Reason Dos: Mind and Body Sync and Flight or Fight Bring you To the Brink

This quote goes to show how mental toughness plays a critical role in one's success during a game or match. Due to metal toughness an athlete is able to harness adrenaline to help increase their performance.

I believe adrenaline is used as a tool to have some type of effect on athletic performance in college football. This idea goes to show how adrenaline may not be the driving factor in increasing one’s athletic performance. Adrenaline is essentially a tool that is used and harnessed by the athlete. It’s up to the athletes to determine how they should use it. According to James Jerrod, once adrenaline has entered the bloodstream, one may feel its effects immediately. When one gets this feeling, it’s known as an adrenaline rush. The effects of an adrenaline rush can be felt by anyone, but are most common in athletes. One can get an adrenaline rush from playing a sport or even right before you take a test you didn’t study for. The effects of an adrenaline rush can also take shape in many different ways depending on the person. Some experience it as excitement, nervousness, or anxiousness. During an adrenaline rush, both mind and body sync together in order to better deal with the stress. When both mind and body sync together, there can be two different outcomes. The first outcome is that the body has enough confidence in order to take on whatever is stressing them. The second outcome is that the body doesn’t have enough confidence in order to take on whatever is stressing them (James, 2012). The adrenaline during an adrenaline rush essentially serves as a tool that allows the athlete to utilize it to increase their athletic performance. It’s the combination of one's mindfulness and mental toughness that allows the athlete to effectively harness the energy from adrenaline. Due to this, it’s actually the athletes strength of mental toughness/mindfulness that allows an athlete during high-stress or high-pressure situations that dictate whether or not they’re capable of using their adrenaline as a helping hand to increase their performance or the cause of their demise. Adrenaline allows the mind and body to sync together, therefore giving the body the edge it needs to succeed. Once the athlete feels the affects of the adrenaline rush it’s solely up to them whether or not they use it correctly. It’s believed that the most elite athletes are able to utilize their adrenaline rushes and sync both their body and mind in order to reach their maximum potential.

This thought process then leads to the fight or flight response. Hansen claims that Fight or flight is caused by anything that is perceived as a threat or harm to the body or mind. It can also be caused due to stressors in our everyday lives. For example, the fight or flight response could be induced because of approaching deadlines or before giving a big speech. The fight or flight response is also called the Sympathetic Nervous system. When this is activated, blood vessels begin to dilate and the heart rate increases. After the fight or flight response, the body starts to regress to its relaxation state. This is known as Rest and Digest, which uses the Parasympathetic nervous system. When activated, the body’s heart rate decreases and muscles begin to relax During this stage, the body continues all unnecessary bodily functions (Hansen, 2015). Both Fight or flight and Rest/ Digest are used by athletes to increase their athletic performance. If they use the fight or flight response in order to increase their physical capability, it will improve their athletic performance. The fight or flight response is extremely useful to athletes because during the response, the body shuts down all unnecessary bodily functions. Due to this, the body has an increased amount of energy to be used. Using the fight or flight response essentially increases the athletes senses. They may experience quicker reaction timing and more. This would be useful in College football and other sports that require a quick reaction time. Rest and digest are used by athletes to recover from pushing themselves to their physical limits. The use of the fight or flight response allows the athlete to utilize all of the benefits that the response creates. The athlete is then able to increase their athletic performance solely by creating this response and controlling the benefits that it creates to increase performance. While the fight or flight response is used to produce adrenaline, the adrenaline created by this response can allow both the mind and body to synchronize thus pushing the athletes athletic performance to a whole new level.

If the athlete doesn’t possess the mental toughness to deal with the stress and adrenaline that is produced during the fight or flight response, they may not be able to fully synchronize their bodies to reach maximum potential. This is where the role of mental toughness comes into play. Mental toughness plays one of the many roles that allow the athlete to synchronize both their mind and body. Nowadays games aren’t just won solely because of one’s physical attributes. Games are more so mentally oriented in this current day and age. According to Alan Goldberg, games are 90% mental and 10% physical, but during training and practice, it’s reversed. His reasoning behind this idea was that during game time, physical attributes aren’t as important as the mental aspect. The reason physical attributes aren’t as important as the mental aspect is because by the time of the game or match you’re no longer able to increase yourself physically. You’re already as physical as you’re going to get. As for the mental aspect, you’re going to be constantly thinking and making decisions that could possibly make or break your performance. The mind is in control of the body, which you try to build during training. Essentially game time is where the athlete applies all their training to the game to reach maximum performance. Whereas in training, it’s solely about building muscle and recovery. When stress or pressure occurs during games, it’s one's mental toughness that determines their success or failure. Goldberg continued to discuss how an athlete can improve their mental fortitude. One can improve their mental fortitude by using visualization. Goldberg discusses how the most elite athletes practice positive thinking. Elite athletes will think positive thoughts the night before their game. They also picture their success and imagine how the game or match is going to go. Not only do the athletes visualize themselves doing well, they also use self-pep talks to increase their confidence. By thinking positive thoughts and practicing visualizations, the athlete can calm one's nerves, which could allow them to be of a sound mind and body. If the athlete is of a sound mind and body and believes that they will succeed then they will succeed. There’s a belief in sports that one’s thoughts becomes one’s reality. For example, if an athlete were to let their nerves get the best of them they may begin to think negatively which would then become their reality. Essentially, mental toughness allows athletes to not crumble under pressure. Mindfulness is another key similar to that of mental toughness that is essential for athletes to have in order to synchronize both body and mind.

Some may believe that mental toughness and mindfulness are the same things. While the combination of both mental toughness and mindfulness allow the athlete to harness the energy from adrenaline, mental toughness has to do more with the ability to push past both mental and physical stress. Mindfulness is the state of being both mentally and physically aware (Merriam-Webster). They both work together in the sense that mindfulness allows you to take a step back and be aware of one’s mental and physical state to make better and more informed decisions quicker. After one realizes their physical or mental state, mental toughness comes into play in order to allow one to push past their limits to achieve what one needs to. Alan Goldberg explains mental toughness in a different way. He uses the analogy of “making lemonade”. His analogy is similar to that of when life gives you lemons you make lemonade. The difference between his analogy is that it represents how no matter what, something can go wrong. Mental toughness allows one to be able to recognize the issue at hand and proceed accordingly not getting unsettled. Thus, allowing one to use their obstacle as an advantage to get to their goal. By using one’s obstacles as one’s advantage, one is able to see the upside of almost any given situation. Instead of thinking of the obstacle negatively, one thinks of it as a stepping stone for accomplishing what one wants to accomplish. In order to think like this, mental toughness is required. An example of mental toughness for an athlete would be if the game has gone into overtime and one’s body is reaching it’s limits. Having mental toughness allows you to push past those physical limits and continue doing what needs to be done. While mental toughness can help athletes synchronize both their bodies and minds, it doesn’t guarantee that the athlete will be able to use the adrenaline rush effectively. This is where the coaches come in because they essentially teach athletes how to deal with game time stress by introducing stressors within the athlete's training sessions.

Even though mental toughness and mindfulness aren't the same thing, the combination of them both allows athletes to harness the full power of adrenaline. Mental toughness, as previously stated, has to do with one’s ability to push past both mental and physical stress. Whereas mindfulness is the state of being both mentally and physically aware (Merriam-Webster). These two come together because mindfulness allows one to be aware of their stress both mentally and physically and mental toughness allows one to push through that stress. When one is able to push through both mental and physical stress they’re able to fully utilize and harness the adrenaline that is created by that same stress. Essentially, one is able to reap all the benefits without any consequences.