Mental Toughness

Last year I wrote an article that was published in a Coaching Magazine on ideas that will help build leaders on a wrestling team. (You can find it at WrestlingAssistant.com). I am back to writing for them as I have time. Here is a short article on Mental Toughness, Psychologist call it resiliency whatever you call it though it is a key part of being a winning wrestler.

Constantly coaches complain of a lack of mental toughness in the young athletes today. I want to give you an example of what mental toughness is in my opinion from the greatest sport known to man… Wrestling!

But first, I am going to steal something from two basketball coaches. First, being Jim Burson. I would bet none of you but the most hardcore basketball fans will know who he is. If you love basketball or ever want to coach BBall you should learn about him and his Princeton Offense system. Anyway, when I he gave a guest speech to our team and the one thing that stuck out in my mind is his final quote. “No amount of weight lifted or technique will ever overcome a lack of mental toughness”

So what does that mean. We all have days when our best is not good enough, when a weight that was easy last time we lifted is hard, when we study our butts off and we still fail a test, when everything we try will not work, and when the pressure is huge. These are the times that mental toughness shines.

Next I am going to steal from a BBall coach that you have heard of Pat Riley. He is famous for asking his players to always think. “W.I.N.” Of course all coaches want their players to think win… Winning is the point right? WIN means What’s Important Now. Meaning, there are a lot of things that you have to pay attention to in your life. Not all of them will help you WIN. You can think about your girlfriend, about how much fun you could be having at a bar, about how much you miss your friends at home or you can focus on the things that will get you to your goals.

Now for my example, I spent a year as a high school coach just after graduating college and we had a 119 pounder who as a freshman was pushed into the line up by an injury to the starter. As the match started it showed to be pretty easy for his opponent to take him down and the first period ended with him bridging off his back down by 5. The second period the same bridging position came to be our move at the end of the period, then the 3^rd period and it looked to be much of the same thing. Towards the end of the match I stood up to give some words of encouragement to our next wrestler. As I started to talk our guy down by 12 points hit a lateral throw. I was a little surprised but with 15 seconds left I knew we couldn’t win on points and then the ref slapped the mat. For 5 minutes and forty-five seconds everyone in that gym, every teammate, and even the coaches thought he couldn’t win. For that amount of time our guy couldn’t believe and when it looked like he had stopped trying he decided to try one more time. When no one else believed, he gave it one more shot and he won. That is mental toughness, what is important now, not getting distracted, giving up, not listening to those who don’t believe and not quitting. We all lose, we all face adversity, we all fail. As a coach I hate win – loss records because we give them to much credence. It is just a horrible way to look at things because it can discourage people from trying. What matters in life is often how far you go. I cannot run a race as fast as Carl Lewis but that shouldn’t stop me from trying to finish. I cannot bench press as much as Jake Anderson but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t go into the weight room.

We are at an impasse here as a team. But, that doesn’t mean that we need to sit still and see who will be here next year before we begin to prepare for next season. We have all been dealt a hand and now it is our responsibility to play it to the best of our ability.

GET AFTER IT!

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

- Michael Jordan