Mental Toughness

By Stan Tzogas

Mental toughness is the skill of being able to withstand adversity, to deal with losses, to overcome fatigue, problems, pains and doubt, to rise to the challenge of unbeatable opponents, that is: to remain confident in your abilities to succeed in the face of opposition and despite the odds. It is the relentless pursuit of winning, despite having losses. It is about being competitive and hating to lose and the resolve to impose your will to win, when everything seems hard and desperate. But, most of all, it is simply about bringing your guts and heart to the match.

How do you develop mental toughness?
1. Being confident you are prepared and will win. Push your limits often in training. Make it a habit to go to practice and workout on your own regularly. Every time you push your limits you get a little bit tougher, every time you quit when things get difficult you get a little softer and you are conditioning yourself to be a quitter. Make fatigue your best training partner. Make fatigue your paradise. Make it a personal goal to outwork everyone in practices and be the hardest worker.

2. Focus on what you have control over and not on what you cannot control. You can control your abilities to wrestle and you cannot control what the official does. You have control over how you react to what happens. React with composure and direct your focus to the task at hand- winning the match. 3. A positive attitude is paramount to success in any endeavour. Nothing positive will ever come from a negative attitude. Monitor your internal dialogue (self-talk) to ensure you are always positive.

4. Be smart in your tactics. Only execute techniques and skills that have been proven to work in practice and or tournaments. Practices are for you to learn what you are great at. When you go to a tournament do what you are great at. Read and react. Only execute a technique if you are 100% confident that the technique will succeed. Be explosive in the execution of your technique and do it at a high speed until you score. Commit to the move and improvise if you have to but refuse to give up. Progressively develop your abilities in practices and tournaments by working your way up to the more experienced athletes.

5. Be well rested. A good night’s sleep (9-10 hours and a 15-20 minute nap during the day) and eating a good balanced healthy diet will help to ensure that your gas tank is full.

“The first round is won by the best technician. The second round is won by the kid in the best shape. The 3rd round is won by the kid with the biggest heart” (Dan Gable).

I hope that this helps some athletes that should be winning more and losing less. Gold medals are won in the practices well before the tournaments. “Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts” (Dan Gable). Losing is not in our mind at the Team Impact Wrestling Club. It’s not even an option. Our objective is to wrestle with mental toughness. Despite the score, if we wrestle mentally tough, we may lose the match but we will win the battle and, most importantly, we will win more often.

Don’t let someone steal your dream!

Recommended Reading:
Wrestling Tough: Dominate mentally on the mat by Mike Chapman published by Human Kinetics August 1, 2005. You can order it at the local Chapters book store.