Mental toughness is often what separates good from great players. At the highest levels of basketball and all sports, every player has talent, size, and skill. Those things are just the price of admission in order to make it to the top level of any sport. The same is true throughout youth sports as well. Across all levels of sports, the most talented teams are not the ones that always win. The most talented players are not always the best players. The thin line between winning and losing can often come down to who has more mental toughness.

A will to win

In order to be mentally tough, you have to really want to win. Saying that you want to win doesn’t do much. Your actions must show that you want to win. That means giving maximum effort, having a positive attitude, and listening to those who have your best interest in mind, just to name a few.

It’s not that those who have strong mental toughness never lose. All true competitors have not only taken a loss, but many losses in their career. Mental toughness means you want to do your best every time you perform. You don’t let yourself settle for anything less than your best. Sometimes the results may not work out in your favor, but just by holding yourself to that high standard, more often than not the result will work out how you want it too.

There is a big difference between those who play the game and those who play to win the game. Just being in the game is good enough for some people. Those with mental toughness, are not satisfied with just being in the game. They want to succeed in the game. That is because they understand the only way to reach their full potential is by pushing themselves to be the best. The best versions of themselves, that is.

“You have to focus on what’s important. You cannot be deterred, intimidated, or thrown off from your goal. That’s mental toughness.” – Roy Williams

Strength in adversity

Having a will to win also means you are not afraid of losing. Those who fear losing will crumble the moment they run into some adversity. Struggle and adversity are inevitable in sports. Many youth athletes have difficulty dealing with losing. Part of that is due to parents and coaches putting pressure on them by setting unrealistic expectations. But most youth athletes are not equipped to deal with adversity. Like when a team starts to make a run and build a lead. A lot of younger players will get down on themselves and lose confidence in their teammates or coaches.

One of the most important aspects of mental toughness is being able to stick to your vision. Most of us have goals and a vision for ourselves. But it’s easy to get away from that vision when we encounter struggle, disappointment, or losing. Not being easily deterred is a characteristic that all mentally tough athletes possess.

Having mental toughness means that you can stay positive when circumstances are negative. Going through challenges and losses are ultimately beneficial for all young athletes. It provides opportunities for kids to understand that it’s not going to be easy, that there are no guarantees, and how our reactions determine our mindset and who we are. One of the reasons why we are called 90 Percent Hoops, is because we believe that life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it.

Those with mental toughness can always stay positive and focus on how they can learn from their struggles. The ones who always have success and never endure the hard times, are never able to grow and improve. Mental toughness is playing the long game and staying focused on who you are becoming rather than who you are right now.

Knowing what you can control

Developing mental toughness starts by understanding what is in and out of your control. Being mentally tough means spending no time worrying about things that are out of your control. Things like the referees, what the other team does, injuries, etc. There are 3 things that every player can control at all times – attitude, effort, and preparation. Simply focusing on what you can control at all times can help make up for a lack of talent or physical skills.

It’s much easier to trust someone who you know can focus on what they can control. Someone who plays with a high level of effort, maintains a positive attitude, and is always ready to play is someone a coach/leader can depend on. Someone who does not have these things is someone who is unpredictable. Coaches try to do whatever they can to eliminate unpredictability as much as possible. So, if you are a player that is not playing as much as you want, ask yourself am I worrying about things I can’t control?

Preparation is a factor that does not get talked about enough. Almost all players want to stand out and be different from the rest of the competition. But in order to actually do that, you have to be willing to do things that other players are not willing to do. The amount that you prepare is the amount you care. If you are not putting in consistent work, treating your body right, and making progress every day, then you do not really care about the end result.

Mental toughness is understanding that if you want to be different, your process also has to be different. Players who possess real mental toughness are not worried about what the competition is doing. They only care about their own process of getting better. A lot of younger players lose confidence when they see someone who has more talent than them. They start to doubt themselves and make excuses as to why they’re not good enough or why someone is better than them. Mental toughness is staying locked in on your own journey.

Trusting and believing in yourself

Perhaps the most important part of building mental toughness is learning how to trust yourself. In order to develop a trust in yourself, you must first have a love for the process. That is the process of getting better and the process of trying to become great. The process means you are dedicated to spending time and energy on what it is that you do. Without putting in a lot of time and hard work into something, it’s impossible to trust yourself and believe that you can succeed.

The lack of self-belief usually stems from knowing that you haven’t done everything you can to put yourself in the best possible position to have success. There are also a lot of athletes who work really hard but are unable to trust themselves when it’s time to perform. That is because they are too fixated on the outcome. They think that losing or not playing well means all their hard work was for nothing. Having mental toughness means you don’t worry about the end result; you just focus on what’s next.

The reason why players like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant get praised so much for their mental toughness is because of their ability to focus on what’s next. They could be having rough shooting nights but when it was time to take the game winning shot, they were just as confident as they were had they had a great shooting night. That is because they believed and trusted the work that they put in. They trusted who they are and what they had done leading up to that point.

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