A critical consideration of the role of mental toughness and pain in the acute pain experiences of athletes

Abstract

This narrative review investigates the relationship between mental toughness (and mental toughness resources) and pain in athletes. Theorists have postulated that mentally tough athletes possess the ability to push through painful periods of training and competition to achieve high levels of performance. Athletes and coaches attribute the capacity to tolerate and even thrive while experiencing pain to be a potential differentiator to performance outcomes, however, few experimental studies examine the predictive value of mental toughness in the context of pain. There are researchers who have examined the resources of mental toughness that could shed light on how mental toughness influences pain experiences in athletes. Therefore, this review examined the relationship between mental toughness as a global construct and the separate mental toughness resources and pain experiences. We identified resources of mental toughness based on previous research and then considered which of these resources had been studied in the context of pain. Optimism, resilience, self-efficacy, and goal attention were identified as key components of mental toughness that were related to pain experiences. The findings of this review indicate a potential area for performance enhancement in the development of applied coaching practices.