Mental Toughness In Sport

Mental toughness is a group of personal characteristics and attributes that helps a person work through tough circumstances. This term is mostly utilized in sports when trying to get through a hard situation. For example, if an athlete is attempting to come back from a loss in a game. Another instance would be trying to get through a rough practice, where nothing is going your way, but still having the mindset that you will get through it and get better. Coaches and Sport Commentators uses the term mental toughness to describe the mental state of athletes who persevere through difficult sport circumstances to succeed. Mental toughness (or “grit”) may be the defining factor between finishing at the front of the pack and not finishing at all.

The true question for these athletes would be: are you mentally tough enough to compete? Psychological preparedness for a situation especially a game or tough practice as I mentioned before includes, dealing with the stress, coming back from mistakes and failures quickly, choosing the right strategies to get through tough situations, rapidly adjusting to each circumstance thrown at them, being able to remain humble while celebrating accomplishments and not becoming too confident, and remaining positive before, during and after the game. (Riordan,

Whether in training or in competition, there are tough times, and this is when motivation is crucial. A lot of research on the subject suggested that self-determination, self-realization and self-esteem were very common motivations among athletes: it's the constant drive to better yourself. (Perreault) Along with that goes self-efficacy, which is believing that they have the talent and skill to complete the task. It is a key component to being mentally tough because these athletes need to believe in themselves to be able to have self motivation to complete the task at