Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

One of the first things I teach athletes who I work with on mental toughness is that mental toughness is not just an idea, it’s a practice. Without defining the practice of mental toughness specifically, athletes have no practical changes to focus on during their training.

To teach the specific practices of mental toughness, I use a research paper written by sport psychologists Sheldon Hanton, Graham Jones, and Declan Connaughton. The title of it is  “A Framework of Mental Toughness in the World’s Best Performers“.

In most cases, I use the author’s rigor to teach athletes specifically what behaviors they must have to be mentally tough. However, occasionally it’s beneficial to do the reverse. Sometimes knowing what not to do is the first step to recognizing one needs a behavior change.

With this in mind, the research of Hanton, Jones, and Connaughton suggest that athletes who are mentally tough train differently than everyone else. Moreover, these differences have six attributes.

What Mentally Tough Athletes Do When They are Training

1. The ability to use a long term “why” to motivate themselves through difficulties, pain and fatigue. “Mentally tough performers acknowledge that they are tired but realize and remind themselves that if they are to achieve their goal they have to get back in the gym and work.“
2. Intense focus on specific tasks and performance goals with realistic deadlines for achieving, while not wasting any “time wishing for the impossible or the unrealistic.”
3. Maintaining a “strong sense of independence in training” i.e., owning the process and accepting responsibility for their destiny. “Not relying on the coach or other people.“
4. The ability to use adverse training environments to their advantage and can get the best out of themselves even in a bad training situation.
5. Uncanny ability to embrace training pain. Derives “pleasure from being able to give absolutely everything.”
6. Treats everything like a competition. Puts maximum effort into winning every warm-up, drill, rep, and scrimmage. Treats everything like it’s important. “They thrive on opportunities of beating other people and are not afraid to put themselves on the line.”

What Mentally Tough Athletes DON’T Do When They are Training

So, the opposite of these six attributes are exactly what mentally tough athletes don’t do when they are training

1. Thinks short term, focusing on the pain and fatigue in the moment. Instant gratification and fun overwhelms the motivation to sacrifice for a future goal.
2. Sets “be the best in the state/nation/world” goals without being specific about the progression and day to day plan to achieve those goals. Daydreams often about what it would be like to achieve a goal, then takes no action to make progress.
3. Only trains when a parent or coach tells them to train. No self-awareness of what they need to do to get better and instead waits for their coach to tell them. Only trains when they have a partner or coach and does not take initiative on solo practice.
4. Complains when their training environment is not perfect. Waste training sessions on days when the weather is bad, they are not feeling good, or when their normal training partner or coach is not available.
5. Gives less effort when training gets harder. Fakes or exaggerates injuries to avoid facing adversity.
6. Saves their best effort for competitions. Doesn’t take practice seriously or gives poor effort during warmups and repetitive drilling. Doesn’t care if they come in last place during conditioning.