💪 Does high performance sport misunderstand 'resilience'?

Could resilience training be the way forward for a more efficient, effective and safer high performance arena?

Pictured: Simone Biles; the most decorated gymnast in the history of the sport

RESILIENCE: “the ability of an individual, community, or system to withstand, adapt to, or recover from adversity, challenges, or significant sources of stress.”

According to high performance running coach Steve Magness in his book Do Hard Things, the sporting world actually misunderstands resilience.  When we imagine someone who is a resilient athlete, "chances are that visions of individuals overcoming adversity and some sort of pain or suffering lead the way.  That's how we traditionally view toughness; perseverance, discipline and stoicism...and if we're honest, many of us picture a strong brute of a man."

This definition runs true across most sports, as the media portray resilient athletes as 'brave', 'mentally tough' and 'fighters', and those who perhaps didn't achieve what the world expected of them as 'failures', 'quitters', or 'soft'.

Magness believes that this misunderstanding of 'resilience' leads to abusive, very demanding and controlling coaching from coaches and perhaps even parents of young athletes. 

Pictured: Controversial Coach Bobby Knight

Using the example of controversial NCAA basketball coach Bobby Knight, Magness describes the methods Knight used to create 'tough athletes'; "his methods to achieve [toughness] were questionable at best and downright abusive at worst' which included; hanging tampons from lockers of players he thought were soft, screaming expletives, questioning his players manhoods and even choking out a player at practice.