I really enjoyed reading all the responses on yesterdays
post, still not sure what mental toughness really is though. Some of you described
the characteristics of champion performers. One thing that I observe
continually is that the best have a growth mindset; they are willing to take risk
and change to get better. The also ran has a fixed mindset focusing on what
they can’t do and making excuses. One thing I am sure of is that mindless
punishment workouts and stupid “mental toughness” drills don’t work. Last year
I saw a DI basketball strength coach present on mental toughness training. I
found it almost embarrassing. It was series of mindless exercises designed to
hurt, culminating is a player doing wall sits with 400 pounds of sandbags piles
on him with the rest of the team screaming encouragement. What does that
achieve? To paraphrase the country western song – work you finger to the bone
and you get bony fingers. It is imperative that we as coaches design our
training to put the athlete in pressure situations at various points in
training and practice and then to use those as teachable moments.
We had a great example yesterday at Volleyball training. We
did a team challenge on the Dumbbell Complex. Each girl paired up with a
partner and determined the weight of the dumbbell they could use on each of the
four exercises. The goal was achieve the highest total weight for five sets
done with a one to one work to rest ratio. I was very interesting to see how a
couple of kids would do who have been labeled as not as tough would perform. It was
amazing to see them rise to the occasion. There was not a lot of screaming and yelling, there was intense concentration and game like effort. It was pressure and they responded.
They chose more weight than I would have chosen for them and they all did it. As a
team with 12 athletes we lifted 6 tons of weight! This was a giant leap toward Lakeland and the State Championship next November. It was the culmination of a
training phase. Now after two weeks of active rest they will start in the
summer program with a lot more emphasis on volleyball. We will see if they are “mentally
tough, “ I think they know how to train, know how to take risks now and they
understand the difference between mindless work and mindful work. They know they are the strongest volleyball team in the state. What more could you ask?
Paul Davis
Vern,
I missed first MT post, but I will offer some info from organizational psychology I have been adapting to sport contexts.
The concept is termed psychological capital “psycap” – not only cognitive, but emotional and physical capacities that drive behavior. There could be many of these, but originators (Luthans & Avolio) use the synergistic capacities of confidence, optimism, hope, and resilience.
“mentally tough” athletes believe they will succeed at the task (confidence), possess positive expectancies (optimism), have both a will and way to achieve goals (hope), and bounce back from “failure”(resilience).
Ken Vick
Great posts. I work closely with our Sports psychologist and we have often looked for the right terms. “toughness” brings certain conotations. I think the term is alright, but many people’s perception is limited.
There is the “toughness” of pushing through physical discomfort (maybe even extreme discomfort or pain) and thats what we hear about most in the performance field. Not a bad thing. However, we should also be focusing on the “toughness” it takes to be disciplined in adhereing to training plans, nutrtion, practice, etc… What about the “toughness” it takes to stand by convictions on drugs or cheating when many things are happening around you.
There’s the “toughness” I see many athlete’s struggle with may need to actually hold back when they are driven to do more work but need to do less because of injury or need for recovery. To hold their ego in check and accept what is the right thing on a given day.
There’s the “toughness” I see in my Olympic sport athletes that have a dream of being on a podium. They sacrifice much of their life emotionally, socially and financially to train year after year in sports like speed skating and weightlifting. The progress can be slow and they need the toughness to push on.
If we are good coaches we should recognize all these parts of “toughness” and help our athletes build it day by day.