“Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain.”
Vince Lombardi
For those with the physical talent, the allure of playing at the highest level of one’s sport can be intoxicating. It is also very unlikely to happen. A high school ice hockey player has a 4.8% chance of going on to play in the NCAA D1, and from that elite group of athletes, the NHL then drafts only about 6.4%. While these low percentages may be discouraging to all but the most elite high school hockey players, the truth is that these actually represent just about the best chance across all of the major sports: a high school football player’s chances of playing D1 rest at 2.7%; men’s soccer at 1.3%; baseball at 2.1%; basketball at 1.0%. The probability of being drafted by a professional team from that point dips even lower: 1.2% for the NBA, 1.6% for the NFL, and 1.4% for MLS (NCAA, 2018).
While well-above average physical prowess in one’s sport is necessary for success at the highest levels, it is by no means sufficient. So, what is different about those athletes who make it compared to the thousands who, despite being among the most physically talented in the world, fall just short? To be sure, attempts are made to provide assessment of athletes’ potential by also addressing non-physical aspects of a player’s game. Scouts often refer to these as ‘ the intangibles’ or ‘character,’ and attempt to discern such tendencies as ‘instincts,’ ‘court awareness,’ work ethic, coachability, leadership, and other psychological factors believed to contribute to success. And of course, it is not only scouts that engage in this loose application of psychological principles. Coaches, commentators, and fans apply similar approaches in trying to explain performance. Contemplating how the ‘intangibles’ are causally related to on-the-field performance is its own pastime and woven into the culture of sports at the highest level.
Through research involving thousands of professional, Olympic, and NCAA D1 athletes, we have found the concept of mental toughness to be a very useful starting point in understanding the non-physical skills that differentiate those athletes that succeed at the highest levels. One of the first to explore this construct was James Loehr, who in the 1990s worked to developed athletes’ ability to consistently perform toward the upper range of their talents and skills, regardless of the competitive circumstance they face. Another group of researchers, a little later on (Clough, Earle, & Sewell, 2002), identified four interrelated attitudes (control, commitment, challenge, and confidence) that mentally tough athletes exhibit during stressful situations. Perhaps the most useful of mental toughness definitions comes from research, conducted around the same time, that brought together world class athletes to participate in extensive focus group interviews (Connaughton, 2002). This work resulted in defining the mental toughness as having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables an athlete to generally cope better than opponents with the many demands (competition, training, lifestyle) that sports places on the performer. Additionally, this definition suggests that mental toughness drives an athlete to be more consistent and better than opponents in remaining determined, confident, and in control under pressure. We used this previous research as a jumping off point for our own work in this area.
We have had the unique opportunity to assess thousands of the best athletes in the world, including athletes across 19 Division 1 NCAA sports, the U.S. and Canadian Olympic teams, Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL). In examining the personality traits, motivational factors, and behavioral tendencies of those that succeed at the highest levels, 5 psychological facets emerge as clear differentiating the very best from the rest:
- Persistence
- Resilience
- Emotional Control
- Self-Efficacy
- Stress Tolerance
The resultant P.R.E.S.S. model of Mental Toughness confirms that this psychological skill is: 1) multidimensional (combination of multiple traits), 2) influenced by both genetics and the environment, and 3) can be developed through training and coaching. Through our research, we have found this multidimensional model of mental toughness to be the single strongest predictor of achieving the highest levels of athletic success. That is, the most successful athletes that we have worked with over the years are those who can most effectively manage emotions; tolerate stress; bounce back from setbacks, failures, and rejection; take full ownership of performance goals and be persistent in the face of significant challenge. Moreover, effectiveness in the five psychological facets can be a) developed through training and coaching, and b) generalized to other performance domains such as sales, executive leadership, and entrepreneurship.
Assessing and Developing Mental Toughness
The Mental Toughness subtest of the Psychological Skills Profile (PSP) consists of 45 Likert-type (7-point scale) items validated to measure the five psychological facets that underpin the Mental Toughness construct. Results derived from this psychometric assessment provides a clear path forward for targeting development, focusing on closing the gap between one’s natural inclinations in each of the five facets and what is required to significantly support and improve performance at the highest levels of competition. While not everyone starts at the same developmental point with respect to these skills, we now know that each can and should be consciously trained and developed. Further, the science tells us that the psychological and neurological bases for performance in these facets continue to develop though the years (ages 18 through 25) during which the pressure to perform at the highest levels becomes greatest for these athletes. So, the earlier these current or soon-to-be early career professionals begin focused development, the greater the impact on overall career success.
An important aspect of developing Mental Toughness is to gain better control over how one attends to, perceives, interprets, and reacts to emotion-inducing situations. The Cognitive Behavioral approach is a set of scientifically developed techniques used to improve individuals’ motivation, behavior, performance, outcomes and well-being. At the core, CBT challenge individuals to interrogate their own patterns of thought, how they perceive their environment, how they come to fix their beliefs about their own resources, and ultimately how they respond to wide range of situations in which persistence, resilience, emotional regulation, and stress tolerance will lead to stronger performance. These techniques can be applied by coaches, athletic directors, educators, mentors, and others who’s goal it is to help athletes achieve their athletic, academic, and professional goals
Mental Toughness in Other Performance Domains
The benefits of assessing and developing Mental Toughness extend well beyond the sports domain. The same personality traits, motivational factors, and behavioral tendencies found in the mentally tough athlete can be measured and developed across performance domains: The stress-tolerance of first responders; the resilience of high-performing sales professionals after a series of rejections and failed sales calls; the persistence of change agents as they drive teams and organizations into new territory; the self-efficacy of entrepreneurs as they take control of building their own enterprise; and the emotional regulation of executives as they navigate organizations through crises, are just a few examples. To learn more about how to develop these mental toughness attributes in yourself, team, or organization, visit www.academyofworkscience.com or contact info@academyofworkscience.com