mental toughness

Tristan Curry
Mrs. King
09/31/2014
Sports Literature/Period 2
Mental toughness

Imagine you are up to bat and you focus in on the ball. All of a sudden something is blocking you from knowing when to hit the ball. It’s a mental block. You just can’t seem to focus and every time you want to swing you can’t. Mentally you just weren’t ready. To realize your full potential as an athlete or in life, you have to start training your mind as well as your body! Just as you develop physical skills and techniques, you must learn to develop mental skills, which creates mental toughness. Mental toughness impacts sports and life starting off mentally, then physically, and emotionally.
Mental toughness is a mental game. You play it not only in sports but especially in life. In life you have to me ready for anything that comes your way. If you aren’t mentally tough, or mentally focused it can result in injury. Any kind of injury can set an athlete back in their sport unless they are mentally tough. When I was a freshman in high school I broke my ankle and I couldn’t really play baseball. But I still could work out to a certain extent. I knew if I was focused though I could come back stronger then ever and that’s exactly what I did. I was mentally tough. Though some athletes don’t have mental toughness, and they give up when they are injured. They even give up after “choking” under pressure. I myself wasn’t though the type to choke under pressure. Author Roy Baumeister says “Teenagers were especially prone to choking, adults less so (page 51).” With mental toughness you don’t sit back and watch from the sidelines. Even in life you don’t just sit back and watch from the sidelines. You get evolved and work hard to achieve greatness. In the article Seventeen Reasons Why Football is better than High school,” written by Herb Childress quotes, “There’s no opportunity to coast, to tune out, to sit back and watch others work (page 3).” You put in 100 percent and your results will be high. Don’t coast through life. You won’t achieve anything great if you coast through life. Being mentally tough, results in great achievements. Not only does mental toughness impact you mentally but it also can impact you physically.
Mental toughness can impact you physically. You can’t become committed or consistent with a weak mind. How many workouts have you missed because your mind, not your body, told you were tired? How many reps have you missed out on because your mind said, “Nine reps is enough. Don’t worry about the tenth.” Probably thousands for most people, including myself. And I am sure 99% are due to weakness of the mind, not the body. When your mind is weak your body is too. Without mental toughness you can’t push yourself above and beyond. You body physically becomes unable to do what you want because you are not mentally tough. As an athlete or a human just living life you can’t be weak. I see people just letting themselves go (getting fat, not being healthy) because they have just given up. It s because they are not mentally tough enough to keep going and that can effect a person physically. Mentally tough athletes are more consistent than others, and don’t give up no matter what they face. Ed Hearn backup catcher for the Mets says in the article Success: Winners and Losers says, “But there was one thing we had that turned us into winners: one man who wouldn’t let us lose no matter what obstacle we faced (page 2).” They had a payer that refused to bow down; strong as a rock he had confidence and mental toughness for sure. He knew how to control his emotions. Controlling emotions is a big part of mental toughness. Controlling emotions is a big part of mental toughness. When athletes allow frustration and anger to transform into full-blown outbursts while playing their sport, they almost always end up playing way below their potential. For example, when I was playing baseball at a young age if I didn’t hit the ball I would become angry. I couldn’t control that anger and ended up striking out because the anger was taking over my thoughts and I couldn’t focus. Writer Bill Shirley states, “We are all subjected to pressure or tension at one time or another (page 1).” I agree with this because any athlete or non athlete goes through stress, anger, tension, and pressure in their lives. It’s how they face it and react to it. It is obvious that athletic performance suffers when athletes completely lose it for example throwing equipment, and starting fights. Author Herb Childress says, “When players do well, they get to be happy. When they do poorly they get to be angry (page 3).” That’s how all athletes work on the field and off. Not only do athletes have to learn to control there emotions on the field but also off the field.
Mental toughness plays a more important role than anything else for achieving your goals in health, business, sports and even just life. Mental toughness is a collection of attributes that allow a person to persevere through difficult circumstances and emerge without losing confidence. Mental toughness though impacts people in all different ways either mentally, physically, or emotionally.