Mental Toughness
By Ben Askren
A lot of wrestling coaches use the phrase "It's all mental"
Wrestling isn't all mental. However your "mental state" will play a big part in your
performance at practice and under the lights. There are many different mental
aspects in wrestling, such as; recuperation from mistakes, quick thinking,
confidence, focus, and the list could go on. Nevertheless, I believe one is more
important than the others, and that is "mental toughness".
Mental toughness is the quality that sets the good wrestlers apart from the great
wrestlers.
Being mentally tough incorporates a lot of things. I am sure there are many
challenges I would back down from everyday without being mentally tough.
Being mentally tough or becoming mentally tough will make you a better
wrestler and make you a better, more well rounded person.
Are you born with mental toughness? I doubt it. More likely it is
manufactured during your upbringing. Lots of children these days are
babied, spoiled and pampered. Most of my friends were, and most people I
know are. It is really sad to see and I actually believe it causes a
lot of societies problems. However, that is a whole other issue. I love it
when I see parents being tough on their kids, but I am not saying "try to run
their lives" as some parents do. In my childhood my dad was always tough
on me. We would roughhouse and he would beat on me a little, making me
tougher.
I was never allowed to whine, because anytime I did, I got the speech
about how he got beat with a belt when he was a kid, and I sure didn't want to
get that. He also always made me do manual labor tasks. I never really sat
around the house. If I was being lazy he made me go do something. That
attitude turned me into the person I am today. As I got older I started
pushing myself to be tougher Getting up and running when I didn't want
to. Lifting when I didn't want to. Testing myself to go just a little harder
on everything I did. When it hurt I went harder. These kind of activities
will make you tough. Wake up at 6:00 in the morning to go running a few times
a week, and don't just jog, RUN. When you feel like going to bed one night,
go work out. When your friends call you and you want to go hang out
with them, instead go work out. Now I am not saying do these things everyday,
but the more you force yourself to do stuff you don't want to, the more
mentally tough you will be.
The next stage in my mental toughness training came when I got to high
school. I met the most mentally tough person I know. I am still looking
to find someone who is mentally tougher than my coach, John Mesenbrink. I
really believe my high school team worked harder than anyone. I would
like to give out the methods, but then the secrets would be out. Anyways, we
worked hard, and Coach Mesenbrink always found a way to outwork us. He
always won the morning runs when I was there, and I guarantee he wasn't
the fastest, he would do it on guts. Coach Mesenbrink never gave up, so
neither did I. My junior and senior years we would battle. Wrestling for up to
2 hours live at a time, we would always try to break each other, no one
ever won though. I remember one season, when he was ill, he could barely
get out of bed, he could barely even talk at practice, but he still went live
for almost an hour and a half. I thought he was going to croak.
Some days, after we practiced together, I would go home and lay on the
floor shivering, because I was so dehydrated. My mom would just throw
blankets on me. I would lay there for hours recovering. If I learned nothing
else from Coach Mesenbrink, I learned mental toughness, and that made
my time with him worthwhile.
If you look at every major sport and find an icon of that sport you are
likely to find a very mentally tough person. Ok, maybe not some of the
soft sports, but most of the others. Wrestling has too many to talk about,
so I will give you a few examples from other sports. I never watch basketball.
I don't even like the sport, but Coach Mesenbrink gave me a book about
Michael Jordan, and I now know why he is the greatest. He is one mentally tough
dude. The best example was when he couldn't get out of bed the morning of
game 5 in the NBA championships against Utah. His temp was 103, he was
vomiting, etc., but that night he got up and scored 38 points to lead his team to victory.
I have the utmost respect for Michael Jordan and his toughness. I would suggest
you read a book about him. Another extremely mentally tough athlete is
Lance Armstrong, the 4 time Tour de France bicycle racing champion. He has an
awesome autobiography out, entitled "It's not about the bike". I would also suggest
you read it. Most of the book is about his battle with cancer and how he fought
through it to win 4 straight Tour de France championships and counting.
Now my favorite of all time, Steve Prefontaine, the ultra successful distance runner from
Oregon. I actually think running requires the next most mental toughness next to
wrestling, because it is a battle with yourself against the clock. There are many amazing
stories about his life. My favorite is how he won nationals his freshman year
with a bunch of stitches in his foot. Most other runners would have never thought of
running the race, let a lone winning with a bunch of stitches in their foot. There are two
movies out about him; "Prefontaine" and "Without Limits". I suggest you view them
both.
Reading about other mentally tough athletes often inspires you to be tougher
yourself. So go to the bookstore and pick up a book and check it out. Reading never
hurt anyone.
On to the fun stuff. I am going to give you a bunch of ideas to make yourself tougher.
I hope you give them a chance. Any workout that will push you past your threshold of
pain will increase your mental toughness. I will list a few of my favorites.
"Wrestling". Sounds simple enough, but go takedowns for a set time, say an hour or two,
with no water break, no break at all for air, no breaks period. You are sure to be
feeling it at the end of this work out.
"Bulgarian death match". Set a point difference total and a pin number. The rule is;
you can't stop until someone gets pinned the set amount of times, or one wrestler is up
by a certain amount of points. Of course the closer the skill of opponents the less number
of points you have to win by.
"Push match". Involves no shots or other leg attacks, only hand fighting. Go for
half an hour or 45 minutes and battle hard, punches might be flying by the end, but
just keep going. Remember you can feel no sympathy for someone on the mat, and still
be their best friend off of it.
"Sauna workout" This is not for weight loss. Using saunas for weight loss is an
unhealthy practice, but if you are fully hydrated, they really wont cause you any harm.
I used to ride the exercise bike in the sauna for 30 minutes. That sure makes you
tough.
"Push up contests". Have a push up contest with your friend. If one of you stops
before 100 you are pathetic.
Those are my favorite ones I can think of. Maybe you have some of your own.
Just remember, to keep your edge, you consistently have to test yourself and
push past where it hurts.
Wrestling is the toughest sport in the world and if you want to be successful at
wrestling you have to be mentally tough. If you aren't mentally tough I suggest you
start becoming mentally tough. I hope you like the ideas and workouts I
have outlined for you.
Have fun.
|