Demystifying Mental Toughness

Are you one of those people who sets goals for yourself, but you get frustrated at not achieving them?   Or perhaps you're a coach or teacher who notices some of your athletes often display a negative, "can't do" attitude towards things that you ask them to do. In this short solo episode, I discuss the way that we view our ability goes on to underpin two different achievement goal states; task and...

Commitment, a measure of mental toughness is largely about making promises to yourself and then going on to follow through with those promises, without being sidetracked or derailed.   As a Sports Psychologist I note that a lot of people are highly driven and could be argued to be goal setters.   Regularly setting goals and striving to attain them.   Yet, they aren't shown what are helpful goals a...

Commitment, setting goals and delivering on your promises without being derailed, is an important ingredient of Mental Toughness. In this BITESIZED episode leading Performance Coach, Mark Bennett MBE and I go on to discuss the differences in commitment levels between leisure and performance athletes.   Mark goes on to share suggestions for coaches so that they can get the best out of their athlete...

Rest and recovery is hugely important for us all, especially highly motivated and driven people.   In this bitesized episode, I chat with Nick Littlehales, a Sleep Coach to many elite sports performers.   Nick and I discuss sleep trackers and the upside to using them.   He also talks about orthosomnia, which describes individuals who become overly concerned or obsessed with tracking their sleep, r...

Supportive coaching is shown to be effective in having a positive influence on an athlete's development, particularly when athletes are unsure of themselves, are less confident and lack mental toughness.  Feel free to check out today's solo episode where I discuss compassion, mental toughness and high performance to help with the development of sports coaches and to improve the experience for athl...

Today I chat with a leading authority for Mental Toughness, Doug Strycharczyk, where I share a short bite from a conversation that we had about psychological safety and its relationship with Mental Toughness. Doug goes on to introduce psychological safety which is highly relevant for those involved in teams or organisations. Key Learning Points: It's worth checking out the work of Harvard Professo...

"Teamwork makes the dreamwork" – John C Maxwell.   This quote is the motivation behind the latest episode of Demystifying Mental Toughness, where I look to challenge your thinking by considering the 3Cs Teamwork Cycle of cooperation, coordination and communication alongside the 4Cs Mental Toughness model created by Professor Peter Clough.  After all, successful teamwork, often gives teams, clubs a...

Are team development strategies taken seriously in elite sport when viewed from a psycho-social perspective?     This question was the motivation for my solo episode today where I chat about the use of team units and the benefits of working more closely in team units.   As I share my thoughts and ideas, I refer to some of the key sub-measures of Mental Toughness from Peter Clough's 4Cs model. Key...

What makes a great captain in team sports? In this week's short solo episode I elaborate on this question where I focus on the 8 key sub-measures of Mental Toughness from Peter Clough's 4Cs model sharing my thoughts and ideas, some case studies and tips to help you, your players or students or your children. Key Learning Points When coaches face selection headaches often they choose the player tha...

This is a short episode where leadership is the topic that Paula Eddy Wilcox and I discuss, specifically looking at vulnerability in leaders, coaches or managers.   From a mental toughness angle this links with a number of the measures from Peter Cloughs 4Cs Model of Mental Toughness.   Namely, interpersonal confidence and being comfortable in yourself when you communicate to others, to emotional...

In episode #177 of the Demystifying Mental Toughness Podcast, Lisa Avery, a positive psychology practitioner talks to me about how to help young people flourish using a positive psychology approach.   In our conversation we focus on a measure of mental toughness, life control, which links to having a "can do" attitude towards life.   We discuss identifying and cultivating positive emotions, charac...

In today's episode, I share a short yet very important extract from episode 122, where Professor Camilla Knight chats to me about the wellbeing of sporting children, communication between children and parents, parental stressors, as well as touching on self-care as a parent. Key Learning Points The sporting environment will naturally shape the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of children. Underst...

Episode 175 of the Demystifying Mental Toughness podcast is for athletes, coaches or parents that fall into the trap of spending too much time mind reading others and making faulty assumptions meaning that they struggle to focus on the task in hand and perform to their optimum.   Typical behaviours in sport that can be associated with those who look to seek social approach: they often go into thei...

Criticism is everywhere today, where people often share their opinions of other people very easily despite not knowing the person, online using social media.   The criticism often goes too far, especially in a sporting context, when so much emotion is evident.   Throw in general criticism on the side of a pitch from spectators, and negative feedback from coaches and team-mates.   It really can be...

A measure of Mental Toughness is interpersonal confidence, which reflects your ability to deal confidently with challenges from other people.   Those with good interpersonal confidence are likely to be better at dealing positively with these situations and with people, tending to be more assertive.   They are also more comfortable in social or team settings, especially when mistakes occur or as is...

In today's episode we look at working with the subconscious mind to improve self-awareness, overcome self-doubt and reduce your chances of choking when performing.   My guest, Mental Performance Coach, Brandon Epstein shares his wisdom and gives you some ideas and strategies to keep moving forwards. Key Learning Points: Our subconscious mind can be programmed to help us win or lose. A lot of peopl...

In episode #171 of the Demystifying Mental Toughness Podcast, former Professional Australian Rugby League player and now an inspiring speaker and personal trainer, David Lindsay talks to me about ways you can improve your vitality to improve your chances of success.   We also touch on Mental Toughness in a Professional Rugby League as well as discussing the psychological side to martial arts. Key...

Supporting athletes with perfectionist tendencies is a large part of our work at Inspiring Sporting Excellence. They often display the following characteristics: Difficulties transferring their practice or training to competitive events or matches. Trying too hard. Focusing intensely on results and outcomes. Unable to trust themselves under pressure. High, rigid and often unrealistic expectations...

One of the hallmarks of Mentally Toughness is the ability to perform well under pressure.   Whether you play golf or cricket, or enjoy gymnastics or netball.   It's the same in your job if you have to stand up and deliver presentations at work. So why do many people struggle with this? Why does thriving under pressure separate the great from the good on occasions? Many things can prevent people to...

Today's guest, trainer, coach and author Andrew Simpson and I chat about the youth sport experience today for kids, parents and coaches.   We discuss pressures on kids, coaching and parental pressures and stressors.   We also look at parents who also coach and the difficulties involved in that role, in particular.   Common mindset traps kids fall into are also part of the conversation including th...

In today's episode of Demystifying Mental Toughness we dip back into the archives and take a short bite from episode 13 where leading performance coach Karl Morris and I chat about emotional control an essential ingredient of Mental Toughness.   Karl goes on to share a very simple and effective strategy for those people who find it hard to let go of mistakes, stay calm and level headed. Or the gol...

Many athletes and coaches understand that one measure of Mental Toughness, COMMITMENT, showing maximum effort, making promises and keeping them, setting goals and not getting to side-tracked is vitally important.   What this can also mean is a lot of athletes and coaches get carried away with simply being busy and trying to improve.   This often results in performance plateaus.  Why is that?   A t...

Goalkeeping is arguably the most difficult and mentally challenging position on the football or soccer pitch.   Common psychological challenges goalkeepers face include; dealing with pressure due to being the last line of defence, coping with mistakes, managing emotions, maintaining focus on the pitch in matches and in training, as well as communicating effectively with team-mates. In today's epis...

Trauma refers to a deeply distressing or disturbing experience or event that can overwhelm an individual's ability to cope and potentially cause lasting psychological, emotional and physical effects.   In this bitesize episode, my guest, author and motivational speaker Steve Judge tells me about his inspiring journey. In 2002, Steve was involved in a car crash near Sheffield, crushing both of his...

The "yips" is a term commonly used in golf.   It describes sudden and unexplained losses of fine motor skills which impact on putting strokes and golfers chipping action.   It is argued that somewhere between 32 and 47% of serious golfers have been affected by the yips at some point.   The yips can be a very complex challenge to overcome where many golfers simply change technique and equipment num...