The Process of Developing a Young Athlete’s Mental Toughness
Although scientist haven’t found conclusive evidence on the genetics of mental toughness, it is proven that both nature and nurture play a role. So it’s safe to assume that only about half of the factors that lead to mental toughness come from nature, while the other half come from nurture. Obviously, once an athlete has a known mental toughness issue the only thing anyone can influence is their nurture.
Given that, working with an athlete with a mental toughness issue can be frustrating if you take the wrong approach. There are some traits innate to them that can’t be changed you must ignore. In addition, you must also be patient enough to identify and focus on developing those things that aren’t innate. Furthermore, there are only two basic steps in doing this.
First, to develop an athlete’s mental toughness you must start with a progression that is initially easy, then increasingly gets harder. Parents and coaches must accept that building an athlete’s mental toughness won’t happen overnight. Making steady progress by allowing the athlete to overcome small, manageable challenges is critical.
For this reason, the athlete, parent and coach must approach the process of developing mental toughness with a crawl, walk, run mentality. With that said, no two athletes are the same just like no two babies learning to walk do it at the same pace. Some figure it out fast while others take longer. However, pace doesn’t matter as long as you make progress.
Second, developing an athlete’s mental toughness requires repetition. Repetition is critical for breaking bad habits and building good instincts. Don’t move on to another lesson too soon as old habits die hard. So stick with it until you not only drive the nail in the wall, but drive it through the wall.