Ballahollic’s Weblog

This post is about mental toughness and how to achieve it.  You might find yourself pondering, “What is mental toughness?”  Mental toughness is “having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to:

 1.  Generally cope better than your opponents do with the many demands (e.g., competition, training, lifestyle) that are placed on you as a performer

2.  Specifically, to be more consistent and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident, resilient, and in control under pressure” (Jones et al, 2002)

CHARACTERISTICS OF MENTAL TOUGHNESS

The mentally tough competitor is self-motivated and self-directed.  He doesn’t need to be pushed from outside as he is able to control himself from the inside.  He is in complete control of his emotions and doesn’t let outside factors bother him.  He is positive and realistic about his goals and success.  He is generally calm and relaxed under pressure situations as well as being mentally ready and confident. 

Fundamental areas of mental toughness are:

·     Self-Confidence

·     Self-Motivation

·     Negative Energy Control

·     Positive Energy Control

·     Attention Control

·     Visual/Imagery Control

·     Attitude Control

Self-Confidence:  It is a way of feeling.  You can develop self-confidence by positive self-talk and to believe in your self no matter what challenges you face. 

Self-Motivation: It is a source of positive energy.  It helps you to be able to endure pain, emotional stress, and personal sacrifice.  If you have a problem with motivating yourself, write your goals out on a piece of paper and put it somewhere so you see it everyday.  My goal is to become a state champion in wrestling, so I taped up this year’s state bracket in my locker to remind myself of what I am shooting for.

Negative Energy Control: It is controlling negative emotions like fear, anger, envy, and frustration.  If you perform with negative energy, you will find yourself very inconsistent.  To overcome negative energy, you want to increase your self-awareness.

Positive Energy Control: It is the ability to become energized with joy, determination, and team spirit.  It helps players to maintain the required arousal level to achieve peak performance.  However, you do not want to become too positive, as it may result in cockiness, which can get you into trouble.

Attention Control: It is the ability to tune what is important and what is not important.  It helps you block outside sources as you rise up to hit the game-winning shot or to get the takedown at the end of the match to win a state championship.

Visual/Imagery Skills:  It is process of creating pictures or images in mind.  This is one of the most powerful techniques to develop mental toughness as it connects the mind and the body.  You want to envision yourself doing something amazing, and once you do so, you will find it is much easier to work towards that goal.

Attitude Control: It is a reflection of the player’s habits and thoughts.  Having the correct attitude helps you to focus your mind and to not get down on yourself when you mess something up. 

Muscle Cramps

Anyone who has experienced a muscle cramp can attest to the fact that it can be quite painful.  Muscle cramps occur when muscles involuntarily contract and cannot relax.  The skeletal muscles (those over which we have voluntary control) are most prone to cramping.  Unfortunately, they are extremely common.  Almost everyone (one estimate is about 95%) experiences a cramp at some time in their life.  Cramps are common in adults and become increasingly frequent with aging.  However, children also experience cramps.

Causes

The exact cause of muscle cramps is unknown, but many experts believe it is related to poor flexibility, doing a new activity, or muscle fatigue.  Other factors associated with muscles cramping are exercising in the heat, dehydration, and electrolyte depletion.  Cramps are more common during exercise in the heat because sweat contains fluids as well as electrolytes.  Athletes are more likely to get cramps in the preseason because the body is not in shape so it is easier for it to become tired.  Cramps often develop near the end of intense or prolonged exercise, or the night after.

Prevention

There are two main ways to prevent muscle cramps:  avoiding dehydration and stretching.  You want to drink plenty of liquids everyday.  Six glasses of water or other liquid is the recommended amount.  Fluids help your muscles contract, relax, and keep muscle cells hydrated and less irritable.  You want to drink fluids regularly before exercise and you want to replenish lost fluid during exercise at regular intervals.  You want to stretch before and after you use any muscle for an extended period of time.  If you tend to have leg cramps at night, you will want to start stretching right before you go to bed.

This is an example of a calf stretch.  It helps prevent your calf muscles from cramping if done correctly.

Treatment

Cramps usually go away on their own after anywhere from 30 seconds to 15 minutes or longer.  There are a few tips to speed up the “healing” process though.  You want to stop the activity that caused your muscles to cramp, stretch and rub it out as soon as you can, and to apply a cold or a heat patch to the affected area.  There is also one unscientific way that many people swear by.  It is to pinch the tissue just above your upper lip, just under your nose, until the cramp goes away.  Again, there is no scientific explanation why this works, I just thought it was interesting. 

To start with, we all need to work on developing and improving a good mind/body relationship.  The ultimate goal for our bodies is that they be responsive, balanced, poised, graceful, efficient, and easy to use.  Then and only then can our bodies easily and efficiently do the myriad tasks we require of them, and are comfortable and secure homes for us.

Small changes that take us to transitional places create the basis for fundamental change in our bodies.  In other words, if you want to make real lasting changes, then those changes must be achieved incrementally, systematically starting from the beginning.

The very first thing we need to do is to observe.  Observation can seem like an inactive and passive tool, but it is really the basis for any action.  Observation gives us measurement and relationships, which have profound influence over our choices and the context we have to implement them.  Initially our ability to observe ourselves will be quite limited, but it will deepen as we become increasingly comfortable with a growing range of incoming information.

We need to work simply, consistently and intelligently on our bodies, whatever we do, be it Yoga, Pilates or just taking long walks.  We should not bore our bodies with repetitive mind numbing routines.  It’s better to do a few well-chosen exercises than a hundred repetitions without focus or concentration.  We have to link the mind and the body while we work, whether it be specific exercises or just the tasks we do in our jobs.  When our minds and bodies work together it is the ultimate example of coordination and cooperation.  If we take the time and the responsibility to listen to our bodies, we can start the process of change.

Quantum Life Bodyworks

Exploratorium

Greg Atkinson

Help.  What is help?  The dictionary definition is “to give or provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need.”  We all receive a little bit of help every day.  Hardly anything would be accomplished without the help of help.  Help is a huge factor in sports science.  Really the only point of sports science is to help athletes with whatever problems they may face.  There is help out there on the correct running style.  It will tell you the most efficient way to run and give you directions to do so.  There is help out there on muscle cramps.  It explains to you exactly what is going on with your body and how to best prevent them from occurring.  It turns out the best way to prevent muscle cramps is to stay hydrated, stretch regularly after exercise, and to train gradually.  Heck, there’s even help out there on how to prevent getting burned on turf. 

These may seem unimportant and juvenile, but help is help.  Whether it’s helping a little old lady cross the street or donating a kidney to a complete stranger to save their life, it’s all still help.  We always accept help when it comes to us because we all like to tkae the easy way out.  However, there are few people who go out looking to help because it does take more effort and time.  It’s these kind of people who make our world fantastic.  We (the people to don’t go out looking to help) need to look around us every day and think, “What can I do to thelp him?  What about helping her?”  It’s with this kind of attitude that together we will be able to accomplish amazing things. 

To help another human being is to shed the shackles of self-ceneteredness and to view a whole new world.  You will be opened up to a plethora of ideas and thoughts you could never have imagined.  These are truly the best moments of our lives.  It’s when we do the most for this place and when we feel the best about ourselves because we have accomplished something extremely unselfish.  I encourage everyone who reads this blog to find a way to help someone or something.  Whether it be a little mouse struggling to get away from a cat or to donating blood at your local blood donation cneter, find some place that you can help out. 

Sources: 

dictionary.com

fitwise.com

This image is the shadow of a runner with a variety of graphs being displayed.  It shows that there is an enormous amount of data to be collected if you are involved in sports science. 

This image could be a test to see if there is a correct running style.  It has been debated for years which way to run is the most efficient.  Despite all of the research, there still has not been any breakthrough with which way is the absolute best.  However, there are a few general tips most experts agree on without too much controversy.  Although running style tends to be preordained by your individual mechanics, a few minor corrections can lead to increased muscle efficiency and injury prevention. 

These are the main points to help your running style:

Head Position:  Look straight ahead, making sure not to look upwards or downwards.  Your head should be relaxed and your eyes should be on the course about 10 feet ahead.  Fatigue can cause shoulders to rise up and the head to tilt back.  Be conscious of your position.

Arm action:  Never carry your arms high on your chest.  Your arms should be relaxed at about a 90-degree angle.  Arm swing should be like a pendulum from the shoulders and your upper body should not twist from side to side.

Hands:  Keep your hands relaxed and your wrists loose.  You want to cup your hands and touch your thumb to your pointer finger.

Knee action:  Let your leg come forward naturally, swinging with the weight of your leg.  Your knees shouldn’t be lifted beyond their natural swing as this could cause injury.

Foot plant:  Here lies the greatest controversy in running biomechanics.  Although some will argue for a heel-first landing, especially for older or less accomplished runners, many authorities call for you to land on the lower part of the ball of the foot, drop the heel, and push off the ball of the foot.  The faster you run, the more tendency there is to land on the lower ball of the foot.  Do not turn your feet out.  Also, you want to make sure your feet land shoulder-width apart.  Do not pull your feet inwards as this can cause you to kick your ankles, trip, and injure your hip flexors.

Stride length:  Make sure you don’t over stride but you want to make sure your stride is long enough.

Relaxation:  Avoid unnecessary use of energy through tension and stress originating in the face, hands, or arms.  Try to let your muscles relax so you aren’t wasting energy that could be used to help you run longer and farther.

I hope this helps.

University of the South Pacific

PC Coach Newsletters

For years I have been interested in sports and the human body.  I have always been interested in combining them in some way, so I thought what better way than to write a sports science blog? 

I have been involved in a variety of sports for many years now.  I have had my fair share of sports related injuries, including two knee surgeries.  I was confused as to why these different activities kept injuring me.  It was at this point that I decided I wanted to learn as much as possible about sports science.

The science of sports is a very complicated field.  Much of it is speculation because people’s bodies respond to different factors in a variety of ways.  I plan to delve into the subjects of muscle cramps, determining if there is a “best” running technique, and if there is a benefit to exercising in the heat.  These subjects have always intrigued me, especially exercising in the heat.  I am a wrestler, so most of my practices involve sweats, sweatshirts, and a 90 degree room. 

I plan to make this blog a fun, unique experience for my readers.  I will combine fun with informative writing to provide my readers with useful information about sports science.  I know that this is a difficult subject, so I am eager to hear any constructive criticsm on how to better my blog.

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