Imagine yourself watching your favorite sporting event. It is inevitable that during the course of the game, you will hear the announcer say “Some athletes are just born mentally tougher than the rest,” or “They have a natural ability to be mentally stronger than their opponent.” While it is a true that the very best athletes in the world have an incredible amount of mental toughness, they are not born with it. It is something they achieve because of the skills and strategies they have learned over time, as well as the experiences they have had.
Dr. Rob Bell, a sports psychology coach who helps build the mental toughness of professional & corporate athletes, coaches, and teams, compares it to a game of chess. Each piece on the chessboard has a different level of importance, with the most important being the King and the other pieces helping to support him. By allowing each piece to do their job and play their part, it will lead you to the ultimate goal of winning the game. The same holds true for achieving mental toughness. You must identify what the number one skill is to get you there, and allow other skills and strategies to play their part supporting the number one skill.
But what are those skills and strategies? Dr. Bell will break it all down for you in the video above and help take you down the road of improving your child’s mental toughness.