Check Yourself before you Wreck Yourself!

Awareness is the first step to gaining control of any pressure situation during competition. Without awareness of self, you then limit the ability to make positive adjustments in your thinking to redirect your focus. You cant control your performance until you are in control of yourself. In the book, Mind Gym, the author expresses the importance of knowing your #'s ..he uses the "Inverted U" to explain the performance curve. Take a "U", turn in upside down and draw a horizonatal line on the left side, then a vertical line across the bottom and number both lines incrementaly zero to ten. The horizontal line represents stress/anxiety and the vertical line represents performance and productivity. As the athlete becomes stimulated....both lines increase. When the athlete is at his/her optimal performance state they have reached the apex of the inverted "U".

So now we need to find your numbers. Start with reflecting on performances you have done well in...what were those numbers? Then, think about competitions or events that didn't go well...were your numbers too high or to low? Did you need a kick in the ass, or were you over activated and lost focus?
Developing an awareness of how your mind and body works best for YOU is a process that only one can master with practice and reflection. Next Level mental toughness is built by feeling confident in knowing you have ability to control your emotions and thoughts in any situation. Having control during a competition is a excellent skill to have to optimize your performance consistancy. Know your numbers and practice to get in that zone every chance you get...so you can do it when it counts!

Developing Mental Toughness

I believe everyone has some level of mental toughness and for athletes I believe mental toughness is the "ace in the hole" for strong athletic performances. For elite athletes, mental toughness can be THE DIFFERENCE of making the podium or or not. I believe elite athletes need to understand the unique balance of mental and physical training...one will not reach their true potential without that balance. Before we discuss how to develop a more effective mental toughness we must first define it.

I define Mental Toughness as... the process of developing a psychological edge over your opponents by remaining focused on the task and not being distracted by physical discomforts that the body is projecting once you have entered the "suck factor".

Jones et al. (2007)proposes a mental toughness framework that contains two components: belief and focus. "Mental toughness is composed of an unshakable belief that one can achieve her or his goals regardless of the obstacles or set-backs. Through focus, mentally tough athletes prioritize their long term sport goal over other life goals, yet possessing the ability to switch off this focus to maintain balance in their lives...contributing to their success.

In Jones' broader conception of mental toughness I highlighted "maintaining balance in their lives" ...I believe this is an important component to developing mental strength, toughness etc. I find most elite athletes already have the tough character, tough attitude and the training environment to build "mettle", but what they are missing is the balance.