Mental Toughness

What is mental toughness? Athletes hear it and coaches say it. How do you become mentally tough?
In my 24 years of coaching experience I have seen one common denominator in athletes who are mentally tough or one way to develop mental toughness in athletes or teams. The weight room! From my experience, athletes and or teams who work hard in the weight room are mentally tough. That weight room toughness transfers to the playing field thus producing more wins. Everything being equal, size, speed, strength, athletic ability, the team that develops and exudes mental toughness, wins!

So how do you develop mental toughness in the weight room? First of all, you don’t hurt or injure your athletes. You must teach and develop perfect technique on all lifts. You must develop a strong core. You must train hard but smart.

I have been associated with many programs. One thing the successful ones had in common was mental toughness and that mental toughness started in the weight room. I was a graduate assistant at Clemson University in the early 90’s. When I left Clemson, I took a job in Northwest GA at 4A high school as the head strength coach and assistant football coach. Two power house high schools had combined and this school was expected to compete right away. Between the two schools, they had won 7 state championships. I arrived at the beginning of the summer, walked in the weight room and a small group of football players were working out with a few coaches standing around watching. I made a comment to my wife, “this must be the middle school or JV players. To my surprise, this was the varsity. I had my work cut out for me. I evaluated the team and realized that we had the weakest and softest football team I had ever been a part of. To make a long story short, we went 2-8 the 1st year, 5-5 the 2nd, and made the playoffs the 3rd. The 4th year we made it to the 3rd round of the playoffs. This group of young men were mentally tough. It all started in the weight room. As a coaching staff, we put our players in situations in the weight room and on the field that challenged them. We worked harder than any of our opponents. When they thought they couldn’t go any further, we push them to a new level. Nothing remains the same. 100% effort doesn’t remain the same. What was 100% effort in game one isn’t always 100% in game 2.

“The physicality of our world is a boundary only if our will is weak: A true champion can accomplish things a normal person would think impossible”—the book, the art of racing in the rain

This quote from the book, the art of racing, sums it up. You must be tough physically and mentally, not only in sports but in life. If you are to be a champion, you must be mentally tough!