Mental Toughness
Yumi is in the volleyball club. She often gets nervous before a game. She found a magazine article/that shows how successful athletes/develop the mental toughness/to perform up to their full potential.
1 Let’s get tough!
Mental toughness is the ability/to use the full power/of your mind and your will. It will help you in any situation/in which you have to remain calm/in the face of difficulty. Mental toughness means/focusing all of your attention on the challenge/that you are facing at the moment.
Mental toughness does not come naturally. It must be learned. Just as physical toughness requires long, hard training,/mental toughness requires lots of practice.
Athletes are ahead of the crowd/in developing mental toughness,/but almost anyone/—artists, musicians, actors,/scholars, teachers, and students—/can learn the techniques/that athletes use.
If you are facing a difficult tennis match,/an upcoming concert,/or a challenging examination,/mental toughness will increase your chances of success.
Here are your mental toughness key words:/Stay focused. Relax. Talk to yourself. Use imaging. Practice for failure.
2 Stay focused. Relax.
You might be surprised/that even world-class athletes/get nervous and lose confidence. Roger Federer/is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He is the winner/of 20 Grand Slam tournaments. You might think/that he would have no problems/keeping up his self-confidence. You would be wrong.
Roger Federer/is sometimes plagued with negative thoughts. He was playing a match/which he had perfectly prepared for,/yet somehow he was losing. When asked how he felt,/he said,/“No matter how positive you are,/you just see negativity/flying all around you.” So what is his advice? Accept all the difficult thoughts and feelings/and just stay focused on the game.
Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter/who is considered the fastest man in the world,/knows the key to staying focused:/Just relax. Bolt says,/“I try to be myself,/just be relaxed,/and be a fun person. I try to find somebody who I know,/try to talk and laugh and just relax/and not think about anything else.”
3 Talk to yourself.
Stay focused. Relax. Great advice. But how do you do that? One way is self-talk.
Your mind, emotions, and your muscles/all work together. If you tell yourself you’ll fail,/your performance will suffer. Champions use positive self-talk/to stay focused under pressure.
Develop positive cue words/to encourage yourself. Use these words/whenever you are feeling mad, sad, or scared. Here are examples/of negative and positive self-talk:
It’s just too tough! / I love new challenges!
We’ re down 20 to nothing ! / It’s not over till it’s over.
I’ve never done this before! / Here’s a chance/to learn something new.
Whatever your game is,/switch off the negative/and turn on the positive. If you’re a basketball player/shooting a free-throw,/tell yourself:/“That basket is as big as Lake Biwa! I can’t miss!” If you’re a golfer/trying to make a putt,/talk to yourself:/“It’s all downhill now,/right into the hole!”
One more tip:/Talk to yourself in the second person. Instead of saying,/“I’m going to make that shot,”/say,/“Chris,/you’re going to make that shot.” “Sally,/there’s no way in the world you can double-fault!”
It may not work every time,/but in the long run, it will.
4 Use Imaging. Practice for failure.
Many champions use imaging. Imaging means/visualizing the action/you are going to take:/shooting a basket/or passing a football. Imaging is not just making pictures/in your mind. It also involves hearing,/feeling,/and thinking.
Emily Cook,/an Olympic skier,/used imaging. By imagining the smell of the snow,/the wind on her neck,/and the roar of the crowd,/Cook increased her focus and confidence. She says,/“You have to hear it. You have to feel it,/everything.”
Nicole W. Forrester,/an Olympian/and eight-time Canadian high jump champion,/spent hours/imaging what she wanted to do. She would even create bad scenarios that could occur,/and then image a successful response.
Tennis great Serena Williams/also images failure. She will imagine/she’s down 15 to 30/and hitting her second serve;/she simply can’t double-fault! Feeling pressure during practice/helps her alleviate nervousness on game day.
Stay focused. Relax. Talk to yourself. Use imaging. Practice for failure. These techniques work for world-class athletes. They can also help you develop the mental toughness you’ll need/to meet new challenges. Win or lose,/with mental toughness/you will be ready for whatever comes next.
Yumi is in the volleyball club. She often gets nervous before a game. She found a magazine article/that shows how successful athletes/develop the mental toughness/to perform up to their full potential.
1 Let’s get tough!
Mental toughness is the ability/to use the full power/of your mind and your will. It will help you in any situation/in which you have to remain calm/in the face of difficulty. Mental toughness means/focusing all of your attention on the challenge/that you are facing at the moment.
Mental toughness does not come naturally. It must be learned. Just as physical toughness requires long, hard training,/mental toughness requires lots of practice.
Athletes are ahead of the crowd/in developing mental toughness,/but almost anyone/—artists, musicians, actors,/scholars, teachers, and students—/can learn the techniques/that athletes use.
If you are facing a difficult tennis match,/an upcoming concert,/or a challenging examination,/mental toughness will increase your chances of success.
Here are your mental toughness key words:/Stay focused. Relax. Talk to yourself. Use imaging. Practice for failure.
2 Stay focused. Relax.
You might be surprised/that even world-class athletes/get nervous and lose confidence. Roger Federer/is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He is the winner/of 20 Grand Slam tournaments. You might think/that he would have no problems/keeping up his self-confidence. You would be wrong.
Roger Federer/is sometimes plagued with negative thoughts. He was playing a match/which he had perfectly prepared for,/yet somehow he was losing. When asked how he felt,/he said,/“No matter how positive you are,/you just see negativity/flying all around you.” So what is his advice? Accept all the difficult thoughts and feelings/and just stay focused on the game.
Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter/who is considered the fastest man in the world,/knows the key to staying focused:/Just relax. Bolt says,/“I try to be myself,/just be relaxed,/and be a fun person. I try to find somebody who I know,/try to talk and laugh and just relax/and not think about anything else.”
3 Talk to yourself.
Stay focused. Relax. Great advice. But how do you do that? One way is self-talk.
Your mind, emotions, and your muscles/all work together. If you tell yourself you’ll fail,/your performance will suffer. Champions use positive self-talk/to stay focused under pressure.
Develop positive cue words/to encourage yourself. Use these words/whenever you are feeling mad, sad, or scared. Here are examples/of negative and positive self-talk:
It’s just too tough! / I love new challenges!
We’ re down 20 to nothing ! / It’s not over till it’s over.
I’ve never done this before! / Here’s a chance/to learn something new.
Whatever your game is,/switch off the negative/and turn on the positive. If you’re a basketball player/shooting a free-throw,/tell yourself:/“That basket is as big as Lake Biwa! I can’t miss!” If you’re a golfer/trying to make a putt,/talk to yourself:/“It’s all downhill now,/right into the hole!”
One more tip:/Talk to yourself in the second person. Instead of saying,/“I’m going to make that shot,”/say,/“Chris,/you’re going to make that shot.” “Sally,/there’s no way in the world you can double-fault!”
It may not work every time,/but in the long run, it will.
4 Use Imaging. Practice for failure.
Many champions use imaging. Imaging means/visualizing the action/you are going to take:/shooting a basket/or passing a football. Imaging is not just making pictures/in your mind. It also involves hearing,/feeling,/and thinking.
Emily Cook,/an Olympic skier,/used imaging. By imagining the smell of the snow,/the wind on her neck,/and the roar of the crowd,/Cook increased her focus and confidence. She says,/“You have to hear it. You have to feel it,/everything.”
Nicole W. Forrester,/an Olympian/and eight-time Canadian high jump champion,/spent hours/imaging what she wanted to do. She would even create bad scenarios that could occur,/and then image a successful response.
Tennis great Serena Williams/also images failure. She will imagine/she’s down 15 to 30/and hitting her second serve;/she simply can’t double-fault! Feeling pressure during practice/helps her alleviate nervousness on game day.
Stay focused. Relax. Talk to yourself. Use imaging. Practice for failure. These techniques work for world-class athletes. They can also help you develop the mental toughness you’ll need/to meet new challenges. Win or lose,/with mental toughness/you will be ready for whatever comes next.