The pursuit of mental toughness

The pursuit of mental toughness

by rick olivares

In quite a few of my post-mortems about UAAP volleyball matches, I have cited certain teams’ lack of mental fortitude in getting the job done.

To play consistent for an entire game is rare and what in all probability is the perfect game. That is few and far in between. More often than not, in the space of two hours – the average time of a ball game – there is that ebb and flow. 

I have wondered how a team can look so imperious one moment then lose the plot in the next breath.

Okay. I am not forgetting that these are college kids who aren’t fully mature. Heck, we even have folks in their 30s and 40s who aren’t mature yet. So maturity, elusive or not, is also key.

Having observed a lot of coaches in a variety of sports up close, I notice that many of them don’t really understand the importance of mental strength and training. They talk about it, but don’t really understand or teach it. Is experience enough? 

Again, if it isn’t solely age, experience isn’t enough. You head coaches say something to effect, “And tanda mo na ganyan pa rin laro mo.” Obviously, it is a combination of a lot of things.

Watching Anusorn Bundit bring meditation into the regimen of the Ateneo Lady Eagles was good and you see other teams do it now. But in my opinion, watching them employ that technique during games, the inability to converse fluently in English didn’t help at some point.

There is something I tell athletes who I mentor about the value of communication and leadership. You see athletes talking during the huddle or on the court. That’s good, but that isn’t everything either. I tell them that leadership and communication begins off the court and not during a game. If a team captain hardly talks outside the court so what makes people think the others will listen during game time. 

Yes, lead by example. That is right, but again, it isn’t everything. A team is made up of disparate individuals; each with different traits, ways of thinking, or value systems. I think for a coach or someone in authority to tap into that, they have to understand each and every person on that team. That way, you know what to say, how to motivate, and what buttons to push. 

I have heard one coach dismiss mental strength training because when he was playing, they never had any such thing and they won without it.

Obviously, this person doesn’t understand how times change. Does he even know how the game that he professes to love has grown so much that it hardly resembles the game when it was first drawn up with a peach basket by James Naismith?

One time, a player for this team also brushed aside the teachings of a sports psychologist. “They just mess with my head especially during a game,” this female athlete said. 

Point taken. I think that sports shrinks should also be sensitive enough to understand not only the game and its nuances, but also the team. 

I believe that sports teams, coaches, and athletes should really look into the mental aspect of the game. Just as much as skills training or strategy.

As the ultimate NBA winner Bill Russel once said, “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.”

Imagine if people could bottle the secrets of mental toughness, everyone would be at their best. Impossible, right? 

Yet on the flipside, this arena of flawed people trying to be the best they can be is what makes sports fascinating. Because it is about people for strive for greatness and even perfection. 

That is why when you have people like Michael Jordan, Pele, Roger Federer, Jack Nicklaus, and others who sit on the Mount Olympus of sports, they are celebrated and feted as GOATs.

I will discuss this with some winning coaches and try to get their take on it in the next column.