Developing Sport Mental Toughness

If you're like most athletes, your sports mental game takes a hit every time one of your rivals does well.

Do these sound familiar?

"I'm so afraid to lose to her."

"He always scores on me."

"That guy plays dirty."

In fact for many athletes, their biggest sports mental game stressor is a rival. A rivalry is when you feel competitive with an opponent. When a competitor does well, you get jealous and think, 'Oh no, she's playing well. I hate that #6.' Maybe you criticize yourself and think you're not as good. Or perhaps you put that person on a pedestal.

Either way, you become less mentally tough when a rival shines. The world's best athletes have a radically different sports psychology strategy for thinking about competitors and rivals. They adopt a POSITIVE rivalry mentality. When a competitor does well, they think, 'Good! He's making me better!' They learn from their peers and get inspired by them.

Susan Auch is one of the best speed skaters Canada has ever produced. One of the key reasons is because she used the power of positive rivalries to win an Olympic medal.

Consider her story:

"In 1996, Catriona LeMay Doan asked if she could train with me and my coach (my brother, Darren Auch). I was afraid if Catriona trained with us, she would actually become better than me.

At first, I decided to say no. I did not want to risk helping one of my main opponents. I also didn't want to share my brother with a rival! Eventually, though, I changed my mind. I saw that if I trained with Catriona every day, I would be way better than if I didn't. I knew I'd almost be guaranteed an Olympic medal. In 1998, Catriona won the gold medal in the Olympics. I won the silver.

It broke my heart to not be the best in the world. However, we were #1 and #2 in the world and I knew it was because we pushed each other to get there."

Being competitive with other people is part of being an athlete. It's not only Ok, it's cool. Just make sure you're channeling your competitiveness properly. When you develop a POSITIVE rivalry mindset, you encourage excellence in everyone around you because you have an abundance mentality. You learn from your opponents. They make you better.

You stop being afraid of them, and instead focus on the real business of achievement, which is beating yourself.