Why So Many Young Athletes Struggle with Mental Toughness
Mental toughness is one of the most common problems young athletes face. Mental toughness is the ability to maintain maximum effort in pursuit of an objective even when it’s inconvenient. This includes discipline and self-control, as well as the ability to think positive when facing adversity.
The reason why so many young athletes struggle with mental toughness is simply because coaches and parents don’t treat mental skills the same way they treat physical skills. Coaches and parents are quick to address a deficiency in physical skills with camps, private coaching, drills, and strength/speed training. For some parents, money is no object when it comes to coaching up a child on their physical skills.
Lacking Mental Toughness Does Not Mean the Athlete Lacks Motivation or has a Bad Attitude
On the other hand, when a young athlete experiences issues with mental toughness they get nothing even close to the same treatment. At best they get a motivational speech. At worst parents and coaches yell obscenities at them. They are told they are lazy, lack motivation, have a bad attitude or some other criticism that only makes things worse.
Simply stated, there is little to no effort made to support young athletes who need mental skills training. Parents and coaches even ignore simple things like setting and tracking goals to get mentally tougher in the little things.
Physical problems become problems because of the lack of physical skills. Similarly, mental problems become problems because of the lack of mental skills. Until parents and coaches accept this and do something about it, an athlete who struggles with mental toughness will continue to struggle.