Peninsula Coaches Conference Applied Mental Toughness Jon Rhodes MSc

Aims Gain an understanding of Mental Toughness and how to ascertain if an individual is “mentally tough”. Fitting theory into application – considering sporting examples. Motivational Frameworks Mindsets Coaching Mental Toughness

What is Mental Toughness? Mental toughness reflects a constellation of positive psychological variables and has been defined by Jones et al. (2002, p. 209) as: – Having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to, generally, cope better than your opponents with the many demands (competition, training, lifestyle) that sport places on a performer and, specifically, be more consistent and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident, and in control under pressure.

Can you…

Variable Mindsets Are you sporty? Are you musical? Are you creative? Are you good at maths? For each question ask: WHY or WHY NOT?

The Theory Motivation – Goal orientation (Whitmore, 1992) Arousal/Stress – Individual zone (Hanin, 2000) The Mind (Kahneman, 2011) – Two parts of processing

Ernie Els Turned Pro in 1989 but didn’t win a major until “I would have been a different person if I didn’t win”

Jim Marshall (1964) “If you make a mistake you gotta make it right!...my experience made me a better player, a better person.”

Jean Van De Velde (1999) Why does this happen?

Sergio Garcia (2013) Why does this happen?

Motivational Frameworks Goals Responses Effort Strategies

Mindset

Goals: are the things we aim for Performance vs Process

Learned Helplessness vs Mastery Responses: are how we react to events

Effort vs Ability Fixed = 35% effort vs. 65% ability Growth = 65% effort vs. 35% ability Effort: is it required for success?

Strategies: how to reach success

“You learned that so quickly! You’re so smart!” “Look at that drawing. Jon, is he the next Picasso or what?” “You’re so brilliant, you got an A without even studying!” See if you can hear another message. It’s the ones that children hear: “If I don’t learn something quickly, I’m not smart.” “I shouldn’t try drawing anything hard or they’ll see I’m no Picasso.” “I’d better quit studying or they won’t think I’m brilliant.” Fixed Mindsets (Dweck, 2006)

Praising effort that led to success - reinforces the behaviour of effort Encouraging learning goals and a mastery response Allow students to struggle, and support them to face and develop strategies to overcome obstacles Encouraging that EVERY session is a risk-taking, mistake making session – mistakes are their friends Modelling that mistakes are OK Having the students become self-aware of the fixed-mindset conversation and training them to re-frame their conversations Setting up session structures and strategies for them to have the power to develop themselves. Developing Growth Mindsets (Dweck, 2006)

FIXEDGROWTH CHALLENGES..avoid challenges...embrace challenge SETBACKS...get defensive or give up easily...persist in the face of setbacks EFFORT...see effort as fruitless or worthless...see effort as the path to mastery CRITICISM...ignore useful negative feedback...learn from criticism FAILURE...reflects a lack of talent...is a learning opportunity SUCCESS OF OTHERS...feel threatened by the success of others...find lessons and inspiration in the success of others POTENTIAL...is measured by current performance (eg PB or current skills)...cannot be measured Differences

Mental Toughness in Sport Critical Moment Control Resilience Fight Inner drive Minsdset impacts on all of these, especially the key one of resilience

Developing Mindset Praising effort that led to success - reinforces the behaviour of effort Encouraging learning goals and a mastery response Allow students to struggle, and support them to face and develop strategies to overcome obstacles Encouraging that EVERY session is a risk-taking, mistake making session – mistakes are their friends Modelling that mistakes are OK Help individuals become self-aware of the fixed-mindset conversation and training them to re-frame their conversations Setting up session structures and strategies for individuals to have the power to develop themselves.

Creating Mindset and Mental Toughness How can you…… Reward effort and development? Create a motivational climate that promotes a growth mindset? Create opportunities for learning and feedback?

Paired Work If you want the students to be engaged, inspired to learn, and perform then you need to design a learning environment that develops a growth mindset and gives them autonomy, mastery and purpose. Paired Sharing Come up with 5 practical ways that you could develop a growth mindset in your coaching/teaching. Are there actions that the whole sport can take? Share and steal ideas from each other.

Complete Objectives You have…gained an understanding of Mental Toughness and know how to ascertain if an individual is “mentally tough”. You can fit theory into application Understand Motivational Frameworks. Use Mindsets and apply Mental Toughness principles to athletes

References Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House. Hanin, Y. L. (2000). Individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model: Emotion-performance relationships in sport. In Y. L. Hanin (Ed.), Emotions in sport (pp. 65–89). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow, Macmillan. Whitmore, J. (1992) Coaching For Performance: Growing People, Performance and Purpose, 4th ed. London, Nicholas Brealey Publishing.