Mental Toughness In Sport Psychology

The discussion of mental toughness has to be the number one discussed topic in sport psychology. It seems that everyone is on the same sheet of music agreeing that it’s vital to success, but it’s very debatable to "what is mental toughness?” All of the definitions of mental toughness in this article sound really tasty and easy to bite off on. However, I’m one who leaves nothing to chance and I think there is more to the definition than "sociable, outgoing, calm, relaxed, competitive, self-belief, unshakeable faith, controlling their own destiny, and unaffected by adversity”. Although these are nice attributes, I don’t think of these exact qualities when analyzing an athlete. I first think of relationship and their ability to set goals and …show more content…
I prefer to go with the Coach Wooden style and try to beat myself by doing my best versus trying to outdo someone else. That helps me cope. You can naturally have the best performance and win by just focusing on the process versus the outcome. And, if your performance isn’t satisfying you, then it’s time to get better or change the process. I do agree determined, focused and confident are attitudes of a mentally tough athlete.
When focused on a goal that you are passionate about then you can soar to the heavens, but if the goal is driven by a parent or coach, then the athlete is not as likely to want to press and do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. I’m not sure it can be nurtured either. If that means a positive environment with a cooperative style, then yes. If it differs from sport to sport, then it’s because mental toughness varies from one player’s passion to another. For example, an athlete passionate about football will not necessarily be as passionate as he plays basketball to stay in shape during the off …show more content…
All of my extrinsic rewards are not visible to anyone but me in my attic office. I look around my office and I have cool things (to me) on the wall to remind of those times. Only I understand what’s behind the curtain. The coolest plaque on my wall (an extrinsic award) is in the shape of a wolf’s head with “top gun” for “strafe”. I almost busted my ass screaming toward the ground to win that competition. I had mental toughness that day where I gritted my teeth and pushed through the ground rush to empty my gun. I pulled off at the right time not to impact the ground. It’s a reminder to me that I have to press beyond limits and that wolf reminds me that I had mental toughness to overcome the ground rush that typically scared most pilots. The more I think about it, the only things hanging on my wall that mean anything are the ones that required me to go beyond limits where I wasn’t scared to die. So, perhaps that’s unshakeable