Mental toughness (MT) is a personality construct pertinent to exercise contexts, and understanding how people feel during exercise is important for determining future engagement. MT enhances sporting performance, while flow and clutch states underlie superior athletic performance. Therefore, understanding these positive experiences during sport and exercise could enable practitioners to achieve such experiences more readily. Little research using a recent conceptualisation of flow and clutch states has quantitatively explored the relationship between MT and flow and clutch states. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between MT and flow and clutch states in sport and exercise participants. Ninety-five participants (M age = 21.3 ± 5.9) completed the measures as soon as possible after sport or exercise activity to maximise recall accuracy. Data were analysed concerning the relationship between MT and flow and clutch states and subscales of flow and clutch states. There were significant positive correlations between MT and flow (r = 0.38, p < 0.01) and MT and clutch (r = 0.39, p < 0.01), but not for MT and neither (r = 0.50, p =0.67). Correlations between MT and flow and clutch subscales were found to be significant and non-significant and all positive, excluding one subscale, ranging from 0.13 to 0.48. Findings suggest an individual’s MT likely relates to flow and clutch states and extends current understanding concerning the interaction between personality constructs and individual experiences during sport and exercise. These insights can inform future research on MT and flow and clutch states in sports and exercise settings and may aid practitioners in developing strategies for reliably achieving positive experiences during sport and exercise.
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