Mental Toughness Triathlons Fourth Discipline

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Mental ToughnessTriathlons Fourth Discipline
Brad Seng Team Sport Beans/NTTC
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Who/what is your motivator?
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Mental Toughness Is

• Mental toughness is not letting anyone break
  you.
• - Jimi Mitchell, Penn State football
• Mental toughness is going out to train when your
  inner self screams not to it is frigid outside,
  it is 100 degrees, you are tired, your muscles
  ache, and its too early in the morning or too
  late at night. You work through these urges to
  skip the workout and go out there and just smash
  it. Then you know when race day comes along, you
  have pushed the limit so when the race heats up
  you can squeeze out that extra little bit because
  you have done it before.
• - Joanna Zeiger, 2008 70.3 World Champion

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Mental Toughness Is

• Mental toughness, is the ability to recognize
  your situation, evaluate your options, and still
  make the decision to move forward despite pain,
  despite the desire to quit, and the thought that
  by stopping, your suffering will be at an end.
  For me this definition also has an opposite, that
  despite your desire to move up, you know that the
  only correct decision is to turn around. The
  mountain will be always be there, but without
  mental toughness you might not.
• Climb Hard, Climb High, Come Home!
• - Chris Klinke, world class mountaineer
• Mental toughness has always been a byproduct of
  understanding the big picture knowing that you
  can only control so much and when things are out
  of your control the best thing to do is go with
  the flow.  
• - Kathryn Bertine, Cat 1 pro cyclist, author
  ESPN columnist

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Mental toughness is having the natural or
developed psychological edge that enables you
to - Generally cope better than your
opponents with many demands (competition,
training, lifestyle) that are placed on
you as a performer. - Specifically, to be
more consistent better than your
opponents in remaining determined, focused,
confident, resilient and in control under
pressure. - Jones, et al. 2002
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Tools of the Trade
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Positive Self-Talk v Negative Self-Talk

• Provides energy
• Increases performance
• Constructive

• Saps energy
• Limits performance
• Destructive

Positive Self-Talk Confidence
Performance
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Attributes of Mental Toughness

• Resilient
• Patient
• Calm
• Confident

• Flexible
• Focused
• Aware
• Accepting

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Race Day Thinking

• Honor God with your effort
• Calm in the chaos
• Maintain present focus
• Purposeful, productive possible
• Accept your performance
• Be grateful for the gift of good health