Mental Toughness?

For decades, coaches, parents, commentators, and athletes have thrown around the phrase mental toughness as though everyone understood exactly what it meant.

“She’s mentally tough.”

“He needs to toughen up.”

“That athlete just doesn’t have it.”

But what actually is mental toughness?

In 2002, researchers Graham Jones, Sheldon Hanton, and Declan Connaughton attempted to answer that question in one of the most influential sport psychology papers ever published:

What Is This Thing Called Mental Toughness? An Investigation of Elite Sport Performers.

Their work became foundational in sport psychology and heavily influenced coaching, athlete development, and performance culture across the world.

But over twenty years later, we still need to ask an important question:

Did sport misunderstand the message?

Before the Jones et al. paper, “mental toughness” was mostly:

• coaching jargon

• motivational language

• media narratives

• locker room clichés

Athletes were praised for:

• playing through pain

• training endlessly

• suppressing emotion

• “wanting it more”

Yet there was little scientific agreement on what mental toughness actually meant.

Jones and colleagues interviewed elite international athletes to better understand the psychological characteristics associated with high performance under pressure.

Their findings shaped modern sport psychology for decades.

The Definition

The researchers defined mental toughness as:

“Having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to cope better than your opponents with the many demands that sport places on a performer.”

Importantly, they also described mentally tough athletes as:

• more focused

• more confident

• more determined

• more in control under pressure

One critical contribution from this paper was the idea that mental toughness could be developed, not simply inherited.

That shifted the conversation dramatically.

What Mentally Tough Athletes Actually Demonstrated

The athletes interviewed consistently described several core characteristics.

1. Unshakeable Self-Belief

Top athletes believed:

• they could succeed

• they could adapt

• they could recover from setbacks

This was not blind arrogance.

It was confidence rooted in preparation and repeated exposure to challenge.

That distinction matters.

2. Motivation and Commitment

Mentally tough performers demonstrated:

• persistence

• discipline

• willingness to sacrifice

• long-term commitment to improvement

Not emotional hype.

Not external motivation.

Consistency.

3. Focus Under Pressure

Athletes described the ability to:

• block distractions

• stay task-focused

• rapidly refocus after mistakes

• maintain attention during chaos

This is one of the major separators.

4. Emotional Regulation

One of the most interesting findings: elite athletes did not necessarily experience less anxiety.

Instead, they interpreted pressure differently.

They viewed pressure as:

• challenge

• opportunity

• information

rather than threat.

That is a critical distinction in performance psychology.

5. Coping With Pain and Fatigue

Athletes also discussed:

• tolerating discomfort

• sustaining effort

• maintaining standards during fatigue

What Coaches (and parents of young athletes) Should Build

If we want resilient athletes, we need to stop treating mental toughness as a personality trait and start viewing it as an adaptive process.

Great coaching environments develop:

• competence

• autonomy

• emotional regulation

• confidence through preparation

• appropriate challenge

• physical robustness

• problem-solving ability

The Most Important Shift

The biggest lesson from Jones et al. may not be the definition itself.

It may be this: Mental toughness is not about pretending things are easy.

It is about functioning effectively when things are difficult.

BE GOOD AT HARD THINGS.

That is a completely different concept.

Final Thoughts

The 2002 paper helped sport move beyond clichés and begin studying psychological performance seriously.

But the sporting world still struggles with how to apply the concept responsibly.

Because toughness without:

• preparation

• recovery

• progression

• communication

• support systems

…is not toughness.

It is often survival.

The best athletes in the world are rarely the ones who simply “push hardest.”

They are the ones whose:

• physical preparation

• emotional regulation

• skill development

• recovery habits

• and decision-making systems

Allow them to consistently perform under pressure.

That is a much more intelligent version of mental toughness.

Reference

Jones, G., Hanton, S., & Connaughton, D. (2002). What is this thing called mental toughness? An investigation of elite sport performers. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 14(3), 205–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200290103509