Explore Key Insights from Sports Psychology Book Reviews

Every high-commitment athlete should spend time on the mental part of their game. Learn some stress management techniques BEFORE YOU NEED THEM, if possible. Then you'll also discover Sports Psychology is really about performance management and reaching your potential - not just addressing issues.

If you're looking for an introduction, Sports Psychology for Dummies is a reasonable place to start. It will help give you an overview. There are a handful of useful techniques, although you need to work through alternatives to find something that works for you.

The issues with this book:

1) Getting started is SO much harder than it needs to be with this book. It seems to assume people will read the whole book, or at least a large portion of it, before applying it. This book should have a get-up-to-speed fast approach, and have a series of steps a player could take. A good coach will focus on the next thing a player needs to know, not expect them to learn everything before moving forward.

Also, the book needs to do a better job of emphasizing the most valuable ideas. Use more bold, pull-outs, whatever. Add a summary of key ideas. Make it easier to get the key points.

2) It needs more on how to deal with problem coaches and players. In this book, the coach is a benevolent, all-knowing being. In real life, the coach is often the problem. So how does a player manage the impact a problematic coach has on their performance? Obviously through managing the player's reaction to the coach; they can't control what the coach does. But pretending that issue isn't a significant part of sports, even at the college level, does a disservice to players. It's useful to sort out where the issue lies (and how it may be some of each). To do that, it needs to be discussed.

3) I'm not sure if they ran out of steam toward the end of the book, or I did. But the last sections of the book seemed more like boilerplate, without real insight. Also, apparently the writers or publishers feel a need to include some pseudo science to round out a book. Just skip it.

If you're looking for an introduction to Sports Psychology, this could do the job. You'll want to mark up the book to note the key ideas. Maybe pick a chapter - it doesn't have to be in order, do what you currently want to work on - and work through that, as a way to get started.

You'll find some of the topics you expected, like techniques for managing anxiety or using imagery. There are also likely some ideas you haven't considered, like briefly journaling your experiences during matches or training.

Every high-commitment athlete should spend time on the mental part of their game. Learn some stress management techniques BEFORE YOU NEED THEM, if possible. Then you'll also discover Sports Psychology is really about performance management and reaching your potential - not just addressing issues.

If you're looking for an introduction, Sports Psychology for Dummies is a reasonable place to start. It will help give you an overview. There are a handful of useful techniques, although you need to work through alternatives to find something that works for you.

The issues with this book:

1) Getting started is SO much harder than it needs to be with this book. It seems to assume people will read the whole book, or at least a large portion of it, before applying it. This book should have a get-up-to-speed fast approach, and have a series of steps a player could take. A good coach will focus on the next thing a player needs to know, not expect them to learn everything before moving forward.

Also, the book needs to do a better job of emphasizing the most valuable ideas. Use more bold, pull-outs, whatever. Add a summary of key ideas. Make it easier to get the key points.

2) It needs more on how to deal with problem coaches and players. In this book, the coach is a benevolent, all-knowing being. In real life, the coach is often the problem. So how does a player manage the impact a problematic coach has on their performance? Obviously through managing the player's reaction to the coach; they can't control what the coach does. But pretending that issue isn't a significant part of sports, even at the college level, does a disservice to players. It's useful to sort out where the issue lies (and how it may be some of each). To do that, it needs to be discussed.

3) I'm not sure if they ran out of steam toward the end of the book, or I did. But the last sections of the book seemed more like boilerplate, without real insight. Also, apparently the writers or publishers feel a need to include some pseudo science to round out a book. Just skip it.

If you're looking for an introduction to Sports Psychology, this could do the job. You'll want to mark up the book to note the key ideas. Maybe pick a chapter - it doesn't have to be in order, do what you currently want to work on - and work through that, as a way to get started.

You'll find some of the topics you expected, like techniques for managing anxiety or using imagery. There are also likely some ideas you haven't considered, like briefly journaling your experiences during matches or training.

So it will be good.

I got this for a friend considering studying sports psychology in college. They Loved It! It made them want to go into the field even more than they did before.

I got this for a friend considering studying sports psychology in college. They Loved It! It made them want to go into the field even more than they did before.

I got this for a friend considering studying sports psychology in college. They Loved It! It made them want to go into the field even more than they did before.