Embracing Challenges: Building Mental Toughness in Combat Sports

Describing mental toughness is like describing love. We know it when we experience it and we can identify it in other people, yet there are no definite lists of qualities and behaviors it entails. How you show mental toughness will look different than other athletes, and what matters most is how you use it to adapt and cope with stress. Fighting out of difficult positions, through exhaustion, against relentless opponents—these are all common stressors in our sport. When combat sport athletes show mental toughness, they show courage towards their fears, find strength in their weaknesses, overcome challenges that some would choose not to take on, and perform other heroic feats. What does that look like in the average person, though?

Signs of Mental Toughness

Mental toughness often manifests in the small acts that allow us to get things done despite obstacles. These obstacles can be as minor as spilled milk or as significant as a career-ending injury. How we move forward has a lot to do with our innate and learned characteristics. We all have traits that can enhance mental toughness, and the states or environments we are in can bring them out. In essence, we all possess qualities that can develop mental toughness, but it must be fostered. Mental toughness is already within you, known as trait mental toughness, and what we do with it in certain settings is our state mental toughness.

One of the models often used to break down the qualities of mental toughness is the 4C model, which includes control, challenge, commitment, and confidence (Weinberg & Gould, 2019).

Control is the ability to focus on what can be controlled, like our own thoughts and actions, rather than on what cannot be controlled, like the thoughts and actions of others. This looks like choosing positive self-talk that helps achieve your goals instead of ruminating on negative thoughts.

Challenge is the appraisal of situations as something to conquer rather than as a threat. This looks like adding a bit more weight to the bar when lifting or dusting yourself off after a failure. When you push yourself to do one more sparring round when you’re tired or enter into a big tournament that you prepare well for, this is seeking a challenge rather than avoiding a perceived threat.

Commitment is the dedication of time and energy to worthy causes like the pursuit of excellence while avoiding distractions along the way. This looks like sacrificing instant gratification for long-term growth. Balancing your life roles is crucial because maintaining a healthy athlete identity is key to sustaining a successful career.

Confidence is the belief in yourself even in the face of failure. This looks like taking another fight after your last fight ended in a knockout loss. It means getting up after a loss and believing that you can and will achieve the goals you have set for yourself.

Ways to Build Mental Toughness

Athletes can build their mental toughness by practicing failure and resiliency training. Increasing the difficulty of tasks under various threatening pressures over time can help the athlete develop a plan for when they feel tested. This can include positive self-talk, proper goal setting that emphasizes small process goals, and imagery tactics to visually practice a mental rehearsal plan (Vernacchia et al., 1996). You can integrate mental toughness routines into your daily practices.

Healthy Mental Toughness

Maintaining the right amount of mental toughness is essential for creating a barrier against stress when striving for excellence. However, it can become unhealthy if you push yourself past your limits. While pushing limits is important to achieve things you never had, it should not come at the expense of your physical and mental health. Unhealthy mental toughness can manifest as shame and guilt for resting instead of training, overtraining that leads to burnout or injury, and harsh self-judgment when competing against others too much. Remember, being tough also means knowing when to quit. The opposite of mental toughness is not weakness, but harm. Take care of yourself and strive for excellence with a mindset that protects your own welfare.

Embracing mental toughness means recognizing and nurturing the strength within you, balancing ambition with self-care, and pushing your boundaries without breaking. It's about finding resilience in everyday challenges and using that strength to overcome even the most daunting obstacles. Keep this in mind as you train, compete, and live your life—mental toughness is your ally, not your enemy.

References

Vernacchia, R. A., McGuire, R.T., & Cook, D.L. (1996). Coaching mental excellence: It does matter whether you win or lose. Palo Alto, CA: Warde Publishers. 

Weinberg, R.S., & Gould, D. (2019). Foundations of sport and exercise psychology (7th ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.