Read more
The first book to gather firsthand accounts of successful practices, and thinking habits, of sports legends and super-athletes-from across sports including football, baseball, basketball, boxing, golf, car-racing, and swimming-this work holds lessons that can power not only athletic success, but winning in any daily challenges of life or work. The result of years of research,
Psychology of Champions offers the very personal words of star athletes who explain how they overcame such obstacles as fear, discouragement, and anxiety, and were able to move on to success. Each story-including from those of baseball great Ted Williams, basketball star Michael Jordan, football's famed Deion Sanders, and dozens more from across sports -is unique. Yet, the authors determine that, when all is said and done, the overriding variables accounting for the greatest success fall into three categories: motivation, confidence, and concentration. Barrell and Ryback spell out the rules for such success after each section in this absorbing book. The result is a book that not only entertains and educates us with firsthand accounts of ever-popular sports heroes, but also instructs athletes, amateur or professional, and arguably anyone with a goal to achieve in work or life.
In-the-moment accounts reveal just what to do in various critical periods of sports competition-from being at bat in baseball, to making an instantaneous decision as a quarterback, firing the winning basket in the dying moments of a game, or launching the winning move in boxing or judo. Barrell and Ryback draw the lessons together in what they term The Focus Edge mindset. That mindset-and this book- says one former Olympian, take greatness and make it accessible to you and me.
List of contents
FOREWORD Gordie Howe
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
1 What Fuels Our Fires
2 Big Goals
3 How Challenges Motivate the Super-Athlete
4 Little Goals: The Aim in Competition
5 Results of Process?
6 Comparing the Goals of Super-Athletes with Others
7 Believing in Yourself
8 What the Super-Athletes Say About Confidence
9 When Confidence is Lacking How to Build It
10 Putting Confidence to Work
11 Being in the Moment
12 What Super-Athletes Say About Concentration
13 Broad and Narrow Attention
14 Inside That Elusive Now-Zone
15 Helpful Rituals and Visualizations
16 Where it All Comes Together, Under Pressure
17 How Super-Athletes Deal with Pressure
18 Getting Rid of Your Performance Anxiety
19 The Focus Edge Formula for Dealing with Pressure
20 Applying the Focus Edge Mindset
Conclusion
Biographical Sketches
About the author
James J. Barrell, David Ryback
