The Two Things Mentally Tough Athletes (And Great Coaches) Have In Common

Simone Biles once described using her coaches’ harsh criticism as fuel. One told her she was fat. Others questioned her preparation. But instead of breaking, she pushed herself harder in the gym. Not because someone yelled louder, but because other coaches had taught her the ability to channel feedback into action rather than let it destroy confidence.

That distinction matters. Research involving 301 Taiwanese university volleyball players suggests that mental toughness, the psychological capacity to perform under pressure, is strongly linked to two specific coaching approaches. Neither involves screaming from the sidelines or breaking athletes down to build them back up.

Mental toughness lets athletes maintain focus when the game is on the line, bounce back from mistakes, and stay committed when facing setbacks. In sport, mental toughness is often treated as something athletes either have or don’t. Researchers from Binghamton University and National Tsing Hua University found that athlete mental toughness is strongly associated with how coaches lead, particularly through two key pathways.

The study, published in the International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, examined transformational leadership, a coaching approach centered on inspiration rather than intimidation. These coaches communicate high expectations while providing individualized support. They stimulate creative problem-solving and serve as role models. Most importantly, the research identified two distinct psychological pathways that overlap only slightly and work side by side.

How Coaches Build a Mastery Mindset

The first pathway involves creating what researchers call a task-involving climate. Coaches who build this environment define success differently than traditional models. Instead of measuring athletes against their teammates, they reward personal improvement. Progress is tracked against an athlete’s own past performance. Effort, cooperation, and skill development receive recognition alongside wins.

San-Fu Kao, the study’s lead author, explains that this approach aligns with self-determination theory. People are most motivated when they feel autonomous, competent, and connected to others. When coaches prioritize mastery over comparison, athletes internalize their drive to improve. They develop self-determined motivation rather than relying on external pressure.

The research team measured this by surveying athletes at the beginning of a competitive season, asking them to rate their coaches’ leadership behaviors using a 20-item questionnaire. Three months later, at season’s end, athletes reported on their perceptions of team climate and their own mental toughness.

Athletes who perceived a task-involving climate showed greater mental toughness. The climate perception acted as a mediator, the mechanism through which coaching leadership connected to psychological resilience.

Why the Coach-Athlete Relationship Matters

The second pathway centers on the coach-athlete relationship itself. Athletes who felt they had a high-quality exchange relationship with their coach showed greater mental toughness, and this pathway functioned separately from team climate perceptions.

This relationship quality, measured through a seven-item scale, captured trust, mutual respect, and genuine investment. Athletes answered questions like whether they had enough confidence in their coach to defend the coach’s decisions when the coach wasn’t present.

The researchers drew on conservation of resources theory to explain this finding. Relationships function as psychological capital. A supportive coach provides emotional resources an athlete can draw on during challenging moments: a losing streak, an injury, or a high-stakes tournament. These resources buffer against stress and build resilience.

The study found something revealing. Task-involving climate and relationship quality showed low correlation with each other, suggesting they represent different mechanisms. A coach might excel at building a mastery-focused environment but struggle with individual relationships, or the reverse. Coaches who address both pathways likely give athletes more mental tools to handle pressure.

Every sport or business setting has leaders, and nowadays, you have many disruptions to achieving your goal, whether scoring points or making a profit. Businesses have to adapt to the market, and sports teams have to adjust their strategies each season,” said study co-author Chou Yu (Joey) Tsai, of Binghamton University, in a statement.

“Sometimes you need that kind of mental toughness to deal with those challenges,” he added. “That’s why good leadership is so important, but creating a relationship dynamic rooted in mutual respect is probably the most significant takeaway from this research.”

What This Means for Coaching Today

The study controlled for elements that might confound results like coach and athlete gender, coach experience, and how long the pair had worked together. Even accounting for these variables, both pathways remained significant.

For coaches, the practical application is straightforward but not necessarily easy. Creating a task-involving climate means setting individualized goals, providing feedback based on improvement rather than ranking, and celebrating effort alongside outcomes. Building high-quality relationships requires learning what motivates each athlete individually, showing genuine interest beyond performance statistics, and demonstrating consistency.

Many coaches learned their craft as athletes themselves, shaped by older models that prioritized toughness through criticism or comparison. Shifting toward transformational leadership requires both awareness and practice.

The research team acknowledges the study’s boundaries. All data came from athlete self-reports, which can introduce bias despite the time-lagged design. The sample consisted entirely of competitive volleyball players in Taiwan, potentially limiting applicability to recreational athletes or other sports.

The authors suggest testing this model in other sports and with recreational players. It would also be useful to know whether similar pathways show up in individual sports or in younger athletes who are earlier in their development.

Still, the core finding remains. Mental toughness is strongly associated with environments that reward growth and relationships that provide resources. Coaches who master both approaches give athletes the psychological tools to perform when pressure mounts. They build champions not by pushing harder, but by building smarter.

---