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How to Build Mental Resilience in Sports

When the going gets tough, the best athletes use their resilience to persevere. In the fast-paced and highly competitive world of sports, athletes are constantly faced head-on with numerous setbacks and flickers of self-doubt.

There’s dealing with injury — and whether you can come back from it — coming back from a loss, switching teams, and more day-to-day challenges, such as training, competing, and staying motivated after a loss, or several defeats.

Resilience is defined as the ability to adapt, recover, and grow stronger from adversity. It’s how the best athletes stay focused on their goals, despite how it may look to others. Many people think that some athletes are born with resilience, and that others are not. And while that may somewhat be true — in that, some people are naturally more resilient than others — resilience can definitely be trained.

So, this blog post will explain why mental resilience is important and ways for you to develop resilience in sports.

What is the importance of resilience in sports?

Resilience is a defining factor that separates good athletes from exceptional ones. In sports, where success is often determined by split-second decisions and the ability to perform under immense pressure, mental resilience plays a vital role. It’s fuel to the fire that allows athletes to navigate setbacks, injuries, failures, and self-doubt without losing sight of their goals.

Add resilience to your toolkit, and you’ll bounce back stronger from defeats. It allows you to cultivate a positive and growth mindset, and helps athletes embrace challenges to grow, rather than decline and move backward. Something you should definitely avoid in the realm of sports!

How to develop resilience

For most, resilience is not an innate trait; it’s a skill that can be developed over your sports career. But the skill of resilience must be nurtured and watered over time — it’s not a one-and-done kind of trait. It requires a lot of work and discipline to maintain.

Continue reading to discover ways to build mental resilience in sports, based on research with Elite athletes.

Understand your motivation 

What gets you out of bed in the morning? Why do you do what you do?

To build and develop mental resilience, you need to understand your motivation. What are you trying to achieve? It could be something as simple as becoming a better athlete, winning a local meet, or landing a spot on a big team.

Whatever it is, channel it. And remind yourself of your motivators — what values would someone who is striving to achieve your goals have? Practice those!

Evaluate setbacks and implement lessons 

We all encounter setbacks — things don’t always go exactly as planned; you get injured and can’t play for 12 weeks, you don’t qualify for the next stage of a race, or you don’t perform as well as you thought you would.

And while it’s easier to wallow in self-pity, the only real way to get better — and to build mental resilience in the process — is to evaluate setbacks and implement lessons from these.

Use failure as a stepping stone toward success. If you missed a free throw in the final minute of a game, maybe you need to work on your shots under pressure. If you lost a race in the final 100m, you might need to work on your sprint performance.

Add fuel to the fire, evaluate your setbacks, and learn from your mistakes. Every time you come back from defeat, you beat on the hammer in the fire and become more and more resilient.

Use mental skills to prepare for success

Mental skills such as visualization, self-talk, goal setting, and mindfulness are all powerful techniques that can help prepare you for success. They can also help you build resilience, allowing you to maintain a positive mindset as you navigate through setbacks and adversity.

For example, self-talk can help you increase confidence and focus before a big game, goal setting helps you stay focused on what matters most, and mindfulness allows you to clear distractions to prepare for success.

Related: How to Create a Mental Training Program for Athletes.

Focus on achieving balance 

Achieving life balance can help you build resilience and improve your performance. Often, athletes think that the more they do, the better they’ll get. And while that’s true to some extent, this can also lead to physical and mental burnout and sports injury.

Life balance, i.e. switching focus between sports, social life, relationships, and work, ensures you tick all the other boxes to help you improve. For example, if your social life is lacking, then you might be less resilient as one of your basic needs is not met.

So instead of going all in on your sport, not seeing friends or family, and isolating yourself from the outside world, it’s a lot healthier and easier to build resilience if you focus on balance. Achieving balance is also a lot easier than giving it 100% all of the time!

Learn more about Rewire’s Neuro-Performance System

Use Rewire to build resilience and increase performance 

Athletes can use Rewire to build mental resilience and increase their performance. Discover our integrated mental resilience training system, based on neuro-training protocols, that can be used with a variety of different sports and activities.

Monitor and track your readiness to measure physical, cognitive, and emotional stressors and achieve life balance to propel you forward. We can help you become more resilient, helping you achieve your goals.

“Rewire’s latest platform makes mental strength training more accessible to athletes everywhere with easy-to-use tools to help them reach their goals.” – NBA All-Star, Kyle Korver

Find out how Rewire can help you

TRY REWIRE FOR FREE

References:

  1. Kegelaers, J. and Wylleman, P., 2019. Exploring the coach’s role in fostering resilience in elite athletes. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 8(3), p.239.

How to Build Mental Toughness in Athletes

When it comes to sports, mental toughness can be just as important as physical ability. 

Athletes with a strong mindset are better equipped to handle pressure, overcome obstacles, and push through fatigue to achieve their goals. But mental toughness isn’t something that comes naturally to everyone. It’s a skill that must be developed and honed over time.

In this blog post, we’ll explore key principles and provide tips for building mental toughness in athletes, this includes goal setting, visualization, and adopting a stoic mindset. So whether you’re an elite athlete looking to gain a slight advantage, or a beginner who is just learning about mental toughness, you will find this post valuable. 

So, let’s dive in and discover how to build mental toughness in athletes!

Related: The Science Behind Mental Toughness, and The Top 4 Attributes You Should Have.

What is mental toughness?

Mental toughness refers to the ability to perform under pressure, cope with challenges, and maintain focus and motivation in the face of adversity, i.e. during intense competition.

But what makes up mental toughness? It includes a mix of psychological skills, such as an unshakable self-belief, a resilient mindset, perseverance, and the ability to control emotions in real-time (e.g. not being affected by a yellow card or a decision that did not go in your favor).

It’s widely understood that the best athletes are mentally tough. They know how to persevere and dig deep when the going gets tough. But it’s not only a skill for sports; it’s a skill for life.

So how do you build mental toughness? 

Related: How to Teach Mental Toughness in Sports.

How to build mental toughness

Some athletes are more mentally tough than others. That’s just the way that is. However, you can train and build mental toughness. Iron doesn’t become a sword until it’s beaten in the fire — don’t expect to become mentally tough without any work.

So how do you start beating on the iron and strengthening your mind? We recommend the following:

  • Set goals to improve mental toughness 
  • Use positive visualization
  • Be stoic 
  • Practice discipline 
  • Use positive self-talk
  • Embrace failure as an opportunity to learn and improve

Set goals to improve mental toughness 

Goal setting is an essential skill and tool athletes should develop to help build mental toughness.

By now, you’re most likely familiar with SMART goals — these are specific, measurable, and achievable goals that provide you with a clear sense of direction, purpose, and intention [3].

As a general rule of thumb, you should set both long-term and short-term goals. But a big mistake many people make is not aligning their short and long-term objectives. Some people prefer to label their short-term goals as an “action plan” — it’s how you move towards those long-term goals [1].

Let’s say, for instance, that your long-term goal is to break the 15-minute 5k time. In that case, your short-term goals, or your action plan, should be to break the 15.30, then the 15.15 times, and so on.

Achieving these short-term goals in pursuit of your long-term goals provide motivation, confidence, and help you stay on track to achieve your goals.

Goal setting is a critical component to build mental toughness in sports, whether you’re an x-country runner, a basketball player, or a pitcher in baseball. Well-thought-out goals provide you with the blueprint for overcoming adversity and move the needle toward success.

Use positive visualization 

Positive visualization is a powerful, and often underused tool in the mental toughness toolkit. 

Athletes can visualize and rehearse successful skill performance (and even scenarios) to improve their confidence and reduce anxiety. In fact, visualization is thought to reinforce positive neural pathways in the brain — it’s very difficult for the brain to tell what’s real and what’s not.

It’s why Tiger Woods is a big proponent of mental training and visualization. Here’s a quote from Tiger: 

“In the year 2000 I won 12 times, including 3 majors and I only remember hitting one shot I would call perfect. It was a 3 wood on #14 in the third round of the British Open at St. Andrews. As with every shot, I attempt, I visualize that ball flight and the shot turned out exactly as I had planned.”

You’re essentially creating a blueprint of success — a roadmap you can follow and apply directly to your sport or skill. 

Athletes can also use positive visualization to reduce anxiety — that includes pre-game and even mid-game nerves. The result? You can create a mentally tough athlete who has the tools on hand to adjust their emotional state on the fly, resulting in peak performance whether performing well in training, or in front of a crowd of thousands. 

Be stoic 

Marcus Aurelius once said: 

“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

But what does it actually mean to be stoic? Stoicism is a philosophy that emphasizes self-control, discipline, and resilience in the face of adversity, e.g. relegation, not being picked for a team, losing despite training hard, and so on.

The guiding principle of stoicism is to accept the things you can’t control. And instead, to focus on what you can control (what is in your power) to develop inner calm and tranquility. 

Stoics believe that by effectively managing emotions and focusing on the present moment, that we can overcome negative emotions and harmful impulses, and face challenges head-on. 

For example, let’s say it’s halftime, and you’re losing by five points. An athlete with a stoic mindset see’s the situation for what it is. But does not experience that psychological quiver. Instead, they focus on what they can control and practice discipline to do their absolute best to overcome the obstacle in front of them.

Related: The Top 5 Stoic Quotes You Need to Know to Build Mental Toughness

Practice Discipline 

We’ve discussed this above already, but discipline is an essential aspect of building mental toughness [2]. 

If an athlete does not have discipline, they’ll struggle to develop mental toughness. Take a moment to think about it: discipline is needed to set healthy habits and routines (e.g. waking up early to train, following a healthy diet, and avoiding distractions). If you can’t practice discipline, then you can’t cultivate a growth mindset, i.e. you won’t embrace challenges, seek feedback, or be open to learning new skills and techniques to improve performance.

Focus on improving your discipline, and you’ll set yourself up for success.

Use positive self-talk

Athletes can use positive self-talk to shift their mindset, focus on performance, and reduce negative thoughts. Often, athletes will speak affirmations, mantras, and cues to improve performance.

Many people think that self-talk is exclusively done aloud. But a lot of athletes speak to themselves in their minds — there is no right or wrong way to do it. However, you don’t have an actual conversation with yourself to reap the benefits.

Add mantras such as “Make the play,” “I deserve to win,” and “I got this,” into your game. 

You can also add cues to enforce positive behaviors, e.g. “high knees” or “eyes ahead.” You’ll need to create your own cues and mantras for your sport, but adding this self-talk can help improve your game. 

Embrace failure as an opportunity to learn and improve 

Instead of viewing failure as a setback or a reflection of their abilities, athletes who adopt a growth mindset see failure/a lack of success as an opportunity for improvement usually come out on top.

This, once again, relates back to stoicism and resilience in the face of adversity.

Athletes can learn from their mistakes, failures, and shortcomings and refine their techniques, improve their weaknesses, and double down on their strengths. Embracing this mindset improves mental toughness and creates a mindset shift towards welcoming difficult things.

See failure as an opportunity to improve. It’s part of beating the iron in the fire — it will only make you stronger, so long as you embrace the process.

Use Rewire to develop mental toughness 

Athletes can use Rewire to improve their mindset, manage stress, and boost mental toughness. The Athlete Platform is based on neuroscience, using brain-endurance training protocols to help you build mental toughness.

And if you’re a coach, you can use Rewire to enhance your athletes’ performance. You gain access to the readiness dashboard and can tailor sessions based on how “ready” your athletes are.

“With Rewire, you have a controlled environment and structure so that you can choose when you want to add mental training to your workouts and you can do it as often as you’d like.” – Laura Kline (Elite Ultra Runner & Endurance Athlete)

Find out how Rewire can help you


References:

  1. Bailey, R.R., 2019. Goal setting and action planning for health behavior change. American journal of lifestyle medicine, 13(6), pp.615-618.
  2. Fourie, S. and Potgieter, J.R., 2001. The nature of mental toughness in sport. South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation, 23(2), pp.63-72.
  3. McCarthy, P.J. and Gupta, S., 2022. Set goals to get goals: Sowing seeds for success in sports. Frontiers for Young Minds, 10(10.3389).
TRAIN YOUR MENTAL TOUGHNESS

Mental Training for Athletes: What is It and How to Start

If you’re an athlete looking to take your performance to the next level, chances are, you’ve heard of mental training.

All the greats do it, including Michael Phelps, Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, and many other successful athletes.

This often overlooked aspect of training involves training the mind to improve physical performance. How, you ask? Mental training can help athletes overcome anxiety, improve focus, and build confidence.

And better yet, it’s easy to implement into your training and can be done virtually anywhere, whether in a hotel room, on the court, or even on a plane when you’ve got a few hours to sit and stare out the window.

The remainder of this blog post will explain how you can begin to use mental training (and mental training tools). We’ll explain what it is, and how to get started.

Key takeaways:

  • Mental training can help improve performance & increase confidence
  • Anyone can start mental training — it’s not just for Elite level athletes
  • Find the best mental skills and apply these to the weaker areas of your game

What is mental training?

Mental skills training consists of a mix of techniques and practices to help you develop mental toughness, improve skill learning, and even performance on (and off) the field, including in everyday life [1].

Examples of popular mental training exercises include:

  • Visualization exercises
  • Mindfulness
  • Goal setting
  • Deep breathing
  • Positive self-talk

Other mental training tools and skills exist, but these are the main ones (and easiest to start with no prior mental training experience).

But for those interested, more advanced skills include [2]:

  • Emotional control
  • Activation & Relaxation
  • Negative thinking
  • Attentional control 

If you do choose to adopt the more advanced skills, we’d recommend focusing on the easier-to-learn and implement skills first. For example, positive self-talk is typically easier to learn than negative thinking (if you do negative thinking wrong, it could affect your confidence). Likewise, taking deep breaths and focusing on mindfulness is relatively easy to begin vs. activation and relaxation of the muscles. 

By practicing a mix of mental skills, athletes can reduce anxiety, improve confidence, develop resilience, and ultimately improve performance.

Why is mental training important?

Let’s think of a scenario where you have two athletes — both are equally matched in physical skills, but one athlete practices mental skills such as visualization, goal setting, and positive self belief and self talk. The other athlete focuses exclusively on physical practice and performance.

Which athlete do you think will perform best?

Chances are, it’s the athlete who has a more holistic skill set — they’re essentially getting more training in without the added fatigue. Performing visualization, for example, reinforces neural pathways in the brain. It’s like training, but without lacing up your boots and heading out to practice.

Mental training can be especially useful for overcoming anxiety and weaknesses in your sport. Let’s say, for example, that you’re a cyclist, but you find descending challenging — perhaps it scares you.

You can use mental training to increase self confidence, reduce anxiety, and run through successful skill performance (in your mind) to get better at descending confidently. That also includes mental preparation before a big game or competition — you’re better prepared, and more likely to achieve athletic success.

With the correct physical and mental training, you’ll quickly improve your skill-specific performance.

Mental skills in practice – what does it look like? 

Creating a mental training plan will look different for every athlete. For example, some athletes may prefer certain mental skills, applying these to weaknesses in their performance. Other athletes may find other skills difficult to utilize but use 1 or 2 skills really well.

A great way to put mental training into practice is to list all the required skills of your sport, and rate these (based on how good you think you are at each skill) on a scale of 1-10 (1 being poor, 10 being excellent). 

The skills which you rate the lowest are what you should seek to improve using mental skills. For example, if you’re a cyclist and you feel scared of cornering at high speeds, you could use a combination of positive self-talk and visualization to improve self confidence and reduce anxiety.

Choosing what mental skills is a little more complicated than that, but we have an entire article on how to create a mental training program for athletes — check it out if you want a more in-depth guide.

How can mental training improve athletic performance?

Mental training can improve performance by enhancing an athlete’s ability to regulate their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, and by strengthening their mental toughness. It’s also a useful tool to increase motivation! 

To provide a contextual example: athletes can use visualization techniques to rehearse competition. They can use positive self-talk to increase confidence and reduce anxiety, e.g. using cues and prompts to keep them focused with minimal distractions.

Furthermore, goal setting can help athletes move with a sense of purpose and direction. This makes it a lot easier for athletes to develop healthy routines and habits that move the needle towards greater performance, both as an individual and a team.

These are just a few examples of how mental training can positively impact athletes. But these are only a few case uses — the best athletes apply these principles and skills as part of a daily practice to improve all aspects of their sport/game further.

Who can benefit from mental training?

Mental training is not just for elite athletes! And while Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods may use these powerful techniques, there’s no reason why you can’t implement them into your training, too.

Training the mind is for everyone, whether you’re in a weekend soccer league, or you play basketball in high school.

And while it’s mainly used by the professional athlete population, we can learn a lot from those who use it. Besides, there’s a reason why they do it: it’s because it’s so powerful.

But mental training is also useful for non-athletes. Coaches may also choose to engage in mental strategies to improve their performance, goal-setting ability, and communication during an important game (i.e. not letting emotions get the best of them).

There are endless avenues and possibilities for mental training. And with the field of sports psychology only getting bigger, it’s a better time than any to start mental training.

Use Rewire to increase readiness and focus to perform

Athletes looking to boost their mental toughness, manage stress, and improve their mindset can benefit from using Rewire’s athlete platform. 

Based on neuro-science, athletes can employ brain training protocols and activities to build mental strength, resilience, and essential mental skills. You can also use guided sessions to improve focus, provide stress & anxiety relief, and prepare the mind for training or competition.

Coaches can also use Rewire to improve athlete performance — you can view the athlete readiness dashboard, which provides valuable insights and allows you to adjust training load accordingly to help achieve optimal performance (while avoiding injury and burnout).

“Rewire comes as a Gamechanger in the field of ‘tracking and monitoring readiness’ and provides a one-stop shop for both physical and cognitive recovery, as well as having functionality for building mental resilience.” – Pete McKnight (Human Performance Expert)

Find out how Rewire can help you


References:

  1. Holmes, P.S. and Collins, D.J., 2001. The PETTLEP approach to motor imagery: A functional equivalence model for sport psychologists. Journal of applied sport psychology, 13(1), pp.60-83.
  2. Röthlin, P., Horvath, S., Trösch, S., Holtforth, M.G. and Birrer, D., 2020. Differential and shared effects of psychological skills training and mindfulness training on performance-relevant psychological factors in sport: a randomized controlled trial. BMC psychology, 8, pp.1-13.
LEVEL UP YOUR MENTAL TRAINING

How to Create a Mental Training Program for Athletes

Improve your athletes’ mental game and develop a competitive edge by implementing a mental training plan.

Michael Phelps once said, “I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything.” 

This quote from the Olympic swimmer — and most celebrated Olympian of all time — is a fantastic introduction to mental training and how it can improve confidence and mental strength.

Mental training tools, such as effective goal setting, visualisation, self-talk, and progressive muscle relaxation, can be used to maximise physical and psychological performance.

Some of the very best athletes — Phelps included — used psychological skills training to improve performance. And in this blog post, we’ll explain how you can create a mental skills training program for your athletes to help them stay focused when it matters most.

Please note: I am not a sports psychologist. I am simply relaying the literature in an easy-to-understand way to help you create a mental training program for your athletes.

How do athletes train mentally?

Athletes who follow a mental training program usually focus on one skill or psychological strategy a day. 

For example, during the week, they might practise a mix of skills to improve their mental game, including self-talk, visualisation, goal setting, and activation. 

If an athlete struggles to deal with the intense pressure of competition during a particularly stressful situation (such as a freekick in football), they can visualise this and practise other mental exercises to improve confidence and performance.

While this obviously looks different for every athlete and sport, coaches should create mental training programs to address athlete weaknesses while also honing in on their strengths.

So how do you start?

To begin, coaches should perform a needs assessment with their athletes — this helps identify any potential psychological strengths (and weaknesses), and areas that may be detrimental to performance. 

Ask your athletes to note down both physical and psychological skills they think are needed to perform well in their sport.

An example mental training program for a cyclist

Let’s use the example of a cyclist. They might mention skills such as:

  • Climbing ability
  • Descending ability (and confidence when doing so)
  • Core strength
  • Power output 
  • Cornering
  • Teamwork
  • Getting into an aero position 
  • Good communication with the team

Once you’ve got these noted down, athletes rate (on a scale of 1 to 10) how good they think they are at each skill.

Also, ask your athletes if they have any strengths or weaknesses in their sport. For example, they may say they are good at climbing, but worse at descending.

If they rate their descending ability a 4, for example, then mental skills can be used to improve their confidence and technique on those descents. 

Visualisation can be used to practise choosing the right line, putting the weight over the bike correctly, and braking in advance of the corner. This can help build up confidence without actually being on the bike.

During this needs assessment, it’s important that it’s a collaborative effort between coach and athlete — this makes it more likely that they’ll stick to the program.

For more data, coaches can ask athletes to complete the test of performance questionnaire (TOPS). This will also reveal other psychological strengths and weaknesses in training and competition.

Now with a list of strengths and weaknesses, alongside physical and psychological skills, you can begin collaborating with your athletes to create an effective mental training program.

Decide what mental skills to include in the program

The results from the TOPS questionnaire also show what mental skills the athlete is good at and others which can be improved.

This provides a great foundation for you to combine skills that they have not yet utilised (or are not very good at), and skills that they want to improve in their sport, e.g. descending ability.

Mental skills include [2]:

  • Self-talk
  • Emotional control
  • Goal setting 
  • Imagery (also called visualisation)
  • Activation
  • Relaxation
  • Negative thinking 
  • Attentional control 

If the imagery and self-talk scores were low (i.e. not used before), then we can add these to a mental training program to focus on those weaker areas such as descending, cornering and getting into an aero position.

The athlete will now be improving mental strength and physical training, applying a new skill to their performance.

You can also use mental skills they have previous practice with (and feel confident using) to complement their training and skill learning.

Be sure to ask the athlete what they want to improve and what mental skills they think would benefit their overall performance. Remember: the process should remain collaborative. 

Self-talk 

For self-talk, ask athletes to note down any negative self-talk they experience during training, competition, or when practising a skill.

Let’s say, for example, when approaching a descent, they feel scared, out of control, and as if they’re going to run off the road.

You can implement a script to replace negative thoughts with positive self-talk. 

Below are some examples of how this cyclist would begin using positive self-talk during training, and, eventually, competition. 

Negative self-talkPositive self-talk
I feel scared when descendingI’m confident at descending 
I feel like I’m going to run off the roadI’ll choose my line and stick to it
I’m worried I’ll grab the brakes in the cornerI’ll break in a straight line before the corner

Imagery

Imagery, or visualisation is similar to self-talk. And in our example, you could ask your athlete to imagine themselves descending.

What technique are they adopting? Where do they position themselves on the road? How does it feel leading up to the corner? Do they hit the apex? What about exiting the corner — do they accelerate quickly by putting more power on the pedals?

And while you should visualise the successful performance of the skill, it may also be beneficial to imagine what could go wrong, and other ways it could go. However, to begin with, we recommend mastering successful skill performance before exploring other visualisation outcomes.

Relaxation

And finally, let’s say our cyclist feels intense pressure during competition. If this was the case, it might be useful to practise relaxation techniques. This could include focused deep breathing, positive self-talk, progressive muscle relaxation, and other techniques which are good mental training tools to have in your toolkit. 

No mental training program will be the same

When designing a mental training program for your athletes, it’s important to know that no two plans should or will be the same.

Athletes have unique strengths and weaknesses, some may have experience with mental skills training, and others might be starting from scratch.

But no matter what level an athlete is playing or competing in, mental training can help them improve physical (and mental) performance [1]. 

Coaches can use Rewire to build mental fitness 

As well as creating a mental training plan for your athletes, coaches can use Rewire for teams to further improve mental fitness and mindset recovery.

Athletes get access to evidence-based protocols from neuroscience and sports psychology, and actively practise self-talk, visualisation, guided breathing exercises, and more. 

Coaches can also track athletes’ readiness scores to tailor their physical and mental training for each athlete to maximise performance. 

“If you’re just relying on trying to sharpen your mental game while you’re out training, you might not always have the opportunity or you may wear your body down too much. With Rewire, you have a controlled environment and structure so that you can choose when you want to add mental training to your workouts and you can do it as often as you’d like.” – Laura Kline (Elite Ultra Runner & Endurance Athlete)

Find out how Rewire can improve mental fitness for your athletes.

FAQs

What is a mental skills training program?

A mental skills training program contains psychological exercises such as self-talk and visualisation to improve physical skills, whether that’s a free throw or a cycling descent.

How do you train mental training?

To start, begin practising easy-to-implement skills such as positive self-talk and visualisation. Note down areas of your sport you want to improve and use mental skills to optimise physical and mental performance.

How do athletes become better mentally?

The best athletes are highly resilient. Often, this is a result of mental training exercises such as visualisation, self-talk, and effective goal setting. You can do the same to improve your performance.

References:

  1. Holmes, P.S. and Collins, D.J., 2001. The PETTLEP approach to motor imagery: A functional equivalence model for sport psychologists. Journal of applied sport psychology, 13(1), pp.60-83.
  2. Röthlin, P., Horvath, S., Trösch, S., Holtforth, M.G. and Birrer, D., 2020. Differential and shared effects of psychological skills training and mindfulness training on performance-relevant psychological factors in sport: a randomized controlled trial. BMC psychology, 8, pp.1-13.
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How to Teach Mental Toughness in Sports

Mental toughness is often associated with an unshakable self-belief, the refusal to quit, and impressive self confidence.

Professional athletes, in particular, are known to face adversity head-on, staying concentrated on the task at hand, regardless of what obstacles are thrown their way [2]. 

Many of the very best athletes understand that the need to develop mental toughness is crucial. It’s what separates the best from the very best.

Conversely, if an athlete lacks mental toughness, then they are less likely to give it their all in both training and competition. 

Which athlete would you rather have on your team? 

Some athletes are more mentally tough than others; it’s just how it is. And it’s the way that it will always be.

But mental toughness can be trained. So that’s what this blog post is all about — this is a guide for coaches on how to teach mental toughness in sports.

Key takeaways:

  • Mental toughness and resilience can be trained
  • Use SMART goal setting to build discipline and accountability  
  • Create training scenarios to mimic dips in mental toughness 

A few examples of mental toughness in sport

When you think of an athlete who is mentally tough, your mind likely goes to those who persevere and push through adversity. Usually, it’s the athletes who show up and give it their all, game after game, session after session.

It’s the talented athletes who have the mental strength to ride a solo breakaway at the Giro d’Italia with 80 km to go. It’s those who play with food poisoning and get promoted to the NBA finals. And it’s the athletes who fight with their teammate for multiple seasons but go on to win the world championship with Mercedes at the very last Formula One race of the season in Abu Dhabi.

It’s the Chris Froomes, the Michael Jordans, and the Nico Rosbergs of the world. They’re all incredible athletes who can access the present moment and play the mental game exceptionally well. 

And that’s only a few examples of elite athletes who have unshakable mental toughness. 

The “food poisoning game” 

It’s game 5 of the 1997 NBA finals — the Chicago Bulls vs Utah Jazz.

It’s 2 am in the early hours of the morning, and Michael Jordan orders a pizza. He’s starving, and there’s only 1 place open. But what he doesn’t know is that he’ll later go on to get food poisoning, spending all day in bed, throwing up. 

Most people would not play the same evening. Most people would still be in bed, wishing they could play and feeling sorry for themselves. But not Michael Jordan.

Jordan was the heart and centre of that game. He went on to score 38 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. The Chicago Bulls moved on to game 6 and went on to win the 1997 NBA finals.

The game was labelled the famous “food poisoning game,” and to this day, nobody knows how Michael Jordan did it. 

If this isn’t the most perfect example of mental toughness in Elite sport we’ve ever seen, then what is?

It may sound simple, but both winning and losing can become a mindset, and I won’t accept losing – ever. — Scottie Pippen, Former Basketball Player for The Chicago Bulls. 

How to teach mental toughness 

Many athletes and coaches stand firm in the belief that mental toughness is genetic — it’s a thing some athletes have. And something other athletes do not have.

And while we agree that some athletes may be naturally more mentally tough than others, coaches can still teach mental toughness in sports.

But how do you teach it, you ask?

  1. Teach discipline and goal-directed behaviour 
  2. Use failure as an opportunity to learn
  3. Create training scenarios to mimic competition 
  4. Use Rewire to improve mental toughness 

Teach discipline and goal-directed behaviour 

Expert coaches and elite athletes agree that discipline and goal-directed behaviour are essential components of mental toughness [1].

As a coach, you should use goal-setting principles to keep your athletes motivated and focused on the task at hand. So when it comes to it, they can rise up to the challenge and practise mental toughness.

You should coach your athletes on how to set SMART goals. This type of goal setting is very effective in sports and can help athletes persevere, whether rehabbing from an injury or practising their free throw.

The SMART acronym stands for [3]:

  • Specific: state exactly what you want to achieve or improve.
  • Measurable: how can you accurately measure progress?
  • Achievable: Is it possible? You need to be realistic.
  • Realistic: your goals should be challenging, but not impossible.
  • Time-bound: set a realistic timeframe to achieve your goals.

Use failure as an opportunity to learn

The very best athletes use failure as an opportunity to learn, grow, and improve.

And although it’s a useful tool to get better, many athletes (and everyday people) do not do well with failure.

Failure can easily knock an athlete’s self confidence, and just easily negatively impact their mental toughness. 

As a coach, you should teach your athletes not to fear failure. Embracing failure is a way to get better — to find your weaknesses (as a player or a team), and ultimately provides the groundwork and motivation to do better.

Athletes do not want to make mistakes. But it’s these mistakes that allow them to learn and improve. Take Jonny Brownlee, for example; he was set to win the final race of the World Triathlon Series in Mexico back in 2016, only to encounter severe dehydration in the final stretch of the race. He would have won the race, but instead, he was carried over the finish line by his brother, Alistair, to finish second. 

And what did Jonny do? He made sure not to make the same hydration mistakes again.

It’s these mistakes that can be very difficult to deal with in the moment, but are crucial mistakes to learn. It’s what creates mentally tough athletes.

Create training scenarios to mimic competition 

During competition, you might notice some athletes lose motivation and subsequent mental toughness — they’re more likely to make a mistake, less likely to put in the effort, and may allow the decision from a referee to get the best of them.

Situations that zap mental toughness can be coached and mitigated in training.

For example, if an athlete loses motivation and scuffs their shots when they’re losing, create the same scenario in training to mimic competition.

Practice lapses in mental toughness and motivation in practice, and make sure they don’t happen when they matter most.

Use Rewire for teams to improve mental toughness

Coaches can use Rewire to improve focus, increase readiness for their athletes to perform, and reduce stress.

Athletes also gain access to the Athlete Platform — the ultimate toolkit to help athletes improve mindset, manage stress, and improve mental toughness in the run-up to competition. 

Coaches can use Rewire to prescribe neuro-training sessions that best suit an athlete’s readiness. Athletes can also select their own neuro-training protocols to further build mental toughness and resilience. The neuro-training sessions utilises brain-endurance training protocols to help athletes build mental toughness.

Related: Overview of Rewire’s Neuro-Training System

And that’s not it. Coaches can use Rewire to assess athletes’ readiness scores — this allows you to adjust training load and intensity for each athlete based on how they feel mentally and physically.

“There has been huge advancements in the way we train the body for peak performance. I truly believe that the next major gains will be surrounding the brain/body connection. Rewire Fitness is an app that helps with just that.” — Matt Hanson, Professional Triathlete and Coach.

How do athletes work on mental toughness?

You can apply all the best coaching principles in the world, but at the end of the day, your athletes also need to work on their mental toughness.

They need to apply the principles and practise the habits and lessons to increase their mental toughness.

Athletes can also use tools such as Rewire, using scientifically proven neuro-training protocols to build mental toughness and resilience.

“With the app, it’s giving you a controlled environment and structure so that you can choose when you want to add mental training to your workouts, and you can do it as often as you’d like.” — Laura Kline, Elite Ultra runner & Endurance Athlete.

FAQs

How to build mental toughness in young athletes?

To build mental toughness in youth athletes, you should practise discipline and SMART goal setting. Make sure to set difficult but achievable goals for the best results.
Related: How to Build Mental Toughness in Youth Athletes

What is the best sport for mental toughness?

Virtually all sports, when done correctly, can be an excellent vessel for improving mental toughness. Although, gymnastics is often a standout sport for many, especially because athletes start training as early as 2 years old.

Can mental toughness be trained? 

Yes! Mental toughness and mental resilience can be trained. And while some athletes may naturally be more mentally tough than others, the trait can certainly be improved. 


References:
Fourie, S. and Potgieter, J.R., 2001. The nature of mental toughness in sport. South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation, 23(2), pp.63-72.

Liew, G.C., Kuan, G., Chin, N.S. and Hashim, H.A., 2019. Mental toughness in sport. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research, 49(4), pp.381-394.

McCarthy, P.J. and Gupta, S., 2022. Set goals to get goals: Sowing seeds for success in sports. Frontiers for Young Minds, 10(10.3389). 

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