Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

One of my primary sources of research for mental toughness comes from sport psychologists Sheldon Hanton, Graham Jones, and Declan Connaughton. The title of their research is “A Framework of Mental Toughness in the World’s Best Performers“.

The authors do an excellent job putting rigor around the definition of mental toughness. Their analysis concludes that the best definition for mental toughness is as follows:

Mental toughness is having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to:

– Generally, cope better than your opponents with the many demands (competition, training, lifestyle) that sport places on a performer.

– Specifically, be more consistent and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident, and in control under pressure.

Moreover, the authors go further by breaking down mental toughness into four major categories.

1. Attitude/mindset
2. Training
3. Competition
4. Post competition

While each of the categories are important, today I want to highlight the attitude/mindset element of mental toughness. This category of mental toughness describes the views and thoughts mentally tough performers possess. An athlete’s attitude/mindset has a profound impact on how they train, compete, and recover post competition.

Therefore, this category has the greatest impact across all the other three categories. Moreover, both in sports and in life, one’s attitude/mindset permeates everything one does from the time one wakes up to the time one goes to bed.

The 7 Attributes of a Mentally Tough Mindset

The research of Hanton, Jones, and Connaughton suggest that athletes who are mentally tough have a different mindset than everyone else. Moreover, these differences have 7 attributes.

1. An unshakable self-belief as a result of total awareness of how you got to where you are now.
2. An inner arrogance that makes you believe that you can achieve anything you set your mind to.
3. The belief that you can punch through any obstacle people put in your way.
4. Believing that your desire or hunger will ultimately result in your fulfilling your potential.
5. Refusing to be swayed by short-term gains (financial, performance) that will jeopardize the achievement of long-term goals.
6. Ensuring that achievement of your sport’s goal is the number-one priority in your life.
7. Recognizing the importance of knowing when to switch on and off from your sport.

Unquestionably, mental toughness is something parents and coaches must proactively build in athletes. By and large, focusing on developing these seven areas of an athlete’s mindset and attitude is an ideal way to start this proactive process.