Rugby League Coaching Manuals

With Steve Anderson - Chris Anderson saw it as a result of the work done pre-season and during the season. He talks of the pressure constantly being put on players in training, developing into their being able to handle pressure in a game.

Peter Sharp saw it as disciplined control. In the game situation he equates it to experience, patience, not panicking in tight situations.

Tony Kemp sees it as preparation and consistency. He talks of players being out on the field each week and performing consistently in a tough arena.

Steve Anderson sees it as ‘all of the above’.

The ‘it’ in question is Mental Toughness. RLCM talked to Steve, former Assistant Coach of Melbourne Storm and the Kangaroos, now,
head coach with the Tweed Heads Seagulls,  about his take on the subject.

He began by saying that it was a topic that was too broad to define. “It may mean different things to different people,” he said. “To one player it might mean something different to another player beside him.”

However, Steve got his definition down to one word, and that word, preparation, was a common thread in the conversations of the other gentleman mentioned above when asked about the subject.

In fact, Steve went on to say that he has dropped the word ‘mental’ from his talks on the subject because it makes it too complicated when it is not that complicated at all.

“I think it is an acquired skill,” he said. “It comes through years of playing. It comes to those who work very hard on their preparation and it’s developed over years and years of playing the game at a very physical level.”

Steve was asked then about how a young, 18 year-old player who has not had this experience, can be recruited with some certainty that he will develop as a mentally tough competitor.

His reply was that there needed to be some signs of durability, resilience and toughness and these could be picked up in a thorough background check.

Things like - how many games he has played last year, even the last five years. More importantly, how many games has he missed?

Is he a good student?

Does he get on well with others and has he got other areas of interest?

“So you have those key things of resilience, durability, consistency, discipline - they all go into the melting pot,” Steve said.

“These will develop for the committed player the longer they play the game.”

For the more experienced player, Steve sees preparation again as very important with fitness also coming into the mix. He harkened back to the Melbourne Storm days when he says Chris Anderson developed a good mix of experienced, fit players.

“Melbourne’s game was tough in the last 20 minutes. We had fit, experienced players in the group leading the team. We toughed out many games because it is the experience that comes from those arm wrestles, those tough games where it’s 22 all and one minute to go. It’s the experience, combined with ..............