The Mental Edge: Maximize Your Sports Potential with the Mind-Body Connection

by Kenneth Baum

No matter what sport you enjoy or what level you play, you have the potential for a peak performance--and realizing that potential is the goal of everyone who makes athletics part of their lives. And while you can benefit from the advice of tennis and golf pros, marathon runners, and skiing instructors, the edge you seek to maximize your performance isn't in your stroke, your pace, or your posture--it's in your mind. Kenneth Baum describes the program he uses to sharpen and maximize the sports performances of thousands of professional and amateur athletes across the * Power Talk * Proper Visualization and Perception Stretchers * Performance Cues * Identifying and Conquering Obstacles * A Commitment to Consistent and Resilient ActionYour mind is your most valuable piece of equipment, your strongest muscle--and your best shot at peak performance for life

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Psychology

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1999

Reviews

[Mindy (Book Snitch) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible! This author, Kenneth Baum preaches about "A better you! That just needs a little encouragement to reappear" but bullies people online for trying to better themselves and having an opinion.

[Luigino Bottega · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are our desire and ambition strong enough to realize our vision in practice?
Inspiring book!

[Nadja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As a newbie to sports psychology, I found the tools the book provides very useful, realistically and applicable with great results. And it is very easy to read. I absolutely recommend this book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book and bought it in 2003, during my first month (ever) of coaching. I've reread sections of it before, and feel now is a good time to reread in its entirety.

[Ethan S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a quick easy read filled with lots of information. It made me reflect and I learned techniques I can use for my future. Although the end slowed down.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fascinating read, and it turned out I'd been using some similar methods of my own devising, so Baum's tips and recommendations fit well with the tendencies and habits that I've been building.

There's a lot here, not just for athletes, but for anyone who's looking to overcome hurdles in other arenas. A lot of these lessons - like shaking off failure, remembering successes, having performance queues, practicing goal-setting - apply to so much more than just sports. My only critique was that he pushed the hard sell of the methods for a little too long before he got to what the actual methods were.

[Maya Senen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book offers some concrete strategies for dealing with the head games of athletics, though the presentation is narrow and dry. Some of those strategies include, Visualization, Power Talk, Responding to Cues (and training them), and Success History Searches. Many of these practices are very useful.

While I was hoping to see this book apply beyond athletics, the techniques explained here really are for physical performance. Surely, anyone can use some of these techniques in the rest of their life, it may just be a bit of a stretch.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best book I've read for the mental game in sports.

[Maura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great sports psycology.

[Julie Glynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

My game is already showing improvement! I plan to use these strategies to move to the next competitive level.

[Ryan Pereus · Rating 4 out of 5]

very practical steps to optimizing brain use during sports!

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Rather outdated. Some useful info on visualization but overall no longer current.