Tips by acclaimed sports psychologist Bob Rotella, who has been advising everyone from professional golfers to NBA superstars to business executives on how to flourish under pressure and overcome challenges, have been compiled into a ready reckoner.
"How Champions Think: In Sports and in Life" consists of performance principles that have proven themselves in countless competitive situations, in arenas from which only the strongest minds emerge triumphant.
It explores how to keep the mind from holding one back, whatever one's 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 one's mind to create a self-image that promotes confidence and accomplishment.
Rotella was the director of sports psychology for 20 years at the University of Virginia, where his reputation grew as the person champions talked to about the mental aspects of their game.
His client list includes Hall of Fame golfers like Pat Bradley, Tom Kite, and Nick Price as well as stars of the present, such as Darren Clarke, Keegan Bradley, Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Mark Wilson, and Rory Mcllroy.
"A desire to be exceptional may not in itself strike you as unusual. Everyone, as a kid, has daydreams in which he catches the touchdown pass as time expires to win the Super Bowl, or she pole-vaults sixteen feet to win an Olympic gold medal," he says.
According to Rotella, exceptional people begin with just ambitions.
"From them, I've learned how a champion's thoughts are different from the thoughts of most people. That difference is what this book is about."
Rotella has worked among others with the winners of 84 major golf championships on the men's, women's, and senior tours.
"I've worked with Olympic gold medallists in the equestrian sports. I've worked with NCAA champions in track and field, soccer, lacrosse, and basketball. I've worked with winners of major tennis tournaments. Three of the five players in the history of the PGA Tour to shoot a competitive 59 - Chip Beck, David Duval, and Jim Furyk - were working with me when they did it.
"I've worked with exceptionally successful people in the entertainment and business worlds. Each of them has taught me something about the minds of exceptional people," he writes.
