[FASTLARRY]

Training for Mental Toughness

WHAT IS MENTAL TOUGHNESS/

Toughness? By definition, toughness is "to be strong and resilient; able to withstand great strain without tearing or breaking." Toughness is being able to create positive emotions upon command, enabling you to bring all your talent and skills to life in a moment..

What is Mental Toughness? By definition, toughness is "to be strong and resilient; able to withstand great strain without tearing or breaking." Mental toughness to me is being able to reach your Ideal Competitive State (ICS) on command.

What exactly is your Ideal Competitive State? Your ICS is your personal state of being that allows an individual to perform with their greatest potential. It is a state of being where an individual feels most energized, most confident and most strong. A state where you are generating positive emotions that help you be most alert, instinctive, responsive and creative. When you have that positive fighting attitude and are enjoying the battle (competition).

There are several emotions that can block your potential such as fear, confusion, low energy, fatigue, and helplessness. When you feel these negative emotions you should practice changing your mindset. This is when you must practice creating the positive emotions mentioned in the previous paragraph. There are everyday situations that can challenge your ICS: Lack of sleep, which makes you sluggish and tired; officials that make bad calls; girlfriends/boyfriends that break up with you; pressure from school/work/family

Toughness is being able too create these positive emotions upon command, thus enabling you to bring all your talent and skills to life at that moment, no matter what negative thing(s) might be affecting you.

The night before your contest, go to sleep playing out the match in detail. See your self winning and see and relish every detail of that victory. See your self receive the cup and hold it over your head.

You train for years to get into that position, to win, now see it, feel it, sleep on it, believe it, awake and just go do it. Get out of your own way and allow it to occur.

The next time you are feeling down, or have low motivation before practice, take advantage of it. This is a great time to practice controlling your ICS. Become a great actor (Anyone can act out how they really feel)! Remember, your body helps your mind and vice versa. Concentrate on your body language - smile, walk straight, head up, shoulders back - look confident. Include a light skip to your step. If you force your body to act "alive and positive," it will tell your mind that you are "alive and positive." Same with your mind - think positive thoughts - think of all the good in your life (family, friends, life in sport). Thinking positive thoughts will help you get your body in a positive mode.

Perfect the "Mindset." No complaining! Nothing can bother you! Nothing can break you! No matter what your coach throws at you. No matter what your opponent does. No matter what the situation. Nothing can rattle you. And all because you are too tough, too resilient, too focused! Just life the dictionary definition of toughness, "you are able to withstand great strain without tearing or breaking!"

Put yourself in adverse practice situations and overcome! Imagine being behind in score, a victim of a bad call, your opponent is cheating - the more you can overcome the better the training.

Toughness is learned - make no mistake about it! If you are not tough, it just means you need more practice. Just like learning or perfecting a technique or skill, toughness can be learned, refined and honed.

No matter how old or young, weak or strong, you can be tougher! Never believe that you can't achieve because you are not talented enough, smart enough or weren't given gifts to succeed. Your future is much more dependent on the decisions you make and what you do than on what you are genetically made up of. Believe me, the level of toughness you acquire through toughness training will be the most powerful FORCE in your athletic career as well as your life!
"EXPECT TO WIN!" Be bold, now go out and attack, attack first. Dare to Dream, Dare to dream to be a winner, dare to dream, to be great.

[paco1076]

I was just reading through some of the old posts and thought that this one should be moved back near the front. There is a lot of wisdom (simple wisdom in fact) in this article.

Craig