Athletes Must Learn Mental Toughness is Not Built by Just Playing Sports
Too often coaches teach young athletes to view mental toughness only through the lens of sports. As a result, athletes limit their perception of a mentally tough athlete to only a few attributes such as:
- thriving in the clutch,
- pushing through the pain of injury or fatigue, and
- overcoming adversity with grace.
Yes, all these are signals for a mentally tough athlete. However, there is so much more to mental toughness that athletes must also understand and adopt into their mindset.
First, mental toughness starts with the things an athlete does at home. When they don’t feel like doing chores, mentally tough athletes do them anyway and don’t complain. When their bored, again mentally tough athletes don’t complain. Instead of wasting time doing something mindless, they force themselves to do something productive.
Next, mentally tough athletes attack academics. When their studying and get sleepy, they don’t quit. Mentally tough athletes keep studying until they learn what they need to learn. When they have a project, they don’t wait until the last minute. Mentally tough athletes start right away and finish with time to spare. When they get a homework assignment, they don’t just go through the motions. They do it right the first time, following all instructions and paying attention to the details.
Finally, mentally tough athletes practice emotional intelligence. They can handle criticism, they are self-aware about their strengths and weaknesses (as well as how to optimize each), and they are savvy enough socially not to get caught up in gossip and tactfully manage the important relationships in their life.
It’s in all these areas in addition to sports that athletes must work on to become mentally tougher. There are no shortcuts for building mental toughness. How an athlete treats anything is how they treat everything.