Many athletes often explain their limitations in competition in relation to technical/tactical or athletic problems; they also often acknowledge their mental limitations especially those due to competitive anxiety or lack of confidence. Less frequently, however, they attribute their failures to a lack of toughness, which involves continuing to work hard throughout the competition, regardless of the outcome.
Toughness is necessary because in every cometition there are unfavorable moments and mental and physical difficulties to be overcome successfully.
Toughness indicates how combative and persistent one is in this attitude throughout the race.
At times of increased competitive pressure or after a mistake one must work on oneself to quickly regain the optimal mental condition to overcome this obstacle.
The following are some questions to ask yourself to understand how tenacious you are:
- Having an unshakable self-belief in your ability to achieve your competition goals
- Bouncing back from performance set-backs as a result of increased determination to succeed.
- Having an unshakable self-belief that you possess unique qualities and abilities that make you better than your opponent.
- Having an insatiable desire and internalised motives to succeed.
- Remainingfully-focusedonthetaskathandinthefaceofcompetition-specificdistractions.
- Regaining psychological control following unexpected, uncontrollable events (competition-specific).
- Pushing back the boundaries of physical and emotional pain, while still maintaining technique and effort under distress (in training and competition).
- Accepting that competition anxiety is inevitable and knowing that you can cope with it.
- Thriving on the pressure of competition.
- Not being adversely affected by others’ good and bad performances
- Remaining fully-focused in the face of personal life distractions.
- Switching a sport focus on and off as required.
This concept of tenacity is well summarized and explained by the All Blacks coach:
“The warrior mentality of my players is based on the balance between courage and humility: being able to do extraordinary things but also knowing how to recover quickly from mistakes, being able to bounce back quickly and win.”
This ability distinguishes champions from other good athletes.
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