Taekwondo Student-Athletes Resilience and Mental Toughness: Coping with Sports Failure

Abstract

National athletes are often celebrated for their victories, but the reality of sports failure is an integral part of their journey to success. This participatory action research explored how athletes process and learned from defeats and adversities. Twelve Taekwondo student-athletes, who train and compete in national games and Southeast Asian tournaments, participated in the study. Participants completed the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ; Sheard, Golby & Wersch, 2009) and underwent semi-structured interviews that utilized the principles of Motivational Interviewing (MI; Miller & Rollnick, 2013). The results of the SMTQ indicated a high level of mental toughness which the student-athletes attributed to their skill in emotion regulation and persistence under pressure. Thematic analysis of their experiences revealed the centrality of a strong sense of community, derived from the social support of coaches, teammates, and family members, in building resilience and nurturing mental toughness. Effective coping strategies identified by the student-athletes included goal setting, reframing setbacks, and positive self-talk, which helped maintain motivation. The actionable insight derived from this action research emphasizes the value of the MI principles in fostering continuous resilience-building among Taekwondo student-athlete participants.