Conceptualizing, measuring, and training mental toughness in sport: Perspectives of master strength and conditioning coaches

ABSTRACT

Coaches are key stakeholders involved in creating a climate in which athletes’ mental toughness (MT) can be developed. Although Master Strength and Conditioning Coaches (MSCC) spend a substantial amount of time working with US collegiate athletes, no studies have investigated this elite group of professionals’ opinions about MT. Using a multiphase mixed-method design (Phase 1, N = 71; Phase 2, N = 28), this study explored MSCCs’ perspectives on the conceptualization, measurement, and training of MT. MSCCs value MT highly and believe that it plays an important role in competitive sports. However, a majority of the participants were uncertain about what constitutes MT. Although MSCCs primarily used anecdotally-based physical protocols to develop athletes’ MT, they rarely assessed the effectiveness of those training approaches using psychometrically-sound instruments. MSCCs highlighted the need to prioritize evidence-based MT training protocols. Resources are required to educate MSCCs and support their work on MT development.

KEYWORDS:

• Applied sport psychology
• CSCCa
• CSCS
• NSCA
• mentally tough
• NCAA
• student-athlete
• strength coach

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The authors use the words sport and sports interchangeably. The choice of the term sport(s) was based on the specific life domain (i.e., collegiate athletics) that MT was investigated in this research project.

2 “The Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaching Professional seeks to develop, implement, assess and supervise evidence-based programs that not only improve sport performance but also promote and safeguard the overall health and well-being of the student athlete” (Collegiate Strength & Conditioning association, n.d.-a)

3 A countable athletically-related activity is any activity with an athletics purpose involving student-athletes that occurs at the direction of or supervised by one or more institutional coaching staff members (including SCCs).

4 RQ8 is not grouped under the three research categories. Instead, it served a dual objective: to investigate if the participants would confirm the three general gaps the authors identified in the literature but also shed light on the kind of research that MSCCs would benefit from.

5 The results of each RQ are presented independently.

6 Due to space limitations and focus of this paper, RQ9 results are not reported.

7 The slider scale was anchored by Strongly Disagree (−3) and Strongly Agree (+3).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andreas Stamatis

Dr. Andreas Stamatis is an Associate Professor at the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. He also serves as the Coordinator of the Fitness and Wellness Undergraduate Program and as the Lab Director.

Grant B. Morgan

Dr. Grant B. Morgan is an Associate Professor in the Quantitative Methods graduate program in the Department of Educational Psychology (EDP) at Baylor School of Education (SOE), the Coordinator of the Quantitative Methods specialization graduate programs (M.A. & Ph.D.), and the Associate Dean for Research for the SOE.

Richard G. Cowden

Dr. Richard G. Cowden is a social-personality psychologist and a Psychology Research Associate at The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University.

Panagiotis Koutakis

Dr. Panagiotis Koutakis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Baylor University and the Director of the Clinical Muscle Biology Lab.