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This is Your Brain on Sports: Beating Blocks, Slumps and Performance Anxiety for Good!
"THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS is a must read for anyone involved in or simply interested in sports. It tells the real story of what I went through and how countless athletes of all levels are still going through now.....unnecessarily. When no one else could, they helped me to recognize how my throwing problems came directly from sports traumas that were stuck in my brain. And then Grand and Goldberg had the knowhow to release it with the miracle of Brainspotting."
Mackey Sasser
Former catcher for NY Mets
"THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS is a MUST READ for athletes, their parents and coaches, as well as for all psychotherapists and performance experts. In case you didn't know it, THE YIPS has a clearly explainable relationship to past trauma. All one has to do is take a detailed history of the life of an athlete from his/her earliest childhood, relate that to his/her history of physical injuries and throw in a dollop of shame and criticism from parents and coaches and the reason for the yips emerges with crystal clarity. These facts are clearly illustrated in this compelling, fascinating and ground-breaking book by Drs. Grand and Goldberg. Brain-based principles of body-based memory, neurosensitization and cue-related anxiety from the trauma literature clearly prove that the yips come from post-traumatic stress syndrome. And Brainspotting has shown to be dramatically effective in mitigating, and even healing, this vexing syndrome."
Robert Scaer, MD
Author of THE BODY BEARS THE BURDEN and THE TRAUMA SPECTRUM
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON Beating Blocks, Slumps and Performance Anxiety for Good! is the ground-breaking book that will change the face of sports performance forever. This book introduces the breakthrough concept of STSD (Sport Traumatic Stress Disorder). Grand and Goldberg have discovered that STSDs are the cause of most significant performance problems. Performance blocks and anxiety, including the yips, stem from accumulated sports traumas including sports injuries, failures and humiliations. The authors also introduce the Brainspotting Sports Performance System (BSPS) which quickly finds, releases and resolves the sports traumas held in your brain and body. An easy read, THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS is filled with engaging, informative, inspiring stories. These case examples illustrate how professional, elite, collegiate and junior athletes have been freed for good from this silent "epidemic" of performance blocks and anxiety the yips, "Steve Blass disease," "Mackey Sasser syndrome," protracted slumps, balking, choking and freezing. THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS provides the answers and the cure for athletes, their coaches and parents about "Beating Blocks, Slumps and Performance Anxiety for Good!" Grand and Goldberg also show how their BSPS can take all athletes to levels they could only heretofore dream of! www.thisisyourbrainonsports.com
Mackey Sasser
Former catcher for NY Mets
"THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS is a MUST READ for athletes, their parents and coaches, as well as for all psychotherapists and performance experts. In case you didn't know it, THE YIPS has a clearly explainable relationship to past trauma. All one has to do is take a detailed history of the life of an athlete from his/her earliest childhood, relate that to his/her history of physical injuries and throw in a dollop of shame and criticism from parents and coaches and the reason for the yips emerges with crystal clarity. These facts are clearly illustrated in this compelling, fascinating and ground-breaking book by Drs. Grand and Goldberg. Brain-based principles of body-based memory, neurosensitization and cue-related anxiety from the trauma literature clearly prove that the yips come from post-traumatic stress syndrome. And Brainspotting has shown to be dramatically effective in mitigating, and even healing, this vexing syndrome."
Robert Scaer, MD
Author of THE BODY BEARS THE BURDEN and THE TRAUMA SPECTRUM
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON Beating Blocks, Slumps and Performance Anxiety for Good! is the ground-breaking book that will change the face of sports performance forever. This book introduces the breakthrough concept of STSD (Sport Traumatic Stress Disorder). Grand and Goldberg have discovered that STSDs are the cause of most significant performance problems. Performance blocks and anxiety, including the yips, stem from accumulated sports traumas including sports injuries, failures and humiliations. The authors also introduce the Brainspotting Sports Performance System (BSPS) which quickly finds, releases and resolves the sports traumas held in your brain and body. An easy read, THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS is filled with engaging, informative, inspiring stories. These case examples illustrate how professional, elite, collegiate and junior athletes have been freed for good from this silent "epidemic" of performance blocks and anxiety the yips, "Steve Blass disease," "Mackey Sasser syndrome," protracted slumps, balking, choking and freezing. THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS provides the answers and the cure for athletes, their coaches and parents about "Beating Blocks, Slumps and Performance Anxiety for Good!" Grand and Goldberg also show how their BSPS can take all athletes to levels they could only heretofore dream of! www.thisisyourbrainonsports.com
208 pages, Paperback
First published May 2, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 15, 2019
Help for the Yips
What an interesting take on sudden, unexplained performance problems (aka the "yips") that some athletes encounter. For example, Mets catcher Mackey Sasser had no problem launching the ball to second to tag out an opponent attempting to steal, but he struggled mightily with a simple throw back to the pitcher.
What's going on with these athletes who balk at simple skills they've mastered in the past? Are they head cases?
No, claim these authors, and I believe them. The athletes are trauma survivors. Mackey Sasser sustained severe shoulder injuries in football and baseball, and his father had debilitating arm injury himself.
Athletes with the yips are re-experiencing traumatic memories, causing them to go into fight, flight, or freeze mode. The fire in their emotional brain hijacks their thinking brain, making traditional interventions ineffective because they aren't in a logical place.
Over fifty sport psychology professionals tried to help Mackey Sasser, but it wasn't until psychologists explored his trauma history, then treated that trauma, that he dealt with his yips effectively.
Alan Goldberg is my favorite sport psychology writer. Framing yips as potential trauma reenactment is revolutionary, but I wasn't as impressed with the particular trauma treatment proposed by David Grand.
What an interesting take on sudden, unexplained performance problems (aka the "yips") that some athletes encounter. For example, Mets catcher Mackey Sasser had no problem launching the ball to second to tag out an opponent attempting to steal, but he struggled mightily with a simple throw back to the pitcher.
What's going on with these athletes who balk at simple skills they've mastered in the past? Are they head cases?
No, claim these authors, and I believe them. The athletes are trauma survivors. Mackey Sasser sustained severe shoulder injuries in football and baseball, and his father had debilitating arm injury himself.
Athletes with the yips are re-experiencing traumatic memories, causing them to go into fight, flight, or freeze mode. The fire in their emotional brain hijacks their thinking brain, making traditional interventions ineffective because they aren't in a logical place.
Over fifty sport psychology professionals tried to help Mackey Sasser, but it wasn't until psychologists explored his trauma history, then treated that trauma, that he dealt with his yips effectively.
Alan Goldberg is my favorite sport psychology writer. Framing yips as potential trauma reenactment is revolutionary, but I wasn't as impressed with the particular trauma treatment proposed by David Grand.
July 22, 2024
This interesting work questions what happens in the brain of someone who plays sports, watches sports or participates in a harmless competition. It traces the explanations of addiction, dopamine, performance anxiety and many other aspects related to brain activity during competitive activities.
Key takeaways:
I have fond memories of reading this book, but I don't remember as many examples as I would like. In the notorious ones, I nevertheless retained the cerebral behavior that we see when we feel that we can win something (like a free t-shirt or a useless competition), but also how to better transform the demon of doubt into a motivation source. The book is based in sport, but could easily be broader in its application.
Key takeaways:
I have fond memories of reading this book, but I don't remember as many examples as I would like. In the notorious ones, I nevertheless retained the cerebral behavior that we see when we feel that we can win something (like a free t-shirt or a useless competition), but also how to better transform the demon of doubt into a motivation source. The book is based in sport, but could easily be broader in its application.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews