The importance of mental toughness

[Bob The Badger]

Professional footballers need to have all the physical attributes, but they also need the mental ones too if they to succeed.

And one of those is mental toughness.

IF the juvenile jeers of a vocal few is knocking Kelle Roos off his job, then he’s in the wrong job.

I’ll tell you who is mentally tough.

Tom Lawrence.

He’s come back from a hideous situation (admittedly of his own making and let's not get sucked into that sinkhole) and has had to endure boos from some Derby fans and songs about him belonging in jail from opposition supporters.

He’s responded by getting his head down and, in my opinion, playing his best all around game against Preston on Saturday.

But Lawrence doesn’t *look* mentally tough like some people do, who actually aren’t.

Craig Forsyth is mentally tough too.

To have come back from such a hideous industry and boss his first game the way he did was close to astounding. 

Confession: When I managed to log in and the first camera shot was Forsyth coming out of  the tunnel I thought to myself ‘What are you doing Cocu, he cannot be ready yet’ Oops.

I’ll throw Scott Carson into the mix after his howler against Croatia. He clawed his way back into form even though he was roundly abused by England fans.

And Keogh for bouncing back so well after the QPR fiasco.

Outside of Derby, Beckham had to endure a year of booing booed and being sung about (not in a good way) at every ground in the country after being sent off against Argentina.

It didn’t really knock him off his game too much as Man Utd went on the treble.

I want skillful, hard working, dedicated players, but I also want mentally tough players who aren't intimidated or influenced by the opinions of others. 

[angieram]

So you can carry on slagging them off without worrying that it might be affecting them? baalocks!

[DarkFruitsRam7]

Even if Roos is mentally weak (which I'd argue he isn't), why shouldn't we call out those who jeer/abuse him when it's to the detriment of the team?

[maxjam]

I'm a big fan of owning the mistakes you make and mental toughness.

I don't agree with fans jeering their own players but think that he should be tough enough to shrug it off and not let it effect him.  Not everyone is built of the same stuff of course and you list a few good examples of people that have come back after varying 'errors'.  

I like David Beckham, and I'm ashamed to admit I booed him at PP in my younger days - he's taken a lot of stick for various things over his career but despite everything always comes across as a really nice guy.  

[Wolfie20]

20 minutes ago, maxjam said:

I'm a big fan of owning the mistakes you make and mental toughness.

I don't agree with fans jeering their own players but think that he should be tough enough to shrug it off and not let it effect him.  Not everyone is built of the same stuff of course and you list a few good examples of people that have come back after varying 'errors'.  

I like David Beckham, and I'm ashamed to admit I booed him at PP in my younger days - he's taken a lot of stick for various things over his career but despite everything always comes across as a really nice guy.  

It's one thing booing one of the opposition (let's face it, we probably all must have at some point or other) but you need a special type of 'fan'  to boo and jeer a player of your own club. They're not supporters, just followers.

There's no way any poster can know whether Roos is 'mentally tough',  though some seem to have made up their minds that he is.

[DarkFruitsRam7]

24 minutes ago, maxjam said:

I'm a big fan of owning the mistakes you make and mental toughness.

I don't agree with fans jeering their own players but think that he should be tough enough to shrug it off and not let it effect him.  Not everyone is built of the same stuff of course and you list a few good examples of people that have come back after varying 'errors'.  

Me too. He should be able to shrug it off. But if he can't, we should recognise that being anything other than supportive is going to hurt the team.

[The Key Club King]

30 minutes ago, Bob The Badger said:

Professional footballers need to have all the physical attributes, but they also need the mental ones too if they to succeed.

And one of those is mental toughness.

IF the juvenile jeers of a vocal few is knocking Kelle Roos off his job, then he’s in the wrong job.

I’ll tell you who is mentally tough.

Tom Lawrence.

He’s come back from a hideous situation (admittedly of his own making and let's not get sucked into that sinkhole) and has had to endure boos from some Derby fans and songs about him belonging in jail from opposition supporters.

He’s responded by getting his head down and, in my opinion, playing his best all around game against Preston on Saturday.

But Lawrence doesn’t *look* mentally tough like some people do, who actually aren’t.

Craig Forsyth is mentally tough too.

It is an IF with Roos, but surely an inexperienced goalkeeper can be given the opportunity to build mental toughness, or is it something you are born with? 

Your examples of Lawrence and Forsyth are wide of the mark. Forsyth has been given dog's abuse in the stands when his distribution goes to pot. This generally happens twice a season and when the crowd get on his back, his head goes down  and he gets nervous. That's when he should be supported, as should Kelle Roos. It is counter-productive to do otherwise. Mel Morris has regularly spoke about the need to generate a positive atmosphere around the players to utilise home advantage, hence the free scarves, fireworks and flags.

Lawrence has looked good for a handful of games and I believe this is largely due to him playing down the middle. His situation after the run-in is not really that bad and the abuse he has had from the fans should hardly turn him into a shrinking violet. He has shown a great deal of petulance in his time at Derby and has had run-ins with the fans at times. This does not indicate a high level of mental toughness to me.

With Scott Carson and Keogh, I would definitely agree. Carson recieved  terrible abuse around the country after that and recovered to make a decent career for himself. 

[Bob The Badger]

There hasn't been a single poster who's agreed with jeering Roos at games. It's beyond the pale. 

So I'm not sure why people keep attacking something that nobody is defending. 

I have defended the option to be critical of him on a message board for Rams fans though.

Similarly, I'm not saying Roos is mentally weak. I'm saying IF a few boo-boys are messing with his head, then he probably is.

@The Key Club King Forsyth may or may not have got nervous (you are guessing on that one), but he bounces back and doesn't let it bleed over.

As for Lawrence. His work rate on Saturday was through the roof. I've not seen him work like that before.

 

[DarkFruitsRam7]

21 minutes ago, The Key Club King said:

Your examples of Lawrence and Forsyth are wide of the mark. Forsyth has been given dog's abuse in the stands when his distribution goes to pot. This generally happens twice a season and when the crowd get on his back, his head goes down  and he gets nervous. That's when he should be supported, as should Kelle Roos. It is counter-productive to do otherwise. Mel Morris has regularly spoke about the need to generate a positive atmosphere around the players to utilise home advantage, hence the free scarves, fireworks and flags.

This, massively. I love Forsyth, but he was terrible in the 17/18 season. Some of that might have been down to fitness, but you could just tell that his confidence was shot whenever he received the ball.

The contrast between that and his start to last season (and this) are night and day.

[Sith Happens]

Talking of mentally strong id love to see if anyone is mentally strong enough to admit they boo or jeer individuals, and explain why they do it and why they think it helps. 

[TramRam]

5 minutes ago, Paul71 said:

Talking of mentally strong id love to see if anyone is mentally strong enough to admit they boo or jeer individuals, and explain why they do it and why they think it helps. 

Need a Caveat in there Paul....At Pride Park.

Having a pop in a boozer when a player gifts a goal to our local inbreads is allowed I'd hope.

[Sith Happens]

1 minute ago, I Bought the Tee Shirt said:

Need a Caveat in there Paul....At Pride Park.

Having a pop in a boozer when a player gifts a goal to our local inbreads is allowed I'd hope.

Yeah of course,  we can all have a moan. On the way home or in the pub after of course im sure most of us do it. Im talking about those that jeer Roos or booed the likes of BJ when his name was read out on the team sheet 

[SaintRam]

There's enough in career competition to test your mental fortitude already without having to deal with unnecessary abuse from people who are there to support you.

The idea that dealing with abuse from your own fans should be water off a ducks back and if it isn't its the players fault is an unhealthy one; and comes across as being created to make people who abuse the players feel better about themselves.

Its only a small step away from the same attitude perpetrators have in contexts of far less socially acceptable forms of abuse.

[TramRam]

7 minutes ago, Paul71 said:

Yeah of course,  we can all have a moan. On the way home or in the pub after of course im sure most of us do it. Im talking about those that jeer Roos or booed the likes of BJ when his name was read out on the team sheet 

It's a pointless excersize imo, There's those that do it in malice and there's those that do it out of frustration, I hear alot of the jeers coming from the West Stand nearer to me, Also alot will jump on the bandwagon to feel part of the crowd.

When Alan Hinton missed that penalty against Juventus in todays world of PC....I'd still be in Prison ?

[Rev]

42 minutes ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

This, massively. I love Forsyth, but he was terrible in the 17/18 season. Some of that might have been down to fitness, but you could just tell that his confidence was shot whenever he received the ball.

The contrast between that and his start to last season (and this) are night and day.

He doesn't have the best poker face, you can tell exactly how he's feeling by his body language and facial expression.

What I absolutely love about him though is he dusts himself down and gets on with it, and doesn't let one poor pass stop him trying the same again next opportunity. 

Tough as teak, mentally.

[Bob The Badger]

30 minutes ago, SaintRam said:

There's enough in career competition to test your mental fortitude already without having to deal with unnecessary abuse from people who are there to support you.

The idea that dealing with abuse from your own fans should be water off a ducks back and if it isn't its the players fault is an unhealthy one; and comes across as being created to make people who abuse the players feel better about themselves.

Its only a small step away from the same attitude perpetrators have in contexts of far less socially acceptable forms of abuse.

No it's not a small step to anything else at all, it's been going on in sport at least all my life, if not forever.

Alan Hinton used to get booed every so often and he would just smile and occasionally wave.

When you react to this stuff, you give away your power. Taking offence is a choice, there's no cause and effect. It's the interpretation you decide to put on an event.

You watch American Football and that is way worse over here. Jeez, Wentz was booed off yesterday and the verbal abuse Andrew Luck got when he walked off the practice ground for the last time was brutal. No idea about Wentz, but Luck came on TV and said 'Yeh I understand they're frustrated, it's no big deal'

Here, the worst booing is almost always reserved for the home team. But off the top of my head I cannot ever remember a player being physically assaulted.

And neither I, nor anybody else, said it was their fault anymore than it's the fault of somebody failing to make the Navy Seals because they aren't quite strong enough. It is what it is.

I keep saying I strongly disagree with it, but I disagree with a lot of stuff that ain't gonna change.

We can all sit behind our keyboard and start getting offended by stuff and claiming this is wrong and that is wrong, but sometimes you just have to shrug your shoulders and get on with it.

I have 100,000 books out there and I have been blogging over 13 years and have heard every insult you can imagine. And I have been physically threatened by people I don't know via email, I just laugh.

All I am saying (and clearly badly), is that.

1. It's juvenile and silly.

2. It doesn't matter that I think it's juvenile and silly because that won't ever stop it.

3. Players HAVE to deal with it. There is no choice. If they can't then that doesn't make them any less of a  decent and honorable  a person, it simply means they cannot deal with it. That's really it.

Somebody cheering when Roos picks up a back pass is not the same as racial abuse and I doubt it is a gateway to hopping the fence and kicking the crap out of him.

Listening on TV, there wasn't like a dozen or so people who did this, there were scores. As @Paul71

(I think) was alluding to, there will be people in here who joined in and who daren't admit it.

[Bob The Badger]

1 hour ago, The Key Club King said:

It is an IF with Roos, but surely an inexperienced goalkeeper can be given the opportunity to build mental toughness, or is it something you are born with? 

You definitely can build mental toughness. 

It tends to be learned earlier on in life, but it can happen later.

People who have been through trauma of some description can often come out a lot tougher.

[Tamworthram]

2 hours ago, Bob The Badger said:

Professional footballers need to have all the physical attributes, but they also need the mental ones too if they to succeed.

And one of those is mental toughness.

IF the juvenile jeers of a vocal few is knocking Kelle Roos off his job, then he’s in the wrong job.

I’ll tell you who is mentally tough.

Tom Lawrence.

He’s come back from a hideous situation (admittedly of his own making and let's not get sucked into that sinkhole) and has had to endure boos from some Derby fans and songs about him belonging in jail from opposition supporters.

He’s responded by getting his head down and, in my opinion, playing his best all around game against Preston on Saturday.

But Lawrence doesn’t *look* mentally tough like some people do, who actually aren’t.

Craig Forsyth is mentally tough too.

To have come back from such a hideous industry and boss his first game the way he did was close to astounding. 

Confession: When I managed to log in and the first camera shot was Forsyth coming out of  the tunnel I thought to myself ‘What are you doing Cocu, he cannot be ready yet’ Oops.

I’ll throw Scott Carson into the mix after his howler against Croatia. He clawed his way back into form even though he was roundly abused by England fans.

And Keogh for bouncing back so well after the QPR fiasco.

Outside of Derby, Beckham had to endure a year of booing booed and being sung about (not in a good way) at every ground in the country after being sent off against Argentina.

It didn’t really knock him off his game too much as Man Utd went on the treble.

I want skillful, hard working, dedicated players, but I also want mentally tough players who aren't intimidated or influenced by the opinions of others. 

So, we'd better add a criteria to our recruitment policy. Only player that can remain 100% immune to any sort of juvenile criticism should be considered. By the way, it's not just vocal few, the ironic cheers when he catches the ball is clearly audible.

Once we have this squad of emotionless androids everyone, please feel free to boo, jeer, shout abuse etc

[The Key Club King]

2 hours ago, Bob The Badger said:

There hasn't been a single poster who's agreed with jeering Roos at games. It's beyond the pale. 

So I'm not sure why people keep attacking something that nobody is defending. 

I have defended the option to be critical of him on a message board for Rams fans though.

Similarly, I'm not saying Roos is mentally weak. I'm saying IF a few boo-boys are messing with his head, then he probably is.

@The Key Club King Forsyth may or may not have got nervous (you are guessing on that one), but he bounces back and doesn't let it bleed over.

As for Lawrence. His work rate on Saturday was through the roof. I've not seen him work like that before.

 

No problem with criticising a player, or anyone else for that matter, on a forum. I'm inclined to agree about Roos not being quite good enough for the Championship. I could add a few more to the list too. In fact I will -  Evans, Wisdom, Anya. I'm not mad keen on Waghorn and Holmes either. 

As for Forsyth, I'll wager it will hapen again at some point this season. I'll remind you when it does ?. Hopefully I won't have too.   

[jono]

1 hour ago, Tamworthram said:

So, we'd better add a criteria to our recruitment policy. Only player that can remain 100% immune to any sort of juvenile criticism should be considered. By the way, it's not just vocal few, the ironic cheers when he catches the ball is clearly audible.

Once we have this squad of emotionless androids everyone, please feel free to boo, jeer, shout abuse etc

Yes of course you are right and the irony is understood, but Bob has a point. Not about booing or those with fewer than the average brain cells amongst our motley crew of supporters. Dumb, but they exist and they pay for a ticket

... There is something though about the benefits of being resilient mentally. It’s tough out there, you won’t be forgiven for every mistake, you will have to ride storms without a helping hand or an understanding public, boss, partner. It would be nice if you didn’t need to and that we lived in a utopian world, but we don’t. We all need some steel, being able to fight battles with your own resources has to be seen as a desirable asset.