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