Develop Mental Toughness for Sports

It's true to say that history is littered with atletes with great natural talent and physical skill but who somehow never really lived up to their true potential.  What separates two equally gifted and physically skilled athletes, making one world class and leaving the other in the shade, hs always been and always be mental attitude.

People sometimes assum that you have to develop perfect technique or knowledge about your sport beforeyou can work on the so-callled "mental game."  You cannot separate the mental from the physical when it comes to motor skills.  Decisions, thoughts, images and feelings set up each action you take.  Developing mental toughness in sport helps keep you focused, determined and strong in all areas of your life.

Having great mental toughness really means having iron hard focus and not being distracted by extraneous thoughts concerns, sounds, what others are doing, spectators or even your own thoughts about how you are doing in the game.  When you have iron focus you are totally process orientated and not outcome orientated.

When you are process orientated, you are fully enganged in the activity with thought of consequence.

When you are outcome orientated, you are constantly thinking of the potential result of your actions, and of your potential success or failure.

Thought of going into the lead or falling behind are irrelevant distractions when you truly focus on what you are doing with true grit and mental toughness!