Mental Toughness

“Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles.”

– Alex Karras. Football Player.

In sport (and life), nobody can expect everything to run smoothly. When testing moments surface, physical attributes like speed and skill will only get you so far. Frankly, a strong frame of mind is often the determining factor between success and failure.

The term mental toughness is arguably overused in sporting circles, but there can be no doubt that it affects sporting performance in a big way. From student-athletes to professional stars, mental resilience will combine with other attributes like Emotional Intelligence to encourage consistently improved performance levels.

The role of mental toughness in sport

When dealing with athletic performance, the recipe for mental toughness can cover a variety of ingredients including grit, determination, resilience, resoluteness, willpower, courage, and heart. Sadly, many student-athletes will build a strong body but neglect the importance of a strong mind.

Despite all of those features, scientists simplify the definition to cover two main elements – resilience to situations that athletes can’t control, and consistency of things that they can control.

Studies into the relationship between mental toughness and sporting excellence have consistently shown that both cognitive and motor skills are higher in athletes who are considered mentally tough. Similar patterns have been seen at the elite levels of sport too, covering team sports and individual sports alike.

Mental toughness is a trait that enables an athlete to work harder and show greater mental strength when things get tough. As such, over 83% of coaches at an elite level believe that it is the most significant psychological factor for determining competitive success and is equally important at lower-level competitions where mistakes and on-field adversity are more common. An athlete who shows mental toughness will display a range of attributes linked to enhanced performance levels. Some of the most telling examples are;

• Boast increased self-awareness and an ability to self-motivate,
• Display improved Emotional Intelligence and athletic identity,
• Show reduced stress and anxiety in sporting situations,
• Have the ability to inspire teammates while simultaneously intimidating opponents,
• Develop more logical coping strategies for improved responses.

Without mental toughness, peaksports.com states that athletes are more likely to give up, give in, and give less. The reduced effort and workload can affect training or matches, bringing a plethora of negative results to individual sessions and long-term athlete development.

Even at the amateur level or student-athlete programs, building mental toughness should be a priority. It can be achieved by;

• Practising tough drills so that game-day situations feel less daunting and athletes are less likely to be overawed by those circumstances.
• Focus on eliminating the fear of mistakes, as they are a natural part of playing sports at any level.
• Build a healthier relationship with setbacks, which includes soaking in the information before getting back on track with a calculated response.
• Use data analysis to back up the 42-59% of data that a coach can recall, thus enabling the athlete to enter situations with confidence.
• Focus on consistency by repeating drills so that situations become second nature while the athlete can additionally influence the people around them.

Mental toughness is one of the most important skills to develop both on and off the field. Without it, talent alone cannot achieve true success.