has on performance. Researchers conducting
studies using Mental Toughness and psychological intervention frameworks are still trying to capture the faith of a
somewhat stubborn audience.

When we encounter stressful situations or are faced with any kind of adversity, the resultant outcome in
terms of positive or negative emotional responses and the effects these responses have on our performance will be
influenced by our ability to successfully manage internal and external demands. This refers to the ability to go beyond
pure physical talent, skill and ability and tap into the mental side of performance enhancement and optimization. Too
many people overlook mental elements when faced with difficulty in performances and whenever faced with
situations that require an enhanced level of performance, the immediate reaction is generally to make an adjustment
to all levels and phases of their ‘physical’ training routine long before the mental aspect of performance is even
considered. Every athletic contest is a contest of control, control of the delicate mind and body connection, yet
athletes consistently and persistently continue to train harder and harder physically at the expense of mental training.
Athletes that are able to engage in the mental side of training and performing have a greater advantage to those who
are unable to do this.