Mental Toughness

Little Engine That Could is a classic tale of determination and willpower overcoming perception.

Mental toughness must be considered a crucial element of the practice and training activities.

While many coaches use the phrase and acknowledge the importance of mental toughness, few attempts have been made to define or develop it.

In 1993, Gould, Eklund, & Jackson studied the coping strategies used by 20 members of our 1988 Olympic wrestling team.

Their findings revealed that the difference between the medal winning and non-medal winning wrestlers was that the medalists’ coping strategies were more internalized and automatized than the strategies of the non-medalists. This finding was significant because it distinguished between successful and unsuccessful athletes whose levels of achievement were related to the development of psychological skills.

These skills and attributes found in the more successful athletes contribute to the definition of mental toughness.

The phrase mental toughness still lacks a universal working definition, though several sports psychologists have attempted to distinguish the construct and the characteristics that are essential in becoming a mentally tough athlete.

In 2002, Jones, Hanton, & Connaughton endeavored to define the term mental toughness. The following definition was created:

“Mental toughness is having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to:

• Generally cope better than your opponents with the many demands (competition, training, and lifestyle) that sport places on a performer.

• Specifically, be more consistent and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident, and in control under pressure.

This definition encompasses the essence of the phrase (mental toughness), yet Jones emphasized that more research should be done in order to better understand the concept and its critical components, as well as its substantial role in sport performance (Jones et al. 2002).

In 2006, Creasy & Stratton conducted a study among 22 NCAA coaches. In Phase-One of the data collection, the 22 coaches completed a questionnaire for the purpose of ranking the most important components of mental toughness and to what degree they felt these components were teachable.

The questionnaire consisted of 20 components of mental toughness, 12 of which came from the 2002 Jones et al study.

The remaining eight were identified by Cal Ripken in a 2004 publication (Stratton). In Phase-Two, 10 of the 22 coaches were interviewed in order to gain a more in-depth understanding of the Phase-One research results.

The data showed that the following components were fundamental to the definition of mental toughness:

1. Having an unshakable self-belief in the unique qualities and abilities that make you better than your opponents.

2. Strength: You have to be in good physical and mental condition. You must be psychologically and emotionally prepared.

3. Having an unshakable self-belief in your ability to achieve your competition goals.

4. Have conviction: You have to be a little bit stubborn.

5. Regaining psychological control following unexpected, uncontrollable events (competition specific).

6. Have a strong will to succeed: Don’t let setbacks stop you from achieving your goal.

7. Remaining fully focused on the task at hand in the face of competition-specific distractions.

8. Be consistent: Recognize and adjust to change so that you are always able to make a contribution to your team.

9. Not being adversely affected by others’ good and bad performances.

10. Be competitive: It’s not just about beating your opponent. You have to internalize competitiveness and take pride in what you do.

11. Switching a sport focus on and off as required.

12. Personal management: Don’t duck potential problems; take on the problems directly to prevent small problems from building into bigger problems.

13. Thriving on the pressure of competition.

14. Take the right approach: Always be ready to play.

15. Accepting that competition anxiety is inevitable and knowing that you can cope with it.

16. Have passion for what you do.

17. Having an insatiable desire and internalized motives to succeed.

18. Bouncing back from performance setbacks as a result of increased determination to succeed.

19. Remaining fully focused in the face of personal life distractions.

20. Pushing back the boundaries of physical and emotional pain, while still maintaining technique and effort under distress (in training and competition).

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