Ending practice early to building mental toughness in young athletes

building mental toughness in young athletes

Ending Practice Early to Building Mental Toughness in Young Athletes? 

There are not many secrets to success. There is also no short-cut. 

However, one secret that I think holds true is the ability of one more. When we are tired and fatigued, the key is to be able to endure just one more. 

One more rep, writing one more page, one more sales phone call.

Just one more is how we build mental toughness. 

Often, it is effective. Yet, there is a prerequisite to implementing this strategy and that is we first must have the passion and will to do “one more.”

As parents, we all have announced this just “one more” technique. We push, just a little bit, (some unfortunately, a lot) for our son or daughter to give more effort.

Add up the number of practices and seasons of just one more and that is a lot of externally driven motivation in the form of nagging, or strong-arming our son or daughter into practice.

Remember, It’s tough to be driven when you’re being driven. 

Here’s what to do instead:

Hall of Fame tennis coach Jeff Smith, used a different technique to help build the passion in his son Bryan Smith, also a Hall of Fame tennis coach. 

He would start by ending practice early to building mental toughness in young athletes.

Here’s the technique:

He would first tell Bryan how long they were going to hit tennis balls on the court, say 45 minutes. So, after 20 or 25 minutes, he would then start ending practice early to build mental toughness in young athletes. 

Bryan, having fun, didn’t want to end early.

Instead, He would ask his dad to continue… Voila, the seed of passion and internal motivation was slowly built without the nagging, pleading, or coercion of one more.

It’s tough to building mental toughness in youth athletes, this one will help with parents, but be sure to  check out our book- Don’t Should On Your Kids: Build Their Mental Toughness 

Dr. Rob Bell is a Sport Psychology Coach. DRB & associates coach executives and professional athletes. Some clients have included three different winners on the PGA Tour, Indy Eleven, University of Notre Dame, Marriott, and Walgreens.