Mental toughness

[Dry Rot]

What is it? Which teams are the toughest mentally? How mentally tough are we these days?

[Go_Dogs]

West Coast and Sydney are the obvious ones, plus perhaps Adelaide - although they have now twice stumbled at home in the finals and cost themselves a GF spot.

We are getting tougher. Our wins against WC in Perth, and our win against Adelaide at the MCG showed this - as did our gusty 1 point win against Geelong early in the season. The let down however, was the form shown after these matches. Adelaide flogged us after the Geelong game, the Roos pumped us after the WC game - which should have been the victory that all but wrapped up our finals campaign.

Overall, we have definently got much tougher over the past 2 seasons, however we still lack that belief and toughness that the top teams have. We are well on the way to getting it though, and the players must surely be beginning to believe that they are capable of playing well and winning against the best sides in the competition regularly, and not being scared of these contests.

[alwaysadog]

Good post Macca

We are clearly better but we still have a capacity to beat ourselves at times and that's the opposite of mental toughness. I know I keep harping on it but the loss against North after we had met the challenge, and as promised the Dogs had risen up in the west, was a sign that we weren't mentally tough because we couldn't overcome our fatique and guts it out.

Mental toughness is never admitting to yourself that you are beaten and expecting to win, because you have the mental capacity to apply the utmost pressure no matter what the circumstances.

Mental softness says I'll have a crack but ... add any number of excuses, and I'll wait till I have to before I have a red hot go.

Aker now he's mentally tough, if he knows he's right he doesn't hesitate. It doesn't mean he is right but it means he will stick to his guns and worry about the consequences when he has to. The Brisbane Brown Dog has it and the twins up there had it in spades, added to that they were just plain nasty. Sydney wins on it rather than talent and West Coast has talent and some mental toughness, but then some of that lot are mental as anything.

Libba, Jose and Dimma had it.

[BulldogBelle]

Libba, Jose and Dimma had it.

They sure did, they showed it time and time again. Would love to have those three playing again this season.

[alwaysadog]

They sure did, they showed it time and time again. Would love to have those three playing again this season.

Bring back the Wog Squad!

[Go_Dogs]

Good post Macca

Cheers, I think it was about my most coherent post to date. :)

[alwaysadog]

Cheers, I think it was about my most coherent post to date. :)

Nothing at all wrong with your posts. I enjoy the read and they make me think. I'd add a smiley or a thumbs up but my new antivirus/antispyware program thinks they are enemies.

With friends like that etc..

[alwaysadog]

Just before the draft Rocket spoke to a coterie group and in response to a question by me asserted that they had plans in place to address both the physical and mental toughness issues. He declined to go into details. the physical stuff I can easily comprehend and there is some evidence in the shape of most players to show that this has been taken seriously.

The more important question is how do coaches affect the mental aspects. How much of it is already in place before they hit the turf at an AFL club. What can a club do to make changes?

[Go_Dogs]

That all comes from belief, and having good people around you to support and work with you. I was involved in a high intensity rowing program for a few years - the crew ended up being national champions and we were doing as much work as an AFL club each week - even though we were only aged between 16-18. We had a great coaching panel, an Olympic rowing gold medalist who was excellent, as well as a body conditioning coach who although a little crazy, is probably the most inspirational figure I've come across in my 22 years.

We knew that if we completed the work on the program - and got everyone through it all - we'd be tough to beat, and I think alot of the mental toughness comes from that. Knowing that everyone has pushed themselves extremely hard over a 2 and a half year period made us all confident in each others ability to get the job done.

You also gain mental toughness not only from gruelling training sessions - but good victories as well. We competed and won in a lot of major events - sometimes against much more experience crews with state and national rowers who were aged between 22-26. We also took out some longer, endurance races, and won about every award we could throughout the season. Beating opponents gives you that belief, and makes you confident in your abilities.

I think the hardest part though, w/o doubt is being able to mentally push yourself to the limit time and time again. The crew I rowed in the previous year had 2 of our blokes sent to hospital after the race due to collapsing for exhaustion. Mentally you have to be able to push, push more and then push again. You have to have that will to compete, and not ever feel that a game is over for you. A lot of this comes down to preparation as well - but psycology(sp?) plays a big part in it aswell. We'd have sessions of visioning and things like that - honestly some pretty strange stuff - where we would close our eyes and go through the race, and look at pictures in our minds and things like this. I'm not sure how much that stuff actually helps you, but the fact you've done it in itself is reassuring I believe.

So basically, good people who are inspirational need to be involved, the work needs to be tough, and every player on the list needs to get through it at a satisfactory standard. You need to be able to win, win well - and be able to push yourself through that pain barrier - and replicate that at trainings and on match day so it's normal practice.

[southerncross]

Great insight there McMahon23.
I think you have hit on all the main points required to gain that much needed mental toughness.

Its a level of confidence of being fitter, stronger, smarter, and having a better game plan than your opponents or simply believing in the best shape you can be. It can also be your own personal pride of never letting your opponent defeat you but most importantly a "refuse to lose" attitude goes a long way.

Libba had it in bucket loads and so did Romero and they were two of the toughest players mentally we have had at the club.

[alwaysadog]

That is a terrific post McMahon. Makes all my theorising seem pretty thin. Top job

[bornadog]

Great insight there McMahon23.
I think you have hit on all the main points required to gain that much needed mental toughness.

Its a level of confidence of being fitter, stronger, smarter, and having a better game plan than your opponents or simply believing in the best shape you can be. It can also be your own personal pride of never letting your opponent defeat you but most importantly a "refuse to lose" attitude goes a long way.

Libba had it in bucket loads and so did Romero and they were two of the toughest players mentally we have had at the club.

McMahons post really does point out what I believe can be the difference between teams. All teams have got the skills and there isn't really alot of difference in skill between players, but the difference is the mental toughness and what is going on in their heads.