What is Mental Toughness in Sports?
What is mental toughness in sports? How can it help you?
Mental toughness is:
- the ability to cope with adversity
- keep your confidence high
- be focused
- stay composed in competition
Mental toughness gives athletes the ability to perform to their highest potential under the most stressful conditions or important competitions.
Unfortunately many athletes have experiences similar to this athlete…
“I have been competing in multiple sports since I was young. I am pretty athletic and have great practices but I get so nervous before games…
Especially when a lot is riding on the game, like the playoffs. I wish I had more mental toughness, but I have no idea how to obtain this.”
Mental toughness helps you perform more consistently by improving focus, confidence and emotional control when under pressure.
Mental toughness fuels your ability to overcome obstacles such as mistakes, bad games, injuries and other setbacks.
Mental toughness gives you the motivation to learn the physical and mental skills necessary to compete your best against the toughest competition and to, ultimately, achieve your goals.
Oklahoma University senior captain Colin Van Wicklen talked about the necessity for the Sooner gymnasts to develop mental toughness in order to win a third straight National Championship.
WICKLEN: “A lot of it comes from mental toughness and the culture we’ve created. You have to have the ability to step up when the game is on the line and the lights are brightest and we have a lot of guys who really thrive under pressure.”
I think you agree that mental toughness is critical for all athletes…
The next question is:
How can you develop or improve your mental toughness?
You have to understand the ingredients to improve mental toughness.
The Sooners gymnastics team had an interesting technique for increasing their toughness…
WICKLEN: “We’ve done horse routines where we have people screaming at you and then next guy goes and it’s completely silent. We’ll switch directions on high bar, we’ll do vaults with the music off. We’re always doing things to make us uncomfortable in the gym so that when you are uncomfortable in the meet you will be ready.”
Other strategies to develop mental toughness:
- Focus on achieving your goals and, when things do go your way, learn and move forward.
- Stay optimistic especially during rough patches.
- Overcome fear of failure by getting in the habit of taking risks.
- Identify situations where you normally backed down or were not mentally tough and find different ways to respond.
- During difficult skills, training sets or practices have a “go-for-it” mentality.
- In competition, use mentally tough self-talk such as, “I will be at my best,” “Nothing can stop me,” and, “I will push through.”
Mental toughness does not happen by chance.
You have to commit to mental toughness.
It cannot be a once-in-a-while thing. You should commit to improving your mental game every day!
Try this mental toughness tip to keep you on track:
Set one mental toughness goal for each practice. For example, maybe you work on staying focused and using refocusing skills when you get off task.
Before you start practice, visualize yourself becoming distracted with school work or family life.
How would a mentally tough person refocus? What’s the process for letting go of distractions from life and refocusing?
Remember, mental toughness is not about acting tough on the outside. Mental toughness is about what you are thinking on the inside!
Read more about how to improve your confidence at Peaksports.com.
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(Listen to his success story)
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Boost Your Self-Confidence And Focus With Expert Mental Game Coaching!
If you’re a top performer during practice but find yourself under-performing in competition, the most likely culprit holding you back is your mental game.
Master mental game coach Dr. Patrick Cohn can help you overcome your mental game issues with one-on-one personal mental game coaching.
You can work with Dr. Patrick Cohn himself in Orlando, Florida or via Skype, FaceTime, or telephone. Call us toll free at 888-742-7225 or contact us for more information about the different coaching programs we offer!
What are our mental game coaching students, parents and coaches saying?
“Both of the last 2 weekends, Nicolas had high-pressure basketball tournaments where he really showed improvement and maturity! He reacted very calmly to missed shots and mistakes and was very poised in the very close finals game. We have never seen him so composed and locked-in on the issue at hand! He has also realized that and tells us that he feels more calm and confident than before.”
~Alex Mylonas, Nicolas’ father
“After completing ‘The Confident Athlete’ series, I noticed a dramatic improvement in my level of play or should I say consistency. I play NCAA Division I baseball for Lamar University, and even my coaches have noticed a change in the way that I approach the game – my attitude and confidence at the plate. It has also helped me reach a new level of focus. I am able to get into that zone where I am able to narrow my focus on to the task. Thank you for helping in my continuing goal to mental toughness.”
~Tylor Prudhomm
Download Our FREE Mental Toughness Report!
Download your FREE Mental Toughness Report and discover if you are making one or more of theses ‘costly’ mental game mistakes before competition.
You will:
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You will also receive regular updates of more mental toughness tips to boost your performance in sports!
What are mental coaching students, parents and coaches saying about our resources?
“I am a sports psychologist in Dallas. I’ve read your two e-books and find them quite good. I commend you on the quality of your eBook. It is very readable and helpful.”
~Michael Wolf, Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist
“I thought the eBook on Focus was fantastic! I train young athletes on a regular basis and your material helps to train the mind as well as exercise trains the body.”
~Ronald Stephenson
“I have really enjoyed reading your tennis report. I just found your web site and I already have improved in my mental game. This past weekend I played with the amount of confidence I should have in myself.”
~Melanie Lewis, Junior Tennis Player