Peak performance — Blog — Get To The Peak

Are you on the quest to up your game, or improve performance in your sport? Your coach is helping you to increase your physical performance, but are you giving attention to your mental performance? Has anyone told you that you have grit? If not, then it’s time you probably get some. So what the heck is grit and do I need it to win?

In a recent published study (Larkin & O’Connor, 2015) Grit was defined as a personality trait, which “entails working obstinately toward challenges while sustaining effort and interest in the activity over years in spite of disappointment, hardship, and plateaus”. In other words grit is persevering no matter what the outcome is. It means sticking with it, pushing past the uncomfortable stages and times when you think you can’t get through, but somehow, whether by chance or plan, you do. Larkin & O’Connor’s study resolved that elite level soccer players who had more experience showed more grit than lower level, less experienced players. It has been shown that grittier individuals continually excel in sport, education and job performance. So the answer to my original question is YES, grit is a needed component to excel in sport, but the next question is what comes first, grit or experience?

Some may say that grit is something you are born with and it is engrained in you from your upbringing, however is grit something that can be learned? Yes, grit, like mental toughness, can be learned if coping mechanisms are in place. First you need to ask yourself some tough questions: Do I like my sport? Am I participating in my sport because I want to or am I doing it to please others? What are my goals in my sport? If you aren’t truly in love with your sport, then grit will be hard to come by when times get tough. If your sport is a hobby, then how important is generating grit for your sport specifically and where should it be on your priority list? How much grit is really needed for you to enjoy your sport? These are all questions that a sport psychology consultant can help you find answers to but ultimately you already hold the answers and solutions to finding your own grit.

So what comes first, grit or experience? My answer is experience because through experience we learn to overcome, persevere or even that we need to quit and move on. Persevering because you love your sport and want to be better at it is Grit! So if that describes you, then you are already one step ahead at excelling in your performance. If quitting describes your experience, then find the next thing you like and test if you can persevere in that until you find what makes you gritty, because grittiness begets passion and passion begets success.

Aloha… until next time. DR

References:

Larkin, P. & O’Conner, D. (2015). Does Grit Influence Sport-Specific Engagement and Perceptual-Cognitive Expertise in Elite Youth Soccer. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 28, 129-138.

I have been thinking about what kind of content I should post as my very first blog post for Get To The Peak. I found myself ‘hemming and hawing’ about what kind of content I want to put out there as representative of the sport and performance psychology field. I found myself having performance anxiety about writing about performance psychology! How ironic, but very real for those of us humans who want to put our best foot forward when it comes to achieving goals or competing in front of others.

How we view the outcome of our performance most definitely affects the success of our performance. Its pretty funny that we need to learn to view our performance outcomes in a certain light, in order actually perform at our very best. The sound of having to do that sort of thinking work about playing a sport, in order to just play a sport may leave a lot of us with the mentality of; ‘I’m just going to play my best’ rather than do a bunch of worrying about ‘playing my best’. ‘Playing our best’ goes along way, which is why we all use that famous saying, ‘practice makes perfect’. This mentality may get you very far in your performance, however how do you know if you are tapping all of the potential that you truly possess? I read a study about this type of mentality while researching mental toughness. The study found that athletes who had the mentality of just ‘playing their best’ actually played significantly worse than athletes who had specific performance goals and who had purposefully planned and attempted mental toughness in their sport[i]. Doing your best gets you a long way, but planning to do your best will get you farther. Planning for mental toughness will get you playing at the peak of your potential and towards your peak performance.

Where do I even begin? Ask yourself some seriously tough questions…

1. Why do I play my sport? Is it because I enjoy it? I’m good at it? Because others say that I’m good at it or because my parents push me to do it? Is it because I get a rush when I win? These are just some examples of how you can answer this question. Do you play your sport for internal or personal reasons and rewards or because of external benefits or rewards? How you view your sport has a lot to do with how successful you play.

2. Do I have a ‘do my best mentality’ and am I satisfied with the performance outcomes that I am getting with this mentality? If not, maybe it’s time to take another look at how and why you are playing your sport.

3. What are my performance goals and outcome expectations, and are they realistic? If I am not satisfied with my performance outcomes, am I expecting more or less from the work and planning that I am putting into my sport? For example, do I expect Olympic level results with a ‘do my best attitude’?

Asking yourself these questions and being realistic about the answers, although tough and sometimes not easy to admit to, are the first step on the climb to your peak. Trust me, or rather trust yourself... by considering these questions you are already beginning the journey to improve your performance. This is first and probably hardest step in your climb to the peak. Think, plan and actively pursue your performance goals and your outcome results will show your efforts.

Aloha!

[i] Lerner, B. S. & Locker, E. A. (1995). The effects of goal setting, self-efficacy, competition and personal traits on the performance of an endurance task. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 17, 138-152.