Two Mental Skills to Nurture Mental Toughness in Athletes
Mental toughness is a product of both nature and nurture. Although scientist haven’t found conclusive evidence on the genetics of mental toughness, it is proven that both play a role. However, it’s difficult if not impossible to change someone’s nature, so that’s completely out of a parent’s control. This includes a child’s personality and what motivates them.
So, if these two things are the source of an athlete’s mental toughness issues, another approach is needed. The first approach I suggest is using the reframing mental skill.
Reframing as a Skill to Nurture Mental Toughness
Reframing is a mental skill that helps athletes change their perception of a situation. When an athlete changes their perception of a situation, they can change their emotions. Correspondingly, the ultimate goal of reframing is to change emotions that have a negative impact to emotions that have a positive impact.
A classic example is when an athlete performs fine in practice but has mental toughness issues during competitions. In this example, a process to reframe competition as just another form of practice will help. This process may include visualization, creating habits to make sure the athlete performs the same routines before a competition and practice, as well as training the athlete to achieve optimal intensity in both competitions and practice the same way.
While reframing can work when done right, you can’t reframe all mental toughness issues the same way. In this example the environment was causing the mental toughness issues. However, for a different athlete the cause could be preparation, coaching, social support, or something else. Reframing is likely the first solution you want to try for each of these causes. However, there is no cookie cutter reframing approach that works for everything.
Progressions as a Skill to Nurture Mental Toughness
The second approach I suggest is using the progression mental skill. A progression is the process of moving gradually towards a more advanced state. This means starting with a reframing process that’s initially easy, then increasingly making it 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.