Mental Toughness

What is it?

"Mental toughness is many things, Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. It is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It's a state of mind - you could call it character in action.” Vincent Lombardi

Mental toughness centres around being determined, resilient, staying in control, and remaining focused in the face of pressure.

What is it?

Mental toughness is more than just mental. It’s physical and emotional.

“It is the ability to consistently perform toward the upper range of your talent and skill regardless of competitive circumstances.” Jim Loehr

Research Says… Connaughton, Hanton, Jones 2010

Step 1: MindSet

Fixed MindSet

Growth MindSet

Labels & Stereotypes

You aren’t a failure until you start to blame You can still be in the process of learning from your

mistakes until you deny them. John Wooden

Growth mindset doesn’t believe in permanent inferiority.

They take what they can and what they need even from a threatening environment.

Mindsets Fixed Growth

Avoid Embrace

…get defensive or give up easily

…persist in the face of setbacks

…see effort as fruitless or worse

…see effort as path to mastery

…ignore useful negative feedback

…learn from criticism

…feel threatened by the success of others

…find lessons and inspiration in the success of others

Step 2: Choice

Step 3: Thought Stopping

THE FIXED-MINDSET says “Are you sure you can do it? Maybe you don’t have the talent.”

THE GROWTH-MINDSET answers, “I’m not sure I can do it now, but I think I can learn to with time and effort.”

FIXED MINDSET: “What if you fail—you’ll be a failure”

GROWTH MINDSET: “Most successful people had failures along the way.”

FIXED MINDSET: “If you don’t try, you can protect yourself and keep your dignity.”

GROWTH MINDSET: “If I don’t try, I automatically fail. Where’s the dignity in that?”

Step 3: Thought Stopping

FIXED MINDSET: “This would have been a snap if you really had talent.”

GROWTH MINDSET: “That is so wrong. Basketball wasn’t easy for Michael Jordan and science wasn’t easy for Thomas Edison. They had a passion and put in effort.

FIXED MINDSET: “It’s not my fault. It was something or someone else’s fault.”

GROWTH MINDSET: “If I don’t take responsibility, I can’t fix it. Let me listen — however painful it is – and learn whatever I can.”

Step 4: Feedback/Climate

Present skills as learnable

Convey that the organization/team values learning and perseverance, not just ready-made genius or talent

Give feedback in a way that promotes learning and future success presenting coaches/assistants as resources for learning

Asking for full preparation and full effort

Step 4: Feedback/Climate

Treatment of star players

Rewards/Climate – what are rewards for?

Teamwork – ‘we’ over the ‘I’

Coach style

Worry about being judged

Constant need for validation

Step 5: Athletes Need a Plan

Goal Setting

Competition Plans

Confidence Plan

Goal Setting Plan

Manage Motivated Behaviors Effort, Persistence, Optimal Challenge

Long Term Goals (2-4 years away)

Short Term Goals (This season)

Daily/Weekly/Competition to competition Goals

Goal Staircase

Present Ability G1 G3

G4 G2

Goal Achievement Card

Name: Date:

Position: Years Experience:

Skill-Activity Strong Average Needs Improvement

Specific Goal

Strategy Target Date

Touches Soft Controlled Quick

Shooting Accuracy Strength Speed

Passing

√

√

To correctly execute 8 out of 10 passes from the 10 – 15 feet range

Take 3 more practice passes every day from this distance

June 25th

Goal Setting in Training

Beginning of Practiceo State the Coach/Athlete Goal for the Practiceo Ask athletes to spend 1 minute thinking about how they will

achieve the goal from their own position/roleo Ask if anyone has any questions or concerns around today’s goal

During practiceo Inquire on progress towards the goal with specific athleteso Provide feedback as required to help execute goal

End of Practiceo Restate the goal for the dayo Ask athletes to reflect on how they progressed towards the goal

(depending on group you could ask them to share thoughts)o Ask athletes to record progress in journal

Pre - Competition Plan

Pre-Game RoutineComfortable activity as the first thing

Relaxation - visualization and self-talk

Isolation from personal distractions*

Parking

Review your goals for the performance

 

Warm – UpListen to music

Positive self-talk

Image/Feel

Review performance cue words

Energy check   

 

Last minutes before Performance

Pre-Performance Intensity (energy check)

Use Mood Words to reach desired feeling/energy level

Tense & Relax muscles

Confident statement

Mood Word (For the first action)

In - Competition Plan

 

Return Serve Routine

Movement and position on your side of court

Relaxing breath

Evaluating previous point

Noting server’s positioning, getting into ready position

Cue word to keep mind in the present

Pre-Serve Routine

Reviewing/Letting Go of the last point

Pacing behind service line

Locating ball

Redirecting attention to strategy for next point

Getting into serve stance

Deep breath

Imagery of serve

Bouncing the ball a specific number of times

Cue word to direct attention

Executing

Post - Competition Plan: Debrief

What happened?

What mistakes did you make that taught you something? Nothing? – then how do you challenge yourself in order to learn

What did you try hard at today?

What do I need to know/learn in order to be better?

Make a concrete plan on how to obtain it (goal setting) When will you follow through on the plan?

Where will you do it?

How will you do it?

Use imagery regularly to see your plan coming into action.

Planning for Confidence

True self-confidence is ‘the courage to be open – to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source”.

Mindset = your readiness to growA reflection of perceived readiness

Testing your ‘learnings’ in challenging environments, having a plan, belief that you can get better

Mia Hamm

“Mental toughness is the most important thing for a player to have;

When 11 players want to knock you down, when you’re tired or injured, when the referees are against you, you can’t let any of it affect your focus.

How do you to that? You have to LEARN how.”

The Final Word on Mental Toughness

It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one…

What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner.

Vince Lombardi