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Purpose This study has been conducted to explore the factors that ignite the mental toughness of Taekwondo players and to compare report ratios concerning the explored factors between training and competition. Methods An open-ended questionnaire conducted 123 Taekwondo players offered raw data that stemmed the from 379 training and 369 competition situation. The raw data was categorized by an inductive approach, and the report ratios of both general and specific domain mental toughness in training and competition were compared. Results The results of this categorization were as follows. First, the mental toughness ignition factors of Taekwondo players are commonly categorized as willing to goal, external pressure, reward expectation, challenge, and social support. Second, factors were prioritized into reward expectation, challenge, willing to goal, social support, and external pressure. Third, willing to goal and external pressure were often reported in training, while reward expectation and challenge were more often reported in a competition. Social support showed similar ratios in both settings. Conclusion This study is expected to offer interesting results in the context of the ignition of mental toughness, while being utilized as a fundamental database for the development of mental social support strategies the help Taekwondo players ignite their mental toughness in competition.