Grit Isn’t About Being Unbreakable

This article is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Athletes with health concerns should speak with a qualified professional.

Grit is one of the most celebrated qualities in sport. We use the word to describe athletes who return after a difficult season, stay consistent during rehabilitation, continue working on skills that take time to develop, and keep going when progress or recognition takes longer than expected.

Psychologist Angela Duckworth and her colleagues introduced grit as a measurable psychological concept in 2007. They defined it as passion and perseverance for long term goals. Their research focused on the ability to maintain effort and interest over time, even when progress is slow, setbacks occur, or motivation changes.

In sport, grit is more than trying hard during one practice, game, or competition. It is the persistence to stay committed to a meaningful long term goal through adversity, setbacks, and periods of slow progress.

That persistence can be seen in the daily work of training, rehabilitation, recovery, and skill development. It means treating injuries, losses, missed goals, and disappointing team or selection decisions as challenges to work through rather than reasons to give up. It also means staying consistent with what a goal requires when motivation is low, progress is difficult to see, or the work goes unrecognized.

But persistence alone does not tell us whether an athlete is responding to difficulty in a healthy or effective way. The reasons behind the effort, the environment surrounding the athlete, and the athlete's ability to recognize when something needs to change all matter.

Grit is strengthened by support

Grit is often treated as an individual quality, but athletes do not pursue difficult goals alone. Teammates, coaches, family members, teachers, mentors, medical providers, and mental health professionals can all influence an athlete's ability to remain committed during a difficult period.

Support does not remove the responsibility to train, recover, communicate, and follow through. It gives athletes somewhere to turn when they need perspective, information, encouragement, or practical help. A teammate may listen after a difficult game. A coach may help adjust an unrealistic training plan. A family member may provide stability when circumstances feels uncertain. A medical professional may identify a concern that an player cannot evaluate alone.

The ability to ask for help becomes especially important when athletes are praised for handling everything themselves. Research on athlete mental health help seeking has identified sport specific barriers such as stigma, fear of losing playing time, concerns about confidentiality, and the belief that asking for help conflicts with an athlete's identity. Clear referral options, trustworthy relationships, and team cultures that treat mental health seriously can make support easier to access.

Coaches and athletes should consider what happens when someone admits they are struggling. Are they being listened to? Do they know whom they can speak with? Are concerns handled privately and responsibly? The answers reveal whether support is part of the team culture or something they are expected to find on their own.

Your environment can make it easier or harder to stay gritty

Grit may be a personal quality, but the environment affects how it's experienced and sustained.

A 2025 study involving 342 South Korean collegiate athletes found that grit was positively associated with autonomy, personal growth, positive relationships, and the ability to manage daily responsibilities. The relationships varied according to the support athletes perceived from coaches and teammates.

The findings were more nuanced than simply showing that more support always produced better results. Teammate support strengthened the relationship between grit and positive relationships, while other areas showed different patterns. Higher perceived coach support weakened the relationship between grit and several measures of wellness. The researchers suggested that highly directive support may sometimes feel controlling to athletes with strong self regulation, but controlling coaching was not measured directly. That explanation should therefore be treated as an interpretation rather than a confirmed result.

The researchers surveyed one group of collegiate athletes at a single point in time. The results show relationships between grit, support, and wellness, but they do not prove that one caused another. They do suggest that support needs to fit the athlete and the situation. Some athletes may benefit from more direction, while others may need greater independence and control over their training.

A supportive environment provides clear expectations, honest communication, appropriate guidance, access to care, and room for athletes to speak without having their commitment questioned.

The line between persistence and harmful overtraining

Improvement requires demanding training, but the body also needs enough time and resources to recover. Workload, sleep, nutrition, soreness, performance, and stress outside sport all affect how well an athlete responds to training.

A joint consensus statement from the European College of Sport Science and the American College of Sports Medicine explains that excessive training without adequate recovery can lead to nonfunctional overreaching and, in more serious cases, overtraining syndrome.

Overtraining syndrome is marked by a prolonged decline in performance that develops after training and other demands repeatedly exceed an athlete's ability to recover. Athletes may experience persistent fatigue, mood changes, disrupted sleep, reduced motivation, frequent illness, or difficulty completing training that was previously manageable.

Temporary fatigue after a demanding training block is different. Athletes may perform below their usual level for a short period and improve once they have recovered. It becomes concerning when fatigue and declining performance continue for weeks or months, do not improve as expected with rest, and occur alongside changes in mood, motivation, sleep, or overall health.

No single symptom or test confirms overtraining syndrome. Illness, injury, inadequate nutrition, low energy availability, iron deficiency, mental health concerns, and stress outside sport can cause similar symptoms. A qualified health professional must consider these possibilities before making a diagnosis.

Persistent fatigue and declining performance should not be answered with more training. Depending on the symptoms, an athlete may need support from an athletic trainer, physician, dietitian, counselor, psychologist, or another qualified professional.

Knowing when to pause and assess

Demanding periods of training can come with fatigue, soreness, frustration, and changes in motivation. One difficult day may not provide enough information to understand what is happening, which is why athletes and their support teams may benefit from paying attention to patterns over time.

If fatigue continues despite planned recovery, performance keeps declining, or several changes in sleep, mood, motivation, and daily functioning appear together, it may be worth pausing and speaking with a qualified professional. These experiences can have many possible causes and should not be used to diagnose overtraining syndrome or another health condition.

Judgment is part of staying committed to a long term goal. New information about health, recovery, workload, motivation, or the training environment may require an athlete to reconsider the current plan. Any changes involving an injury or health concern should be discussed with the appropriate medical or mental health professional.

Athletes can remain committed while adjusting a training method, reconsidering a timeline, taking time to recover, or asking for help. A change in approach does not automatically mean the larger goal has been abandoned.

When asking for help feels risky

Athletes learn which behaviors are rewarded. Playing through pain, staying composed, and handling pressure without complaint may earn trust from coaches and teammates. Over time, speaking honestly about pain, exhaustion, or mental health concerns can begin to feel risky.

The decision to stay silent is not always about pride. Athletes may fear losing playing time, selection, scholarships, contracts, or the confidence of people who influence their opportunities. They may worry that their concerns will be dismissed, shared without their permission, or used as evidence that they cannot handle the demands of their sport.

A 2024 systematic review and meta analysis examined 22 studies of athlete mental health help seeking. Across the studies that reported formal help seeking rates, the pooled proportion was 22.4 percent. Common barriers included stigma connected to athlete identity and sport culture, fear of deselection, confidentiality concerns, limited awareness, and negative attitudes toward services. The authors identified clear confidentiality practices, visible role models, supportive staff, and cultures that normalize mental health as possible ways to improve help seeking.

Teams cannot encourage athletes to seek help while continuing to reward silence and unquestioned endurance. Athletes are more likely to speak honestly when they know who they can talk to, what will remain confidential, and how their concerns will be handled.

Perfectionism and persistence

Grit and perfectionism can look similar from the outside. Both may involve discipline, high standards, and hours of consistent work. The difference often becomes clear in what drives the behavior and how someone responds when things go wrong.

High standards can support development when someone can learn from mistakes and adjust their approach. Perfectionism becomes a concern when every mistake feels personal, rest creates guilt, and anything short of the expected result feels like failure. This pressure may lead someone to add more training, become increasingly critical of themselves, or hide what they are struggling with.

A 2023 systematic review and meta analysis found that socially prescribed perfectionism was associated with emotional and physical exhaustion and with athletes beginning to devalue their sport. Socially prescribed perfectionism refers to the belief that other people expect perfection. The findings do not suggest that all high standards are harmful, but they show why the source of those standards matters.

Playing time, rankings, scholarships, contracts, and praise can have real consequences for athletes. When a person's sense of worth depends on those outcomes, a setback can feel like a judgment of who they are rather than a normal part of sport.

Several questions can help identify what is driving the effort. Is the goal personally meaningful? Is the focus on improvement, or on what failure might say about personal worth? Does rest create guilt? Can a mistake be examined without turning into a judgment about ability or identity? Can the goal or approach be adjusted without feeling like everything has been lost?

Redefining toughness

Toughness in sport is often associated with hiding pain, controlling emotion, and continuing without complaint. Sport can involve discomfort and pressure, but athletes should not be expected to determine by themselves whether pain or another health concern is safe to work through.

Self awareness, honesty, and judgment are also parts of toughness. Noticing changes in pain, stress, relationships, or performance gives athletes information they can share with coaches and qualified health professionals.

Continuing to train without discussing a health concern may make it harder to understand what is happening or what support is needed. Speaking up can require considerable courage, especially in an environment where athletes fear being called soft or weak.

Coaches influence whether honest communication feels safe. Their responses show athletes whether reporting a concern will be taken seriously, handled appropriately, or used to question their commitment. Toughness can be seen in the willingness to communicate, seek reliable guidance, and make informed decisions when challenges arise.

What healthy grit looks like

Healthy grit involves remaining committed to a goal while paying attention to changes in health, motivation, performance, and the training environment. Pursuing that goal responsibly may include following the training plan, allowing time for recovery, reviewing workload with the appropriate people, making adjustments, and asking for support.

At times, persistence may involve completing a planned session when training feels demanding. At other times, new or continuing concerns may need to be discussed with a coach or qualified health professional before the athlete continues.

Grit means finding a way to keep moving toward long term goals through difficult seasons and adversity without treating health or wellbeing as the price of commitment.

References

1. Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., and Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087 to 1101. Read the study
2. Lee, K. H., and Oh, K. R. (2025). The effect of grit on psychological well-being in collegiate athletes: The moderating role of social support. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 7, 1711128. Read the study
3. Meeusen, R., Duclos, M., Foster, C., and colleagues. (2013). Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the overtraining syndrome: Joint consensus statement of the European College of Sport Science and the American College of Sports Medicine. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 45(1), 186 to 205. View the consensus statement
4. Kellmann, M., Bertollo, M., Bosquet, L., and colleagues. (2018). Recovery and performance in sport: Consensus statement. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 13(2), 240 to 245. View the consensus statement
5. Cosh, S. M., McNeil, D. G., Jeffreys, A., Clark, L., and Tully, P. J. (2024). Athlete mental health help seeking: A systematic review and meta analysis of rates, barriers and facilitators. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 71, 102586. Read the review
6. Yang, J., Yang, H., Choi, C., and Bum, C. (2023). Systematic review and meta analysis on burnout owing to perfectionism in elite athletes. Healthcare, 11(10), 1417. Read the review
7. Raedeke, T. D., and Smith, A. L. (2001). Development and preliminary validation of an athlete burnout measure. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 23(4), 281 to 306. View the study
8. Gustafsson, H., DeFreese, J. D., and Madigan, D. J. (2017). Athlete burnout: Review and recommendations. Current Opinion in Psychology, 16, 109 to 113. View the review

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