Mental Toughness in Sports: Unleashing Peak Performance Under Pressure

What defines mental toughness in athletes. How can coaches build mental resilience in their teams. Why is visualization crucial for athletic success. What role does encouragement play in developing mental fortitude.

The Essence of Mental Toughness in Sports

Mental toughness is a cornerstone of athletic excellence, often separating good athletes from great ones. It’s the ability to maintain peak performance regardless of circumstances, be it adverse weather conditions, injuries, or high-pressure situations. This psychological resilience allows athletes to consistently deliver their best when it matters most.

Consider the likes of Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, and Adam Vinatieri. These athletes have repeatedly demonstrated their mental prowess by performing exceptionally well under immense pressure. Jordan’s game-winning shots, Williams’ crucial aces, and Vinatieri’s championship-clinching field goals are testaments to their mental fortitude.

Characteristics of Mentally Tough Athletes

• Consistency in performance
• Ability to thrive under pressure
• Resilience in the face of adversity
• Unwavering focus and determination
• Strong self-belief and confidence

Beyond Mere Completion: The Pursuit of Excellence

Mental toughness isn’t just about finishing; it’s about finishing well. Athletes must maintain their focus and engagement even when fatigue sets in or pressure mounts. This mindset ensures they remain competitive and at the forefront of their sport, rather than merely participating.

How does mental toughness manifest in competition? It’s the swimmer who maintains perfect form in the final lap, the basketball player who sinks free throws in the closing seconds, or the marathoner who sprints to the finish line after 26 grueling miles. These athletes don’t just complete their tasks; they excel when it matters most.

Cultivating Mental Resilience: Strategies for Coaches

Coaches play a pivotal role in developing mental toughness in their athletes. By employing specific strategies, they can help athletes break through perceived limitations and unlock their full potential.

Fostering Self-Belief

How can coaches instill confidence in their athletes? By consistently reminding them of their capabilities and helping them recognize their own strength and heart. Athletes often underestimate their potential, and it’s the coach’s job to help them see beyond self-imposed limits.

Challenging Perceived Limits

What’s the key to pushing athletes beyond their comfort zone? Coaches should emphasize that limits are often mental constructs. By encouraging athletes to push harder and fight longer, coaches can help them overcome mental blocks that may be holding them back from physical achievements.

The Power of Visualization in Athletic Performance

Visualization is a powerful tool in developing mental toughness. By encouraging athletes to mentally rehearse their success, coaches can help them overcome psychological barriers and prepare for real-world challenges.

Implementing Visualization Techniques

1. Encourage regular meditation or reflective walks
2. Guide athletes through detailed mental imagery of successful performances
3. Help athletes connect emotionally with their visualized success
4. Practice visualization before training sessions and competitions

Why is visualization so effective? It allows athletes to experience success in their minds before achieving it physically. This mental rehearsal can boost confidence, reduce anxiety, and improve overall performance when it’s time to compete.

The Crucial Role of Encouragement in Building Mental Toughness

Continuous encouragement is vital in developing and maintaining mental toughness. Coaches should provide unwavering support, especially when athletes begin to doubt themselves.

Effective Encouragement Strategies

• Reinforce trust in training and preparation
• Emphasize the importance of teamwork and self-reliance
• Highlight past successes and improvements
• Provide specific, performance-based praise

How does encouragement impact mental toughness? It reinforces an athlete’s belief in their abilities, helping them push through challenges and setbacks. As athletes experience the benefits of perseverance, their mental resilience grows, becoming an invaluable asset in competition.

Mental Toughness and Its Impact on Athletic Development

Mental toughness is not an innate quality but a skill that can be developed over time. As athletes push themselves in training and competition, they build mental resilience that translates into improved performance.

The Cycle of Mental Toughness

1. Athletes face challenges in training or competition
2. They apply mental toughness strategies to overcome these challenges
3. Success reinforces the effectiveness of mental toughness
4. Athletes become more confident in their ability to handle pressure
5. Mental toughness continues to grow, leading to better performance

How does this cycle benefit athletes in the long term? As mental toughness becomes ingrained, athletes become more consistent performers, better equipped to handle pressure, and more resilient in the face of setbacks. This psychological strength often becomes the differentiating factor in high-level competition.

Integrating Mental Toughness Training into Athletic Programs

To fully harness the benefits of mental toughness, it should be integrated into regular training programs. This holistic approach ensures that athletes develop both physical and mental skills concurrently.

Strategies for Integration

• Incorporate pressure situations in practice sessions
• Conduct regular mental toughness workshops or seminars
• Implement mindfulness and meditation practices
• Encourage journaling to track mental progress
• Use video analysis to review and improve mental performance

Why is this integrated approach effective? By treating mental toughness as an essential component of athletic training, coaches ensure that athletes are prepared for the psychological demands of competition. This comprehensive preparation often leads to more consistent and successful performances.

The Future of Mental Toughness in Sports

As sports science continues to evolve, the importance of mental toughness is gaining increased recognition. Future developments in this field are likely to further emphasize the role of psychological resilience in athletic performance.

Emerging Trends in Mental Toughness Training

• Integration of virtual reality for immersive mental training
• Use of biofeedback technology to monitor and improve mental states
• Development of personalized mental toughness programs based on individual athlete profiles
• Incorporation of neuroscience findings to enhance mental training techniques

How might these advancements shape the future of sports? As mental toughness training becomes more sophisticated and tailored to individual needs, we may see a new era of athletic performance where psychological preparation is as crucial as physical training. This evolution could lead to more resilient athletes, higher-quality competitions, and potentially new records across various sports.

In conclusion, mental toughness is a vital component of athletic success, enabling athletes to perform consistently at their best, regardless of external pressures or challenges. By focusing on developing this psychological resilience through visualization, encouragement, and integrated training programs, coaches and athletes can unlock new levels of performance and achievement in sports.

The Importance of Mental Toughness

Sports can encourage young athletes to be outgoing and build social skills. Participating in a sport can even instill important characteristics such as teamwork, time management, and discipline.

Student-athletes learn how to push themselves and push their teammates while developing friendships and coordination skills in the process. In order for an athlete to be as successful as possible, they must work to develop mental toughness.

What is the Definition of Mental Toughness?

Most people define mental toughness as the ability to produce consistent results in practices and in games regardless of the situation. Whether it’s poor weather, an injury, or a pressure situation, athletes with mental toughness find a way to produce the same results. Some notable athletes with mental toughness include:

• Michael Jordan, who has hit multiple game-winning shots under the most pressure-filled of situations.
• Serena Williams, the greatest female tennis player of all time, produces ace after ace down breakpoint or match point.
• Adam Vinatieri, a future hall-of-fame kicker, has hit field goals that have won his team NFL Super Bowl Championships.

These athletes could not perform at this level consistently without mental toughness. Without a doubt, mental prowess is necessary for athletes to achieve the best results possible when it comes to sports. In these moments, athletes must have the drive and motivation to push through challenging and pressure-filled moments and continue on to success.

Do Not Focus on Finishing. Focus on Finishing Well.

When exploring the depths of mental toughness, it is important to note that athletes shouldn’t just find a way to continue going through the motions. Athletes need to remain just as engaged and focused on delivering a high-quality performance in dire situations as when they are feeling fresh. Whether someone is racing against the clock or competing against other athletes, this toughness should allow the athlete to remain competitive and at the front of the pack, not just a presence on the field. It is easy to deliver a top-notch performance when the pressure is off or when people feel fresh. It is more important to keep that level of energy when fatigue or pressure sets in.

How to Build Mental Toughness in Athletes

When pushing athletes to develop this toughness, there are some important facts that coaches need to remember. Remind the athletes that they possess more heart and strength than they give themselves credit for. Help remind them that their limits are only perceptions developed by their mind. When they feel tired or want to stop, tell the athletes that they are in control. They can push harder. They can fight longer. Do not allow those mental blocks to progress to physical limits. Help instill the belief that they are capable of more than they ever thought possible.

Visualization is Key

No matter the activity, always encourage athletes to practice visualizing their success. This is a great way for athletes to overcome any mental limitations. Success for most athletes is achieving something that they have never done before. In order to accomplish this, they will need to break down their mental barriers. Recommend meditating or going for a walk to think about their success.

Encourage them to visualize the process of success in their minds. Allow them to feel the rush of such an accomplishment. Once they can visualize that success in their minds, they will have an easier time overcoming mental blocks during competition.

Encourage the Athletes At All Times

When athletes start to have their doubts, encourage them to have faith and stay mentally strong. They have worked hard developing the skills necessary to enjoy success. Tell them to trust in their training, their teammates, and themselves to overcome any obstacle. Mental toughness comes with experience. The harder they push on the field, the better the results will be. As they start to realize the difference that persisting and staying mentally tough can make, their mental state will become more and more of an asset on the field.

About Ohio University’s Online Master of Athletic Administration Degree

Ohio University’s Online Master of Athletic Administration Degree program is designed to teach professionals how to manage the many changes in interscholastic sports. The university launched the nation’s first academic program in sports administration in 1966 and continues to be a leader in sports business education. The online MAA program is housed within the university’s College of Business, underscoring the university’s dedication to providing world-class sports business education.

The program works in collaboration with the National Intercollegiate Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) to prepare graduates for certification and is accredited by the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA).

Additional Reading

Ohio University Blog, “The Psychology of Sports Injury and Rehabilitation”
Ohio University Blog, “20 Influential Quotes from Professional Athletes”
Ohio University Blog, “6 Tips for Motivating Young Athletes”

Sources

The Sport Psychologist, A Framework of Mental Toughness in the world’s Best Performers, PDF”
U. S. Track & Field, “Mental Toughness: The Psychological Skills (Techniques)”
The Sports Journal, “A Coach’s Responsibility: Learning How to Prepare Athletes for Peak Performance”

do you have what it takes?

There are certain moments during competition that appear to carry great psychological significance, when the momentum starts to shift in one direction or another. These situations require athletes to remain completely focused and calm in the face of difficult circumstances. Tennis players talk of the ‘big’ points during a tight match, such as a fleeting chance to break serve; for an athlete, it could be the final triple-jump in the competition after seriously under-performing; for a footballer, it could be how you react to a perceived bad refereeing decision or to going behind in a match your team are expected to win. Think about times when things have not gone quite to plan and how you reacted. The journey towards peak performance is rarely a perfectly smooth road and we learn from our mistakes – or should do. Do setbacks shake your self-belief and lower your motivation or act as a catalyst for even greater effort?

 Even great athletes and teams suffer setbacks. Olympic athlete Steve Backley is a prime example. In his book The Winning Mind, Backley cites his psychological strengths and, at times, his weaknesses as major determinants of whether he performed near to or below his own strict targets in competition ⁽¹⁾. He talks of the transition from young up-and-coming javelin thrower to major international competitor when, after experiencing success so often as a junior, he found himself under-prepared for the mental hurdles and barriers created by higher-level competition. Backley says psychological strategies were the key to helping him to deal with this competitive stress.

Most top athletes and coaches believe that psychological factors play as crucial a role as physical attributes and learned skills in the make-up of champions. When physical skills are evenly matched – as they tend to be in competitive sport – the competitor with greater The control group’s results are used as a baseline against which those of the treatment group can be compared”>control over his or her mind will usually emerge as the victor. Mental strength is not going to compensate for lack of skill, but in close contests it can make the difference between winning and losing.

A key question for sport and exercise psychologists is whether champions have simply inherited the dominant psychological traits necessary for success or whether mental toughness can be acquired through training and experience. Recent research has attempted to explore the concept of mental toughness in sport more thoroughly, and it appears that, while some people are naturally more tough-minded than others, people can be ‘toughened-up’ with the correct approach to training ⁽²⁾.

What do we mean by mental toughness? It is probably easiest to define in terms of how it affects behaviour and performance. A mentally tough athlete is likely to:

• achieve relatively consistent performances regardless of situational factors;
• retain a confident, positive, optimistic outlook, even when things are not going well, and not ‘choke’ under pressure;
• deal with distractions without letting them interfere with optimal focus;
• tolerate pain and discomfort;
• remain persistent when the ‘going gets tough’;
• have the resilience to bounce back from disappointments.

 The influence of personality

These characteristics are obviously related to success in most life situations. But it seems that some of us may be tougher than others because of personality traits and learned ways of coping.

Personality research has always stirred up controversy – usually because researchers have not been able to agree on the correct approach to studying it. Some have taken what is known as the ‘trait’ approach, which views personality as stable and enduring, based on individual characteristics. However, others see personality as shaped by environmental influences, while ‘interactionists’ view individual traits and the environment as codeterminants of behaviour. In recent times, this latter position has tended to predominate, based on the view that personality structure involves both a stable core of attitudes, values and beliefs about self, that remains relatively unchanged after early childhood, and more changeable, dynamic behaviours that are influenced by our environment.

Research on the relationship between stress and illness has revealed that some people have characteristics that act as buffers against stressors, making them less likely to succumb to ill health in difficult times. The leading researcher Suzanne Kobasa showed in one study that a personality characteristic known as ‘hardiness’ was a key factor in whether or not highly-stressed executives succumbed to illness. The hardy executives, who avoided illness, tended to perceive stressors as ‘challenges’ rather than threats, so maintaining a sense of control over events ⁽³⁾.

Kobasa suggested that hardiness incorporates three key elements:

1. Control – the perceived ability of the individual to exert influence rather than experience helplessness;
2. Commitment – ie a refusal to give up easily;
3. Challenge – involving a person’s ability to grow and develop rather than remain static, and to view change rather than stability as the norm.

Until recently, few studies had attempted to transfer the concept of hardiness to sport and exercise settings, but it seems very similar to the idea of mental toughness outlined earlier in this article. One study on the relationship between hardiness and performance in basketball showed that seven out of eight season-long performance indicators were significantly correlated with a total hardiness score ⁽⁴⁾. This finding needs to be interpreted with caution, however, since correlations do not necessarily reflect causation.

More recently, a team of researchers at Hull University have taken the idea of hardiness a step further by proposing a model of mental toughness in sport⁽²⁾. A key development has been the development of a questionnaire to assess mental toughness that can be used to assess its influence in experimental studies.

The Hull researchers carried out two studies to show how mental toughness was related to performance and cognitive appraisal. In the first study, 23 volunteers performed 30-minute static cycling trials at three different intensities of 30, 50 and 70% of their maximum oxygen uptake, rating the physical demands of the trials at five-minute intervals.

Participants were classified as having either high or low mental toughness based on their responses to the above-mentioned questionnaire and, as predicted, those with higher levels of mental toughness reported significantly lower perceived exertion at 70% of maximum. No significant differences were noted at lower levels of exertion which, as the researchers acknowledged, is consistent with the cliché that ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’. The observed differences at higher levels of exertion could reflect a tendency of the more tough-minded to somehow act on the incoming stimuli before it reaches the level of perception, to reduce the perception of strain. Mentally tough exercisers might perceive themselves as having greater control during such conditions, or interpret the higher intensity as a challenge rather than a threat.

The second study, on 79 participants, considered the influence of mental toughness on resilience in adverse situations. Participants were given either positive or negative feedback after completing a variety of motor tasks, and then asked to perform a planning task which was used as the objective performance measure. The key question for the researchers was how participants would respond to feedback that could alter their confidence. As predicted, mentally tough participants performed better on the planning task, delivering relatively consistent performances whether their feedback had been negative or positive. However, those with lower levels of mental toughness performed significantly worse after negative feedback, confirming the greater resilience of those with high levels of mental toughness.

The ‘4Cs’ model of mental toughness

Building on the work of Kobasa, the Hull team proposed that confidence (as well as control, commitment and challenge) was a key element of mental toughness. This has given rise to the ‘4Cs’ model of mental toughness.

Research on mental toughness in sport and exercise has focused largely on individual differences, in which mental toughness is viewed as a relatively stable characteristic. However, classic previous research on animals has suggested that ‘toughening up’ can be achieved through exposure to stressful conditions. Weiss and colleagues observed a toughening phenomenon after exposing animals to cold-water swimming, electric shock treatment or injections over a 14-day period ⁽⁵⁾. Specifically, the usual decrement in performance following aversive stimulation was not observed after the 14-day period. The intermittent exposure to aversive stimuli had apparently led to the animals becoming more tolerant of – and resilient to – such stimuli.

Although this finding does not necessarily transfer to human subjects, there are distinct parallels with various techniques commonly used as interventions in sport and exercise environments. For example, a technique known as ‘stress inoculation training’ gradually exposes the individual to more threatening situations while self-control is acquired as a means to combat learned helplessness. The stress response is gradually diminished as exposure renders the situation less threatening and the individual experiences a growing sense of control.

Of particular importance here is the idea that exposure to stress in controlled situations is much more powerful than stress reduction or removal, which will not help an individual cope with future exposure to the same stressor.

One researcher has proposed four major influences on toughening, as follows:

1. Early life experiences. Both human and animal studies have shown links between exposure to stressors in early life and reduced fear or emotionality when exposed to threats in adulthood;
2. Passive toughening. Intermittent exposure seems to protect against depletion of ‘stress hormones’ and is linked with their quicker returns to baseline levels. In other words, people become less sensitive and more tolerant of stress;
3. Active toughening. Physical fitness gained through aerobic conditioning is thought to be an important means of self-toughening. This could be related to the application of control;
4. Ageing. This has the opposite effects to the other three, tending to make people more sensitive to and less tolerant of stress.

Clearly, active and passive toughening are the most relevant manipulations for athletes and can be applied in a number of practical ways. Stress inoculation training is an obvious application, but this is probably best approached with the aid of a sport psychologist. Since I am a sport psychologist, I will give some examples of how mental over-load may be applied to training sessions in order to achieve some degree of toughening.

Rod Laver, the Australian tennis legend, has described how he used practice sessions to simulate ‘tough’ match conditions ⁽⁷⁾. Laver felt that fatigue placed great strain on the concentration which was crucial to success in long matches. To simulate these conditions, Laver forced himself to concentrate and work even harder during the latter stages of training sessions, when he was tired, so that he became used to the mental strain of such conditions. He has cited this as one of the key factors in his long-lasting success.

Simulation training is a great way to prepare mentally for the challenges of competition, and this can include mental as well as physical stressors. For example, a tennis player could increase the mental pressures in a practice match by starting each service game 0-15 down, and thus getting used to ‘rebounding’ after losing the first point. Alternatively a player with an over-reliance on his first serve could be restricted to one serve only and be forced to become extremely focused and accurate with what is, in effect, a second serve.

To enhance the stress still further, players could practise by playing tiebreakers, or play practice matches in front of an audience. The coach might use bad line calls or spectator noise as a way of exposing players intermittently to distractions and giving them practice at dealing with them.

Tennis is a game with plenty of breaks between play that allow time for dwelling on past events or self-doubting. Using imagery and positive self-talk during dead time in order to remain calm and in control can be an effective strategy. Mentally tough competitors are likely to use strategies that reinforce their self-belief at times of crisis. And these strategies can be rehearsed in practice situations.

With a little invention, simulation training can be used for most athletes, and the opportunity to deal with mental stressors in controlled situations can be an invaluable way to toughen up in preparation for the very real challenges of competition.

Author: Lee Crust

Coaching and Mental Toughness: More Than Just “Hardening Up”.

There have been many attempts to define and measure mental toughness in coaching textbooks, academic literature and even in the popular media.

Words like “persistence”, “perseverance”, “determination”, “commitment”, “resilience” and “uncompromising” seem to be used to describe mental toughness: something which clearly means different things to different people.

For some people, mental toughness is about being able to maintain composure, calm and control in difficult situations.

For others, mental toughness is related to physical “hardness” and the ability to endure pain, fatigue and stress in competition conditions and still prevail.

I like this definition of mental toughness – which is something I’ve developed over many years of working with coaches and athletes across a wide range of sports all over the world:

Mental toughness is the capacity of an athlete to do their “job” – i. e. to do the thing/s they’ve trained to do no matter what’s happening to them or around them.

There has been a lot of work from the academic sector to attempt to define and measure mental toughness, with most of the recent literature discussing mental toughness in terms of “situations” and that mental toughness is a complex set of different attributes expressed differently by people in different situations.

Coaches all agree however, that for competitive athletes, mental toughness is a highly desirable athletic quality: one which is as prized as outstanding physical abilities, excellence in skills and technical knowledge.

But how can you coach an athlete to be mentally tough?

 Mental Toughness: Two Basic Coaching Approaches

There are two basic approaches to coaching mental toughness:

1. Toughen the body to toughen the mind and
2. Toughen the mind to toughen the body.

“All of us get knocked down, but it’s resiliency that really matters. All of us do well when things are going well, but the thing that distinguishes athletes is the ability to do well in times of great stress, urgency and pressure.”

Roger Staubach

Mental Toughness Coaching Approach 1: Toughen the body to toughen the mind

This has been the most commonly used approach by coaches to try and develop mental toughness in their athletes.  The essence of this approach is hard work, i.e. the harder I work, the tougher I get.

The core philosophy behind this approach is: “Make training more challenging and more demanding, physically and mentally, than the competition you are preparing for”.

This approach has several good things going for it and it is relatively simple to do. Through this approach, athletes develop confidence in their ability to meet the physical demands of the competition environment and in their ability to deal with whatever is “thrown” at them during competition because they know ( i. e. confidence comes from knowing) that their preparation has been better in every detail than that of their opposition.

Many, many football competitions, world championships and Olympic Gold medals have been won by coaches and athletes adopting the toughen the body to toughen the mind approach.

However, for some athletes this approach can be too confronting, too demanding and ultimately can actually cause athletes to become de-motivated and even intimated by the training environment. Some athletes will fall to the stress and strain of the intense physical loads required by this approach and break down through over-training.

A big mistake however that coaches make is to assume that athletes who fail to respond to this approach are “soft” and therefore unable to compete successfully. The fact is that all athletes (people) are different. Some respond incredibly well to endurance training…some don’t. Some respond positively to strength training…some don’t. Some respond strongly to the toughen the body to toughen the mind approach…some don’t.

Mental Toughness Coaching Approach 2: Toughen the mind to toughen the body

The second approach to Coaching Mental Toughness is the toughen the mind to toughen the body approach. Coaches who adopt this approach focus on developing the athlete’s mental skills and teaching them the psychological techniques to thrive in the competitive environment.

There are many excellent mental skills techniques which can enhance an athlete’s ability to perform to their full potential under the pressure of competition including Sports Mindfulness which among other things teaches athletes to live in the moment and to not overly think about the past (e.g. mistakes which may have just been made) or the future (e.g. the pressure of the situation and the need to score points).

An athlete who masters a technique like Sports Mindfulness can be, by any definition, mentally tough, as they have the ability to perform to their full potential regardless of the situation.

So which approach is the right approach to help athletes develop Mental Toughness?

The right approach is:

a. The one which suits your own personal coaching philosophy and

b. The one which works with the individual athlete you are a coaching.

There is no one size fits all coaching method to enhance mental toughness. Some athletes respond well to Mental Toughness Coaching Approach 1. They thrive on hard work. They love being physically challenged. They grow and mature as athletes through an uncompromising commitment to training as hard as possible. And some athletes do not respond this approach. Others respond far better by learning to master their mind and to tap into the almost unlimited potential that lives between their ears!

“Win or lose you will never regret working hard, making sacrifices, being disciplined or focusing too much. Success is measured by what we have done to prepare for competition.”

John Smith

And the biggest question of all….

can you turn a “soft” athlete into a “hard” athlete through great coaching?

The short answer is Yes.

A “soft” athlete is one who lacks the mental abilities to compete to their full potential – particularly when things get difficult, challenging or unpredictable. Coaches, believing they can identify “soft” athletes then embark on a training program to help the athlete develop the skills and abilities to better manage competitive situations and therein become “hard”, i.e. tough, resilient etc.

Some athletes are naturally hard: and by naturally, I mean they have learnt to be hard through necessity, overcoming adversity and set backs in their lives both inside and outside of sport. They then carry this “hardness” into their preparation and performance, i.e. “the way you do anything, is the way you do everything”.

For others, “hardness” (mental toughness) is a skill and like any skill it can be learnt, practiced, enhanced and mastered. In the same way you would not teach an athlete complex, difficult, advanced sporting skills and techniques in their first year of training, mental toughness is not something that athletes learn from a single lecture, sporting autobiography or audio recording. Mental toughness needs to be introduced, nurtured, developed and enhanced and systematically measured in both training and in competition situations over an athlete’s career just as any other sporting skill or technique.

“I’ve never known anybody to achieve anything without overcoming adversity.”

Lou Holtz

Summary

1. Mental toughness is a much talked about, much investigated aspect of sports performance yet surprisingly, while many people believe they know what it is, where it is and how to find it, very little is understood about coaching it.
2. Whether you adopt the “body to mind” approach or the “mind to body” approach, coaching mental toughness is about understanding your athlete and what they need to enhance their mental abilities to thrive in competitive situations.
3. There are times when both approaches can be used effectively in the preparation of athletes. Coaching is an art form: and an important part of the art is knowing what to do, when and how.

“It may sound strange, but many champions are made champions by setbacks.”

Bob Richards

Wayne Goldsmith

Related

8 Qualities of a Mentally Tough Athlete

I talk a lot about the many ways that mental toughness techniques can be applied to the training of athletes in any sport in order to help them elevate their performance and reach their potential for excellence. But what kind of person do you end up with when all of these techniques are put into action? What can you expect as the result after all that hard work?

Here are 8 qualities of a mentally tough athlete:

1. He is CALM UNDER PRESSURE, staying cool in the heat of competition. He might get a little nervous or excited before the action, but he is fully in control and does not allow this arousal to become a distraction when the performance begins.

2. She is UNFAZED by the competition or the conditions in the arena. When a bigger, tougher, or faster competitor enters the field she does not falter or hesitate but instead has a “bring it on!” attitude and is even more motivated to do her best. Rain or shine, she brings her A game and is confident in her abilities.

3. He has AMAZING POWERS OF CONCENTRATION, able to focus on what’s important and block out everything else. He does not allow thoughts about the past or the future, negative comments from fans or opponents, or fears of failure to get in the way of his concentration. He is easily able to stay fully present in the NOW.

4. She possesses a competitive kind of TUNNEL VISION. Once that whistle blows or the clock starts she is LASER-FOCUSED only on the things that matter most in that moment, including the feel of her body, her breath going in and out, the relevant sights or sounds that enhance her ability to react quickly, physical awareness of her teammates or competitors, and connection to the arena, ball, balance beam, swim lane, or whatever other elements are crucial in the heat of the moment.

5. He has a WINNING ATTITUDE. He always shows up to practice and games on time fully ready to do his best. He is supportive of his teammates and does what he can to help them succeed. He keeps his energy up and pushes to the limits even when a win seems out of reach. He listens to the coach and puts in extra practice hours to perfect a move. He remains positive and trains like a champion no matter what!

6. She DOES THE WORK and has an OPEN MIND when it comes to learning. She does not tune out good advice when it seems inconvenient, and is always looking to learn from great teachers, successful athletes, and the experiences of the champions she admires. Even when she’s off the field, she reads or listens, watches videos, and does exercises to train her body and mind in becoming a stronger and smarter athlete.

7. He is CONFIDENT and BELIEVES IN HIMSELF no matter what. He does not listen to the naysayers who try to put him down and tell him he’s no good, even if those negative messages are coming from an unhelpful coach or unsupportive parents or friends. He KNOWS he can do this and has no intention of giving up.

8. Disappointments or setbacks DO NOT SHAKE HER BELIEF in her abilities and dreams. She is resilient and can rebound quickly from losses, upsets, or bad breaks. She knows that these are a normal part of competition and always seeks to use them as learning opportunities. She lets these things simply roll off her back and is quickly able to refocus on continuing her training, improving her skills, and performing better in the future.

What do you think of these qualities? How might they apply to what you need to work on next?

Why Mental Toughness in Sports Needs To Be De-prioritized

The concept of mental toughness has long been lauded as a component of optimal performance in sports. Tough athletes swallow struggles and numb discomfort (and win trophies or medals as compensation for their sacrifices), and they’re celebrated for doing so by sports organizations, the media, the occasional pushy parent, championship-hungry coaches, and potentially themselves. But according to research, this psychological fortitude often comes at the cost of mental health, which means, among other effects, it’s not something we should be celebrating.

“Mental toughness denotes that those who perform well—or belong in sport—embody some degree of toughness, yet toughness is a narrow and monolithic concept that doesn’t permit athletes’ diverse identities and experiences to exist fully,” says Leeja Carter, PhD, executive board member for the Association of Applied Sports Psychology. Prioritizing mental toughness above all else can lead to ignoring the onset of an injury or remaining quiet while shouldering mental-health challenges, both of which can have catastrophic results. On the flip side, “dispelling ‘toughness’ as an ideal aspect to peak performance is crucial to creating a more adaptive and flexible idea of mental health in sport,” Dr. Carter adds.

“Toughness is a narrow and monolithic concept that doesn’t permit athletes’ diverse identities and experiences to exist fully. ” —Leeja Carter, PhD, sports psychologist

A performance-only priority for an athlete—and their subsequent identity—can tip the scales to only value wins no matter the risk, enabling mental health issues to fester and thrive in the background. In fact, according to a 2015 study in Current Sports Medicine, the prevalence of depression among college athletes in the United States was between double and triple the amount of the general population. While the research doesn’t go so far as to name the pressure put on athletes to win and optimize, at any cost, as a reason, the correlation is certainly compelling.

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And, perhaps the emphasis is already changing. The tie binding mental and physical health is a truth that gymnast Simone Biles pointed out in an Instagram Story following her withdrawal from the team finals and individual all-around competition in the 2020 Olympics. Along with Biles, elite athletes including tennis player Naomi Osaka and swimmer Jacob Pebley sitting out top competitions to prioritize their mental health has been helping to shift the long-accepted conflation of mental toughness and a champion mindset.

This intel isn’t exactly new, either. A 2004 study published in Behavior Therapy, concluded that contrary to long-accepted belief that “negative thoughts and emotions must be controlled, eliminated, or replaced for athlete-clients to perform optimally…efforts to control, eliminate, or suppress these internal states may actually have the opposite effect.” Basically, the more mental health challenges are neglected, the more pronounced, severe, and potentially damaging they become.

So, what should replace the emphasis on toughness? “Goals, flexibility, adaptability, and a positive mindset,” says Dr. Carter. These are fundamental components of an optimal mindset for any person pursuing a fitness goal, and they’re intricately linked.

“Goals are important,” Dr. Carter says, “But keeping those goals and mindset flexible is also vital. Remaining flexible and adaptable to unforeseen yet likely adversity allows exercisers to see their fitness journey as not fixed but including a variety of circumstances. Remaining flexible will enable you to regroup and problem solve when things may not go as planned.” The crucial final ingredient? A positive mindset or mantra, she says, which can motivate an athlete during the competition or tough training sessions.

Furthermore, the 2004 study suggests that athletes can up performance by developing mindfulness techniques and practices that can foster in-the-moment responses and non-judgmental acceptance of what they’re going through. These skills can be applied to just about any training or game-day scenario whether that be negative self-talk, inescapable weather conditions, or maintaining a clear mind to best respond to a coach’s recommendation.

Maintaining optimal mental health requires that the athlete remains open with themselves, honest about what they are feeling, and to possess self-compassion to be vulnerable no matter the stakes at play. It may sound like the opposite of mental toughness, but it’s paramount for fostering improvement for athletes of all stripes. “Any decision that places one’s personal safety, health, and care first is a positive decision and should be lauded,” says Dr. Carter. And that goes for athletes of any level.

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Mental Toughness: The Ultimate Guide

Even with top athletes like Michael Jordan confirming that mental toughness is critical for success, we’ve found that less than 1% of young athletes train mentally.

Why is that?

Most say they don’t know what to do.

If that’s you, you’re in luck – that’s exactly what we’re about to get into in this section.

The 5 States of Mind to Achieve Mental Toughness

Earlier in this article, we defined mental toughness in two parts. As a quick refresher, the first part of our definition is:

“The ability to get in the zone and, as a result, achieve peak performance when it matters most.”

In order to improve mental toughness, we have to learn how to get in the zone. On purpose.

Before we get into that, let’s first take a moment to clarify exactly what we mean by “getting in the zone.”

We’ve broken it down into 5 simple states of mind known as the “Zone-5™ states”:

• Calm
• Confident
• Carefree
• Focused
• Motivated

In order to get in the zone, you have to achieve ALL 5 of these states of mind at once. We call this getting “high Zone-5™”. The acronym we use to remember these states is CCCFM.

At first, this may sound complicated. It can be tricky initially (like anything), but with practice it’s possible for ANYONE to control these states. Top performers understand how to change their thoughts to get high Zone-5™ almost immediately and in pressure situations.

In the following sections, we’ll go into the mental skills necessary to master each of the Zone-5™ states.

Ready to take control of your own mind?

Good. Let’s do this.

The first Zone-5 state we’ll discuss is Motivated.

Motivated

In order to be properly motivated, it’s important to lay out a solid foundation. Just like building a house, the foundation has to be strong or everything will collapse down the line.

Reasons Why

First and foremost, it’s critical to take some time and think about your ‘reasons why’. Why do you do what you do? What’s driving you? Why do you want to achieve your big, aspirational dream?

Take some time to think deeply about this. Then, write them down. When times get tough (they inevitably will), your ‘reasons why’ will keep you going. If your reasons why aren’t genuine and deep, you’re more likely to give up when times get hard.

Goal Setting

Once you have some clear ‘reasons why’ laid out, it’s time to set some goals. Setting goals means writing them down in a list. Start big – what are your biggest aspirations and dreams in your sport, business or life? Once you have an end goal set, break it down into smaller goals that you’ll achieve on the way to the larger goal.

Again, write these down. If you don’t have a clear destination, you’ll be driving aimlessly down the road of life.

Roadmap

After you’ve carefully laid out and written down your goals and reasons why, the next step is to create a roadmap. This roadmap will guide you to your ideal performance zone (by the way, we wrote the book on roadmaps to the zone).

Using the goals (big and small) you set in the step above, add dates you aim to accomplish these goals by. What age do you want to achieve your biggest goal? From there, what sort of timeframe is necessary to achieve your smaller goals? Be realistic while remaining ambitious. Below is an example from one of our gymnasts (who achieved ALL of her goals by the way!)

Once you have the foundation laid out, you’re ready to focus on the the next Zone-5 state: Calm.

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Calm

In order to remain calm in times of pressure, we’ve packaged together 3 of the most fundamental skills and call them 3-CoreⓇ.

3-CoreⓇ

The 3-CoreⓇ is a combination of 3 skills that makes up the core of mental toughness training. Here’s a breakdown:

• • Progressive relaxation

  • Mindfulness

  • Imagery

In order to practice 3-CoreⓇ, you’ll need a comfortable chair in a quiet, distraction-free place.

Let’s break down each component into some more detail.

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Progressive Relaxation

Progressive relaxation is an effective way to completely relax your body in just a few minutes. Here’s how to do it:

• • Set a timer for 2 minutes.
  • Sitting in a comfortable chair, close your eyes.
  • Focus on the feeling of the air going in and out of your nose. Relax your stomach muscles to draw the air into your lungs (called “belly breathing”).
  • Choose a muscle group.
  • Inhale slowly and deeply as you tense this muscle as hard as you can for 4 seconds.
  • Now, exhale slowly as you relax the muscle for 4 seconds.
  • Progress muscle group by muscle group, from your head down to your toes.
  • Focus your mind on each muscle group as you do the exercise
    • This quiets your mind and allows you to “get in the present” (we’ll explain that next in the Mindfulness section).

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Mindfulness

The GAP exercise is what we use to practice mindfulness. It’s a key mental skill – possibly THE key mental skill. The GAP exercise is a simple form of thought awareness that allows you to recognize current thoughts and release them. This is EXTREMELY important in becoming mentally tough because in order to control your thoughts, you have to first become aware of them (become mindful).

Here’s how to do it:

• • Set a timer for 2 more minutes.
  • After completing 2 minutes of progressive relaxation, stay seated in the same chair with your eyes still closed.
  • Focus your attention on the feeling of air going in and out of your nose.
  • Without even trying, thoughts will probably be passing through your mind (or lingering) – this is completely normal.
  • As a thought enters your mind, recognize it.
    • Say “got it” as you become aware of what this thought is, and allow the thought to leave.
  • Keeping your eyes closed, wait patiently in the “gap” between thoughts for the next thought to come in.
  • Don’t worry about what the thoughts are, and don’t try to force them in or out. Just recognize each thought as it enters your mind, and say “got it” to release the thought.
  • Do this until the timer sounds.

This exercise is challenging at first because society has taught us that having nothing on our minds is a sign of weakness. In reality, though, having nothing on your mind is an enormous sign of mental strength. In fact, a quiet mind is necessary for the zone to happen. That’s why the GAP exercise is the key to getting in the zone intentionally.

An important part of recognizing thoughts is getting present. Getting present means focusing your attention on the present moment – not the future or the past. This is important because in order to be in control of your thoughts and therefore your actions, your mind has to be focused on the present moment. If you’re focused on the past or the future, you won’t be able to concentrate or get in the zone (more on this later).

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Imagery/Visualization

The third mental skill in the 3-CoreⓇ is imagery or visualization. Imagery is the most researched of all the mental skills and has been scientifically proven to improve performance in real life when done correctly. The first thing to do is create a short list of actions you’d like to improve or master for a performance or competition. Once you have that list, follow these steps to perform proper visualization:

• • After you’ve completed progressive relaxation AND the GAP exercise, set a timer for at least 3 minutes.
  • While remaining seated, relaxed and with your eyes closed, imagine one of the actions on your list that you’re aiming to master.
  • Imagine yourself executing this action perfectly.
    • Imagine it in the first person (out of your own eyes)
    • Imagine what it would look like, what it would feel like, and what it would sound like
    • Imagine a crowd cheering as you complete it perfectly
    • Each time you imagine it, your brain prepares to do it physically
  • Repeat until you have the action dialed in your mind.
  • You can do this with as many actions as time allows.
  • When the timer rings, open your eyes – you’ve just completed 3-CoreⓇ.

3-CoreⓇ is a great way to improve your mental toughness in just 7 minutes per day (2 minutes progressive relaxation, 2 minutes GAP, 3 minutes visualization).

As you progress, you may find imagery sessions lasting longer, which is completely ok. Most of our pro and Olympic clients perform imagery sessions that last longer than 3 minutes. In fact, top level athletes do 3-CoreⓇ several times per day.

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Controllables

Besides 3-CoreⓇ, another great mental skill to help stay calm is to focus on controllables.

In sport, business, performance and life in general, there are many factors we can control, as well as many factors we can’t control. In order to be in your best state of mind, it’s important to deliberately focus on things we have control over.

Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James once said:

“Perception distinguishes reality.”

In other words, what you perceive (or focus on), creates your reality.

The problem though, is most people don’t have control of their own focus. For example, athletes often find themselves worrying about all kinds of uncontrollable things during competition:

• • Opponents
  • The condition of the field/course/court/track
  • How much playing time they might get
  • How important it is to win
  • The weather
  • The coach
  • Rankings
  • What people might think
  • Etc.

If we aren’t in control of our focus, we tend to focus on all the wrong things – things we have no control over. This leads to anxiety, decreased confidence and poor performance.

When we are in control of our focus, we can intentionally think about things we do have control over, such as:

• • Positive thoughts
  • Ideal emotions
  • Problem solving
  • Ideal energy
  • Effort

One of the key elements to becoming mentally tough is being able to distinguish controllables from uncontrollables and then focus on what helps performance.

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Confident

The next state of mind is confidence. In order to perform your best, it’s important to have confidence. In fact, it’s shown to be the single most important determinant of success. Stanford professor and famous social psychologist Dr. Albert Bandura believes there’s no such thing as too much confidence!

Being overconfident means your FOCUS has gone away from the task. So as long as you’re focused, work to build as much confidence as possible.

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Since the more confidence you have the better, you want as many ways to build it as possible. Here are 12:

1. Physical repetition
   • This is the #1 way to improve confidence!
   • Practice strengthens neural pathways
   • When you can physically do something without having to think about it in competition, you will have plenty of confidence
2. Get a good warmup
   • Getting loose and rehearsing what you will do in competition can give you the confidence to stay relaxed and trust your body
3. Remember past successes
   • Recent good memories can be a powerful tool in improving confidence
4. Success journal
   • Keeping a written journal of personal accomplishments, complements from experts, and good performances helps create the identity that you are great and can achieve success.
5. Visualization
   • Research proves that imagining successful behaviors helps increase confidence
   • Use first person, use all your senses, repeat often
6. Physical posture
   • Research shows posture can actually change emotions (it’s not just a reflection of emotions
   • Stand up straight, hold your head up high, and behave like a happy and confident person – it actually helps you become one!
7. Facial expressions
   • Facial expressions have been found to change emotions (they’re not just a reflection of emotions)
   • In other words, smile ?
8. Positive Self-Talk Skills
   • The way you talk to yourself affects the way you perform, so be positive!
9. Focus on controllables
   • Focus your energy on things you have control over:
     • Preparation, tactic, effort, thoughts, intensity, technique
   • Identify things you can’t control and choose to let those things go
     • Weather, opponents, score, field conditions
10. Personal highlight video
    • Capture video clips from positive past performances
    • Assemble them into one video file with your favorite music dubbed over it
11. Anxiety reduction
    • Reducing nervousness helps you feel more confident
    • Focus on the present (rather than the past or future)
    • Meditation/ 3-CoreⓇ
    • Deep breathing
12. Develop positive habits
    • Practicing your routine until it feels automatic provides more brain bandwidth to focus adapting to a changing environment
    • Great athletes use rituals before and during competition

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Focused

The next state of mind is focus. One of the main mental skills to help achieve focus is self-talk.

Self-talk

Self talk is quite simply the way we talk to ourselves. It can be positive or negative, and it can be conscious or subconscious. Either way it’s incredibly powerful, so it’s important to be in control and make your self-talk positive!

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We’ve broken self-talk down into 5 skills you can practice:

1) Minimizing

Minimizing is the practice of making each competition or event of equal significance in your mind. It’s common for athletes to choke during important events, so by putting every event on an equal playing field, you’re reducing the likelihood of cracking under pressure.

Whether you’re in the Olympics or a small local event, tell yourself this is just another event. It’s an opportunity to gain more experience, learn from my mistakes, and improve for the next one. Don’t worry about outcome, just think about performing your best like in practice.

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2) Matter-of-fact

Being matter-of-fact is an important way to take the emotion out of a high pressure situation. Rather than getting emotional when something happens, describe ONLY the facts – not your interpretation or feeling about what happened. In other words, look at situations at face value and nothing more. Here’s an example:

Let’s say you drop the ball in an important competition. Here are two ways to handle the situation:

Emotional response:

“Arghh! I always drop the ball – why am I so bad?!”

Matter-of-fact response:

“I dropped the ball – it’s on the ground – forget about it and move on.”

The emotional response catastrophizes an insignificant mistake, and will likely lead to a greater string of errors down the line. The matter-of-fact response allows you to stay calm, forget about it, and recover much more quickly and easily.

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3) Optimism

It’s important to be optimistic in order to perform well. Optimism is highly correlated to health, success and happiness.

Optimists believe good things happen often and in many situations. By believing good things happen this way in our life, we’ll constantly be looking for good things, and more likely find them!

From a mental toughness standpoint, the best way to be optimistic is to make compliments permanent and criticisms temporary. Here’s an example of a permanent statement vs. a temporary statement:

Permanent statements:

“I scored that point because I’m a good player.”

“I dropped the ball because I’m a bad player.”

Temporary statements:

“I happened to score a point, but it was lucky.”

“Usually I catch the ball, but I happened to drop it that one time.”

In order to optimize your self-talk (and improve your performance) it’s important to make compliments permanent and criticisms temporary. Take responsibility for the good things you do, and let the mistakes go. In fact, forget the mistakes ever happened! The more you remember good performance, talk about it, and start to identify with being a high performer, the more you’ll manifest high performance in the future.

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4) Phrasing positively

This is the most published of all the self-talk approaches, so you might think it’s obvious, but most get it wrong. Every time you talk about an action, it’s important to frame that action positively rather than negatively. Here is an example of the same action framed in both a positive and negative way:

Positive: “Catch the ball”

Negative: “Don’t drop the ball”

The brain focuses on the action even if you’re telling yourself not to do that action. In the example above, if you’re self-talk is “don’t drop the ball,” the brain won’t process the “don’t” part. All it will process is “drop the ball.” Now the mind is focused on dropping the ball, and consequently that’s more likely to happen!

If you instead focus on “catch the ball,” the brain processes exactly that – “catch the ball.” Now, your mind is focused on the desired outcome, and that’s more likely to happen.

In short, focus on getting what you want rather than not getting what you don’t want.

Cue words are an extension of positively phrased self talk. Cue words are short phrases that can can help you quickly focus on controllables and trigger Zone-5™ states when used properly. This mental skill is usually most effective when personalized because cue words are usually individual and sport specific.

Here are some general examples to give you an idea:

• • • I believe in myself and my talent
    • I am strong, confident and prepared
    • I belong here
    • Show them I’m here to stay – I deserve this
    • I can’t wait to show everyone what I’ve been working on
    • Perform like I own the place
    • This is easy
    • Let’s crush ‘em
    • Send it
    • Keep working
    • Keep fighting

You can (and should) create your own cue words (or phrases) that resonate better with you. Again, it should be individual and sport specific. Pick something positive that gets you focused on controllables, motivated, in the present, more confident, etc.

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5) “As long as I” Statement

The “As long as I” statement is a great way to quickly help get in the zone. Use the following template to draft a statement that’s tailored to your sport or activity:

“As long as I (X, Y, and Z) , I know I’m doing everything I can in the moment, and the outcome will be what it is.”

Replace X, Y and Z  with 3 controllables of your choice. Give it some thought and put in 3 things that will empower you when you say this statement in a pressure situation. Usually athletes choose to control EFFORT, STRATEGY and EMOTIONS.

The purpose of this statement is to quickly shift your focus onto items you can control. This quick statement allows you to reduce anxiety and pressure that comes from accidentally focusing on uncontrollables.

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Carefree

To become carefree means we temporarily don’t care about the outcome. In sport, this could mean the score. Technically the score is an uncontrollable variable, so focusing on it will often lead to anxiety. What you can control is your technique, your effort, etc. The score is a RESULT of these things, not something you can directly control.

Of course, every athlete cares about the score. But since it’s technically an uncontrollable, it’s important to shift your focus off it (at least temporarily) and onto controllables in order to get the best results.

So how does someone take their focus off the score (an uncontrollable) and instead shift it to something controllable? It can be tough when in high pressure situations when there’s something on the line and emotions are involved.

That’s the next (and final) mental skill we’re going to discuss here. We created a tool called the Emotion WheelⓇ to help you do exactly this.

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Emotion WheelⓇ

The Emotion WheelⓇ was designed to get a person carefree, focused on controllables, and in the zone quickly. Here’s an overview:

Don’t be overwhelmed – it’s actually simpler than it looks. Think of the Emotion WheelⓇ as basically two rings – an outside ring and an inside ring – with the zone in the middle:

Much simpler, right?

We’ll get into more detail shortly, but for now just know the goal is to get into the INSIDE ring, because that’s where you’ll find the zone.

Let’s first break down the outside ring.

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The Outside Ring

The outside ring is where everybody starts, and many get stuck:

Start at point A.

There’s an important situation, such as a competition, and you’re being judged. What tends to happen is, we think about the score or the fact that we’re being judged, and begin to worry about what people might think of our performance. As a result, our thoughts move towards the future – point B.

Once our thoughts are in the future, this starts to cause nervousness because the future is an uncontrollable factor. The present moment is what’s controllable. The present certainly affects the future, but the future is technically uncontrollable. Focusing on the future gets us to point C where fear, anxiety, and stress kick in.

Once a person is feeling stressed, this increases the likelihood of poor decisions and errors, even on tasks that are ordinarily simple. After starting to make a few mistakes due to nervousness, we tend to focus on them. Now, we’re at point D – past thoughts (a mistake from a few seconds ago).

After making a few silly mistakes, athletes often start to get frustrated because they’re “choking” on something that’s so simple in practice. This often leads to point E – anger.

Needless to say, getting angry during an important situation isn’t a recipe for success. So how do we prevent all this and get into the inside ring of the Emotion WheelⓇ where the zone lies?

This is where we apply some of the mental skills we learned earlier in this guide. Remember the GAP exercise? We said it’s THE KEY to getting in the zone. This is where you’ll use it.

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Using the GAP exercise to become present

The GAP exercise allows you to break out of the outside ring and “unlock” the inside ring. Without it, you can’t get into the inside ring. The concept is actually fairly simple (although it will probably take some practice to master). Here’s what to do:

As a quick refresher, the GAP exercise is a simple form of meditation that allows us to recognize current thoughts, or become mindful. By doing the GAP exercise as a part of the 3-CoreⓇ routine daily, it’ll become easier to become aware of your thoughts.

The reason people get stuck on the outside ring of the Emotion WheelⓇ is because they’re not consciously aware of their thoughts. And if you’re not aware, how can you fix the problem?

Once you’ve practiced the GAP exercise and are able to recognize thoughts, try it in practice. Next time you start to feel any of the feelings on the outside ring (future thoughts, past thoughts,  anxiety or anger), try to recognize the thought.

Just like in the GAP exercise, say “got it” when you realize you’re having this thought. Admit to yourself that, for example, you’re getting frustrated about something that’s now in the past.

Now, you’ve unlocked the middle ring. You’re aware of your thoughts (which were about to negatively impact you), and you’re in control. We call this being “present.” You’re focused on the present moment (not the past or future), and you can control the present. You can control your thoughts right now and therefore your actions right now. These things will lead to a better outcome (future).

Now, it’s time to break down the inside ring.

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The Inside Ring

Once you’re present, you’ve just entered the inside ring – this is where the zone lies:

HOWEVER, you’re not in the zone…yet. You’ve “unlocked” the door that was previously blocking you from getting there, but there are still some steps you have to take to get into the zone.

Let’s break those steps down:

You’ll see 4 circles. Start at the top circle: Breathe and relax.

Once you’re present – let’s say you’ve recognized some frustration – breathe and relax. It’s similar to the progressive relaxation exercise we went over earlier (part of the 3-CoreⓇ). This helps you calm down.

Now that you’ve become present and taken a second to relax, use imagery to imagine a perfect execution of the action you need to take next.

This is essentially the visualization exercise from  3-CoreⓇ. Imagine it in the first person – the feeling, the sound, even the crowd cheering, etc. This helps you focus on controllables, become more motivated, improve confidence, and stay focused.

Next is self talk skills.

The “as long as I” statement is a perfect example:

As long as I A, B and C, I know I’m doing everything I can in the moment, and the outcome will be what it is.

Using this statement keeps you in the present and focused on things you can control. It also helps you become carefree, or not worried about the outcome or the score (which you can’t control anyways).

Now that you’ve gone through the inside ring, you should be experiencing the following 5 states of mind:

• • Calm (from breathing and relaxing)
  • Confident (from imagery and self-talk)
  • Carefree (from self-talk)
  • Focused (from imagery and self-talk)
  • Motivated (from imagery and self-talk)

Do these states of mind look familiar? That’s right – they’re the Zone-5™ states.

By going through the Emotion WheelⓇ, you’re going through the process of unlocking the inside ring, and getting high Zone-5™, or in the zone.

Here’s the entire emotion wheel again so you can retrace the path to getting in the zone:

Now that you’re in the zone, you’re ready to destroy anything that crosses your path (like Godzilla here):

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The “Lightswitch” Effect

Earlier in this article we mentioned a lightswitch effect.

We discussed several different mental skills and pieced it all together using the Emotion WheelⓇ to show you how to get in the zone intentionally. While extraordinarily useful, that process can take several minutes to accomplish (or even longer if you’re brand new to it).

With practice, it’s possible to reduce the amount of time it takes to get in the zone to the point where it’s almost immediate (like flipping a switch). In order to accomplish this, you’ll need to do a few things.

First of all, it’s important to get into a REGULAR ROUTINE of mental skills training. Similar to physical training or working out, you won’t become a master on the first day. It takes regular practice to deepen your mental skills understanding and abilities.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of things, there are a couple key mental skills that are so powerful they can help you move into a high Zone-5™ state very quickly (when correctly customized to your needs). They are:

• The As Long As I statement
• Cue Words

Once you’re in a mental training routine and have a good understanding of the fundamentals, using one of these two skills is a quick way to “flip the lightswitch” and quickly get high Zone-5™ in a pressure situation.

Why Athletes Say Resilience and Getting Mentally Tough Matter

On fields, courts, tracks, and arenas everywhere athletes are pushing the limits of what the human body can do (and what their own bodies can do). But at what point does all of that pushing jeopardize an athlete’s mental and emotional health — or put them at risk for burnout or an injury?

Professional tennis player Naomi Osaka made headlines with her decision to prioritize her mental health and well-being and withdraw from the French Open earlier this year.

Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has been open about battling his own mental health obstacles, which led to depression, suicidal thoughts, and multiple drunk-driving arrests. “I basically carried just about every negative emotion you can possibly carry along for 15, 20 years and I never talked about it,” he told Today in December 2017.

RELATED: Michael Phelps’s Favorite De-Stress Technique Is So Simple, Anyone Can Do It

Cleveland Cavaliers player Kevin Love opened up about his own panic attack, and how the experience taught him he needs to pay more attention to his mental health in a 2018 essay on The Players’ Tribune:

“It was real — as real as a broken hand or a sprained ankle,” he said in the essay. “In the NBA, you have trained professionals to fine-tune your life in so many areas. Coaches, trainers, and nutritionists have had a presence in my life for years. But none of those people could help me in the way I needed when I was lying on the floor struggling to breathe,” he said.

Olympic runner Deena Kastor told her story of transforming vulnerability and fear of failure into a positive in her book Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory.

RELATED: Why Fitness Is About Way More Than Hitting the Gym

“It wasn’t until a decade and a half into the sport that I learned that disappointment didn’t mean that I failed,” said Kastor. “It was so liberating.”

And she achieved more success in her sport as a result. It was after this mindset change that she became the first American woman to run a marathon in less than 2 hours and 20 minutes; and she became the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in the marathon in two decades.

Athletes who spend hours a day training their bodies but don’t address the mental part of their game are missing an essential piece of the puzzle, says Tia Konzer, DO, a psychiatrist who specializes in sports psychology.

“There has been increased dialogue and awareness around mental health in the world of sports — and outside of it, which is a step in the right direction,” says Dr. Konzer, who serves on the advisory boards of two nonprofits that focus on supporting and raising awareness for student athlete mental health: The Hidden Opponent and Professionals Beyond the Game.

The COVID-19 pandemic, too, made all of us more aware of the fragility, and importance, of mental health, she says.

RELATED: The Lasting Impact of COVID-19: How Will It Affect Our Mental Health?

Why Celebrating Where You’re at Can Be Tough When You’re Striving for More

To compete at a high level, athletes are taught to hone very specific skills, says Bradley Donohue, PhD, a psychology professor at University of Nevada in Las Vegas (UNLV).

“Athletes are so tuned into criticism,” he says. But this critique from coaches and teammates (that they need in order to improve in their sports) means they may be similarly tuned into criticism in other parts of their lives, which can lead to low self-esteem.

Stigmas surrounding mental health can be especially strong in athletes. They may feel that seeking therapy is a sign of weakness, or they may not able to seek on-campus counseling anonymously, adds Donahue, who competed in National Association of Police Athletic and Activities League boxing competitions during his college years.

RELATED: I Need Therapy. Now What?

A review published in May 2019 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that stigma is the number one reason athletes don’t seek the mental health help they need, according to 52 studies that collectively looked at more than 13,000 professional, Olympic, and collegiate- or university-level athletes across 71 different sports.

And then there’s the pressure.

Athletes are under a lot of pressure to push themselves rigorously during training day after day — and then perform at their very best as soon as the game, match, or race starts. That pressure gets amplified today thanks to technology and social media that connects the public with events happening everywhere, often in real-time, explains Lani Lawrence, PsyD, the director of wellness and clinical services and supervisor of player engagement and development for the New York Giants.

RELATED: Is Social Media Busting or Boosting Your Stress?

“Athletes from high school to professional teams are constantly living within a fishbowl,” she says. Thanks to social media, successes and failures are more public today than was the case for previous generations of athletes, she says. It used to be that mistakes were only witnessed by those in attendance, unless a competition was televised.

“Now, mistakes can be immediately uploaded, tweeted, placed on Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat, where the individual and team can be ridiculed — all before they return home,” she says. “The pressure to succeed in this fishbowl, especially for athletes who have not developed effective coping skills, can be overwhelming.”

It’s easy to focus on weaknesses and losses as an athlete, as opposed to strengths and victories, Kastor says. For the vast majority of athletes, actual wins or first-place finishes are rare, while losses and second- or umpteenth-place finales are much more common. “It’s easy to stand in front of the mirror and find weaknesses,” Kastor says.

Feelings of “not measuring up” can be especially high in individual sports, adds Todd Wells, a cycling coach and former professional mountain bike racer in Durango, Colorado (who retired from the sport in 2017 at age 41). “One person wins and everyone else loses,” he says.

The COVID-19 Pandemic Benched Everyone in Sports at the Same Time

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to challenges for all of us, including athletes. Many top tournaments, including the 2020 Olympics, were cancelled or postponed. “Some players got an extra year of eligibility, some missed their final seasons, and some realized they were on autopilot going down a path they were no longer satisfied with,” says Konzer. “It’s like everyone in sports was being benched or put on the injured list at the same time. No one knew what to do or how to handle it.”

“Handling it” for athletes meant figuring out new ways to train, be a team, and be ourselves, says Konzer. Sport, especially one that you devote a lot of time and energy to, can provide a sense of identity and it might be your coping mechanism to deal with other stressors. “That was ripped away,” Konzer says.

The NCAA published survey data in February 2021 from nearly 25,000 student athletes that revealed 27 percent of males and 51 percent of females reporting feeling overwhelmed either constantly or most every day. And 11 percent of males and 29 percent of females felt overwhelming anxiety. Mental health concerns were higher in women, student athletes of color, and people on the queer spectrum. In most areas that were surveyed, the rates of reported mental health concerns experienced by student athletes during the time of the survey were 1.5 to 2 times higher than have been historically reported in pre-pandemic studies, according to the report.

RELATED: Protecting Our Mental Health While We Ride Out the COVID-19 Pandemic

How Can Coaches, Sports Leagues, and Trainers Do Better at Mental Health Training?

While there’s still a ways to go when it comes to mental health awareness in sport, experts say it’s important to recognize that there is more attention being paid to it at all levels of participation now, than ever before.

“When I started in sports psychiatry over a decade ago, people didn’t want anyone to know that they were seeing me,” Konzer says. Now mental health professionals are often included on the staff of collegiate and professional teams, she adds.

The International Olympic Committee released a consensus statement in an effort to improve mental health among elite athletes. It was published in 2019 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The NCAA published a report in 2014 to provide an overview for coaches, students, healthcare providers, and others about the mental health challenges student athletes face, and some best practices for addressing those challenges.

At UNLV, Dr. Donohue completed a five-year study investigating a new mental health approach that he helped design specifically for athletes, focusing on optimization of sports performance rather than pathology, disorders, or mental illness.

Called The Optimum Performance Program in Sports (TOPPS), the program recruits students who want to learn how to improve their sports performances by learning cognitive and behavioral skills. “It’s not about fixing anything; it’s about learning ways to gain an edge,” says Donohue, who designed the program.

Athletes and performance coaches identify aspects of their performance they struggle with (physically or mentally), and then find ways that changing their thoughts or behaviors could help them overcome them. If a basketball player feels paralyzed every time she steps up to the free-throw line, what’s causing it? Is it the anxiety that all eyes are on her? Is she self-conscious of the response of her teammates if she misses the shot?

“We explain how thoughts, behaviors, and feelings all have an influence on performance,” he says. “[Athletes] can practice those skills just like any other skill in their sport.”

And that goes for people of all physical activity levels.

RELATED: Tips for Getting Back Into a Workout Routine if the Pandemic Disrupted Yours

How to Work on Mental Toughness to Boost Your Personal Fitness

“I see more and more athletes going to see sports psychologists as a way to gain an edge,” says cycling coach Wells.

Konzer offers these suggestions for athletes of any level who want to up their mental game:

• Set goals that are specific. While long-term goals, like running a marathon, are great, Konzer suggests having “bite-sized” goals, too. “Focus you want to accomplish on today’s run or workout. Write them out, tell a friend or coach, measure them, and celebrate,” she says.
• Build awareness. Start paying attention to your thoughts during your workouts and performances. What’s your inner dialogue? For example, how do your thoughts and feelings change when you work out alone versus with a friend or when you’re in a different environment?
• Determine the narrative. Once you’ve begun to recognize and track your thoughts and emotions, the next step is determining the narrative, says Konzer. “Thoughts aren’t facts. Begin to separate out what the indisputable facts are and what is just the story you’re telling yourself about that fact; you have the control and the power to affect change,” she says.
• Find your “why.” Remember when you fell in love with your sport and take yourself back to that time, suggests Konzer. “Your ‘why’ isn’t just for the love of the sport, it’s also for what you want to accomplish,” she says. If your “why” isn’t big enough, you won’t move out of your comfort zone to reach it, but if it’s so big it requires perfection, that won’t work either, she says. “Embrace your challenges and make them your own, but be kind to yourself,” she says.

With additional reporting by Becky Upham.

90,000 An important principle of psychological resilience in sports

An important principle of psychological stability in sports

Progress will be weak if not followed

05 September 2019, 08:55

Before the appearance of new materials in connection with the end of the summer holidays, I would like to talk about something important. Here we recall, we talk about the mental, essence, psychological preparation of an athlete.By reading these texts, an athlete can raise the level of his psychological culture. Like any culture, it is made up of three things. This is knowledge. These are the skills to use this knowledge. Finally, these are skills and automatisms.

There are no problems with acquiring knowledge now. Yes, and many people fully understand the importance of studying mental resilience strategies to improve their own athletic performance. However, our experience suggests that understanding the principles of mental preparation does not mean being psychologically stable and being in a state of mobilization readiness at competitions.To be successful in this business, you must learn to apply these strategies and consolidate them into a skill.

We can teach you, athletes and coaches, for example, strategies to increase confidence and improve concentration. You will be able to look, read this information, understand it, but until you put these principles into practice, progress will be poor. Accordingly, there will be no mental stability.

That is, it is necessary not only to learn, but also to consistently apply this knowledge.This seems like a pretty straightforward and obvious conclusion, but in fact, it is the biggest challenge in the work of sports psychologists and mental trainers – helping an athlete to apply all of these concepts.

Self-confidence continues to be a swing until athletes implement, practice, add the principles of mental preparation to their daily routine. Concentration does not improve without training attention and refocusing. There is also no self-control, self-control, if you do not regularly practice the appropriate techniques.

The biggest problem in mental stability is to work on it every day for weeks, months, years. You can read a book on sports psychology and then forget about the strategies you learned a week later. The key is to find a system for applying new ideas to training and competition on a daily basis. That is, believe in them as well as in the rest of the exercises in sports training.

Somewhere it looks like a visualization. You can just see what you want it to happen.And this will not be a big result due to the fact that the athlete does not believe in the images that he creates in his mind, and therefore does not feel them emotionally.

The best athletes sense, feel and believe in what they see in their minds, having complete control over their images. Their visualization works. After all, when you join your mental images with true trust in them, then this power appears – to change work simply at the expense of your mind.

This is how all strategies of psychological preparation in sports life work.When reading useful information on sports psychology, try to find an opportunity to apply it.

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Psychological stability – BU “Republican Psychiatric Hospital” of the Ministry of Health of Chuvashia

There are people who, it would seem, cannot be pissed off. We envy them and believe that they were born that way, they were just lucky. However, in reality, psychological stability is by no means an innate characteristic of a person.

What is psychological stability?

The term psychological stability of a personality in psychology itself means the ability to maintain optimal functioning of the psyche in changing circumstances, in an environment of stress. This personality trait is not transmitted genetically, but develops along with the formation of the personality.

Psychological and emotional stability depends on the type of nervous system (which is congenital), on a person’s life experience, on skills, level of professional training, ability to behave in society, type of activity, etc.That is, we can summarize that one (perhaps decisive) factor is innate. This is a type of nervous activity. But everything else depends on ourselves. After all, a person who has cognized and conquered more than one misfortune will be much more stable than one who grew up in “greenhouse conditions”. The same applies to the other side of the coin: if there was too much stress in a person’s life, his nerves are simply shattered, and he reacts sharply to any little thing.

However, psychological resilience does not guarantee resilience from everything in the world.This is not stability, steadfastness of the nervous system, but flexibility. The main characteristic of psychological resistance to stress is the mobility of the psyche during the transition from one task to another.

How to improve psychological stability?

If we cannot change the type of nervous activity, then we can influence everything else. We cannot change the world, we change our attitude to what is happening.

So, let’s start the development of psychological stability from the smallest.For example, you have been insulted, you feel shame, anger, humiliation, etc. You cannot change the fact of what happened, but you can change your reaction, which, in fact, unsettles. Please note: you don’t get annoyed every time a barking dog runs by, do you? You can do the same with an insult. Just get it out of your head.

To increase psychological stability, it is necessary, first of all, to create comfortable living conditions so as not to get irritated in vain and out of the blue.If you are naturally slow (and this is an innate type of nervous activity, nothing can be done), you need to build your life so that it has as little rush and fuss as possible.

Secondly, it is a rest for the nervous system. Being outside the city, in nature, helps a lot. If your nervous system is rested, it will be more resilient in the face of stress.

And thirdly, if stress arises from a constant conflict of desires (necessity) and principles, you need to either revise the principles in order to satisfy your desires, or the necessity so that they do not contradict the principles.For example, if you have to do things at work that are offensive to your morals, consider changing your activity.

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“Manifestations and interdependence of the properties of temperament and psychological stability in athletes” – course work

“Manifestations and interdependence of the properties of temperament and psychological stability in athletes” – course work | TRUE – Intelligent System for Thematic Research of Scientometric Data

“Manifestations and interdependence of the properties of temperament and psychological stability in athletes” course work (Specialist)

• Supervisor:

  Dontsov D.BUT.

• Author:
  Zhukova S.Yu.
• A type:
  Specialist
• Organization in which the defense took place:

  Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov

• Department:

  Department of Methodology of Psychology

• Year of protection:
  2019
• Well:
  one
• Annotation:
  INTRODUCTION

  General description of work.In the course of this theoretical study, the following aspects were identified and analyzed: the study of temperament in psychological science; research of human psychological stability in scientific psychology; the relationship between the properties of temperament and psychological stability of the individual; the temperament of athletes in the context of their sports activities; psychological stability of athletes in relation to their activities in sports; manifestations of the interdependence of the properties of temperament and psychological stability of athletes; the relationship between the structure of temperament and stress exposure in athletes.

• Added to the system:
  Dontsov Dmitry Alexandrovich

90,000 Medvedev called psychological stability a factor of success at the US Open

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Medvedev called psychological stability a factor of success at the US Open

Medvedev called psychological stability a factor of success at the US Open – RIA Novosti Sport, 07.09.2019

Medvedev called psychological stability a factor of success at the US Open

Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev believes that psychological stability has become one of the main components of a successful performance at the Open … RIA Novosti Sport, 09/07/2019

2019-09-07T09 : 10

2019-09-07T09: 10

2019-09-07T09: 10

tennis

us open

Daniil Medvedev

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MOSCOW, September 7 – RIA Novosti. Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev believes that psychological stability has become one of the main components of a successful performance at the US Open, where he has already reached the final and claims to be the title. (7: 5), 6: 4, 6: 3. In the final, the Russian will play with the second racket of the tournament, the Spaniard Rafael Nadal.”But this week the situation has changed, I did well. I won several matches of four sets, which proves how well I am prepared both psychologically and physically,” he added. Medvedev believes that the opponent has surpassed him in playing first set. “I think I was a little lucky that I managed to take this set. Then I probably played better, we showed an excellent level of tennis. If we talk about the first game, about the key moments, then I have something that allows you to win crazy sets and matches, which, perhaps, two months ago, I would have lost, “- said the tennis player.Earlier, during the tournament in New York, most of the fans booed the Russian. After one of the matches, he turned to the stands with the words “You give me strength – as long as you boo me, I will win.” After the game with Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, the fans gave Medvedev a standing ovation. “I can say that in everyday life I behave quite calmly. To piss me off, you need to do something crazy for a week in a row. I don’t understand why demons come out of me when I play tennis.As a junior, I had problems with behavior on the court. I worked hard to get rid of them and made progress, “Medvedev said.

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tennis, us open, daniil Medvedev

MOSCOW, September 7 – RIA Novosti. Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev believes that psychological stability has become one of the main components of a successful performance at the US Open, where he has already reached the final and claims the title.

In the semifinals of the US Open, No. 5 seeded Medvedev defeated Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov with a score of 7: 6 (7: 5), 6: 4, 6: 3. In the final, the Russian will play with the second racket of the tournament, the Spaniard Rafael Nadal.

“Of course, Grand Slam tournaments are very different from others, as matches are played here to win in three sets.You need to win more games to reach the final. It’s hard psychologically. I used to have problems with this – the best result at the Grand Slam tournaments was the fourth round. It seemed to me that it was very difficult to win a five-set match. I knew that I was going the right way, that I had to fight for every set, every point. But it didn’t work before, ”Medvedev’s words are quoted on the official website of the tournament.

“ But this week the situation has changed, everything worked out for me. I won several matches in four sets, which proves how well I am prepared both mentally and physically, “he added.

September 7, 2019, 08:20

Nadal will compete with Medvedev in the US Open final

Medvedev believes that the opponent has surpassed him in the game in the first set. “I think I was a little lucky that I managed to take this set. Then I probably played better, we showed an excellent level of tennis. If we talk about the first game, about the key moments, then I have something that allows you to win crazy sets and matches, which, perhaps, two months ago, I would have lost, “- said the tennis player.

Earlier, during the tournament in New York, most of the fans booed the Russian. After one of the matches, he turned to the stands with the words “You give me strength – as long as you boo me, I will win.” After the game with the Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, the fans gave Medvedev a standing ovation.

“I can say that in everyday life I behave completely calmly. To piss me off, you have to do something crazy for a week in a row. For example, every day knocking on the door of the hotel at 6 o’clock in the morning.I don’t understand why demons come out of me when I play tennis. As a junior, I had problems with behavior on the court. I worked hard to get rid of them, and made progress, “- said Medvedev.

The task is to form psychological stability – Krasnaya Zvezda

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At the start of the summer training period, a psychological obstacle course appeared at the permanent deployment point of the command brigade from the Amur region.

Signal warriors overcome the obstacles of the psychological lane. Photo by the author

Prior to this, the Amur signalmen practiced emotional and volitional stability, the ability to overcome fear and resist panic at the Belogorsk test site.

Explosions, the screams of the wounded, the noise of military equipment and the howl of sirens instantly break the idyll of a clear morning. Warm sunbeams pouring down from the sky burst machine gun fires and a smoke screen. Before my eyes, conscripts go through elements of the psychological obstacle course with shiny new paint.According to the deputy commander of the formation for military-political work, Captain Beslan Tembotov, officers and servicemen under contract passed all of its elements before them.
As a matter of fact, there is nothing new in obstacles: “a blockage of car tires”, “a labyrinth”, “springboards from a bar”, “wire barriers” and a few more elements. The know-how of ubiquitous psychological stripes is the combination of sound, complex physical activity, smoke and light effects. These features are designed to create the effect of real combat.The difference is that here you can still make a mistake, flinch and pass the test a second and third time, until you achieve the desired result. In reality, there will be no such chance.
Brigade psychologist Yulia Morozova is closely watching the actions of the servicemen. The successful overcoming of this band by the personnel is the result of its work as well. She admits that she managed to work with each of these guys more than once, but she is still worried. As signalmen overcome obstacles, the psychologist explains what skills are developed during these tests.

Regular training in the psychological zone leads to an adequate assessment of the situation in real combat conditions

– All elements of the obstacle course form the development of speed, endurance, psychological self-regulation. Throwing grenades, for example, develops accuracy, – says Yulia Morozova. – And the use of smoke and fire is the ability to overcome pyrophobia (fear of fire).
“Regular training in the psychological zone leads to an adequate assessment of the situation in the conditions of real military operations,” Captain Beslan Tembotov enters into the conversation.- Good psychological stability does not allow to reduce or even more to destroy the combat readiness of a serviceman. The psychological streak develops the ability to withstand large neuropsychic stress and stress that may arise during the conduct of hostilities. Therefore, such great importance is now attached to the army, and even in our brigade, the psychological service.
Today, each subdivision of the command brigade has its own psychoactive, which unites the most trained and authoritative military personnel.They train recruits in self-regulation techniques and help overcome psychological discomfort.
While we are talking with Captain Tembotov, the servicemen are finishing their exercises. Yulia Morozova asks everyone about their feelings and well-being and notes with satisfaction: all the soldiers coped with the task successfully.
The summer training period has started in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Due to the large volume of tasks that servicemen have to perform in this time period, a significant burden will fall on psychological services.The combat readiness of military units and formations directly depends on their high-quality and responsible work. This means that the psychological obstacle course will not stand idle.

Olga KAPSHTYK

90,000 MORAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PREPARATION OF THE POPULATION FOR ACTION IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS

MORAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PREPARATION OF THE POPULATION FOR ACTION IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS

The special conditions in which a person may find themselves, as a rule, cause him psychological and emotional tension.As a result, in some, this is accompanied by the mobilization of internal vital resources, in others – by a decrease or even disruption of working capacity, deterioration of health, physiological and psychological stressful phenomena. It depends on the individual characteristics of the organism, working conditions and upbringing, awareness of current events and understanding of the degree of danger.

In all difficult situations, the moral conditioning and mental state of a person plays a decisive role. They determine the readiness for deliberate, confident and prudent action at any critical moment.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PREPAREDNESS

Natural disasters, major accidents and catastrophes, their tragic consequences cause great emotional excitement in people, require high moral and psychological resilience, endurance and determination, readiness to provide assistance to victims, to save dying material values.

A grave picture of destruction and devastation, an immediate threat to life negatively affect the human psyche.In some cases, they can disrupt the process of normal thinking, weaken or completely eliminate control over themselves, which leads to unjustified and unpredictable actions.

From the moral and psychological stability of the soldiers of units, subunits and non-military formations of civil defense depends to a large extent, with what quality, in what time frame rescue work will be carried out. Is due attention paid to psychological compatibility when recruiting detachments, teams, groups to be sent to the emergency area? Essentially, none.The divisions include specialists, those who will be most needed at the place of work. This is the main criterion.

That is why leaders of liquidation of consequences of accidents, catastrophes and natural disasters in such a situation increasingly have to resort to the help of volunteers who are ready to go to the most dangerous places. This was the case in Chernobyl, Bashkortostan, Arzamas, where people took risks consciously, confident that they were able to control their behavior and resist the effects of stress factors.

The experience of liquidation of accidents says that extreme situations can induce a person to do such things and actions that he would not have dared to do under normal conditions. Thus, during the earthquake in Armenia, a previously unremarkable regional-scale worker Muradyan showed high self-control and true heroism during the rescue work. And after the death of the whole family, he did not give up, did not lose his head, did not go mad with grief, as was the case with others, but gathered a group of people around him and with special perseverance began rescue work.

Psychologically unprepared, unhardened people develop a feeling of fear and a desire to escape from a dangerous place, while others develop a psychological shock accompanied by muscle numbness. At this moment, the process of normal thinking is disrupted, control of consciousness over feelings and will weakens or is completely lost. Nervous processes (excitement or inhibition) manifest themselves in different ways. For example, some have dilated pupils – they say, “fear has large eyes”, breathing is disturbed, heart palpitations begin – “the heart is ready to escape from the chest”, spasms of peripheral blood vessels – “white as chalk”, cold sweat appears, muscles weaken – ” hands dropped ”,“ knees buckled ”, the tone of voice changes, and sometimes the gift of speech is lost.There are even known cases of death with sudden strong fear of a sharp disruption of the cardiovascular system.

This condition can be quite long – from several hours to several days. When eliminating the consequences of earthquakes and accidents, we sometimes have to observe people who are in a state of mental depression, can wander aimlessly through the ruins of a settlement for a long time.

Unexpected occurrence of danger, ignorance of the nature and possible consequences of a natural disaster or accident, the rules of behavior in this environment, lack of experience and skills in dealing with the elements, poor moral and psychological training – all these are the reasons for this behavior of people.

What to do, what to do to avoid such a depressed state of people?

First, it should be borne in mind that a person who has suffered severe mental trauma restores mental balance much faster if he is involved in some kind of physical work and not alone, but as part of a group.

Secondly, in order to weaken the negative impact on a person, constant preparation for actions in extreme conditions, the formation of mental stability, the education of will are needed.That is why the main content of psychological training is the development and consolidation of the necessary psychological qualities. The main thing here is the maximum approximation of training to real conditions that may arise in a particular region, settlement or object. It is especially important to cultivate self-control, composure, the ability to think soberly in a difficult and dangerous environment. It is impossible to develop these qualities only by verbal acquaintance with actions in the area of ​​a natural disaster.Only a practitioner;) and again practices will help to acquire emotional and volitional experience, the necessary skills and psychological stability. That is why, when conducting classes with the population, and even more so with the personnel of the formation (units), it is necessary to give not only a verbal description of the necessary actions, not to be limited to showing films and video films, but it is imperative to work out the techniques and methods of those rescue operations with which most likely it will be necessary meet in the area. The development of any skill is based on repeated conscious repetition of specific actions, performing the necessary exercises.

Thirdly, the preparation of collectives – all workers of enterprises, organizations and institutions – to increase resilience, to psychological stress, the development of endurance, self-control, an unswerving desire to fulfill the assigned tasks, the development of mutual assistance and interaction is of particular importance. Such training should be carried out in a differentiated manner, taking into account the purpose of each formation and the situation that a particular team may face. And this must be done during exercises and trainings.The experience of eliminating the consequences of tragic events, in which the colossal spiritual, intellectual and material resources of society were concentrated, should be widely used in classes to prepare the population for action in emergency situations.

It must be remembered that the level of psychological preparation of people is one of the most important factors. The slightest confusion and manifestation of fear, especially at the very beginning of an accident or catastrophe, at the time of the development of a natural disaster can lead to serious and sometimes irreparable consequences.First of all, this applies to officials who are obliged to immediately take measures to mobilize the team, while showing personal discipline and endurance. It is the lack of faith in one’s own strengths, in the strengths and capabilities of the collective that paralyzes the will.

So, during the wintering at the Vostok station (in Antarctica), an emergency happened: at the moment when the air temperature dropped to 70 degrees below zero, a diesel power plant caught fire. The winterers were required to exert the utmost physical, moral and mental strength.The leader of the expedition was at a loss, and here a leader appeared – the foreman of the drilling crew. He took upon himself all the burden of the leader. Before this incident, he was an ordinary worker, did not stand out in anything. Only an emergency situation highlighted in him a strong-willed person with a strong character, followed by the team.

PREVENT PANIC

Panic is a feeling of fear that gripped a group of people, which is then transmitted to others and develops into an uncontrollable process. The emotionality of the perception of what is happening sharply increases in people, the responsibility of for their actions decreases.A person cannot reasonably assess his behavior and correctly comprehend the current situation. In such an atmosphere, one has only to express one thing, to show a desire to escape from the disaster area, as the mass of people begins to blindly imitate.

The lack of timely and reliable information contributes to the emergence of panic. This deficiency is immediately made up for by rumors, misinterpretations and stories of “eyewitnesses”.

As the experience of eliminating the consequences of natural disasters, accidents and catastrophes shows, this is the result of not only ignorance, but also low preparation of people for action in extreme situations, the lack of psychological hardening.There is always a weak personality among people — an alarmist. Even an insignificant danger seems to him exaggerated, enormous. Reality is supplanted by the products of the imagination. Therefore, they often say: “fear has large eyes.”

Extreme fatigue of people, when they remain for a long time in inactivity, ignorance, tense expectation, can serve as a reason for panic. A greatly reduced tone of conscious activity plays a significant role. It makes the individual incapable of correct behavior in a critical situation.Increased emotional excitability and activation of the imagination stimulate impulsive, irrational actions. More often this happens with an unexpected and sudden onset of danger.

Lack of organization and order, weakening of leadership, loss of control, mistrust between people, bad relationships, and disunity of the team can also lead to the emergence of fear and panic.

In any case, individual fear is primary, it is a prerequisite, ‘the ground for group fear, for panic and depends on emotional susceptibility, stability.A collective, seized by panic, essentially ceases to be a collective, loses its signs. What should be countered to panic?

One of the best means of dealing with panic moods is reliable, convincing and sufficiently complete information from the population about what happened, a reminder of the rules of behavior and periodic stories about the measures taken.

Here’s an example. At the railway crossing near the station Arzamas-1, there was a violent explosion of two cars carrying explosives.A huge black “mushroom” hangs over the city. All this shocked the residents. But exactly 17 minutes later, by order of the head of the city’s civil defense – chairman of the city executive committee I. Sklyarov, the first information about the incident was broadcast on the local radio. Then the messages were repeated regularly, people were explained the situation, they were asked for help. There was not even a hint of panic anywhere.

Here’s another example. An explosion occurred in Ust-Kamenogorsk at the nuclear fuel plant (beryllium production). However, no one notified the headquarters of the city’s civil defense about the accident.Time passed, and the population was in the dark. Rumors and rumors spread. And only two and a half hours later, the chief of the civil defense headquarters, at his own peril and risk, without waiting for the command of the management, which was at a loss, transmitted the text prepared in advance in case of disaster by radio. But this information was not suitable for this situation. A hundred kilometers from the city, combiners, having heard such a message, abandoned their cars, fleeing an allegedly radioactive cloud. I had to compose a new text – it took another hour, and at this time in a cloud of beryllium dust with concentrations hundreds of times higher than the maximum permissible, some children went from school, others to classes in the second shift.

To prevent panic, it is necessary to tell people the whole truth about what happened from the very beginning of the emergency. The information should be periodically repeated, increased. It is necessary not only to talk about the progress of rescue operations and give explanations, but be sure to contact them with requests, to involve them in the common cause of eliminating the consequences of a natural disaster or accident. Each person should feel involved in these important events.

And if there is a panic? How to be? What to do? It should be immediately, decisively stopped.And preferably as early as possible, when it is superficial, does not cover large masses and quickly lends itself to liquidation.

To do this, first of all, you should divert, at least for a short time, people’s attention from the source of fear or the causative agent of panic. Allow people to wake up from fear even for a moment and try to take control of the crowd. Try to switch people’s attention from the actions of the “leader” of alarmists to a person who is sober and possesses composure.Powerful and loud teams of people with a strong-willed character should find a place here.

As soon as this happens, everyone must be immediately involved in the fight against the danger. Usually, when the first feeling of fear passes, most people in such a situation have increased activity, a desire, as it were, to make amends. This should be used to involve everyone in the rescue work, assigning each a specific site.

If panic has seized a significant number of people, what to do then? In such cases, they need to be divided into smaller groups, each of which will be much easier to cope with.

And one more important circumstance is the constant communication of heads of all ranks of the local administration, deputies and other famous and respected people with the population of the area, city where the natural disaster or disaster occurred.

SENSE OF DUTY AND RESPONSIBILITY

It must be raised, educated and cherished. Not everyone is given it, not everyone has it. Only true patriots of the Motherland, people devoted to their people in deeds, and not in words, are able to perform feats quietly, without noise, as if on a daily basis.And there are many such people. It’s just that in ordinary life they are, as it were, invisible, they seem to be like everyone else. Their will and character, a sense of responsibility are manifested in real affairs, in critical situations, when this is required in some cases by the country, in others – by the interests of the city, district, enterprise, when there is a righteous goal, a common task, which most people strive to achieve.

Let’s start with examples from the Great Patriotic War. Some will say old. No, not old! The feat of the people never gets old.A sense of duty and responsibility has been highly valued at all times.

Winter 1941-1942 Many enterprises and all theatrical collectives were evacuated from Leningrad, only the troupe of the operetta theater remained. Fantastic picture. On the street -25 degrees. It is slightly warmer in an unheated room. At three o’clock in the afternoon, the operetta “Rose-Marie” began. The sounds of sirens burst into the hall. The audience rushes to the shelter, and many artists, being fighters of the Air Defense Forces, arm themselves with ticks, climb onto icy roofs to drop incendiary bombs, stand on watchtowers.

The world famous composer Dmitry Shostakovich had to keep watch on the roof more than once or twice. He was a fighter in the local air defense conservatory.

Let’s remember April 1986. Chernobyl. The explosion at the nuclear power plant occurred at 01:23. The head of the civil defense headquarters of the Chernobyl station S. Vorobyov reported to the duty officer of the Kiev region civil defense headquarters about the accident, he himself went around the territory of the facility, measuring the radiation levels. I reported to the deputy chief engineer of the nuclear power plant for science that in some places the level is very high, which I found scattered graphite from the bowels of the reactor.He reassured him. The director of the station, Bryukhanov, forbade the chief of staff to give information about the situation at the nuclear power plant to anyone. Then he turned to the secretary of the party committee S. Parshin for support. His reaction: “Convince the director yourself.”

This is how the management of the nuclear power plant reacted differently to the alarming messages of the chief of staff of the object’s civil defense.

And in other places? Having learned about the accident, in cities and at enterprises they began to set up posts of radiation and chemical observation and send the best, most responsible and worthy to carry out this service.

New test for civil defense – Arzamas. The organization here was completely different. The leadership was not at a loss. All the reins of government were in firm and confident hands. A high duty and a sense of responsibility were evident everywhere. Seven sanitary squads, both at the site of the explosion and in stationary medical institutions, acted confidently, competently, practically without rest. “Those first aid skills that were practiced more than once in competitions and lessons of mercy were useful,” said V.Kotova.

A soldier of the mechanization group, loader driver E. Bedyagin, after many hours of hard work, flatly refused to change. He did not leave the cab of the car even when his eyes, reddened with dust, ached unbearably. .

And the driver of the municipal machine-building plant M. Koptev said about the civil defense exercises that were held earlier at the enterprise, as follows: “To be honest, for the first time I regretted that sometimes he treated these events with irony – after all, a lot would be useful!”.

POPULATION TRAINING – STATE TASK

Let’s turn to the realities of today. Maybe the preparation of the population for action in emergency situations is not so necessary, maybe this process has been artificially inflated by someone? No!

In the last 20 years alone, natural disasters in the world have killed about 3 million people and at least about 800 million have suffered various diseases. Economic losses are sometimes simply irreparable and cannot be accounted for.

In this regard, in order to implement protective measures, ensure the safety of the population and reduce possible damage, by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the Russian system of warning and action in emergency situations (RSChS) was created. It is entrusted with the implementation of a unified state policy in the field of prevention and elimination of emergencies, protection of life and health of people, material and cultural values, the environment, ensuring the readiness of forces and means to act in emergency situations.

The Law of the Russian Federation “On the Protection of the Population and Territories from Natural and Technogenic Emergencies” is the main starting act that defines and legitimizes the entire warning system, actions in emergencies and establishes the principles of educating the population on the scale of Russia.

It provides that all information in the field of protection of the population and territories from emergencies, as well as on the activities of authorities and local self-government is now public and open. They are obliged to promptly and reliably inform the population through the media and other channels.They are also responsible for the preparation and maintenance of forces and means for the elimination of emergencies, training the population in methods of protection and actions in times of crisis.

The population itself can no longer stand aside from the tasks of preventing and eliminating the consequences of natural disasters, accidents and catastrophes.

This means that the education and moral and psychological training of workers, employees, agricultural workers and the rest of the population must be raised to a new qualitative level, acquire an organized, mass character and be carried out everywhere.

How organizationally, in what sequence should this be done?

The Government of the Russian Federation, by its Resolution No. 738 of July 24, 1995, defined the “Procedure for training the population in the field of protection from emergencies.” It is increasingly acquiring a universal, state scale and is carried out but according to the appropriate age or social groups, from preschool institutions to the non-working population in the place of residence.