Mental Training - Tips on Competing When Faced With Adversity

By Jeff Janssen

Adversity abounds in sport. Your opponents are an obvious, pre-dominant and necessary source of adversity but there are several other factors that can take you out of your game. Things like judgment-impaired officials, poor weather conditions, long-term injuries, and a lack of playing time are just some examples that can frustrate, aggravate and demotivate you. As most great athletes realize however, it’s not necessarily the amount of adversity you face but more importantly how you choose to handle it.

As Charles Swindoll once said, “ Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” How you approach adversity is one of the most important keys to your success. When athletes let adversity get the best of them by losing their focus, confidence and motivation to perform, they end up negating their talent and render themselves useless. The basic key to compete when faced with adversity is to mentally move from focusing on the problem to focusing on the solution.

1) View Adversity as an Opportunity or Challenge

Another key to overcoming adversity is to mentally frame it as a positive opportunity or challenge instead of seeing it as a negative threat. Great players create challenges out of adversity instead of being threatened by it.

2) Control the Controllables

Remember to focus on what you can control in the situation - namely your reactions, focus, confidence and attitude. By controlling the controllables, you will be able to stay calm as you figure out the best way to overcome the adversity.

3) Take It One at the Time

Play in the present moment by letting go of past problems and not worrying about future concerns. By mentally staying in the present moment and playing the game one pitch at a time, you help to make the game much more manageable.