The Secret to Emotions and Mental Toughness

As the topic of mental health emerges in sports, there’s a question that looms about how emotions and mental toughness can fit in the same space.

I was on a Clubhouse chat recently where that very question was posed. The speaker said that practicing mental wellness and mental toughness felt like two opposite things. The speaker was a retired basketball player who used the example of how a negative experience in his life fueled his desire to want to be a better basketball player and go pro. He talked about how within that laser focus, he didn’t have the space to think his way through his emotions. He also said that he felt that using the court as his healing place was a good thing because he used the pain to propel him forward.

These are very common questions: 

• How can I fuel the fire of my game if I’m taking the time to heal from the pain?
• Would healing those wounds have hurt my performance and subsequently, both my aggressive drive and tenacity to be successful?
• How can I possibly bring intensity to the game if I’m at peace within myself?
• How can I be aware of my emotions and remain mentally tough at the same time?

The Link Between Emotional Intelligence and Mental Toughness

First and foremost, Emotional Intelligence and mental toughness go hand-in-hand. Both have to do with your inner game and adapting to environments. 

But first, just what are emotional intelligence and mental toughness?

“Emotional intelligence (EI), emotional quotient (EQ) and emotional intelligence quotient (EIQ) is the capability of individuals to recognize their own emotions and those of others, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, and adjust emotions to adapt to environments.” – Wikipedia 

“Mental toughness is a measure of individual resilience and confidence that may predict success in sport, education, and the workplace. As a broad concept, it emerged in the context of sports training, in the context of a set of attributes that allow a person to become a better athlete and able to cope with difficult training and difficult competitive situations and emerge without losing confidence.” – Wikipedia 

Emotional Intelligence gives a person a deeper insight into his or her feelings and awareness of the feelings of others, which we can attribute to benefits such as heightened instinct. Furthermore, this can help athletes keep their mental and emotional space clear, and also protect their body from such issues as long-term stress, which can easily occur if the person is constantly in a space where they feel they have to be tough. 

An awareness and understanding of emotions can also help individuals to develop mental toughness skills. For example, a highly sensitive athlete, an athlete who lacks confidence, or an athlete who becomes overstimulated physically, emotionally, or mentally, can learn to understand their emotions and then move forward with managing them. 

But, I wanted to look deeper into this so I did a little research and found the following. Or, to put is as LaVar Burton used to say on Reading Rainbow, “But, you don’t have to take my word for it.” 

“Given the notion that both mental toughness and emotional intelligence are proposed to be associated with psychological control and successful performance, they could be sharing the same conceptual space.” – Lane, Andrew & Thelwell, Richard & Gill, Gobinder. (2006). Emotional Intelligence and Mental Toughness.

“….Previous theoretical models have suggested that mentally tough athletes are able to excel under pressure. Researchers suggested that this superior ability might be due to how a person appraises stress or copes. However, this study suggests that it might also be the presence of other constructs such as resilience, emotional intelligence, motivation, and/or self-efficacy that enable mentally tough individuals to excel under stressful circumstances because these constructs have been associated with individuals experiencing less stress in other studies and appear to be mediated by mental toughness. As such, mental toughness training could be incorporated into resilience, emotional intelligence, sport motivation, and self-efficacy interventions.” – A. R. NICHOLLS 1, J. L. PERRY 2, L. JONES 3, C. SANCTUARY 4, F. CARSON 1, P. J. CLOUGH 1. (2015). The mediating role of mental toughness in sport

“The results showed that emotional intelligence training intervention had significant effects on mental toughness and its components (Confidence, consistency, and control). Generally, emotional intelligence training is a useful and effective way to improve elite taekwondo athletes ‘mental toughness.’” – Sahar Zarei; Hassan Gharayagh Zandi; Mahmoud Mohebi. “The Effectiveness of Emotional Intelligence Training on Mental Toughness in Elite Taekwondo Athletes“. Journal of Motor Learning and Movement, 9, 4, 2018, 547-562. doi: 10.22059/jmlm.2018.223319.1195

How to Develop Emotional Intelligence and Mental Toughness

There are entire industries built on the concepts of Emotional Intelligence and mental toughness so while it would be impossible to explain how to develop these two key elements in one short article, I will share the best tool I know, and that is mindfulness.

Why mindfulness? Here are a couple of examples of studies.

“Mindfulness exhibited significant positive correlations with confidence, constancy, and control, as well as with total mental toughness. Mindfulness was positively correlated with all aspects of mental toughness investigated in this study. In addition, individuals with high levels of mindfulness reported higher control, constancy and general mental toughness than those with lower levels of mindfulness.” – Walker, Stephen. (2016). Mindfulness and mental toughness among provincial adolescent female hockey players. South African Journal of Sports Medicine. 28. 46-50. 10.17159/2078-516X/2016/v28i2a1576. 

“Participation in elite level sport requires being subjected to considerably stressful training and competition environments. … To this end, 222 NCAA Division I athletes representing six different sports completed measures of mindfulness in sport, psychological skills, general well-being, and sport well-being. Path analyses indicated that both psychological skills and mindfulness had positive and moderate effects on sport well-being; however, only mindfulness was shown to have a positive moderate effect on global well-being. Also, a nonjudgmental approach towards one’s experiences is highly correlated with global well-being.” – Foster, Brian, Chow, Graig (2020) The effects of psychological skills and mindfulness on the well-being of student-athletes: A path analysis

Mindfulness has a wide range of definitions, but there are a few factors that are at the core of the practice including 

• Being in the present moment, focused on a single task
• Ability to become aware of a thought and/or an emotion without judgment
• Acceptance of the thought/and or emotion
• The act of letting go or detaching from the thought and/or emotion

The benefits of a mindfulness practice, which is accompanied by meditation and breathing exercises, are vast. A few examples are: 

• An athlete who is distracted or nervous can use mindfulness training to help them focus and relax.
• An athlete who is very “tough” and bottles everything up, can use the practice to develop emotional intelligence to begin to clear out the clutter.
• An athlete who prefers to avoid their feelings can learn to face their inevitable emotions in a way that helps them be better athletes and enjoy life outside of sports more.
• An athlete who easily gets wrapped up in their emotions can learn to manage and self-regulate them rather than becoming overrun by them.

Don’t believe me? Google Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan and mindfulness.

Emotions and Mental Toughness Keys to The Game:

• An understanding of your emotions (and what makes them tick) can help you develop awareness when emotions come up, which can therefore help you build resiliency and stress management skills.
• Mental toughness can be developed through learning how to manage emotions, thought habits, stress, anxiety, etc.

In summary, not only do Emotional Intelligence and mental toughness fit in the same space together, but they are also an essential training duo in athlete mental health and wellness.

Want to learn more? Contact me to learn more about coaching or pick up a free copy of The Athlete Mental Health Playbook.