mental toughness in sports

What kind of attitude can get an athlete through all the hardships of playing a sport? What causes some players to consider winning as the most important aspect; and others to consider sportsmanship and honor as more important?

The answer to the above questions can be found in the inspiring story of a college softball player and players of both the teams.

Enjoy the story in this video, an apt example of a mentally fit athlete..

Learn Mental Toughness In Sports

How do you Build Mental Fitness in Sports?

You need to ask yourself what gets you excited about playing your sport – is it the winning or winning because you earned it?!?

Most athletes believe in playing their best and winning on a regular basis. For this you need to be mentally strong and have superior physical skills and training.

A mentally competent athlete doesn’t want to win by forfeit; they are not satisfied by just padding their stats against weaker teams or getting the win because of a bad official call. Players, who have strong mental qualities, WANT to compete against the best and throw themselves into challenge at the highest level.

mental toughness in sportsI want to share with you an inspiring mental toughness story that happened in women’s softball, back in April of ’08.

Sara Tucholsky, a petite 5’2” player for Western Oregon University, hit the first home run of her career to break a scoreless tie in their conference playoffs. She drove in 2 runs, but while trotting around the bases, in her excitement, missed touching first base. She realized her error, turned to go back and in a freak accident tore her ACL forcing her knee to give out.

Instead of giving up, she literally crawled back to first base. Her teammates wanted to help, but the umpire warned that if anybody even touched her, she would be called out. The umpire gave her coach the option for Sara to stay on first and get a pinch runner, but it would cancel her home run and be called a single.

In an amazing act of mental fitness, two players from the opposing team ran to first base, picked Sara up and carried her around the bases, dipping her good leg down to touch each base. The umpire gave her the home run as they crossed the plate and then Sara’s own entire team carried her to the dugout.

The opposing team, Central Washington ended up losing the game and Sara’s team won the conference and advanced to the NCAA Division II tournament.

Those two opposing team players wanted to win as badly as anyone out there, but they didn’t want to win by default. They wanted to earn it as much as Sara had earned her home run.

mental toughness in sportsI believe the famous quote winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” for players who are REALLY mentally tough, IS FLAT OUT FALSE.

So that day there were 2 good examples of mental fitness…Sara, who had the “never give up” attitude to stay in the game even if it meant crawling to get her home run and the 2 opposing team players who only wanted to win if they earned it!

Welcoming challenge and diving into tough situations, on purpose, is what mental toughness in sports is all about. Always remember that victory is the sweetest, when you have worked hard to earn it and decide right now this is how you want to achieve mental strength.

Having this attitude will get you past the hardships that come with playing sports and positively affect all areas of your life.

Does this article prepare you for the hardships that come with playing sports? Does it prepare you to be Mentally Fit? Share your views in comments….

mental toughness in sportsWelcome to the Winner’s Circle!

Craig Sigl, the Mental Toughness Trainer