Relationships between Risk Types and Mental Toughness

Dr. Simon Toms & Tayla Drew

Sporting success at the elite level is judged on the finest of margins.

In most sports, physicality is key. Being stronger, faster, fitter and more coordinated will be a significant advantage. These factors are usually straightforward and can easily be measured using quantifiable metrics like time, distance, speed and weight.

But these metrics only tell part of the story. On paper, athletes may seem destined for greatness, yet never reach the heights expected of them. In other cases, they greatly exceed all expectations.

This demonstrates the limitations of ‘traditional’ metrics. They can only take you so far in predicting the ultimate metric: success.

Improving prediction has required leading researchers to broaden their horizons in search of a deeper, more accurate and more diverse understanding of success in sports. Physiology is certainly one key, but further work has served to highlight the importance of psychological and socio-cultural factors.

Click here to read the White Paper and explore our research on this topic.