Which sports need the most amount of mental toughness?

Two questions we get from time to time are “how mentally demanding is my sport” and “which sports need the most amount of mental toughness”? First, as scientists we try and answer these types of question using evidence rather than guesswork. However, the literature has yet to try and answer this question. So in turn we do the next best thing...make a hypothesis as experts.


There are two ways of looking at this and I’d be interested to hear you opinion on which sounds the most sensible. Theory One is that all sports and performance areas have variables and these variables change the amount of mental toughness required. For example, how long a match lasts for is a variable with the 100 meter sprint at one end and test cricket at the other. Then if you know which side is mentally harder you can start doing some maths. So in the previous example the sports that take longer are mentally harder as they require greater concentration and there’s more time to think. If this is correct then on the variable of duration test cricket would be mentally more draining that a 100 meter athletics race. Other variables would be number of teammates, risk of injury, potential earnings, task complexity, environmental factors, how winners are picked (judged by people or measured by machines), speed of tasks etc.

Before you sit down and try and work out how your pursuit rates on all of the above compared to other sports you might like to consider Theory Two. What if all these variables cancel one another out so that in the end all sports and performance endeavours are equal in terms of mental requirements to reach the top? For example, maybe there is much more pressure on the 100 meter sprint that the test cricketer because he / she will not have time to correct any errors made. An error made by a test cricketer on day one can virtually be forgotten by the time the match is over.

As sport psychologists it suits us to operate as if this second theory is correct as it allows us to treat all of our clients equally and not compare a formula one driver with an ultimate Frisbee player. Both just want to get better, don’t they?

Cheers, GJM