Content Resilience, or “mental toughness” is a key aspect of any sport. The ability to bounce back after an accident, an unpleasant incident or a mistake is crucial to being able to fulfil your goals as a rider.
How often have you watched your riding heroes in competition and seen them be eliminated due to a fall, or have a silly mistake which costs them a placing? Do they give up after this? No they don’t, because they have worked on their mental toughness and developed the resilience which they need to get to the top of their game.
Resilience is necessary for riders at all levels, not only the serious competitors and professionals. Leisure riders and those who enjoy local shows and competitions will experience many challenges and disappointments throughout their riding careers, and therefore, it is important that we all work on strengthening our ability to cope when things go wrong so that we can learn, grow and look forwards rather than dwelling on our mistakes.
Developing the resilience to handle challenges, overcome disappointments and learn from both good and bad experiences will help all riders fulfil their goals and generally enjoy riding more. Being resilient gives us the strength needed to be able to move forwards and not be defined by any setbacks. Resilience is empowering and helps us to grown in self belief.
Working on the seven “C’s” of resilience will help you to strengthen what you already have, and what you have already learned from all the experiences which have brought to this point in your life.
Competence
The belief that you can and will handle a situation effectively. That you have the skills and experience necessary to do what you are asking yourself to do. Of course skills can always be improved and refined and this is why most riders who wish to progress in the sport continue to have coaching. Competence can also apply to mindset skills.
Confidence
Having confidence comes from that deep belief in your own abilities and is closely aligned with competence. Confidence isn’t a fixed attribute and there will be times when it’s stronger than others but developing an overall belief in yourself will help you to grow in confidence and to enjoy yourself more.
Connection
Developing close ties with family, friends, coaches, equestrian professionals and “your team” will help you to develop a real sense of community and support. Surrounding yourself with people who care about you and have your best interests at heart helps you to have that support system in place which is so important for resilience.
Character
We are all different and learning to accept that is part of maturing as a person. Being true to your own values and set of moral principles is important for all of us, as is demonstrating a caring attitude towards others.
I believe that we all have a responsibility to show kindness and care towards others and that this helps us to feel better about ourselves which, of course, is part of being resilient.
Contribution
We all have a contribution to make in life, great or small. We are all important and have a role to play in whatever form that takes.
Coping
Learning to cope effectively with stress helps you to become better able to cope with life’s challenges. Learning to be able to tolerate the temporary discomfort of stressful situations will help us all to perform at our best, whatever “performance” means to each of us.
Control
Realising that we have control over our decisions and taking full responsibility for them helps us to grow and develop as riders and as human beings. We can control what we learn from experiences and take the responsibility to apply that learning in the future. This builds and strengthens resilience.
Have a think about which C’s are your strongest and which C’s might need some work. Discuss them with your friends, coach and if you need further support then have a look at some of the options available to you.
Jane x
Jane has now retired from confidence coaching, but is still a valued member of our EquiTeam community.