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| Duncan Simpson, PHD |
Over to you Duncan!
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In response to a Twitter comment I made regarding “Mental Toughness” (MT) Stu invited to
write a post on the concept. As a researcher, teacher and practitioner of sport psychology I’ve
thought long and hard about this construct and what to talk about here. MT certainly isn’t a
new term and has been widely researched and written about. To provide a historical account
of research and a full theoretical explanation of MT is beyond this post but I do encourage
readers to seek out a new book if they are interested in such topics “Mental Toughness in
Sport” (Gucciardi & Gordon, 2012). The aim of this post to present an overview of what mental
toughness appears to be from the literature and to provide readers with some applied suggestions
about how to become more mentally tough.
Based on research (e.g., Bull et al., 2005; Connaughton & Hanton, 2009; Crust, 2007; Jones et
al, 2002; 2007 etc.) mental toughness is a complex psychological construct that encompasses
some of the following common attributes possessed by athletes that appear to not vary much
from sport-to-sport. This is not an exhaustive list and basically any desirable psychological
characteristic has been categorized under MT at some time or another.
• successfully managing anxiety, pressure, and other emotions
• staying focused, finding balance and keeping perspective
• being confident
• summoning motivation and desire
• effectively dealing with adversity and failure
• overcoming physical and/or emotional pain and hardship
Fairly recently Jones et al., (2007) developed a framework for MT based on 30 distinct
attributes which divided into 4 categories: Attitude/Mindset, Training, Competition and Post-
Competition. I believe athletes can benefit from thinking about their performance using these 4
categories. For example, the type of MT needed in training (e.g., pushing yourself to the limit) is
perhaps different than the type required during competition (e.g., handling pressure). Therefore,
I encourage readers to write down under these 4 categories what mental skills they need in each
(skills will overlap). For example, a marathon runner might write under competition: Regulating
emotions, self belief, awareness and control of thoughts etc.
Moving away from such attributes, renowned researcher of MT, Prof. Bob Harmison, suggests
mental toughness is more than just how much confidence, motivation, positive emotions, mental
skills, etc. that an athlete possesses. Rather, the key to understanding and developing mental
toughness is to view your level of mental toughness as a function of your whole personality that
is comprised of interconnected and interacting thoughts and emotions. As these interact with
each other and your environment they manifest themselves in predictable patterns of behavior
(e.g., competing with poise, making good decisions) or mentally weak (e.g., competing with
little composure, rushing decisions). As these patterns are predictable in people i.e. they usually
either give up or not. This makes them and/or significant others assume/and believe they are
either mentally “strong” or “weak”. When in fact it’s not an all-or-nothing situation and you’re
not “born” with it rather it can be developed. Once you start to recognize these patterns of
behavior you can start to change the undesirable moments (e.g., giving up when it gets tough) or
you can build upon where you are strong.
Furthermore Harmison suggests that to be mentally tough you need to adopt specific values
(i.e. motives, goals, and desired outcomes regarding training and competition), attitudes (i.e.,
personal constructs about yourself and the competitive environment), beliefs (i.e., convictions
and expectations about yourself), emotions (i.e., adaptive feeling states in response to
competitive situations), and self-regulations/awareness skills (i.e., plans, strategies, and actions
to regulate thoughts, feelings, and behaviors). I suggest the readers write down your thoughts
related to each of these 5 categories above. Try to identify where you are strong and where you
need to improve. Once you’ve written these lists, take one page of paper and write “WHO I
AM”, underneath it write about who you are as a person and try to incorporate the lists you’ve
just generated. This exercise will help provide you with an insight into your personal MT.
To develop mental toughness YOU need to make a commitment to shape these values, attitudes,
beliefs, emotions, and self-regulation skills in yourself. It is a process that takes time and
the reality is that some athletes will be able to develop some to all of these aspects of their
personality while others will struggle.
As an example, I recently consulted with an elderly lady who was competing in her first ever
marathon and was terrified she wouldn’t finish. She felt she gave up too easily in her training
runs when things got tough and said she was “mentally weak”. After speaking to this lady at
great length I was astounded to hear she was solely responsible for the daily care of her husband
who had been battling progressive cancer for years, she had to raise 3 daughters single-
handedly while also supporting the family financially. It quickly became apparent she was
extremely mentally tough but just in a different domains of sport. I believe each of us have
certain psychological strengths from daily life that we can build upon to facilitate our athletic
performance. For this client we did numerous exercises that highlighted and utilized the MT she
has in daily life to apply to her running. We talked at great lengths about her values, attitudes,
beliefs, and worked on controlling her emotions, and on developing self-regulation skills. It was a
great story and she finished London Virgin Marathon in 2012.
While MT is certainly not a concept that is easy to pin down it is one that athletes and coaches
can relate to. So I suggest you readers attempt some of the exercises I mentioned above and start
working on becoming more mentally tough.
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