A fellow coach shared the following quote.
I haven’t read this particular book, so I can’t comment beyond this tidbit. I’m definitely interested to see what else it has, though!
To my mind, what we have here is pretty much the definition of mental toughness. It’s the ability to focus and perform when the pressure – internal or external – is on.
I wrote before on the relationship between mental toughness and fatigue. That isn’t really the focus here. There’s some overlap, to be sure. Mainly, though, the quote talks about mental and emotional intrusions that negatively influence focus, and by extension performance.
Of course the question is then how we develop these skills – this mental toughness or resiliency – in our players. While we can certainly do off-court mindfulness work and the like, ultimately, it’s something that needs to develop in-context. That means in the situations where it comes up during matches.
To that end, you might find these posts useful:
- Creating pressure in practice
- A couple ways to develop mental toughness
- Mental fatigue and focus training
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