The Peak Performance Expert

We here in Red Sox Nation are elated that Dustin Pedroia won the Most Valuable Player award in the American League.  “Pedroia the Destroya” has been a delight to watch this past season and his playing certainly saved the day in several games. 

Much as been made of his physical stature; Pedroia is listed as being 5′9″ but many say he is more realistically around 5′7″.  That’s small for a pro baseball player, of course, but what he lacks in physical stature he makes up for in psychological stature. 

Pedroia is a perfect example of a mentally tough athlete. He has heard snide comments and criticism about his size from the beginning (including from his father who doubted he could make it to the big leagues). Fortunately his mother encouraged her son to forge ahead despite the doubters.  Dustin brushed aside the naysayers and kept working at his craft.  He could have given up and few would have questioned it but he did not.  Yes, he persevered but he demonstrated all of the qualities of a mentally tough athlete: 

1. He exhibits a championship mindset which means he eagerly seeks feedback on his work and is relentless in self assessment.  He perceives critiques as information, not accusations and uses that information to improve his performance. 
2. His concentration is superb.  He is able to tune out distractions and focus on the task at hand no matter what the circumstances. 
3. Pedroia’s composure is maturely defined.  This guy does not get rattled even in  the big games. 
4. If he makes a mistake or has a set-back, he does not dwell on the mistake but rather learns the lesson embedded in it. (Comes back from mistakes.) 
5. He is crystal clear about what motivates him and the “why” is big enough to sustain his huge efforts. 
6. Dustin is a commitment king; he works constantly to improve and refine his craft. 
7. This guy has enough confidence for the whole team and it comes from a firm belief that he has the ability and talent to get the job done. 
8. Finally, Pedroia exhibits courage in the true sense of the word - courage is derived from the French word for heart (coeur) and we have seen him play his heart out game after game after game. 

How do you rate on the 8 dimensions of mental toughness?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Championship Mindset, Mental Toughness, Red Sox, baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.