School of hard knocks can help athletes win

HAVING a tough life can help elite athletes succeed by enabling them to thrive under pressure, a study has found.

The hearts of people who had undergone trauma were found to beat harder under duress – pushing more blood into their muscles and brains – than those who had easier lives.

The researchers, from Nottingham Trent and other universities, asked 100 athletes to take part in a pressurised dart-throwing task.

They found that those who had experienced between three and 13 adverse life events significantly out- performed those who had encountered a lower or higher number, according to the study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.

Adverse life events included parental divorce, financial problems, having a serious accident, the death of a family member, or being attacked or assaulted.

Andy Murray’s parents divorced when he was growing up – and he also narrowly escaped the Dunblane massacre as a child.