Sports Mind

Leading consultant psychiatrist Steve Peters knows more than anyone how impulsive behaviour or nagging self-doubt can impact negatively on our professional and personal lives. In this, his first book, Steve shares his phenomenally successful mind-management programme that has been used to help elite athletes and senior managers alike to conquer their fears and operate with greater control, focus and confidence.

Hardest Geezer, Russ Cook, is the first person to ever run the entire length of Africa. From his starting point in Cape Agulhas, South Africa, through sandstorms in the Sahara Desert, rainforests, mountain ranges and long empty roads stretched out for miles in front of him, Russ ran the equivalent of 386 marathons before finally crossing the finish line in Tunisia 50 weeks later.

The greatest athletic performances spring from the mind, not the body. Elite athletes have known this for decades, and now science is learning why it's true. In his fascinating new book, How Bad Do You Want It?, coach Matt Fitzgerald examines more than a dozen pivotal races to discover the surprising ways elite athletes strengthen their mental toughness.

In a truly groundbreaking exposé of professional golf, Michael Calvin and Thomas Bjorn - captain of the 2018 European Ryder Cup Team - capture the distinctive nature of the game, and the principles and philosophies of players who dominate the world rankings. With unprecedented access to the European Tour players, and in-depth interviews with the European Ryder Cup team, Calvin reveals a sport which operates entirely within the finest margins of excellence.

Noted sports psychology consultant Gary Mack explains how your mind influences your performance on the field or on the court as much as your physical skill does, if not more so. Through 40 accessible lessons and inspirational anecdotes from prominent athletes—many of whom he has worked with—you will learn the same techniques and exercises Mack uses to help elite athletes build mental "muscle". Mind Gym will give you the "head edge" over the competition.

You may already know about the power of Sports Psychology to boost physical abilities, skyrocket motivation and banish nerves, the only problem is that most of these strategies are reserved for pro-athletes and coaches or found in thick technical books costing a fortune. So what is going to give you the edge, at home, at work or at your next big competition? You need more than just facts and figures. More than technical jargon. You need easy-to-use tips and techniques in plain English. You need an Invincible Mind.

Ross Edgley famously ran a marathon pulling a 1.4-tonne car and climbed a rope the height of Everest (8,848 m), after living with Yamabushi warrior monks in Japan and partaking in Shamanic pain rituals with fire ants in the Amazon jungle. On his epic 1,780-mile journey around Great Britain, which lasted 157 days, Ross swam through giant jellyfish, arctic storms, ‘haunted’ whirlpools and polluted shipping lanes, going so hard, and so fast, his tongue fell apart.

It is no secret that more than two-thirds of the shots a golfer makes are shorts ones: putts, chips, and pitches. Long drives may garner applause, but whether a golfer wants to win the Masters or just five bucks from a friend on Saturday morning, it’s the little shots that make the difference. In The Unstoppable Golfer, Dr. Bob Rotella takes the same wisdom and experience that have worked for clients like Davis Love III and David Toms to help you master this special art of short shots and avoid all the frustration out of this increasingly challenging element of the game.

Once we thought monsters lived there. In the Enlightenment we scaled them to commune with the sublime. Soon, we were racing to conquer their summits in the name of national pride. In this ground-breaking, classic work, Robert Macfarlane takes us up into the mountains: to experience their shattering beauty, the fear and risk of adventure, and to explore the strange impulses that have for centuries lead us to the world's highest places.

In this inspirational fable, Jack McKee is a professional golfer who has just suffered through the most humiliating meltdown of his career. After years of struggle, he is ready to quit on his dream. He has convinced himself he doesn't have what it takes to make it on the PGA Tour. In an attempt to figure out why his career has ended up the way it has, Jack reaches out to one of the game's greatest former players for advice. This legendary golfer teaches Jack that the problem is not in his swing, but in his mind.

How high or far or fast can humans go? And what about individual potential: what defines a person's limits? From running a two-hour marathon to summiting Mount Everest, we're fascinated by the extremes of human endurance, constantly testing both our physical and psychological limits.In Endure, Alex Hutchinson, PhD, reveals why our individual limits may be determined as much by our heads and hearts as by our muscles.

To uncover the secrets of mental strength and success, Sam Sheridan interviewed dozens of the world's most fascinating and dangerous men.

Bernd Heinrich involves us in his quest to get inside the mind of the raven. But as animals can be spied on only by getting quite close, Heinrich adopts ravens, thereby becoming a "raven father", as well as observing them in their natural habitat. He studies their daily routines and, in the process, paints a vivid picture of the ravens' world. At the heart of this book are Heinrich's love and respect for these complex and engaging creatures, and through his keen observation and analysis we become their intimates, too.

The mental game of golf remains, to many players, a mystery. Its importance cannot be overstated, with PGA Tour professionals agreeing that golf is 80% mental and 20% mechanical at the highest level. Silent Mind Golf is unique in that it not only explains how the mind can work against you in detail. It also gives you the tools to improve your mental game through explanations and exercises.

This is a great book for anyone interested in having a consistent mental performance under pressure. The book, used by PGA Tour winners, will give you an introduction to mental management and is packed with techniques for competitors. Learn how performance is a function of three mental processes, how to control the mind under pressure, and how to train for competition.

Normality is so over-rated. Boat life is better. In her debut memoir Narrow Margins, Marie Browne saved her family from financial ruin by moving her long-suffering husband, three children, and a dog on to a houseboat called Happy Go Lucky in search of a less stressful, alternative way of life. Now in Narrow Minds the family find themselves sucked back into normality, they’re pretty much back where they started: horrible house, no boat, and the kids are beginning to threaten mutiny.

Deena Kastor was a star youth runner with tremendous promise, yet her career almost ended after college, when her competitive method - run as hard as possible, for fear of losing - fostered a frustration and negativity and brought her to the brink of burnout. On the verge of quitting, she took a chance and moved to the high altitudes of Alamosa, Colorado, where legendary coach Joe Vigil had started the first professional distance-running team. There she encountered the idea that would transform her running career: the notion that changing her thinking - shaping her mind to be more encouraging, kind, and resilient - could make her faster than she’d ever imagined possible.

No matter your level of fitness, no matter if you've never attempted CrossFit before, this book is your total training manual. No one can say they're a better all-around athlete than Mat Fraser. Weightlifting, gymnastics, kettlebells, running, swimming, rowing, Strongman: he's relentlessly trained them all, so you don't have to. In this ground-breaking book, Fraser reveals the secrets of his success to help you transform your own body and mind. Structured into sections on strength, endurance, speed, coordination, mental and recovery, Mat shares workouts, techniques, recipes and advice.

A book covering the topic of self-defense from a shocking, firsthand perspective. The subjects of criminal violence, self-defense, lethal force, mindset, firearms training, and concealment have never been introduced so comprehensively in one place.

Few sports can be played as much in the mind as cricket. When bowlers are hurling the ball down at your head at 90 mph, or fielders are crowded round the bat waiting to snap up an edge, only the most resilient can thrive. In Mind Over Batter, former Test batsman, commentator and coach Fowler looks into all facets of the game to assess the mental aspect of cricket.