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1Objective: Although it is well-established that the ability to manage stress is a prerequisite of 2 sporting excellence, the construct of psychological resilience has yet to be systematically 3 examined in athletic performers. The study reported here sought to explore and explain the 4 relationship between psychological resilience and optimal sport performance. Methodological rigor was established by incorporating various verification strategies into the 10 research process, and the resultant grounded theory was also judged using the quality criteria of 11 fit, work, relevance, and modifiability.

1Over a decade of research attests to the importance of resilience in the workplace for 2 employee well-being and performance. Yet, surprisingly, there has been no attempt to resilience training can improve personal resilience, and is a useful means of developing 10 mental health and subjective well-being in employees. We also found that resilience training 11 has a number of wider benefits that include enhanced psychosocial functioning and improved 12 performance. Due to the lack of coherence in design and implementation, we cannot draw 13 any firm conclusions about the most effective content and format of resilience training. 14 Therefore, going forward, it is vital that future research uses comparative designs to assess 15 the utility of different training regimes, explores whether some people might benefit 16 more/less from resilience training, and demonstrates consistency in terms of how resilience is 17 defined, conceptualized, developed, and assessed.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to develop a definition of team resilience and to 2 identify the resilient characteristics of elite sport teams.

Psychological resilience is important in sport because athletes must utilize and optimize a range 2 of mental qualities to withstand the pressures that they experience. In this paper, we discuss 3 psychological resilience in sport performers via a review of the stressors athletes encounter and 4 the protective factors that help them withstand these demands. It is hoped that synthesizing what 5 is known in these areas will help researchers gain a deeper profundity of resilience in sport, and 6 also provide a rigorous and robust foundation for the development of a sport-specific measure of 7 resilience. With these points in mind, we divided the narrative into two main sections. In the first 8 section, we review the different types of stressors encountered by sport performers under three 9 main categories: competitive, organizational, and personal. Based on our recent research 10 examining psychological resilience in Olympics champions (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2012), in the 11 second section we discuss the five main families of psychological factors (viz. positive 12 personality, motivation, confidence, focus, perceived social support) that protect the best athletes 13 from the potential negative effect of stressors. It is anticipated that this review will help sport 14 psychology researchers examine the interplay between stressors and protective factors which will, 15 in turn, focus the analytical lens on the processes underlying psychological resilience in athletes. The sporting arena represents a 'natural laboratory' to study how individuals operate and 3 perform in highly demanding circumstances. Top-level sport is characterized by the ability of 4 athletes to utilize and optimize a range of psychological qualities to withstand the pressures that 5 they experience (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2012;Gould, Dieffenbach, & Moffett, 2002). Over the past 6 few decades, researchers have identified numerous stressors that sport performers encounter (see , 7 e.g., McKay, Niven, Lavallee, & White, 2008;Scanlan, Stein, & Ravizza, 1991) and explored the 8 role of psychological characteristics in helping elite performers adapt to setbacks and transitions 9 encountered along the pathway to excellence (MacNamara, Button, & Collins, 2010a;2010b). 10The influence of psychological factors within the context of the stress process is typically 11 conceptualized as psychological resilience (cf. Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013). 12The study of psychological resilience seeks to understand why some individuals are able 13 to withstand -or even thrive on -the pressure they experience in their lives. We recently defined 14 psychological resilience as "the role of mental processes and behavior in promoting personal 15 assets and protecting an individual from the potential negative effect of stressors" (Fletcher & 16 Sarkar, 2012, p. 675; 2013, p. 16). This definition extends previous conceptual work in this area 17 in a number of ways. First, the focus on psychological resilience delimits the scope of the 18 description, by definition, to "mental pro...

26Drawing on the body of knowledge in this area, this article presents an evidence-based 27 approach to developing psychological resilience for sustained success. To this end, the 28 narrative is divided into three main sections. by internal and external demands that test our capabilities, often to their limits. As 46 expectations intensify, it is not an overstatement to suggest that only the fittest will survive. 47However, merely surviving is not enough to succeed at the highest levels; humans must 48 thrive on the pressure. 49Underpinned by resilience-related theory and research, we present a program of 50 mental fortitude training™ for persons wishing to develop resilience for sustained success. 51To begin with, we describe what psychological resilience is. We then outline the main 52 aspects of the training program and discuss its application to enhance performers' ability to 53 withstand and thrive on pressure. We then reflect on our experiences of implementing the 54 program to provide recommendations for professional practice in this area.

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1Objectives: Recent research suggests that experiencing some adversity can have beneficial outcomes 2 for human growth and development. The purpose of this paper was to explore the adversities that the 3 world's best athletes encounter and the perceived role that these experiences play in their 4 psychological and performance development. 5Design: A qualitative design was employed because detailed information of rich quality was required 6 to better understand adversity-related experiences in the world's best athletes. Results: The findings indicate that the participants encountered a range of sport-and non-sport 10 adversities that they considered were essential for winning their gold medals, including repeated non-11 selection, significant sporting failure, serious injury, political unrest, and the death of a family 12 member. The participants described the role that these experiences played in their psychological and 13 performance development, specifically focusing on their resultant trauma, motivation, and learning.