Resiliency in sports

Resiliency in sports

Resiliency in sports is one of the key mental attributes an individual or team player must have. The ability to come back from behind, to fight fiercely until the last second of the game or last point of the tennis match and to find a way to win is what the best tennis players and teams have learned to do better then the competition.

Serena Williams demonstrated her resiliency in the finals of the U.S. Open, coming back from being down 5-3 in the deciding set. Resiliency is based on the idea that “I can do it”. “I will give it my all no matter what”.  Sometimes resiliency in sports is connected to playing harder, often times it is related to playing smarter: more patience, a different strategy, doing the unexpected etc.

Resiliency in sports is also related to being successful and prevailing in similar situations in the past. The more you come from behind to win, the more skilled you become in repeating it in the future. While you become more confident because your record at winning tie breakers is high or your team wins a high percentage of games that go to overtime, your opponents tend to lose confidence knowing that the odds just aren’t in their favor.

On the practice field you can train resiliency by simulating tough situations you will encounter during actual games.  For example, in tennis, playing a tie breaker with you losing 4-1 (7 points win). In basketball, you play being down by 2 points with 10 seconds left on the clock.

As a sports psychologist, I love working with players and teams to come up with creative ideas to work on resiliency in sports and other key mental skills that have a positive impact on the individual’s performance and well being.

This was a guest post by  Dr.Robert Heller. He is a psychologist and sport psychology consultant based in Boca Raton, Florida. For information, related articles or to contact Dr. Heller visit him at http://mentalskillstennis.com/