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Toughening Up in Sport

Mental toughness plays a crucial role in athletic success and can be developed through training. While some athletes are naturally more mentally tough, research shows mental toughness can be acquired by exposing athletes to challenging and stressful situations in practice, such as starting games down points, restricting serves, or adding distractions. This helps athletes learn to maintain focus and bounce back from difficulties, allowing them to better cope with pressure in real competitions.

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Aliya Saktaganova
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57 views3 pages

Toughening Up in Sport

Mental toughness plays a crucial role in athletic success and can be developed through training. While some athletes are naturally more mentally tough, research shows mental toughness can be acquired by exposing athletes to challenging and stressful situations in practice, such as starting games down points, restricting serves, or adding distractions. This helps athletes learn to maintain focus and bounce back from difficulties, allowing them to better cope with pressure in real competitions.

Uploaded by

Aliya Saktaganova
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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There 

are certain moments during competition that appear to carry great


psychological significance, when the momentum starts to shift in one direction
or another. These situations require athletes to remain completely focused
and calm in the face of difficult circumstances.

The journey towards peak performance is rarely a perfectly smooth road and
we learn from our mistakes – or should do. Do setbacks shake your self-belief
and lower your motivation or act as a catalyst for even greater effort?

In his book The Winning Mind, Backley cites his psychological strengths and,
at times, his weaknesses as major determinants of whether he performed
near to or below his own strict targets in competition

Most top athletes and coaches believe that psychological factors play as
crucial a role as physical attributes and learned skills in the make-up of
champions. When physical skills are evenly matched – as they tend to be in
competitive sport – the competitor with greater control over his or her mind will
usually emerge as the victor. Mental strength is not going to compensate for
lack of skill, but in close contests it can make the difference between winning
and losing.

A key question for sport and exercise psychologists is whether champions


have simply inherited the dominant psychological traits necessary for success
or whether mental toughness can be acquired through training and
experience. Recent research has attempted to explore the concept of mental
toughness in sport more thoroughly, and it appears that, while some people
are naturally more tough-minded than others, people can be ‘toughened-up’
with the correct approach to training (2).

A mentally tough athlete is likely to:


 achieve relatively consistent performances regardless of situational factors;
 retain a confident, positive, optimistic outlook, even when things are not going
well, and not ‘choke’ under pressure;
 deal with distractions without letting them interfere with optimal focus;
 tolerate pain and discomfort;
 remain persistent when the ‘going gets tough’;
 have the resilience to bounce back from disappointments.

The leading researcher Suzanne Kobasa showed in one study that a


personality characteristic known as ‘hardiness’ was a key factor in whether or
not highly-stressed executives succumbed to illness. The hardy executives,
who avoided illness, tended to perceive stressors as ‘challenges’ rather than
threats, so maintaining a sense of control over events (3).
Kobasa suggested that hardiness incorporates three key elements:
1. Control – the perceived ability of the individual to exert influence rather than
experience helplessness;
2. Commitment – ie a refusal to give up easily;
3. Challenge – involving a person’s ability to grow and develop rather than
remain static, and to view change rather than stability as the norm.

Building on the work of Kobasa, the Hull team proposed that confidence (as
well as control, commitment and challenge) was a key element of mental
toughness. This has given rise to the ‘4Cs’ model of mental toughness.

However, classic previous research on animals has suggested that


‘toughening up’ can be achieved through exposure to stressful conditions

Although this finding does not necessarily transfer to human subjects, there
are distinct parallels with various techniques commonly used as interventions
in sport and exercise environments. For example, a technique known as
‘stress inoculation training’ gradually exposes the individual to more
threatening situations while self-control is acquired as a means to combat
learned helplessness. The stress response is gradually diminished as
exposure renders the situation less threatening and the individual experiences
a growing sense of control.

Laver felt that fatigue placed great strain on the concentration which was
crucial to success in long matches. To simulate these conditions, Laver forced
himself to concentrate and work even harder during the latter stages of
training sessions, when he was tired, so that he became used to the mental
strain of such conditions. He has cited this as one of the key factors in his
long-lasting success.

 a tennis player could increase the mental pressures in a practice match by


starting each service game 0-15 down, and thus getting used to ‘rebounding’
after losing the first point. Alternatively a player with an over-reliance on his
first serve could be restricted to one serve only and be forced to become
extremely focused and accurate with what is, in effect, a second serve.
To enhance the stress still further, players could practise by playing
tiebreakers, or play practice matches in front of an audience. The coach
might use bad line calls or spectator noise as a way of exposing players
intermittently to distractions and giving them practice at dealing with them.

Using imagery and positive self-talk during dead time in order to remain calm
and in control can be an effective strategy. Mentally tough competitors
are likely to use strategies that reinforce their self-belief at times of crisis. And
these strategies can be rehearsed in practice situations.

 the opportunity to deal with mental stressors in controlled situations can be


an invaluable way to toughen up in preparation for the very real challenges of
competition.

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