What are some of the characteristics of a mentally tough athlete? What leadership qualities do mentally tough athletes bring to the team? Did you have a favorite player who was mentally tough?
-Doug Heslip, National Academy of Sports Medicine Performance Enhancement Specialist and 15 year coaching veteran.
I don’t believe an individual is born mentally tough or mentally weak. I think this is a decision an individual makes through the challenges he faces during his lifetime. Everybody wants to play when the band is playing, the crowd is cheering, and the TV lights are on. But the question I ask is, “Can you live with losing and can you live with failure?”
Today, being mentally tough means refusing any difficulty, obstacle, or challenge that is going to keep us from reaching our objective. Yes, we are going to persevere, yes we are going to have difficulties, but we are going to find a way to be successful. Difficult, you are dad gum right, and this is why so few people achieve outstanding success because they get discouraged the first time something goes wrong.
I like to believe that everybody who ever played for me was mentally tough because of the rigors we put them through. You don’t make steel except by going through fire. You make it very difficult in practice so that they develop a mental toughness that nothing is going to discourage me and nothing is going to cause me to quit.
I hate to point out one single player because it would be unfair to the thousands at the different schools I coached who displayed mental toughness second to none. I am proud of our players.