As Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.” Yogi’s quotes would always make you laugh but also think. While it is partially sarcastic, it is that the mental side of sports is so vitally important to success. As coaches, we spend the majority of our time on the fundamentals and X’s and O’s part of the game; however the mental side is equally important.
It is not necessary to run separate practices to develop mental toughness in athletes. It is possible, and encouraged, to incorporate mental toughness strategies into our existing practice plans. In fact, when developing practice plans, it is crucial to make notes to include strategies in everyday practice sessions.
CREATE PRESSURE IN PRACTICE
One of the easiest and most effective ways to build mental toughness in athletes in all sports is to simulate competition pressure. Practice plans are so vitally important to successful development. Dynamic, competitive drills not only reinforces fundamentals but also simulates game type situations.
Athletes have to get used to performing in game-type, pressure situations. Not only does that help them play faster, but it also develops long term mental toughness.
Some examples of drills or scenarios to create are situational hitting drills in baseball, 3rd and 8 plays in football, free throws with noise in basketball, penalty kicks in soccer. These are just a few of many. Depending on your sport, think of game situations where your team will be under pressure. Use past experiences where the team had to produce to inspire practice planning. If you are in season, think of recent games and use those scenarios to help guide practices.
The more players get used to competing under pressure, the better off they will be.
USE GOAL SETTING
Create short term goals in practice to help build confidence and control. This can be incorporated into certain drills or even the pressure scenarios. Give individual players or small groups a goal to hit.
You know your players and teams. It is important to create goals that are challenging but attainable. You don’t want the success rate to be 100 percent, as that does not develop athletes, but when the goal is building confidence, you do want the goals to be attainable more often than not.
Heterogeneous grouping is one way to help those struggling with goal setting. By putting some of your more mentally tough athletes with ones that are still developing, it is one way to help build confidence. Athletes of varying abilities can develop mental toughness in different ways. It is so crucial to know the members of your team and what makes them tick.
Some of your athletes will want to be pushed, and their goals a little more challenging. Others are not at that level yet and will need goals that are a little easier to reach.
NORMALIZE FAILURE AND RECOVERY
Athletics is about failure and recovery. Read any biography of some of the greatest athletes of our time – Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Tiger Woods – and you will learn that so much of what motivated them is failure or the fear of failure. They worked hard to overcome failure and not crumble in the face of it. To develop mental toughness, athletes must be able to normalize failure in their head. They must develop a growth mindset and realize that they can get better.
The faster young athletes learn to normalize failure, the faster they will grow from those experiences. Take a sport like baseball – which is a game of failure. Batters that fail 70 percent of the time are elected to the Hall of Fame. Failure is part of the game, recovery from that failure is vital.
Too often, coaches yell and scream at failure – making it even harder for young athletes to overcome. Failure is already difficult enough. When coaches let their emotions get the best of them, they react by screaming at athletes. This does not lead to a development of mental toughness but a slow erosion of confidence. Humans in general do not want to be yelled at. If a failure (a strikeout, a missed shot, etc) triggers a yelling episode from a coach, the athlete will play tense and nervous. This is the exact opposite of how we want them to play.
INCORPORATE VISUALIZATION AND SELF TALK
Incorporating visualization and self talk is a little more new age than some coaches like. There are different extremes to this. This can be accomplished a little more subtly than what you may be thinking. In teaching units of a practice, have the athletes take mental reps while you are teaching plays for concepts. Have the players take mental reps while they are waiting for their turn in a drill or a play.
Have athletes develop a simple word or phrase that they can use in certain situations. In most, if not all, high pressure situations, the last thing you want athletes to do is to get too technical. A batter in the box should never be thinking about their swing in technical terms. That is for batting practice. A golfer should not be thinking about seven different things in their back swing. A soccer player should not be thinking about their foot placement as they approach a penalty kick. Athletes have to play free and clear.
Many sports psychologists have the athletes focus on one word or phrase (usually very positive) as they are doing something in their sport. Golfers refer to this as a swing thought – which many times can be no thought at all. It varies for everyone. But a self talk word or phrase such as “play free” or “follow through” allows the mind to declutter in the split second that the athlete has to execute a fine motor skill.
HOLD ATHLETES ACCOUNTABLE, TO EFFORT, NOT OUTCOMES
Many times athletes have less control over the outcome as they think. Sometimes the opponent is just better. Other times a teammate will drop a ball or miss a shot. There may be a blown call by an official or umpire. In these moments, it can be difficult to build confidence in athletes.
It is always best practice for coaches to stress holding athletes accountable for effort more than outcomes. Athletes can always control effort. If an athlete is putting in maximum effort, they should be praised. Sometimes that maximum effort is good enough. Other times it isn’t.
But at the end of the day, the bottom line is the famous quote, “control the controlables.” Many times you’ll hear coaches talk about embracing the process. The great athletes embrace the process because there is much more control within the process. True athletes know that if they focus on the process, the wins will come.
From a coaching standpoint, it is absolutely essential to hold athletes accountable for their work ethic and their effort. Effort breeds culture and is contagious.
In terms of developing mental toughness, athletes must embrace effort and that is driven by a coach’s focus.
By using these five key tools, coaches can build a culture that breeds mental toughness. Develop solid practice plans that incorporate all five tools in each practice and make them fundamental components to your coaching.