Mental Toughness is key to boosting Physical Performance
As I write this blog with just over the first full year of Dynamic Athlete Training’s Journey, I have come across something that keeps getting repeated - MENTAL TOUGHNESS!
For some reason, growing up I was fascinated by athletes who stated, “I WAS IN THE ZONE!” I never understood what that actually meant; until it happened to me. However, most athletes don’t realize they are “in the zone” until after the fact when they have had time to decompress and re-evaluate their performance.
What is “BEING IN THE ZONE”
I have always viewed being “in the zone” like being in love. No one can tell you are in love, or even when you say it to yourself. You just know that you are, and you can’t put it into words. By being in the zone, you can’t say in the moment “Oh I am totally in the zone!” Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Chances are if you are saying that to yourself, you probably aren’t. It is because when you are actually “in the zone”, you are so focused and so dialed in, even thinking about being in the zone doesn’t even come across your mind. All you are focused on is being in the present moment, here and now, with the task at hand.
The same can be said for referees. Mental toughness is an essential part of performing at ones best on the field, during fitness training and/or fitness testing and even during video clip sessions. It can help navigate self-doubt, negative emotions, and fear of failure. Even being “in the zone” is a thing for referees, think of how referees listen to certain music, or have a set routine they perform before each match. They are trying to get to the point where they can just be focused on the task at hand and work a great match. Trying to place oneself in the zone helps re-enforce mental toughness. Now not every referee ends up “in the zone” but they continually try to get to that point each and every match.
- What is mental toughness?
According to one definition mental toughness is - “quality of mind or intellect characterized by, among other things, a refusal to be intimidated, a determination to finish a contest even when things are going badly, and an ability to control emotions and remain highly focused when under the pressure of intense competition.” Now that we have the definition and understand mental toughness, how can it help boost our physical performance? First, we are going to talk about how referees prepare for matches and if they truly push to their limit, in terms of the physical demands and how that affects the mental toughness.
All referees should be doing some form of fitness training throughout the week or weeks. Depending on the training load and recovery time of each referee, there needs to be 1-2 high intensity training sessions throughout the week, which should include cardiovascular training not just resistance/weight training. During these high intensity runs the referees needs to push the limit of what they are capable of sustaining; a.k.a Maximum Training - High Heart Rate.
One example would be having a referee complete a High-Intensity Run and continually hitting 85 meters on every 15 second sprint, this will not only build up endurance, speed, sprint capacity, dealing with lactate production and disposal but also build the mental toughness of putting your body through demanding work and coming out the other side better. However, it is during these high physical demands on the body where the referee’s mental toughness gets challenged. When the breathing rate increases, the heart rate increases, the muscles start to burn and the uncomfortableness sets in, this where most people’s brain take over and say they can’t complete the task, or it is getting too hard, and ultimately stop.
In a recent study, athletes were asked to perform a certain number of repeated sprints for a certain amount of time. They were monitored by heart rate and gps data devices, without telling the athletes or letting them see their data while they were performing these sprints. The test administrators told these athletes to do as many sprints as they could at a set distance/pace for time, until they feel like they couldn’t do anymore. After all the athletes reached their so-called “limit” microscopic muscles samples were taken from all of these athletes and the results were quite interesting. What the samples showed was that the primary working muscles for the exercise still had plenty of energy (carbohydrates) to finish the exercise, meaning their bodies could have endured more sprints!
Why did they stop?
The brain was telling them to stop - they didn’t think they had enough left, even though the muscles samples clearly showed they did. Understanding how the brain plays a role in the physical fitness training is vital. Being able to push or endure more than what your brain is telling you by developing that mental toughness will help increase/boost your physical performance to a higher level than you could have thought. Then once you accomplish this higher level, it re-enforces this behavior, also aiding in your ability to keep pushing that limit higher and higher each time and develops that mental toughness to help the body endure the limit at this level. As you can see there is a pattern or cycle that continues to grow more and more each time you train!
However, just like physical fitness the mental toughness must also be trained accordingly. The better you are able to handle a grueling training session, the better your chance of performing better or at a higher level. By being able to mentally focus on your role as a referee in a training session, match, video analysis, and/or visual mental imagery and having a set routine the more likely you can “be in the zone” and develop mental toughness or a higher level of mental toughness.
BE FEARLESS
BE RELENTLESS
ALWAYS TRAIN WITH HEART