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10-Minute Toughness: The Mental Training Program for Winning Before the Game Begins
“ 10-Minute Toughness is a solid mental training program. In fact I feel it is the best of its kind. . . . [It's] what the title says: ten minutes a day that connects your talents and abilities to the outcome you're seeking. As a retired NFL player looking forward, I can see as many applications for the toughness Jason Selk's program brought out of me in the business world as there were on the football field.”
-- Jeff Wilkins , Former NFL Pro Bowl Kicker “The mental side of the game is extremely important. 10-Minute Toughness helps the players develop the mental toughness needed for success; it really makes a difference.”
-- Walt Jocketty , General Manager of the 2006 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals “Jason Selk has spent a tremendous amount of time and energy developing effective mental-training programs and coaches workshops. He is truly committed to helping individuals and teams to perform at their very best, when it really counts.”
-- Peter Vidmar , Olympic Gold Medalist Mental training is a must for high performance both on the field and off. But simply hoping for mental toughness isn't going to build any mind muscles. You need a proven routine of daily exercises to get you where you want to go. 10-Minute Toughness is your personal coach for boosting brainpower and achieving a competitive edge in whatever game you play. With quickness and ease, you'll learn how to master your own mind and psych out your opponents using personalized techniques from one of America's most successful sport psychology consultants. Like no other program available, the 10-Minute Toughness (10-MT) routine gets you ready for the competition in just ten minutes a day.
-- Jeff Wilkins , Former NFL Pro Bowl Kicker “The mental side of the game is extremely important. 10-Minute Toughness helps the players develop the mental toughness needed for success; it really makes a difference.”
-- Walt Jocketty , General Manager of the 2006 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals “Jason Selk has spent a tremendous amount of time and energy developing effective mental-training programs and coaches workshops. He is truly committed to helping individuals and teams to perform at their very best, when it really counts.”
-- Peter Vidmar , Olympic Gold Medalist Mental training is a must for high performance both on the field and off. But simply hoping for mental toughness isn't going to build any mind muscles. You need a proven routine of daily exercises to get you where you want to go. 10-Minute Toughness is your personal coach for boosting brainpower and achieving a competitive edge in whatever game you play. With quickness and ease, you'll learn how to master your own mind and psych out your opponents using personalized techniques from one of America's most successful sport psychology consultants. Like no other program available, the 10-Minute Toughness (10-MT) routine gets you ready for the competition in just ten minutes a day.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published September 10, 2008
293 people are currently reading
1643 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
September 24, 2014
Okay, it's not my usual review, I admit it.
I read "10 Minute Toughness: The Mental Training Program For Winning Before the Game Begins."
I'm not going to give an in-depth analysis this time. I'm going to explain it a bit differently: I find running on the treadmill BORING. I do. I come up with all sorts of tricks to make the time pass. It's just far too hot to attempt my running outside right now (and by right now I mean through October or November).
This book completely took my mind of the repetitive scenery I encounter on my treadmill. :) Not only does Selk back up his 10 Minute Toughness program with research, reference material, and his own professional experiences, he make it clear and to-the-point for those of us who are not top tier athletes. Or, even second tier athletes, for that matter.
In fact, I enjoyed learning about this program so much that it is revolutionizing what I had thought of as a dull way of training.
If you find yourself needing to revitalize yourself - whether it's from an athletic standpoint or in your professional goals - I highly recommend this book! Writers, be advised: every single item Selk covers in this book can be used as part of a "pre-writing" ten minute session. If you struggle to clear your mind before writing, give this a try.
I read "10 Minute Toughness: The Mental Training Program For Winning Before the Game Begins."
I'm not going to give an in-depth analysis this time. I'm going to explain it a bit differently: I find running on the treadmill BORING. I do. I come up with all sorts of tricks to make the time pass. It's just far too hot to attempt my running outside right now (and by right now I mean through October or November).
This book completely took my mind of the repetitive scenery I encounter on my treadmill. :) Not only does Selk back up his 10 Minute Toughness program with research, reference material, and his own professional experiences, he make it clear and to-the-point for those of us who are not top tier athletes. Or, even second tier athletes, for that matter.
In fact, I enjoyed learning about this program so much that it is revolutionizing what I had thought of as a dull way of training.
If you find yourself needing to revitalize yourself - whether it's from an athletic standpoint or in your professional goals - I highly recommend this book! Writers, be advised: every single item Selk covers in this book can be used as part of a "pre-writing" ten minute session. If you struggle to clear your mind before writing, give this a try.
May 15, 2015
Excellent mental fitness training program. Mostly geared towards athletes, but easily accessible to other areas. If you have ever struggled to meditate you will be well versed in these practices/techniques presented.
June 15, 2021
There are three things I love about this book:
The topic—mental toughness
It provides a clear action plan that you can implement immediately, and
The techniques are backed with true stories of athletes and studies in sports psychology
10-Minute Toughness is more than just a book; it is a mental training program that every athlete should add to their daily routine. It's also incredibly helpful for entrepreneurs and creative people to improve mental toughness that helps to thrive in a competitive environment.
Mental training, like physical training, can help athletes reach their ultimate goals. However, it’s essential for athletes to make good decisions off the field as well. Engaging in healthy relationships and having good nutrition and sleep habits are ever-important pieces of the puzzle. No matter how physically strong or mentally tough a person is, substance abuse is a major obstacle to success.
The field of sports psychology has identified self-efficacy (self-confidence) as the most influential mental variable in controlling performance. This means that if you have a strong belief in your ability to perform well, then the chances of your actually performing well greatly improve.
One trait that truly successful people have in common is that they have developed and maintained a solution-focused approach in their careers and in.
Don’t listen to what other people thought because that isn’t important. What is important is to focus on the process of success and what it will take to reach the goals.
Tips and hacks are like tools. Only when the mental strength is developed, individuals can readily decide what tools to call on for different situations.
Inhaling air into the diaphragm is a biological tool that helps control the heart rate. Taking a deep, centering breath allows individuals to keep their heart rate under control and perform at a more effective pace.
It is said that the average person has up to sixty thousand thoughts per day—that’s a lot of self-talk. The unfortunate thing about those thoughts is that the majority tend to embody self-doubt or negativity.
If we do not choose our thoughts carefully, they can (and many times do) have a negative impact on performance.
Extensive research in the sports psychology world confirms that an athlete’s internal dialogue significantly influences performance. Athletes who have negative self-talk will generally experience poor performance; conversely, when athletes keep their minds focused on positive performance cues, they are more likely to experience success.
The essence of mental toughness is the ability to replace negative thinking with thoughts that are centered on performance cues or that contribute to improved self-confidence. The more often negative thoughts are replaced with positive self-talk, the more successful and mentally tough a person will be.
Cognitive psychology has taught us that the mind can fully focus on only one item at a time. In short, if you are thinking about what is going wrong in your life, you cannot be thinking about what it takes to make it right.
Visualization is a powerful tool in athletics. According to some studies, in fact, every minute of visualization is worth seven minutes of physical practice.
By visualizing a positive emotional experience from your past, you, too, can learn to release endorphins into your bloodstream on a regular basis, which is very helpful for increasing your confidence and consistency.
Your self-image is essentially how you view yourself—what strengths and weaknesses you believe you possess. It has been demonstrated that what people believe they are capable of accomplishing largely determines how much they will actually accomplish.
Self-image is a proven agent of behavior control. When you truly believe in your ability, the self-image motivates the behaviors needed for you to live up to your expectations. You can’t outperform or underperform your self-image for long.
Self-image is internally constructed: we can decide how we view ourselves.
The key is to create the self-image desired—decided who you want to be and how you want to live—and then continuously tell yourself that you have what it takes to be that person. The self-image will guide and direct actions and behaviors until the self-image becomes a reality.
The three concepts that turn ordinary goal setting into effective goal setting are these: (1) Process goals produce results, (2) No excuses; go public, (3) Keep goals alive, and live the dream.
If the motivation behind your selected goals is anything other than true passion and love, then the reward attached to their ultimate accomplishment will be irrelevant.
If you have set goals congruent with who you want to be and how you want to live, it will be much easier for you to muster the self-discipline essential for working through the tough times, and you will be much more likely to achieve great things.
Whatever a person chooses to do, there will be times when the commitment needed for greatness isn’t fun. Working hard is not always enjoyable, but if you love what you do, committing to hard work will be easier.
The way to tell if you’re giving 100 percent effort is to do everything you know you have to do to be your best. This doesn’t mean you train during every waking hour, day in and day out. For one thing, it’s necessary to incorporate rest into training cycles. What it does mean is that if you know of something that would help your training and competitive performance, you owe it to yourself to at least test it out.
It doesn’t always play out so neatly. There will be times when you try things that don’t do much for you. You have to keep an open mind and channel energy into researching ways to improve. Be willing to do everything that you think could help.
Rituals are the act of creating positive habits. Rituals occur when individuals connect positive behaviors to specific times, days, and dates.
For goals to work for you, you will have to work for them.
What the winning teams and players consciously or unconsciously understood was that success isn’t built on worrying about all the problems a supposedly superior opponent presents. Excellence is achieved through a solution-focused mind.
We, humans, are better at seeing problems than we are at seeing solutions. This itself is a problem, because what we dwell on expands. When we spend most of our lives thinking about problems, we heft an unnecessary weight onto our shoulders. Fortunately, we have the capacity to change. We are able to overcome our human tendency to continuously ruminate on problems and actually become solution-focused.
When we think about problems, our problems grow. When we think about solutions, our solutions grow. Thinking about solutions makes life much more enjoyable and allows us to become much more successful.
The solution does not need to produce perfection. It merely has to promote improvement.
+1 Concept: The idea that success can be achieved by meeting a string of basic, incremental goals in the present that will ultimately lead to excellence in the future.
Gradual improvement over time brings about vibrant and sustainable growth. We frequently get confounded by how much work it will take for our problems to be completely resolved. We become paralyzed, unable to take action toward improvement. You do not need to arrive at perfection; you need to slowly but surely make things better.
The first step to figuring out the “I don’t know” is to stop saying “I don’t know”.
Anytime you feel angry, sad, stressed, frustrated, or just generally uncomfortable, seek out and define the underlying problem. Keep it simple, spending as little time and energy as necessary on this step. Once you nail down what is causing you to feel uncomfortable, immediately make the shift to the solution side of the board by asking yourself what one thing you could do differently that could make things better.
An essential part of the process is to follow through with the solution. People tend to get roadblocked at the juncture of getting a solution on the board. If you do not put action into the solution, your problem is bound to linger.
Hang out with solution-focused people. Attitudes are contagious; people tend to take on the attitudes and actions of the individuals in their circle.
The topic—mental toughness
It provides a clear action plan that you can implement immediately, and
The techniques are backed with true stories of athletes and studies in sports psychology
10-Minute Toughness is more than just a book; it is a mental training program that every athlete should add to their daily routine. It's also incredibly helpful for entrepreneurs and creative people to improve mental toughness that helps to thrive in a competitive environment.
Mental training, like physical training, can help athletes reach their ultimate goals. However, it’s essential for athletes to make good decisions off the field as well. Engaging in healthy relationships and having good nutrition and sleep habits are ever-important pieces of the puzzle. No matter how physically strong or mentally tough a person is, substance abuse is a major obstacle to success.
The field of sports psychology has identified self-efficacy (self-confidence) as the most influential mental variable in controlling performance. This means that if you have a strong belief in your ability to perform well, then the chances of your actually performing well greatly improve.
One trait that truly successful people have in common is that they have developed and maintained a solution-focused approach in their careers and in.
Don’t listen to what other people thought because that isn’t important. What is important is to focus on the process of success and what it will take to reach the goals.
Tips and hacks are like tools. Only when the mental strength is developed, individuals can readily decide what tools to call on for different situations.
Inhaling air into the diaphragm is a biological tool that helps control the heart rate. Taking a deep, centering breath allows individuals to keep their heart rate under control and perform at a more effective pace.
It is said that the average person has up to sixty thousand thoughts per day—that’s a lot of self-talk. The unfortunate thing about those thoughts is that the majority tend to embody self-doubt or negativity.
If we do not choose our thoughts carefully, they can (and many times do) have a negative impact on performance.
Extensive research in the sports psychology world confirms that an athlete’s internal dialogue significantly influences performance. Athletes who have negative self-talk will generally experience poor performance; conversely, when athletes keep their minds focused on positive performance cues, they are more likely to experience success.
The essence of mental toughness is the ability to replace negative thinking with thoughts that are centered on performance cues or that contribute to improved self-confidence. The more often negative thoughts are replaced with positive self-talk, the more successful and mentally tough a person will be.
Cognitive psychology has taught us that the mind can fully focus on only one item at a time. In short, if you are thinking about what is going wrong in your life, you cannot be thinking about what it takes to make it right.
Visualization is a powerful tool in athletics. According to some studies, in fact, every minute of visualization is worth seven minutes of physical practice.
By visualizing a positive emotional experience from your past, you, too, can learn to release endorphins into your bloodstream on a regular basis, which is very helpful for increasing your confidence and consistency.
Your self-image is essentially how you view yourself—what strengths and weaknesses you believe you possess. It has been demonstrated that what people believe they are capable of accomplishing largely determines how much they will actually accomplish.
Self-image is a proven agent of behavior control. When you truly believe in your ability, the self-image motivates the behaviors needed for you to live up to your expectations. You can’t outperform or underperform your self-image for long.
Self-image is internally constructed: we can decide how we view ourselves.
The key is to create the self-image desired—decided who you want to be and how you want to live—and then continuously tell yourself that you have what it takes to be that person. The self-image will guide and direct actions and behaviors until the self-image becomes a reality.
The three concepts that turn ordinary goal setting into effective goal setting are these: (1) Process goals produce results, (2) No excuses; go public, (3) Keep goals alive, and live the dream.
If the motivation behind your selected goals is anything other than true passion and love, then the reward attached to their ultimate accomplishment will be irrelevant.
If you have set goals congruent with who you want to be and how you want to live, it will be much easier for you to muster the self-discipline essential for working through the tough times, and you will be much more likely to achieve great things.
Whatever a person chooses to do, there will be times when the commitment needed for greatness isn’t fun. Working hard is not always enjoyable, but if you love what you do, committing to hard work will be easier.
The way to tell if you’re giving 100 percent effort is to do everything you know you have to do to be your best. This doesn’t mean you train during every waking hour, day in and day out. For one thing, it’s necessary to incorporate rest into training cycles. What it does mean is that if you know of something that would help your training and competitive performance, you owe it to yourself to at least test it out.
It doesn’t always play out so neatly. There will be times when you try things that don’t do much for you. You have to keep an open mind and channel energy into researching ways to improve. Be willing to do everything that you think could help.
Rituals are the act of creating positive habits. Rituals occur when individuals connect positive behaviors to specific times, days, and dates.
For goals to work for you, you will have to work for them.
What the winning teams and players consciously or unconsciously understood was that success isn’t built on worrying about all the problems a supposedly superior opponent presents. Excellence is achieved through a solution-focused mind.
We, humans, are better at seeing problems than we are at seeing solutions. This itself is a problem, because what we dwell on expands. When we spend most of our lives thinking about problems, we heft an unnecessary weight onto our shoulders. Fortunately, we have the capacity to change. We are able to overcome our human tendency to continuously ruminate on problems and actually become solution-focused.
When we think about problems, our problems grow. When we think about solutions, our solutions grow. Thinking about solutions makes life much more enjoyable and allows us to become much more successful.
The solution does not need to produce perfection. It merely has to promote improvement.
+1 Concept: The idea that success can be achieved by meeting a string of basic, incremental goals in the present that will ultimately lead to excellence in the future.
Gradual improvement over time brings about vibrant and sustainable growth. We frequently get confounded by how much work it will take for our problems to be completely resolved. We become paralyzed, unable to take action toward improvement. You do not need to arrive at perfection; you need to slowly but surely make things better.
The first step to figuring out the “I don’t know” is to stop saying “I don’t know”.
Anytime you feel angry, sad, stressed, frustrated, or just generally uncomfortable, seek out and define the underlying problem. Keep it simple, spending as little time and energy as necessary on this step. Once you nail down what is causing you to feel uncomfortable, immediately make the shift to the solution side of the board by asking yourself what one thing you could do differently that could make things better.
An essential part of the process is to follow through with the solution. People tend to get roadblocked at the juncture of getting a solution on the board. If you do not put action into the solution, your problem is bound to linger.
Hang out with solution-focused people. Attitudes are contagious; people tend to take on the attitudes and actions of the individuals in their circle.
April 1, 2016
10-minute toughness by Jason stalk. He tells us more about the mental side of his athletic career, and how important it is. He is looking through the eyes of Jeff Wilkins a retired NFL player teaching you about the other side of the game, the mental side. Which he thinks is very important. He talks about how as an athlete being mentally tough is something that separates the great athletes and pros, from the good athletes. Colleges coaches scout athletes heavily through this skill. They don't care if a player has a bad play or shift, they wanna see how they come back from that. This book taught me a lot, being a lacrosse and hockey player mental toughness is something that plays a great part in my game. I learned especially as a lacrosse attack man that every play is a new play even if the ball gets taken away from me to have a short term memory loss and forget about it. It taught me that it's not about my actions it's about how I recover from my actions that can make me great. This book can teach athletes a lot about their mental game, and the mental game is something many players especially hockey goalies struggle with. I would recommend it to all athletes that are looking to play at the next level. It's helped me a lot and can help you too.
May 7, 2017
I read this book as a primer for a shooting competition that I was about to enter. I wasn’t at all confident in myself and I wanted to figure out a quick way to fix my mindset prior to the competition. 10-Minute toughness was designed for professional athletes with similar issues.
It is actually an all encompassing mental training program but Selk’s thoughts on getting primed mentally are especially crucial in the moments right before execution.
In 10 minutes, you will calm yourself down, use a performance statement to get you in the right frame of mind, play a highlight reel centered on yourself as a dominating force, and another centering breath to bring you back down. It was exactly what I needed at exactly the right moment.
I think Selk put together a good system for mental training, one that you can use several times over and continue to refine as a tool for development and performance. He includes worksheets for all phases of his system, and even more important, he includes sample worksheets of actual athletes in order to give you some reference point for he is looking for.
Again, a great mental training system and tool for athletes.
Visit www.outworkindustries.com for more of my thoughts on similar books.
r/Tony
It is actually an all encompassing mental training program but Selk’s thoughts on getting primed mentally are especially crucial in the moments right before execution.
In 10 minutes, you will calm yourself down, use a performance statement to get you in the right frame of mind, play a highlight reel centered on yourself as a dominating force, and another centering breath to bring you back down. It was exactly what I needed at exactly the right moment.
I think Selk put together a good system for mental training, one that you can use several times over and continue to refine as a tool for development and performance. He includes worksheets for all phases of his system, and even more important, he includes sample worksheets of actual athletes in order to give you some reference point for he is looking for.
Again, a great mental training system and tool for athletes.
Visit www.outworkindustries.com for more of my thoughts on similar books.
r/Tony
August 23, 2010
The best sports psychology book I have ever read. I recommend it for athletes, probably starting at high school age and older, parents of athletes, and coaches. Selk obviously does some leadership training aside from his work with athletes and it comes through. Thus, making this book relevant beyond the world of athletics and also in business. His advice is practical and simple.
January 13, 2012
Quick read with great information in it for athletes. The author gives them a straight forward approach to staying focused and gives them an edge to get themselves into the zone a little easier. It helped us create a plan that truly worked for our son and we could see a difference after just one time of him using it before his basketball game. Now it's his ritual.
June 10, 2009
Selk's motivational techniques for athletes seem reasonable enough. The key question, however, is whether they are useful for regular folks in their day-to-day lives. Selk claims that they are but should have offered more evidence to support their general applicability.
May 6, 2011
Great read with practical applications. Step by step process to increase mental toughness, set goals and monitor and evaluate progress. Glad that I found it and I have already started implementing. I highly recommend it for sport and business.
April 17, 2016
Great read for all athletes
I wish I had read this as an athlete. I will still put these tips to use professionally And as a coach. Very helpful for developing a mental toughness plan.
I wish I had read this as an athlete. I will still put these tips to use professionally And as a coach. Very helpful for developing a mental toughness plan.
December 1, 2015
My daughter knew when a girl on the opposing volleyball team was mentally freaking. Her coach knew it. They all knew it. They could see it in her eyes and body language. And they exploited it. They would try to serve or hit the ball to that girl because more often than not she’d shank it or miscommunicate with the girl next to her or hesitate. They were easy points.
And as the mistakes piled up, the freaking only intensified. Which is why many of the opposing coaches would pull the girl back or take her out to let her get her mind straight because someone who is losing their mental game makes all sorts of mistakes they normally don’t make.
There are two parts to any performance—(a) the ability to do the required tasks and (b) the ability to stay focused, loose, and remain positive while performing, especially under pressure.
Both skills are critical because you can be a super star in practice, but if you can’t handle the pressure of a game, including your failures, you will end up performing like you haven’t practiced at all, even if you practice at game speed. On the other hand, you can be mentally tough, but if you still don’t have any skills, your mental toughness only allows you to demonstrate the best version of your lack of skills.
And this isn’t just with physical performances like team sports, teaching, public speaking, and drama. I’ve found the same thing with my writing, which is a cognitive performance.
John, you ask, a performance? You’re all alone with a computer or pad of paper. There is no audience watching you write.
And that’s correct. Nobody wants to watch someone write. Can you imagine? Bill, look at how he strikes the keys on his keyboard. He’s really smoking along. That’s got to be a four-page-per-hour pace. But wait, what’s this? Now he’s looking something up on Google. He’s scanning, scanning. Now he’s reading. Let’s watch him read...
Pure heart-stopping excitement. Which is why we don’t have programs that watch writers.
But it’s still a performance. It’s just that with novels the telling and receiving happen at different times. And, more importantly, even if we authors sub-vocalize or do a bit of acting as we write (my daughters will often catch me talking to myself while writing), the telling and the receiving are in the heads of the writers and the readers. Which means that when you watch a writer write, you are not watching the performance. You can’t watch it. You can only create the performance in your head as you read it.
And many writers can attest to the fact that one of the hardest parts of the performance is the mind game. Neil Gaiman is a best-selling science fiction and fantasy author. He’s related the following anecdote many times which illustrates this.
***QUOTE***
The last novel I wrote (it was ANANSI BOYS, in case you were wondering) when I got three-quarters of the way through I called my agent. I told her how stupid I felt writing something no-one would ever want to read, how thin the characters were, how pointless the plot. I strongly suggested that I was ready to abandon this book and write something else instead, or perhaps I could abandon the book and take up a new life as a landscape gardener, bank-robber, short-order cook or marine biologist. And instead of sympathizing or agreeing with me, or blasting me forward with a wave of enthusiasm—or even arguing with me—she simply said, suspiciously cheerfully, “Oh, you’re at that part of the book, are you?”
I was shocked. “You mean I’ve done this before?”
“You don’t remember?”
“Not really.”
“Oh yes,” she said. “You do this every time you write a novel.”
More: http://nanowrimo.org/pep-talks/neil-g....
***END QUOTE***
Writing can sometimes be a complete head game. Let me assure you.
So whether you’re performing physically or cognitively, you need both the task and the mental skills.
There are lots of places to learn the task skills. But where do you go to learn how to manage the mental game? What actually works? Who knows this stuff?
In this case, you can follow the money right to professional sports. There are folks whose whole job is to help athletes with their mental game. They’re called sports psychologists, but don’t let the word “psychologist” mislead you. These are not pipe-smoking Germans who have you lie down on a couch and discuss your childhood traumas. No. These are folks who apply research-based techniques to help the athletes set goals, perform mental routines that include visualization, and focus on the right things. This is about your mind right before, during, and after your performance, not while you’re lying on a couch.
So does it work with kids?
During my daughter’s basketball season as a high school junior, Nellie and I realized she was always running herself down. She was discounting what she was doing well to the point that she thought she wasn’t adding to the team. We told her she was nuts, but who listens to parents? They’re supposed to say nice things. So we started keep stats on every player in every game so she could get a more accurate and healthy view of her performance levels.
The stats told her exactly how well she was doing, but all by themselves they didn’t really do much to help her improve. So when the season ended, I went looking for yet another program that would help her with her shooting skills. At the same time, I ran across an article about mental toughness and immediately knew this was something I should look into.
I found a shooting program that was different from all the others we’d tried. And different in a very good way. I’ll plug it in another review. I also found a slim, information-packed book written by Jason Selk called 10-Minute Toughness: The Mental-Training Program for Winning Before the Game Begins.
Selk is the sports psychologist who works for the St. Louis Cardinals and has also worked with NFL pros and Olympic gold medalists. And what he shares in his book is a three-step program to getting focused and staying on target. The three steps include scientifically proven routines, the same ones he uses with his professional athletes.
So Lovely Daughter #3 and I read the book. And then she started applying the three-steps to her off-season basketball. The results? Well, so far she’s gone from hitting 30% of her shots to over 60-70% of them. And it’s not just with her mid-range shots and free throws. This last week we went in to practice, and she shot about 60 three-pointers from different spots and made 40 of them. It was just an awesome series of boom, boom, boom. Then she repeated that performance in the practice session the very next day.
Yes, the new shooting method has been amazing. Yes, she’s put in lots of hours. But she wouldn’t have been able to realize the benefits of the hours nor the shooting program if her mental game was wacked. There were simply too many times during practice that things didn’t go so well. And it was the 10-Minute Toughness routine that got her back on track.
Let me give you another example. For whatever reason, Lovely Daughter #3 didn’t create a mental toughness routine for her off season volleyball. The team went to a spring tournament, and she was the girl who was shanking the balls, serving out, and unable to hit. She was the girl who was mentally freaking. She began to think she just didn’t have what it took and figured she might not even start in the season, which was going to be her senior year. At one point between games, she went off alone and broke down in tears of frustration and disappointment. Her mental game was wacked.
She called me. We created a routine based on the book. And she did better the rest of that tournament. She didn’t do great, but she did better. Then she continued to use the routine during her off-season practices. And she used it big time during the season. Her coaches also helped the girls focus on forward thinking. By the end of the season, her performance had risen to the point where she was a solid contributor on the team with her serving, receiving, and hitting. She made the all star team, and was named one of two Utah athletes of the week by the Deseret News.
There’s no doubt all the hours playing helped. There’s no doubt the great coaching helped her improve her volleyball skills as well. But she wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of the coaching and time if her mental game had been wacked. It would have been like pouring water into a sieve.
Now Lovely Daughter #3 isn’t the only one who has benefited. I immediately saw application to my writing. I created a routine for myself and started using it this spring to help me finish the first draft of Awful Intent. Not only was I more productive, I had a much better time developing and writing those scenes. The routine has done wonders for my mental game. I still face the same types of fears that Gaiman does, but the difference in my response to them has been night and day.
If you’re engaged in any type of performance and feel you want to up your mental game, let me suggest Selk’s book. It’s been great for us.
And as the mistakes piled up, the freaking only intensified. Which is why many of the opposing coaches would pull the girl back or take her out to let her get her mind straight because someone who is losing their mental game makes all sorts of mistakes they normally don’t make.
There are two parts to any performance—(a) the ability to do the required tasks and (b) the ability to stay focused, loose, and remain positive while performing, especially under pressure.
Both skills are critical because you can be a super star in practice, but if you can’t handle the pressure of a game, including your failures, you will end up performing like you haven’t practiced at all, even if you practice at game speed. On the other hand, you can be mentally tough, but if you still don’t have any skills, your mental toughness only allows you to demonstrate the best version of your lack of skills.
And this isn’t just with physical performances like team sports, teaching, public speaking, and drama. I’ve found the same thing with my writing, which is a cognitive performance.
John, you ask, a performance? You’re all alone with a computer or pad of paper. There is no audience watching you write.
And that’s correct. Nobody wants to watch someone write. Can you imagine? Bill, look at how he strikes the keys on his keyboard. He’s really smoking along. That’s got to be a four-page-per-hour pace. But wait, what’s this? Now he’s looking something up on Google. He’s scanning, scanning. Now he’s reading. Let’s watch him read...
Pure heart-stopping excitement. Which is why we don’t have programs that watch writers.
But it’s still a performance. It’s just that with novels the telling and receiving happen at different times. And, more importantly, even if we authors sub-vocalize or do a bit of acting as we write (my daughters will often catch me talking to myself while writing), the telling and the receiving are in the heads of the writers and the readers. Which means that when you watch a writer write, you are not watching the performance. You can’t watch it. You can only create the performance in your head as you read it.
And many writers can attest to the fact that one of the hardest parts of the performance is the mind game. Neil Gaiman is a best-selling science fiction and fantasy author. He’s related the following anecdote many times which illustrates this.
***QUOTE***
The last novel I wrote (it was ANANSI BOYS, in case you were wondering) when I got three-quarters of the way through I called my agent. I told her how stupid I felt writing something no-one would ever want to read, how thin the characters were, how pointless the plot. I strongly suggested that I was ready to abandon this book and write something else instead, or perhaps I could abandon the book and take up a new life as a landscape gardener, bank-robber, short-order cook or marine biologist. And instead of sympathizing or agreeing with me, or blasting me forward with a wave of enthusiasm—or even arguing with me—she simply said, suspiciously cheerfully, “Oh, you’re at that part of the book, are you?”
I was shocked. “You mean I’ve done this before?”
“You don’t remember?”
“Not really.”
“Oh yes,” she said. “You do this every time you write a novel.”
More: http://nanowrimo.org/pep-talks/neil-g....
***END QUOTE***
Writing can sometimes be a complete head game. Let me assure you.
So whether you’re performing physically or cognitively, you need both the task and the mental skills.
There are lots of places to learn the task skills. But where do you go to learn how to manage the mental game? What actually works? Who knows this stuff?
In this case, you can follow the money right to professional sports. There are folks whose whole job is to help athletes with their mental game. They’re called sports psychologists, but don’t let the word “psychologist” mislead you. These are not pipe-smoking Germans who have you lie down on a couch and discuss your childhood traumas. No. These are folks who apply research-based techniques to help the athletes set goals, perform mental routines that include visualization, and focus on the right things. This is about your mind right before, during, and after your performance, not while you’re lying on a couch.
So does it work with kids?
During my daughter’s basketball season as a high school junior, Nellie and I realized she was always running herself down. She was discounting what she was doing well to the point that she thought she wasn’t adding to the team. We told her she was nuts, but who listens to parents? They’re supposed to say nice things. So we started keep stats on every player in every game so she could get a more accurate and healthy view of her performance levels.
The stats told her exactly how well she was doing, but all by themselves they didn’t really do much to help her improve. So when the season ended, I went looking for yet another program that would help her with her shooting skills. At the same time, I ran across an article about mental toughness and immediately knew this was something I should look into.
I found a shooting program that was different from all the others we’d tried. And different in a very good way. I’ll plug it in another review. I also found a slim, information-packed book written by Jason Selk called 10-Minute Toughness: The Mental-Training Program for Winning Before the Game Begins.
Selk is the sports psychologist who works for the St. Louis Cardinals and has also worked with NFL pros and Olympic gold medalists. And what he shares in his book is a three-step program to getting focused and staying on target. The three steps include scientifically proven routines, the same ones he uses with his professional athletes.
So Lovely Daughter #3 and I read the book. And then she started applying the three-steps to her off-season basketball. The results? Well, so far she’s gone from hitting 30% of her shots to over 60-70% of them. And it’s not just with her mid-range shots and free throws. This last week we went in to practice, and she shot about 60 three-pointers from different spots and made 40 of them. It was just an awesome series of boom, boom, boom. Then she repeated that performance in the practice session the very next day.
Yes, the new shooting method has been amazing. Yes, she’s put in lots of hours. But she wouldn’t have been able to realize the benefits of the hours nor the shooting program if her mental game was wacked. There were simply too many times during practice that things didn’t go so well. And it was the 10-Minute Toughness routine that got her back on track.
Let me give you another example. For whatever reason, Lovely Daughter #3 didn’t create a mental toughness routine for her off season volleyball. The team went to a spring tournament, and she was the girl who was shanking the balls, serving out, and unable to hit. She was the girl who was mentally freaking. She began to think she just didn’t have what it took and figured she might not even start in the season, which was going to be her senior year. At one point between games, she went off alone and broke down in tears of frustration and disappointment. Her mental game was wacked.
She called me. We created a routine based on the book. And she did better the rest of that tournament. She didn’t do great, but she did better. Then she continued to use the routine during her off-season practices. And she used it big time during the season. Her coaches also helped the girls focus on forward thinking. By the end of the season, her performance had risen to the point where she was a solid contributor on the team with her serving, receiving, and hitting. She made the all star team, and was named one of two Utah athletes of the week by the Deseret News.
There’s no doubt all the hours playing helped. There’s no doubt the great coaching helped her improve her volleyball skills as well. But she wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of the coaching and time if her mental game had been wacked. It would have been like pouring water into a sieve.
Now Lovely Daughter #3 isn’t the only one who has benefited. I immediately saw application to my writing. I created a routine for myself and started using it this spring to help me finish the first draft of Awful Intent. Not only was I more productive, I had a much better time developing and writing those scenes. The routine has done wonders for my mental game. I still face the same types of fears that Gaiman does, but the difference in my response to them has been night and day.
If you’re engaged in any type of performance and feel you want to up your mental game, let me suggest Selk’s book. It’s been great for us.
April 1, 2021
'Many athletes and coaches believe that mental toughness is something that can be accomplished without mental training. I have had countless coaches tell me they expect their players to be mentally tough, even though they have no real mental-conditioning program to speak of. Regardless of how you define mental toughness, do yourself the favor of figuring out what thoughts help you perform. Then, flush with that knowledge, start improving your ability to maintain those thoughts during training and competition. The 10-MT program will begin helping you once you become accountable for your thoughts and actions and their influence on your results. You choose your success by what you think and what you do.'
There is a reason Steph Curry and LeBron James are so dominant, and an explanation of athleticism alone is inaccurate. There is a reason Jim Loehr managed to coach speed skater Dan Jansen to gold, in a competition which he initially did not like. For every high achieving athlete, there are two essential elements which support that: the physical and the mental. At a certain point, the mental is the factor which distinguishes a world-class athlete and everyone else. This comes across in Kobe's book, 'The Mamba Mentality', in which there is an apparent intricate interplay between his work ethic and self-image, contributing to his success. This is also evident in Tim Gover's 'Relentless'. An easy way to recognise the importance of the mental side is to read about athletes who did not live up to their potential; these case studies demonstrate the inability of physical training being a sufficient condition for success.
One can find a fascinating 2014 New York Times article called 'Olympians Use Imagery As Mental Training', which echoes Selk's teaching. A member of the United States freestyle ski team, Emily Cook, when visualising her competition does so not just with eyes closed but even simulates the movements physically as if she were competing (a video shows this in the article). As she explains, many of the Olympians have the ability to win, but it is nearly always the mental side that trips them up in competition. Visualisation, for her, allows her to imagine all the worst things that could happen and prepare mentally for them. For those interested in Stoicism, this is exactly the purpose of premeditatio malorum.
With the above in mind, Jason Selk's book does what sport psychologists do for Olympic teams. He recognises the equal footing of physical training and mental training. At the time of writing, he was the director of sport psychology for the St Louis Cardinals, and had operated as a mental coach for some of the top athletes in the world: Pro Bowl football players, Hall of Fame coaches, and Olympic gold medalists.
His 10 Minute Toughness Mental Workout is summarised in the Introduction:
'1 The Centering Breath. A fifteen-second deep breath designed to control arousal states.
2. The Performance Statement. A specifically tailored self-statement useful for increasing training and competitive focus.
3. The Personal Highlight Reel. An advanced form of visualization allowing athletes to increase skill refinement and consistency.
4. The Identity Statement. A concrete self-statement proven to enhance self image and performance confidence.
5. The Centering Breath. As in step one, a bioologically established relaxation technique used to increase the potential to perform well under pressure.'
I will expand upon the above:
For the Centering Breath, Selk uses a 6-2-7 method, where one breathes in for 6, holds for 2 and breathes out for 7. This is used to center oneself energetically in an event.
The Performance Statement is a form of self talk. When a person is competing or is in training, an uncontrolled storm of thoughts could arise, but the performance statement is a carefully selected self-talk which allows one to talk to themselves optimally.
The Personal Highlight Reel was one of my favourite parts of Selk's. In this chapter, he gives a 'User's Guide to Visualization', with eight guidelines for practicing. My favourites were: choosing one of the three camera angles, visualising from beginning to end, emotionally feeling the way you want to feel and replaying until you get it right.
The Identity Statement is the critical determinant of most people's long term outcomes. There is a reason that people become inexorably bound up in undesired patterns, and are tethered to the belief that they can never change. And the explanation of why can be (simplistically) reduced to the self-image that they hold of themselves. As Selk writes, 'You can't outperform or underperform yours self-image for long. The self-image will eventually regulate behaviors and outcomes to fall within the range of self-expectation. Essentially, your self-image will governs how successful you will become. If you truly believe in your capacity to triumph, then you will manage to make it happen. Conversely, if your self-image ifs low, you will unfortunately come up short of your potential no matter how hard you try'
I can definitely relate to this. As evidenced in the story about Dan Jansen, the Olympic gold speed skater, Jim Loehr recounts on The Tim Ferris Show that the reason Jansen ended up winning his event was because Loehr had coached him to change his self-image. He literally got Jansen to write on a page 'I love the 1000m [event]'. In truth, he hated it and preferred the shorter distances. But through repeatedly telling himself that he loved it, and physically practicing, he shifted his self-image. In that podcast, Loehr (unintentionally) supports Selk's message, that the power that we have over our mind is so powerful, but that desired change has to be repeatedly enforced - the identity statement is one way to facilitate that. Selk also quotes Maxwell Maltz in this chapter, who wrote a book called 'Psycho-Cybernetics', which is centred on the importance of self-image. Maltz writes, 'Self image is not mental trickery; it is a scientifically proven agent of control. The self-image identifies and motivates the necessary behaviour and connects it to the desired outcome. The key is to create the self-image desired - decide who you want to be and how you want to live - and then continuously tell yourself that you have what it takes to be that person. The self-image will guide and direct actions and behaviors until the self-image becomes the reality.'
Selk's 10-MT is probably the most practical of the books I've read on mental toughness. There are two other parts to the book on goal setting and always having a solution at hand, but I found the first part the most useful. 'Can't Hurt Me' by David Goggins is another great book on mental toughness, whose story presents the best practical testament to the characteristic that I have read. For those interested in the mental side of improving themselves, Selk could be what you are looking for.
There is a reason Steph Curry and LeBron James are so dominant, and an explanation of athleticism alone is inaccurate. There is a reason Jim Loehr managed to coach speed skater Dan Jansen to gold, in a competition which he initially did not like. For every high achieving athlete, there are two essential elements which support that: the physical and the mental. At a certain point, the mental is the factor which distinguishes a world-class athlete and everyone else. This comes across in Kobe's book, 'The Mamba Mentality', in which there is an apparent intricate interplay between his work ethic and self-image, contributing to his success. This is also evident in Tim Gover's 'Relentless'. An easy way to recognise the importance of the mental side is to read about athletes who did not live up to their potential; these case studies demonstrate the inability of physical training being a sufficient condition for success.
One can find a fascinating 2014 New York Times article called 'Olympians Use Imagery As Mental Training', which echoes Selk's teaching. A member of the United States freestyle ski team, Emily Cook, when visualising her competition does so not just with eyes closed but even simulates the movements physically as if she were competing (a video shows this in the article). As she explains, many of the Olympians have the ability to win, but it is nearly always the mental side that trips them up in competition. Visualisation, for her, allows her to imagine all the worst things that could happen and prepare mentally for them. For those interested in Stoicism, this is exactly the purpose of premeditatio malorum.
With the above in mind, Jason Selk's book does what sport psychologists do for Olympic teams. He recognises the equal footing of physical training and mental training. At the time of writing, he was the director of sport psychology for the St Louis Cardinals, and had operated as a mental coach for some of the top athletes in the world: Pro Bowl football players, Hall of Fame coaches, and Olympic gold medalists.
His 10 Minute Toughness Mental Workout is summarised in the Introduction:
'1 The Centering Breath. A fifteen-second deep breath designed to control arousal states.
2. The Performance Statement. A specifically tailored self-statement useful for increasing training and competitive focus.
3. The Personal Highlight Reel. An advanced form of visualization allowing athletes to increase skill refinement and consistency.
4. The Identity Statement. A concrete self-statement proven to enhance self image and performance confidence.
5. The Centering Breath. As in step one, a bioologically established relaxation technique used to increase the potential to perform well under pressure.'
I will expand upon the above:
For the Centering Breath, Selk uses a 6-2-7 method, where one breathes in for 6, holds for 2 and breathes out for 7. This is used to center oneself energetically in an event.
The Performance Statement is a form of self talk. When a person is competing or is in training, an uncontrolled storm of thoughts could arise, but the performance statement is a carefully selected self-talk which allows one to talk to themselves optimally.
The Personal Highlight Reel was one of my favourite parts of Selk's. In this chapter, he gives a 'User's Guide to Visualization', with eight guidelines for practicing. My favourites were: choosing one of the three camera angles, visualising from beginning to end, emotionally feeling the way you want to feel and replaying until you get it right.
The Identity Statement is the critical determinant of most people's long term outcomes. There is a reason that people become inexorably bound up in undesired patterns, and are tethered to the belief that they can never change. And the explanation of why can be (simplistically) reduced to the self-image that they hold of themselves. As Selk writes, 'You can't outperform or underperform yours self-image for long. The self-image will eventually regulate behaviors and outcomes to fall within the range of self-expectation. Essentially, your self-image will governs how successful you will become. If you truly believe in your capacity to triumph, then you will manage to make it happen. Conversely, if your self-image ifs low, you will unfortunately come up short of your potential no matter how hard you try'
I can definitely relate to this. As evidenced in the story about Dan Jansen, the Olympic gold speed skater, Jim Loehr recounts on The Tim Ferris Show that the reason Jansen ended up winning his event was because Loehr had coached him to change his self-image. He literally got Jansen to write on a page 'I love the 1000m [event]'. In truth, he hated it and preferred the shorter distances. But through repeatedly telling himself that he loved it, and physically practicing, he shifted his self-image. In that podcast, Loehr (unintentionally) supports Selk's message, that the power that we have over our mind is so powerful, but that desired change has to be repeatedly enforced - the identity statement is one way to facilitate that. Selk also quotes Maxwell Maltz in this chapter, who wrote a book called 'Psycho-Cybernetics', which is centred on the importance of self-image. Maltz writes, 'Self image is not mental trickery; it is a scientifically proven agent of control. The self-image identifies and motivates the necessary behaviour and connects it to the desired outcome. The key is to create the self-image desired - decide who you want to be and how you want to live - and then continuously tell yourself that you have what it takes to be that person. The self-image will guide and direct actions and behaviors until the self-image becomes the reality.'
Selk's 10-MT is probably the most practical of the books I've read on mental toughness. There are two other parts to the book on goal setting and always having a solution at hand, but I found the first part the most useful. 'Can't Hurt Me' by David Goggins is another great book on mental toughness, whose story presents the best practical testament to the characteristic that I have read. For those interested in the mental side of improving themselves, Selk could be what you are looking for.
June 14, 2017
This book, by part of the team that wrote Organize Tomorrow Today, is really a sports psychology book. If you are serious about self-improvement, resiliency/grit, mindset, and execution, then you could find this book relevant to the office, school, family, etc. -- but you might need to work at it or revisit this book after some of the fundamental readings like Covey's 7 Habits, the early Maxwell Leadership books (before he became a brand), John Wooden, etc.
If you are an athlete (of any stripe -- kid trying to make the team to professional athlete, whatever...soccer, football, golf, gymnastics, dance, marching band...whatever), then this book is much more accessible because it is literally directly applicable to athletics. I would recommend it highly for you, if you fall into that camp. Lots of excellent exercises and steps to creating the effective practice and goals you'd need to be on the path to success, as Selk charts it.
If you're trying to be more effective, resilient, etc., in your work/non-sports life, you can glean good info from this book, but, again, you need to be creative and thoughtful -- you're not the target audience here. I did find it possible to refocus the exercises to a business setting and do expect that the steps to build resiliency, establish effective "practice," set process and product goals, and execute successfully and routinely will be useful.
(I read this book because of how much I appreciated Organize Tomorrow Today. If you think this is more of OTT...it isn't. But it still a useful book.)
If you are an athlete (of any stripe -- kid trying to make the team to professional athlete, whatever...soccer, football, golf, gymnastics, dance, marching band...whatever), then this book is much more accessible because it is literally directly applicable to athletics. I would recommend it highly for you, if you fall into that camp. Lots of excellent exercises and steps to creating the effective practice and goals you'd need to be on the path to success, as Selk charts it.
If you're trying to be more effective, resilient, etc., in your work/non-sports life, you can glean good info from this book, but, again, you need to be creative and thoughtful -- you're not the target audience here. I did find it possible to refocus the exercises to a business setting and do expect that the steps to build resiliency, establish effective "practice," set process and product goals, and execute successfully and routinely will be useful.
(I read this book because of how much I appreciated Organize Tomorrow Today. If you think this is more of OTT...it isn't. But it still a useful book.)
May 31, 2022
This is a valuable work. I have read a few books on sport psychology lately, but I am certainly far from an expert. This book takes many of the concepts from the other books I have read but gives you a plan for actually trying to implement some of the stuff. While I am sure that improving your mental toughness is not nearly as easy as suggested and a 10 minute formula might not work for everyone, it at least gives an amateur like me somewhere to begin. This book is not necessarily revolutionary in terms of content, but I personally appreciated the format very much. It was a very quick read as well, so it would be useful to athletes at many levels.
March 25, 2025
Highlights for me:
-centering breath 15 seconds
- create a short performance statement
Positive self statement
Establish Product goal long term and
Process goal ; which are the daily things you do to get the product goal
Don’t forget rewards system to achieve goals
Follow up w 100% effort plus 20% more than competition
Establish 10 year goals (I did this in 2015 and was pleasantly surprised to see I hit them before 2025)
What three things did I do well today?
What is one thing I can do better to get closer to my goals?
Relentless solution focus
-centering breath 15 seconds
- create a short performance statement
Positive self statement
Establish Product goal long term and
Process goal ; which are the daily things you do to get the product goal
Don’t forget rewards system to achieve goals
Follow up w 100% effort plus 20% more than competition
Establish 10 year goals (I did this in 2015 and was pleasantly surprised to see I hit them before 2025)
What three things did I do well today?
What is one thing I can do better to get closer to my goals?
Relentless solution focus
August 20, 2025
I really enjoyed this book. I've read reviews about how hard it is to translate the sports focus of the book into corporate boardroom or other motivational areas of life. And I get it. At the same time, I live in Alaska and would hardly be mistaken for any kind of elite athlete. But getting out in the winter or in inclement weather is HARD. Being mentally tough and figuring out how to, for example, channel your internal thoughts into a productive avenue is one of the best things about running in the cold. And listening to the author's thoughts on how best to achieve this kind of success was inspiring. (Of course, I say this as I look outside at the pouring rain and wonder to myself how I'm going to run the 10 miles I need to go today.)
May 16, 2023
I remember reading this book as an athlete and just read it again as a coach. We spend so much time training our bodies, but not our minds. Especially for my female athletes, training the mind to focus on the positive and look constructively for solutions can make a huge difference. But just like with anything, your athlete has to be willing to do it. Some of the analogies were lost on me as a track and field coach vs a baseball or football coach, but the concepts are important.
April 5, 2019
I skimmed through a lot of the sports stories and analogies because I am easily bored by professional and collegiate sports; but I recognize that there is a lot to learn from the way they practice and train. Seems to have a lot of good ideas. I am definitely going to start using the 10 MT workout for trapshooting this season - along with daily meditation!
Read
July 25, 2020Helpful for learning how to visualize and what to focus on. Phase 1, the actual mental toughness workout, was the most helpful. Speed read the rest. It’s similar to what I do for writing content for brands - you always focus on the positive solution, what good can come of it, not the negative problem. Will likely revisit both for races and career as needed.
December 21, 2020
invaluable information, nothing that I haven't read before but this brings everything together. Getting into this book if your not a fan of team sports or baseball is hard. My suggestion is to hold your nose and read this as fast as you can. Underline the stuff that is interesting and go back and study your highlights.
May 27, 2024
This book is a game-changer for athletes and non-athletes alike! The practical tips and advice are easily applicable to everyday life, making it a must-read for anyone looking to improve their performance and mindset. The author's use of clear and concise language makes it easy to understand and implement the strategies, making it a valuable resource for anyone looking to up their game.
September 8, 2018
Assigned reading but a pretty okay read. Wouldn't go so far as to say I liked it but I'm glad I read it and thought over the questions it asks. Repetitive and promos his own business a little too often but still motivating for the start of a new year.
November 8, 2018
All good practices. Specifically applied to sports.
Quick read. To get the most out of the book one needs to follow the exercises over the season/year. While the book is written for athletes, everyone could find it applicable.
Quick read. To get the most out of the book one needs to follow the exercises over the season/year. While the book is written for athletes, everyone could find it applicable.
November 29, 2022
Pretty good first few chapters on performance and controlling arousal state. Next few chapters are on goal setting, competition, more zero sum type stuff as well as positive thinking / affirmation type stuff that wasn’t as interesting to me. Good quick read though.
June 23, 2024
most helpful book I’ve read for mental toughness
Jason gives an actual action plan. Something any coach or player can implement, understand and see if it’s improving performance. No fluff he gets to the point.
Jason gives an actual action plan. Something any coach or player can implement, understand and see if it’s improving performance. No fluff he gets to the point.
December 2, 2024
I think it has good points and the worksheets are super practical. Avoids the pitfalls of telling you how to improve without giving you the resources to do so. Honestly, better than I thought considering who recommended it for me.
June 17, 2017
a good book and straight forward book to boost performance, not just in athletics but studies as well
July 9, 2017
Undoubtedly the BEST book I have come across for mental training for sports and all areas of life. I cannot recommend it enough.
November 30, 2018
Good and concise
Great read and finished it in 2 commutes because of its concise writing style. Learnt a great deal on how to apply skills during various challenges
Great read and finished it in 2 commutes because of its concise writing style. Learnt a great deal on how to apply skills during various challenges
May 22, 2019
Small, SMART choices + CONSISTENCY + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE
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