What are the most effective ways to build resilience and mental toughness in athletes?

From my experience, it can involve a holistic approach—setting goals, promoting positive self-talk, and incorporating visualisation techniques. Emphasising the importance of the process, mindfulness practices, and intentional adversity training are also crucial. Let's continue the conversation on empowering athletes to thrive not just in their sport, but in every facet of their journey.

This method is very systematic. It allows the person to breakdown their goals clearly and if done well, they can improve, fix and boost each of these 5 goals individually, which then leads to big, positive outcomes. Although, I would argue that a lot of youngsters which are in the junior scene may lack the discipline in doing this on their own. But with proper guidance at the start, possibly from a coach, mentor, parent or someone who can explain to them the importance of this goal setting system, they could start doing this from young. Along the way, they'll find different ways and ways which suit them better. They could also share it and inspire their peers to have a system that helps them get better.

Setting SMART goals is a game-changer for athletes striving to build resilience and mental toughness. Imagine goals as your roadmap - they're clear (Specific), trackable (Measurable), realistic yet challenging (Achievable), aligned with your ultimate dreams (Relevant), and have a deadline (Time-bound). This approach turns goals into stepping stones, each a victory that boosts confidence. When the going gets tough, these well-defined milestones keep athletes laser-focused and driven. They aren't just chasing dreams; they're ticking off well-planned, meaningful achievements, one after the other. It's like having a secret weapon in your arsenal, powering you through obstacles with a clear vision and unwavering determination.

Mental toughness is about one thing, confidence. The belief that you will get through the challenge and if that challenge is too great, confidence can dwindle. Mental toughness is a learned skill so set goals that will stretch athletes, not break them.

Mental toughness can be developed through training. Create training programmes that strategically push athletes both physically and emotionally. Simulating pressure situations in practise can help students prepare for comparable conditions in competition.

You can't just flip a switch and have growth mindset. Don't wait until a challenge presents itself to you. Go out and create challenging situations where you can continue to test your skills and fail fast. Those things can foster growth mindset.

It takes more than just a growth mindset to embrace challenges. The research on peak performance suggests that embracing challenge has a lot to do with what psychologists call cognitive appraisals, or the way in which we evaluate a particular challenge. Essentially, we answer the question, “do we believe we have the resources we need to take it on, or not?” Believing we have the resources leads to a “challenge appraisal,” which tilts our psychology and physiology toward mental toughness. Rather than experiencing anxiety, we experience energy, and our minds focus more intently on the task at hand.

Embracing challenges always leads to a win-win. When you can learn equanimity (mental calmness and composure), emotional resilience gets easier every time a challenge presents itself. When we can lead and life with logic it truly fosters a growth mindset.

Challenges provide the training ground for mental tightness. The struggle is where growth can occur. Without the pain and hardship of trials, there will be no overcoming. You must overcome to develop mental strength. Mental strength is the caveat to building a solid component needed for athletic endurance. Why do people scale the tallest mountain? Why do people run marathons or bike 100 miles? It takes the mind. Training the physical body requires the mental fortitude to overcome the pain of physical hardships

Although I am a firm believer in the efficacy of mental skills training, one of the things that you can’t just practice is mental toughness. There is simply no way to replicate the trials and tribulations it takes to build mental toughness, instead you have to experience those trials and work through them. The best way to do this is to embrace challenges and continuously push yourself past perceived limits. It’s the reason elite military units go through some sort of crucible before being accepted into those units. The crucible, aka the challenge, is what forges the unique characteristics that makes them elite.

Not all self-talk has to be strictly positive. Rather, it’s more effective to focus on self-talk that’s helpful in a given context. Mental toughness might be facilitated in one moment by giving yourself instructions, and in another moment by reframing your stress, and another moment by quickly and quietly coaching yourself. Rather than focus on the content of the self-talk, focus on how it works to facilitate high performance.

Great athletes are not coddled and celebrated into greatness; they are forged through rejection, fatigue, failure, and doubt. Toughness, focus, and resilience are qualities that must be challenged before they can be strengthened. Embrace a positive growth mindset - accept challenges and failures as opportunities for growth and learning. Set clear SMARTER goals Practice outside of your comfort zone Practice composure and learning to deal with emotions, self control, and focus on the task at hand Be flexible and open to trying new activities, games, techniques.

I believe this is the game changer! Training consistently under pressure in sessions improves composure and speeds up decision making. Additionally, creating challenges & obstacles adds to the athletes experience a multiple solutions for every situation he/she goes through.

Positive self-talk is useless if it is not practiced regularly, i.e. as part of mental training. A good method that has proven successful is subvocal training: positive self-instruction of the movement sequence to be trained in inner conversation (self-suggestion) in order to replace negative, doubting or performance-inhibiting thoughts with performance-enhancing ones

I like to think of it as realistic self-talk. What is going on in this situation? What is the best way for me to respond here? Creating that bit of distance and using curiosity can help to frame self-talk in a neutral and effective way.

Gratitude is an action, not just a thought. It is important to do something such as journaling, writing letters, and verbally expressing gratitude to reap the benefits of gratitude. Additionally, athletes and performers should practice self-appreciation (gratitude to oneself) as they tend to be extra hard on themselves. Those gratitude and self-appreciation practices go a long way for athletes and performers to experience joy and positivity and thus be resilient and mentally tough despite setbacks and challenges.

Gratitude is as important as each breathe we take. When we can be grateful for all that we have and maintain that level of mental health, proactiveness and emotional resilience, life can be limitless. Our life shows up in our work and our work shows up in our life. Living a life of gratitude is priceless.

For athletes, not only can personal life and athletic performance become a struggle at times, but so can online chatter. As important as fans are, they aren’t always nice. For athletes, encouraging them to seek help from professionals as well as trusted members of their team when times get tough, this can be a game changer. Athlete mental health faces a big stigma, so surrounding athletes with positive and encouraging people who can and will help makes it easier for them to reach out when facing any challenges.

For competitive athletes, mental strength is key to success in training, competition, and the event of failure or injury. A sports mental coach for example accompanies, supports, and promotes change processes to optimize the athletes' performance and develop their mental strength

As a sport psychologist with experience working in both college and professional sports, I can say that a lot of mental toughness also boils down to how people in the environment confront challenges. Mental toughness is facilitated by how the team responds to adversity. Do team members lift each other up or tear each other down? Do team leaders use language that suggests we should keep going, or do they focus on the risk we are taking? We want people to view their stressors as challenges to get the most out of their performance, so the environment also needs to encourage that behavior.

Establishing comprehensive mental toughness training initiatives within athletes' regular training schedules, incorporating a variety of psychological skills such as goal setting, imagery, and self-talk. These training programs should be structured and integrated seamlessly into their routines to promote consistent development.

One idea elite athletes and performers with whom I work find very helpful is "control the controllable." That means realizing that we often do not have control over what happens to us, though we almost always have some control over how we respond to such situations. This is also related to the concept of mindfulness to "respond" mindfully rather than "react" mindlessly. When athletes and performers have this mindset, they are likely to notice possibilities and opportunities amid setbacks and challenges that they face.

Although they are used similarly, mental toughness is a more specific type of mental strength that particularly relates to performing under pressure. Therefore, training mental strength – i.e. developing the executive functions so that an athlete makes an optimal use of his own resources, including the mental ones - is crucial to building resilience and boosting sporting performance.