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How Champions Think: In Sports and in Life
New York Times Bestseller
“Straightforward and simple...Do the math. Read Rotella.” — The Wall Street Journal
America’s preeminent sports psychologist delivers a groundbreaking guide to success in all aspects of life—not just sports—from business to relationships to personal challenges of every variety.
Acclaimed sports psychologist Bob Rotella has advised everyone from professional golfers to NBA superstars to business executives on how to flourish under pressure and overcome challenges. Now, for the first time, he’s distilled his decades of in-depth research and practical experience into a potential-unlocking guide for everyone.
This exciting book is not a collection of Rotella’s theories; it consists of performance principles that have proven themselves in countless competitive situations, in arenas from which only the strongest minds emerge triumphant. It’s a book full of insights that you can learn and use the next morning—in the office, the classroom, or wherever your quest takes you—told not in abstractions, but through case studies and stories drawn from Rotella’s years teaching sports psychology, counseling athletes, and consulting for Fortune 500 companies. It explores how to keep the mind from holding you back, whatever your physical gifts or other talents. It’s about how to make a commitment, how to persevere, how to deal with failure—and how to train your mind to create a self-image that promotes confidence and accomplishment.
Any successful life starts with how you see yourself. And with these pearls of wisdom from the nation’s preeminent sports psychologist, you can learn to achieve the success of your dreams.
“Straightforward and simple...Do the math. Read Rotella.” — The Wall Street Journal
America’s preeminent sports psychologist delivers a groundbreaking guide to success in all aspects of life—not just sports—from business to relationships to personal challenges of every variety.
Acclaimed sports psychologist Bob Rotella has advised everyone from professional golfers to NBA superstars to business executives on how to flourish under pressure and overcome challenges. Now, for the first time, he’s distilled his decades of in-depth research and practical experience into a potential-unlocking guide for everyone.
This exciting book is not a collection of Rotella’s theories; it consists of performance principles that have proven themselves in countless competitive situations, in arenas from which only the strongest minds emerge triumphant. It’s a book full of insights that you can learn and use the next morning—in the office, the classroom, or wherever your quest takes you—told not in abstractions, but through case studies and stories drawn from Rotella’s years teaching sports psychology, counseling athletes, and consulting for Fortune 500 companies. It explores how to keep the mind from holding you back, whatever your physical gifts or other talents. It’s about how to make a commitment, how to persevere, how to deal with failure—and how to train your mind to create a self-image that promotes confidence and accomplishment.
Any successful life starts with how you see yourself. And with these pearls of wisdom from the nation’s preeminent sports psychologist, you can learn to achieve the success of your dreams.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published May 5, 2015
500 people are currently reading
3860 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 175 reviews
October 3, 2015
Some of the thoughts in this book are interesting. I especially liked Chapter 16: "Doing What You Love or Loving What You Do?" Other parts were a bit generic.
My main problem is that a book titled "How Champions Think" seemed to be more "What Champions Think." It's better on where champions are at mentally than how others can get there.
Also, every once in a while Rotella said something that really bugged me. Example: he notes that in his own lifetime Thomas Jefferson was an advocate for a person to be well-rounded in his interests and knowledge. After noting that, Rotella states, "If he were alive today, I suspect he might think quite differently." Why would Jefferson think so differently? Because then he'd agree with Rotella, that's why. He provides no evidence - but he'll enlist Jefferson on his side anyway. Just 'cuz. Look, this isn't a big deal, but every so often I got the sense that he was full of it.
Oh, speaking of minor issues - while the book is subtitled, "In Sports and in Life" - please note that 90% of the book focuses on golfers. That's where Rotella has done most of his work. That's fine, but you'll probably get more out of the book if you're more into golf.
My main problem is that a book titled "How Champions Think" seemed to be more "What Champions Think." It's better on where champions are at mentally than how others can get there.
Also, every once in a while Rotella said something that really bugged me. Example: he notes that in his own lifetime Thomas Jefferson was an advocate for a person to be well-rounded in his interests and knowledge. After noting that, Rotella states, "If he were alive today, I suspect he might think quite differently." Why would Jefferson think so differently? Because then he'd agree with Rotella, that's why. He provides no evidence - but he'll enlist Jefferson on his side anyway. Just 'cuz. Look, this isn't a big deal, but every so often I got the sense that he was full of it.
Oh, speaking of minor issues - while the book is subtitled, "In Sports and in Life" - please note that 90% of the book focuses on golfers. That's where Rotella has done most of his work. That's fine, but you'll probably get more out of the book if you're more into golf.
October 1, 2019
How Champions Think does a great job describing and explaining how to think like a champion. Dr Bob Rotella has worked with athletes such as Lebron James and Derrick Rose teaching them champion mindsets. Rotella does a great job of combining his normal teaching process with stories of how it has helped some of the greatest athletes in the world in order to write a book that can help the masses. He also finds ways to teach that this type of thinking is not useful only in sports but also in business and just your everyday life. I really enjoyed reading about his experiences helping athletes. Also, I felt that I was able to change my mindset about some things and help myself to be better in some aspects of sports and school. Overall, I felt the book was a good and helpful read and would recommend it for everyone especially those struggling to think like a champion.
September 19, 2016
I read this book during my marathon training and it helped my mental game immensely. It's been a game changer in training and in life. I wrote down a page full of quotes that I will always keep and refer to. I'm also re reading chapters to my husband that we can apply to our growing business.
September 17, 2016
As a golfer and a business owner this book found me at the right time! Having a champion mindset and embracing the work process enables the exceptional person to have a vision of greatness. I will be applying and teaching everything in this book! Brilliant!
April 15, 2020
i'm a champion now.
March 17, 2025
“How Champions Think” is not just for golfers or athletes. This book will inspire you to be exceptional! The book provides you with a road map to develop a different Mindset.
September 18, 2018
I just finished reading How Champions think, this was by far one of the best sports books I have ever read. I learned so much about what it takes to become a champion and how to control your mental game. This book showed me that your mind gets in the way of sports more than you think it would. Rotella is one of my favorite authors because he has been working with athletes for years on controlling their head while in a match or game. He has showed me that it isn’t as hard to succeed as you think it is. A huge part of succeeding is knowing in your head that you can do well. He makes it sound very simple while talking about these strategies to try but they definitely take time. This book talks a lot about patience, commitment, controlling your emotions, pressure, overcoming challenges, experience professionals have had, winning, dealing with failure, and accomplishment. Rotella has worked with so many professionals that have been very successful. It is crazy how much your emotions take over in sports. I was introduced to this book through my dad. My dad and I sit down every night and read a chapter or two together because of how good his books are. We always talk about what is going on in the book and things that we need to work on mentally or physically. We learned a lot from reading this book. I have implemented a lot of his teachings into my game. I started reading his books over the summer and it was no coincidence that I played as well as I did. It is harder to see while you are playing but everyone watching me play this summer said my game was dramatically different in a good way. They said my course management and my mental game was great. It is a great feeling when I would get frustrated that I could control myself and not let it get to me. I suggest that all athletes read this book. It doesn’t matter the sport you play because you can implement it into your game. The process isn’t fast what so ever but it definitely is very beneficial in the future.
August 18, 2015
Very enlightening. I enjoyed listening to this book.
March 29, 2024
Too much golf
June 23, 2022
Every year, there is one book that is behavior-changing and gives you new lease on life, so to speak. This one is it for 2022 for me.
It feels like having a personal coach in your back pocket, sharing similar wisdom, as if the reader is one of his exclusive clients (incl. Lebron James and many golf champs). I went to look if he has a podcast, in order to keep these topics fresh with frequent reminders, sadly he doesn't.
It's exactly the kind of content I needed to read right this moment, whilst navigating a career transition.
It feels like having a personal coach in your back pocket, sharing similar wisdom, as if the reader is one of his exclusive clients (incl. Lebron James and many golf champs). I went to look if he has a podcast, in order to keep these topics fresh with frequent reminders, sadly he doesn't.
It's exactly the kind of content I needed to read right this moment, whilst navigating a career transition.
May 20, 2021
I forgot the book I intended to read at home, so I read this instead. I'm glad I did. The author had some great morsels of wisdom which right away improved my golf game. I took off one star because the author repeated himself a little too much for my liking (probably a sports psychology tactic).
July 8, 2024
very long chapters so hard to stay engaged but gives very good and inspiring quotes
August 18, 2024
Some good tips that I will definitely use!
January 28, 2025
This was a good book that gives a different perspective about what being an exceptional person means. I learned a lot about coaching and how to encourage others to be great.
April 29, 2025
Most of the negative reviews for this book said Dr. Bob talked about golf too much. Those people don’t deserve Dr. Bob. I can only hope to make Dr. Bob proud someday.
March 24, 2024
“You are unstoppable if you are unflappable!”
However, the book should be called ‘How Golf Champions Think’. I have nothing against golf, but there was way too much of it. I was expecting a more rounded sport and life psychology, but it was mainly about golf stars, their practice and competitions.
However, the book should be called ‘How Golf Champions Think’. I have nothing against golf, but there was way too much of it. I was expecting a more rounded sport and life psychology, but it was mainly about golf stars, their practice and competitions.
August 19, 2023
good stuff, interesting, talks about countering nihilism and passivity.
August 25, 2023
Excellent
Excellent examples and practices to follow thank you Bob for all your effort in sharing this work with us forever
Excellent examples and practices to follow thank you Bob for all your effort in sharing this work with us forever
July 13, 2019
Oh, if I could only go back in time. I'd roll down the window of my DeLorean and say to my 15-year-old self, "Get in the car, butthead, today's your lucky day." That skinny, nervous kid would shudder, and I would hand him this book. "You're good enough to make the team," I'd say, "you just need to calm down, you need to believe in yourself." Had that kid read this book, he would have made the team. No doubt. But that's not why I'd go back in time. Baseball shmaseball -- after all, it's such a boring sport. In these pages, Bob Rotella shares the secrets of mental toughness, secrets that can help in all sorts of stressful situations -- from baseball tryouts to job interviews to first dates. So do yourself a favor, butthead, and read this book.
May 3, 2021
This book is a motivating read for anyone who wants to make bigger change in life. You'll feel like - hey I can do this. It holds valuable lessons and themes for those performing at high levels.
Took off 3 stars for 3 reasons:
1. There is a lot of golf terminology and would have liked to see wider applications.
2. This book leans highly toward the individual-deterministic view without often acknowledging how privilege or circumstances play a roll in life as well.
3. The book almost always uses only "he" as a pronoun for everything (i.e. "He is exceptional when he does xyz...", and it's the 21st century! There are more inclusive forms of writing that would make this book a lot more approachable and a lot less irritating to audiences that are not male.
I would recommend this book to people with big grains of salt - it's a motivating book to skim, or to read a few chapters intensely, but it won't be the first book I recommend for the reasons mentioned.
Took off 3 stars for 3 reasons:
1. There is a lot of golf terminology and would have liked to see wider applications.
2. This book leans highly toward the individual-deterministic view without often acknowledging how privilege or circumstances play a roll in life as well.
3. The book almost always uses only "he" as a pronoun for everything (i.e. "He is exceptional when he does xyz...", and it's the 21st century! There are more inclusive forms of writing that would make this book a lot more approachable and a lot less irritating to audiences that are not male.
I would recommend this book to people with big grains of salt - it's a motivating book to skim, or to read a few chapters intensely, but it won't be the first book I recommend for the reasons mentioned.
January 2, 2018
People, it will seem like everything you have heard a million times before from anybody whoever has ever given you advice... but wait! read the lines twice and read between the lines.
You have heard it before - process, plan, hard work, perseverance, never say die, etc.
But, there is something in what Bob says that makes it that much truer.
And looking at the entire sum of points he makes across the chapters made it worthwhile for me.
If nothing, he has spent his whole life coaching champions and telling them what champions before them, did. My suggestion, don't throw away, think deeper into what Bob is saying because that is what the champions he coached did!!
The only thing that I felt a little tough to align to was the primary focus on golf and then some more on basketball. Bob does make casual references to a financial job industry, but not much.
You have heard it before - process, plan, hard work, perseverance, never say die, etc.
But, there is something in what Bob says that makes it that much truer.
And looking at the entire sum of points he makes across the chapters made it worthwhile for me.
If nothing, he has spent his whole life coaching champions and telling them what champions before them, did. My suggestion, don't throw away, think deeper into what Bob is saying because that is what the champions he coached did!!
The only thing that I felt a little tough to align to was the primary focus on golf and then some more on basketball. Bob does make casual references to a financial job industry, but not much.
February 20, 2017
3.5 stars. I think if you're into golf AND motivational books, this is a five star win, but as someone just looking for the motivational aspect, it's a bit too golf-heavy anecdotally for me.
Great principles, but I found myself skimming on the golf parts, as it was a little boring. If you can get past that, there's some good material in here about keeping a positive mental attitude, sweat equity, etc.
Good read, but a little sports heavy for me.
Great principles, but I found myself skimming on the golf parts, as it was a little boring. If you can get past that, there's some good material in here about keeping a positive mental attitude, sweat equity, etc.
Good read, but a little sports heavy for me.
October 25, 2019
Definitly should be called "How champions think In golf and golf! This book has some tie in to real life of course but 95% of example/stories are from golf. Im an avid golfer and fidont mind but im my opinion the book is really put together helter skelter. Better options are Tony Robbins books. But the 3 star is for Rotellas past books and the golf angle...
August 6, 2017
Life changing book. Incredibly inspiring. I checked it out from my local library, but intend to buy a copy for myself and copies for family members.
January 5, 2017
If you take on the mindset of a champion, you will be a champion
June 29, 2017
Every individual should read this book!
July 27, 2017
Great
Great how Bob constantly refers to what an exceptional person does so the lessons are available for all of us to learn from.
Great how Bob constantly refers to what an exceptional person does so the lessons are available for all of us to learn from.
January 13, 2025
sometimes all you need is a really patriotic, capitalism-loving man to inspire you 🙂↕️
February 8, 2023
This is a very white male view of the world. Key lesson - you can rise above any station in life by your effort.
But there were some great points along the way:
Learn to be optimistic - shake off doubt, know in your heart you'll be successful in the long run.
Have a confident self image - image should not correlate with perfection, develop your skills, visualize success - you perform best when not in a state of fear.
Respect your talents - passion is key, how you see yourself matters, be coachable, pick a good teacher.
Commitment - love what you are doing & devise a plan and stick to it, Perseverance - don't let set backs dimish your view of yourself, Habit - establish habit that enable you to never give into fear and failure.
Dreams - serve the dream, invest in the process, Goals - immerse in process goals, Processs - aim high and be the best version of you each day.
Learned effectiveness - seek reasons to believe that success is possible.
Performance process - you can't cure nerves, invest in a performance process that embraces them ans responds to them accordingly - focus on process.
Evaluating yourself - best time to teach is right after winning, set your own standard and compare to it rigorously, compare performance to process standards you set, define excellence in your own terms, monitor application of the process.
Going through the fire - you'll fail, failure is only final if you stop striving.
Competition- set your goals so high that it doesn't matter who you play.
Be patient with the process of becoming great - but do not be patient with the limits anyone sets on you.
Surround yourself with people that make you better. You can't take advice/input from everyone.
If you love it - you won't burn out. Love it despite the annoyances. Find enthusiasm every day.
Envision the future you strive for.
You only fail if you didn't give your very best. Judge your success by the process you invest in - not the outcome. Define your own success. And then you can rest easy, knowing you did all yhay was within your control.
But there were some great points along the way:
Learn to be optimistic - shake off doubt, know in your heart you'll be successful in the long run.
Have a confident self image - image should not correlate with perfection, develop your skills, visualize success - you perform best when not in a state of fear.
Respect your talents - passion is key, how you see yourself matters, be coachable, pick a good teacher.
Commitment - love what you are doing & devise a plan and stick to it, Perseverance - don't let set backs dimish your view of yourself, Habit - establish habit that enable you to never give into fear and failure.
Dreams - serve the dream, invest in the process, Goals - immerse in process goals, Processs - aim high and be the best version of you each day.
Learned effectiveness - seek reasons to believe that success is possible.
Performance process - you can't cure nerves, invest in a performance process that embraces them ans responds to them accordingly - focus on process.
Evaluating yourself - best time to teach is right after winning, set your own standard and compare to it rigorously, compare performance to process standards you set, define excellence in your own terms, monitor application of the process.
Going through the fire - you'll fail, failure is only final if you stop striving.
Competition- set your goals so high that it doesn't matter who you play.
Be patient with the process of becoming great - but do not be patient with the limits anyone sets on you.
Surround yourself with people that make you better. You can't take advice/input from everyone.
If you love it - you won't burn out. Love it despite the annoyances. Find enthusiasm every day.
Envision the future you strive for.
You only fail if you didn't give your very best. Judge your success by the process you invest in - not the outcome. Define your own success. And then you can rest easy, knowing you did all yhay was within your control.
August 16, 2025
Four stars: I liked it. If I have a copy of this book, I'll keep it. If I don't own this book, I might consider buying it (probably used).
This was an easy and fast read for me. The concepts were familiar (I've read several books like this on sport psychology and coaching), and they align rather well with the ideas that I already know and use in my own life (I am a sport coach). In short: success is the result of dedicated practice and development of skills combined with a process-oriented approach to using those practiced skills in competition. Done right, the lessons of sport and the lessons in life mirror each other, and augment each other.
I'm reading this book about 10 years after publication, so some of the references seem dated. Women are largely invisible in this book. This is not mean-spirited or intentional, it's just a function of the author's own life experiences in sport psychology and golf instruction... it's what he knows. While I think that most of the concepts are universal (I am male, so perhaps slightly blind, myself), some things, such as developing a confident self-image, may be more complex for those who are not cis-gender males trying to make it in a male-dominated area, such as sport or business.
There is one section in which he shares something that he discusses with some of his clients, who tend to be largely young men pursuing professional golf careers: advice on how to think about selecting a spouse. This section I found obtuse, as it focused on the spouse as the supporter of the athlete, who is the one who is trying to be exceptional. What if the athlete becomes involved with someone who, herself, is trying to be exceptional in her field?
I think that it could have been trimmed by about 50 pages without losing much. The conversational tone was nice, but some of the vignettes and stories seemed to meander a bit. I think that the book is strongest in the beginning and middle, a little weaker near the end. The whole book feels like it's one draft shy of being really done, or a bit rushed near the end.
This was an easy and fast read for me. The concepts were familiar (I've read several books like this on sport psychology and coaching), and they align rather well with the ideas that I already know and use in my own life (I am a sport coach). In short: success is the result of dedicated practice and development of skills combined with a process-oriented approach to using those practiced skills in competition. Done right, the lessons of sport and the lessons in life mirror each other, and augment each other.
I'm reading this book about 10 years after publication, so some of the references seem dated. Women are largely invisible in this book. This is not mean-spirited or intentional, it's just a function of the author's own life experiences in sport psychology and golf instruction... it's what he knows. While I think that most of the concepts are universal (I am male, so perhaps slightly blind, myself), some things, such as developing a confident self-image, may be more complex for those who are not cis-gender males trying to make it in a male-dominated area, such as sport or business.
There is one section in which he shares something that he discusses with some of his clients, who tend to be largely young men pursuing professional golf careers: advice on how to think about selecting a spouse. This section I found obtuse, as it focused on the spouse as the supporter of the athlete, who is the one who is trying to be exceptional. What if the athlete becomes involved with someone who, herself, is trying to be exceptional in her field?
I think that it could have been trimmed by about 50 pages without losing much. The conversational tone was nice, but some of the vignettes and stories seemed to meander a bit. I think that the book is strongest in the beginning and middle, a little weaker near the end. The whole book feels like it's one draft shy of being really done, or a bit rushed near the end.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 175 reviews