In sports, an athlete must be resilient. This is true physically and mentally; strength training can help build resilience in both realms.
Physically, an athlete’s body is pushed in sports, especially when it comes to competition. Oftentimes an athlete will, as they say, "risk life and limb" to get the win. So, it sounds like having a resilient body will be beneficial.
While strength training is certainly geared toward strengthening an athlete, it should also make them more physically resilient. This means that the body is more tolerant of stress and is more prepared for repeated bouts of exertion without giving up.
A well-designed strength training program is set up to progress the athlete toward “more” over time so that the body adapts to that “more.” That may mean more weight in a given exercise, more reps in a given round, more rounds of that exercise, or even less rest between rounds.
Now that may seem like a lot to consider, but if integrated over time, the goal is to get an athlete’s body more ready to handle the beating it’s going to take in sport, both in terms of max capacity and repeated bouts of “GO.”
Strength training also doesn’t ignore the mental resilience piece either. Sometimes a strength routine is hard – that’s by design. An athlete will look at the program for the day and not get super excited about it.
It may not be the most fun thing to push through. But as athletes push themselves through the not-so-fun program, they build resiliency to “hard.” They may realize they are capable of much more than they once thought.
And in competition, that’s huge. Oftentimes when two athletes are equal physically, the athlete that’s more mentally resilient will come out on top.
Build resilience, both physically and mentally – and become unstoppable.