Preparing the Mental Game

by Joseph McManus

Head Squash Coach, Tufts University

 
It is common for coaches and players to reference how mentally strong an athlete may or not be. We casually toss around words like mental toughness, focus, clutch performer, and even choker when discussing an athlete's ability to close out a match or deal with adversity. The mental game, however, is often the least addressed component in sports training.

At Tufts, we divide our training program into four components:

• Technical
• Tactical
• Physical
• Psychological

Our goal is to emphasize each in equal parts.

Jen Hsu is a doctoral candidate at Boston University. She has been working with the Tufts University Squash Teams this season and has drafted a Mental Skills Handbook based on her work with the team.

In Ms. Hsu's paper, she notes that mental toughness may be defined as "the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to: 1) generally cope better than your opponents with the many demands (competition, training, lifestyle) that sport places on a performer and 2) specifically, be more consistent and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident and in control under pressure."

As part of our training at Tufts, we feel we can help our players improve their mental skills. And we value this skill set as much as the other aspects of our training.

To read Ms. Hsu's Mental Skills Handbook for the Tufts Squash Team, please click here.