Mental Toughness Targeted By Mental Preparation

Before going through the subcomponents of Mental Toughness I need to address what I assume will be the main point of controversy about  it – separating the mental side of performance from general wellbeing.

Or using terms you’re more likely to come across – considering both mental health and mental toughness as important but different.

For some of you, the aeroplane analogy will automatically do the explaining for me. Although the aircraft can be thought of as a single vessel in the same way that a person can be thought of as one being the fact is that each of these is made up of different interconnecting ‘bits’.

In the event that the aeroplane analogy doesn’t quite get the job done let me justify this approach future using some of the other engines as examples.

Most human beings do not require super fitness, amazing physical strength nor excellent flexiblity in order to function, thrive and be good at what they do. In fact, only relatively small amounts of physical activity may be needed in order for most people to experience the day to day benefits of exercise on their wellbeing. 

But if this person happens to be an athlete – and in particular an athlete of a physically demanding sport – such as biathlon or triathlon – then these small amounts of psychical activity will not be sufficient if they want to go as far in their chose sport as possible. 

Just Like An Aeroplane

If the purpose of the aircraft is simply to go for short 20 minute flights as part of a hobby group for amateur fliers then it still needs to function but the efficiency of the engines is less critical compared with an aeroplane that wants to fly as far as possible (safely).

So Mental Toughness joins the previously covered Physical Capabilities, Technical Consistency and Tactical Wisdom to make up the fourth and final engine – the four groups of ‘extras’ needed to go much further than might otherwise be possible. 

With this in mind, I will be guiding you through a number of different ideas that most people really never need to consider adding to their weekly routine. But the mental requirements of becoming the best possible athlete or sporting coach you can be are far from the mental requirements of basic functioning and wellbeing.

So what is Mental Toughness then? What are the subcomponents of this engine, what areas can we target for improvement in our quest to become mentally tougher?

After 15 years of helping mostly athletes with mostly their performance mental toughness, I believe that it is best broken down into these five key psychological subcomponents:

• Motivation

• Emotions

• Thoughts

• Unity

• Focus

In other words the best possible answer I can give at this stage to the question ‘what is mental toughness’ is something along these lines:

Mental Toughness is an umbrella term that refers to varying levels and combinations of motivation towards training and competing, the ability to manage the full spectrum of emotions and thoughts, knowing when and how to switch on or off as well as team related factors such learning to respect your teammates.

Most of the other labels that you’d expect to be here are either synonyms of one of these words or a type of one of the subcomponents or a combination of the both of these. For example, the words concentration and attention are both synonyms of focus. Confidence, pressure. fear and feeling relaxed are all types of emotions. Flow, one of the most common words in modern-day sport psychology, is really just a blend of high focus and relaxation.

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