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Real Mental Toughness
What is Mental Toughness?
Is there really a mindset called Mental Toughness?
Consider what you think a mentally tough person looks like and what they do which makes you consider them to be mentally tough. Would you agree with the following definition?
“Ability to maintain Motivation, Confidence, Concentration and Control under pressure”.
Now consider where and when a person needs to be mentally tough.
Situations
Game point or match point in racquet sports,
A penalty goal kick in football,
A birdie or eagle putt in golf,
An Olympic final race or ski event,
Serving for the match,
Kicking in a penalty shoot out
Playing with or if front of someone you want to impress
Characteristics
A semi-final
Playing against the leading team or person
Playing in front of the oppositions home crowd, on their home ground,
Trying out for team selection,
Playing in front of a big audience
Playing with television cameras covering your event.
The essential features of Mental Toughness.
Mental Toughness is really a case of;
i. Knowing which Mental Skills you will need for each situation that you will meet and,
ii. What are the situations you will meet?
Many people try to create a magical concept called Mental Toughness that is like a separate mental state which can be switched on just like flow. But we have already seen how flow does not automatically create superior skill performance. (See “Flow”)
Just like the term “Flow”, Mental Toughness implies a description of how a person thinks and performs in situations that we would tend to call or describe as difficult.
But there are two very important points to be aware of:
a) Each person perceives a situation differently, so each may see it differently – one person sees a situation as easy and may not need Mental Toughness,
b) Mental Toughness is not required in easy situations; for example starting the match or race – you only need Mental Toughness in pressure situations or during your Stress Points as discussed in the Winning Zone Training program.
By observing that Mental Toughness is only required when a certain “Difficult” situation is encountered, we also know difficult situations are defined by the sport specific circumstances and the individual reactions to those circumstances.
Recall what Petra Kvitova said when she was serving for the Wimbledon Championship, an extreme pressure point that would require high level mental toughness - she wasn’t nervous or scared, she was“……focused only on the point and on the game and not on the final and the medal". (See “Pressure and tension”)
That was a PERFECT example of Type A* thought content and emotion control in a circumstance that tennis players regard as “Extreme Pressure”.
Mental toughness is defined by the individual and the situation
We can say that Mental Toughness is situationally determined by the individual. That means that you and every individual will determine when you need to be mentally tough because only you can decide which situations are pressure situations for you. The term “Mental Toughness” also implies that particular mental skills are required in particular situations.
It is impossible to determine those situations that require mental toughness in advance and draw up a big list of those situations because those situations are dependent on each individual’s own perception. Some situations will be regarded as tough by some people but not by others, therefore you will have to identify those situations and circumstances that you regard as difficult and then be prepared to train in advance the mental skills you will need for those specific situations.
Mental toughness characteristics
When you watch the Champions or top grade players in your sport you will notice that they appear to be very professional in the way they prepare and go about playing their sport. They also look to be calm under pressure and we tend to INFER or assume they are mentally tough.
This is because they have practiced performing under pressure on many occasions and over time with many repetitions of those behaviours they learn to create a focused Type A mental* set with positive inner dialogue and correct CCT’s* and TRF’s*. They Look mentally tough due to many previous repetitions of playing in difficult and pressure situations.
Research has shown that top level players tend to demonstrate several common characteristics when faced with tough situations:
They display the positive behaviours that we associate with a mentally tough person:
meticulous preparation,
repeatable and consistent high performance,
doing the unglorified tasks during a match ( blocking the opposition passes)
superior decision-making
maintaining a positive body language following physical knocks or individual errors
Positive inner dialogue
Research has also shown that people who are regarded as being mentally tough tend to have a positive inner dialogue which helps them to keep going through difficult moments in their game
CORE MENTAL TOUGHNESS
Research has further shown that mentally tough players seem to access and utilise several deep beliefs which seem to advise and control their concentration, emotions and skill output during tough situations.
We can call these “Core Winning Belief Systems” which exist at a deeper, “Core” level.
These core belief systems appear to generate “Mentally tough” attitudes and styles which then funnel mentally tough thoughts into Type A concentration*. They appear to be shaped by each individual’s past experiences while growing and progressing through early stages of performance levels and acquiring lessons learned during their playing career.
Your Core Winning Belief Systems can be identified and learned when creating the
* Term used in Winning Zone Mental Skills training program