A transition is broadly defined as:

“An event or non-event that results in a change in assumptions about oneself and the world and thus requires a corresponding change in one’s behaviour and relationships” [1].

Life is simply a series of transitions, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. In the world of sports, athletes go through their own unique transitions; from the transition into sport in the first place, all the way until their transition out of it. According to Wylleman and Lavallee (2004) [2] athletes go through 4 distinct but broad athletic phases, which run alongside transitions in other life domains.

Upward transitions

For this blog, the use of the term 'upward transition' regards any form of advancement in sport, such as turning professional or entering senior-level competition. Despite sounding positive, these transitions are not always pleasant, as progressing to higher levels of sport can be incredibly challenging. Upward transitions, such as entry into elite sport are critical periods of development for an athlete [3]. Increased focus on, and commitment to sport is expected, with increased pressure to perform coming from coaches, significant others and the athlete themselves [4,5]. Transitions of this kind can mean going from being a big fish in a small pond, to a small fish in a big pond. Suddenly, people who were stars in their sport at an amateur or junior level are no longer above the standard of others they are playing with or competing against. This can be difficult to adapt to and can result in a decrease in self-confidence and feelings of frustration for athletes [4,6].

Due to upward athletic transitions often occurring in adolescence or young adulthood, they often coincide with other life changes. For example, moving away from home or romantic relationships developing, resulting in changing social circles [2,4]. However, the increased expectation to focus on sport often results in sacrifices in other areas, such as personal life or education [7]. Combining these experiences with the increased pressure of higher-level sport, there is no wonder that young athletes may struggle to cope and find their feet. For these reasons, dropout rates are high during upward transitions [8].

However, transitions do not have to be a negative situation, and many athletes do find success. The key is to be able to remain resilient.

What is RESILIENCE?

Resilience is defined as how well an individual can cope and adapt to demands placed on them [9]. Broadly, there are 2 types of resilience: robust resilience and rebound resilience.

• Robust Resilience: A protective quality that allows a person to perform under pressure and maintain their well-being during challenges [10]

• Rebound Resilience: A ‘bounce-back’ quality that allows a person to return to good performance and normal functioning after temporary setbacks during pressurised situations [10]

Some people are lucky enough to naturally be more resilient, however, for many, it must be built. Through extensive training in sports, physical resilience is created, however, mental resilience must also be developed alongside this for athletes to be successful [11], especially during stressful upward transitions.

How can resilience be built?

Let’s break down the theory, so you can implement it to develop your own, or your athletes, resilience:

Personal Qualities

The first feature of Mental Fortitude Training is personal qualities in which there are 3 sub sections; personality characteristics, psychological skills, and desirable outcomes:

Personality characteristics

These are the enduring characteristics of personality; things that are relatively unchangeable through time and often genetic. For example, if you are naturally more extroverted or introverted- this is something that will remain stable most of your life regardless of situational demands and stressors.

There are personality characteristics that research has found to be associated with higher resilience. Some of these include extraversion, perfectionism, competitiveness, optimism, and proactiveness, amongst others [10].

Psychological skills

Much less stable than personality characteristics, psychological skills are learnable techniques that help people adapt to stressors in life.

So, if you were worried that you, or the athletes you coach, would have trouble developing resilience due to a lack of naturally resilient personality characteristics, fear not! Learning and practicing relevant psychological skills can develop resilience greatly. In fact, it has been shown to increase resilience to higher levels than in those with naturally more resilient personality traits who have had no skills training [10].

Some psychological skills that enhance resilience include:

• Self-talk

• Imagery

• Relaxation techniques

• Goal setting

• Self and social awareness

Desirable Outcomes

Combining personality characteristics and psychological skills will create outcomes that will affect how someone will cope in stressful situations. To enhance resilience, you want these to be desirable outcomes. Some desirable outcomes include being self-determined, being confident, and being able to regulate thoughts and feelings [10]. These outcomes allow an individual to be more resilient. For example, combining optimism, a high resilience personality characteristic, with psychological skills training in methods like self-talk or goal setting, will likely create the desirable outcome of self-confidence [10]. Higher self-confidence is associated higher resilience [12], and higher sport performance [13].

Different combinations of personality characteristics and psychological skills will result in varying outcomes, enhancing resilience to different stressors. Therefore, these will need to be tailored to the individual and the circumstance.

Facilitative Environment

Personal qualities to combat stressors can only go so far, as everyone has a breaking point in which they can no longer cope. Therefore, Mental Fortitude Training looks further than just the person, but also to the importance of the environment for facilitating resilience. This is where coaches and other support staff can really make a difference for their athletes.

A facilitative environment requires the right balance of challenge and support [10].

• Challenge: high expectations for athletes to perform, high levels of accountability and responsibility for athletes, and use of developmental feedback to help athletes improve

• Support: promoting learning and supporting athletes' development of personal qualities, building trust, and using motivational feedback as encouragement for athletes

The levels of support and challenge result in 4 distinct types of environment:

A facilitative environment is key to helping athletes new to a higher-level of sport develop resilience and allow them to thrive. Whether coaches realise it or not, they have a considerable impact on the development of resilience in their athletes [15], and it is important they create this facilitative environment so it can be fostered [16]. However, it is a balancing act, and may take time to perfect.

Challenge Mindset

The final, and arguably most important aspect of Mental Fortitude Training is having a challenge mindset. This essentially means that you can see adversity and stressors as a positive.

During situations where we are under pressure or experiencing a stressor, we appraise. There are 2 types of appraisal we experience:

1. Primary appraisal: determining the significance of the stressor and its relevance to being able to attain goals. Simply, does this put my goals at stake? The result can either be negative where the stressor is seen as a threat, or positive where it is seen as a challenge [17]

2. Secondary appraisal: determining whether there is appropriate coping strategies and resources to deal with the stressor [17]

To develop a challenge mindset and remain resilient, stressors must be seen as a challenge, and we must feel as though we have resources to cope with them [10]. Therefore, negative appraisals need to be turned positive. This is not always easy, but the use of psychological skills can help, as well as creating an awareness to negative thinking patterns and accepting that it is not the only way you can think about a situation. Thought regulation strategies, such as these below [10], can be useful:

Stop the negative thoughts by being assertive with yourself, e.g., saying ‘stop’ out loud or internally

Verbalise your negative thoughts by telling someone how you are thinking and letting them help you rationalise them

Park the negative thoughts, e.g., by writing them down and discarding them put placing them aside to confront later

Confront the negative thoughts by asking yourself questions, e.g., can I find a positive to take from this? Will this matter in a day/week/months' time?

Replace the negative thoughts, once they have been discarded or minimised, with positive ones. Try to focus them around things controllable in the situation

Creating a challenge mindset can be a lengthy and effortful process and is something even the most accomplished of athletes will have to constantly work on to maintain. So be kind to yourself through the process and accept that negative thoughts will still come and go; that’s just human nature. Personality characteristics, psychological skills training and a facilitative environment will also all work together to develop a more robust challenge mindset, so be sure to build up these areas too.

Takeaway messages for those experiencing upward transitions in sport

Upward transitions can be stressful, and resilience is needed for athletes to overcome and thrive during these periods. Thankfully, by utilising the Mental Fortitude Training program [10], resilience can be built.

For athletes:

Resilience can be naturally occurring, but it can also be developed. Negative thought patterns are likely to occur during difficult upward transitions, therefore, it is important to focus on changing these and viewing difficulties as a challenge rather than a threat. Implementing, and continually using psychological skills will also help to more successfully adapt and remain resilient through hardships, resulting in better performance.

For coaches:

Coaches have an important role in helping their athletes develop resilience and must create an environment that allows them to do so. Correctly balancing the level of support and challenge will result in a facilitative environment in which athletes struggling with transitions can flourish and perform to their best. Furthermore, working with accredited sport psychologists and helping athletes implement psychological skills will also help to assist athletes in their journey to heightened resilience.