There is a long stading debate on which is more important for success in sports : physical strength or mental strength ? To better assess this comparison we need to first look into the impact of each strength on the athlete.
Let’s take physical strength for example, it is the base requirement in multiple sports such as boxing and any martial art sport. It is very hard to find success in some sports without the necessary physique especially those that require stamina and endurance such as sprinting and running or fighting. Physical strength is also affected by genes and the amount of effort spent training and exercising, which ultimately makes the difference in many scenarios between two athletes who trained the most and have the better physique.
However, saying that only physical strength matters is a huge oversimplification of how the human body works. If it was guaranteed that the better physique always win, athletes would be spending all their times training rather than working on skills and their attitude and how to always push ahead. Indeed, let’s give an example using a game of football; there were many comebacks and shocking wins involving different clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid, they were sometimes losing 0-2 0-3 yet they made thrilling comebacks not because of physical strength or stamina, but because of their resilience and mental fortitude that made the comeback possible.
Personally, I believe that physical strength is the basis for success in sports and is a fundamental part as well, but mental strength and how you deal with things when they are not going your way, when you are losing unexpectedly, is what ultimately decides whether you will be a successful athlete who breaks his limits and wins, or a “what-if” with talent yet lacks the necessary mindset to thrive.