Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence

Praise for Mind Gym

"Believing in yourself is paramount to success for any athlete. Gary's lessons and David's writing provide examples of the importance of the mental game."
--Ben Crenshaw, two-time Masters champion and former Ryder Cup captain

"Mind Gym hits a home run. If you want to build mental muscle for the major leagues, read this book."
--Ken Griffey Jr., Major League Baseball MVP

"I read Mind Gym on my way to the Sydney Olympics and really got a lot out of it. Gary has important lessons to teach, and you'll find the exercises fun and beneficial."
--Jason Kidd, NBA All-Star and Olympic gold-medal winner

In Mind Gym, 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 forty 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.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Mind Gym

"Believing in yourself is paramount to success for any athlete. Gary's lessons and David's writing provide examples of the importance of the mental game."
Ben Crenshaw, two-time Masters champion and former Ryder Cup captain

"Mind Gym hits a home run. If you want to build mental muscle for the major leagues, read this book."
Ken Griffey Jr., Major League Baseball MVP

"I read Mind Gym on my way to the Sydney Olympics and really got a lot out of it. Gary has important lessons to teach, and you'll find the exercises fun and beneficial."
Jason Kidd, NBA All-Star and Olympic gold-medal winner

In Mind Gym, 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 forty 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.

About Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence Author

Gary Mack is a leading sports psychology consultant and counselor who has worked with athletes in the NBA, NFL, NHL, WNBA, and Major League Baseball. He is president of two consulting firms, Sports Assist and Planning Solutions; the director of sports psychology for Griffey International; and team counselor for the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury.

David Casstevens is a senior writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and author of the Charles Barkley biography, Somebody's Gotta Be Me.

Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence Reviews

If you are expecting substantive theoretical sports psychological insights from this book, you will be thoroughly disappointed. While the anecdotes presented by the author are amusing, they provide little to no substance. Often, they are redundant to the point where it seems the author is beating the stain where the dead horse used to be. Each chapter ends with a short 1-sentence summary. In my opinion, the book could easily be condensed to only the chapter headings and the 1-sentence summaries, although it would be much less entertaining that way. The 1-liners do contain good information, but, unfortunately, much of it is what I would consider common sense.

Unless you can relate to baseball and other American sports, don't bother picking up this book. Most of the anecdotes are from the world of baseball.

That said, the book is a very easy read. I do not question the author's abilities as a sports psychologist. But I had expected a book with much more substance.

I found this book because it came up in a search for triathlon books, but I think it was mis-categorized. If you're into sports like baseball, football and golf, this would be an enjoyable read. Seems like 99% of his examples are in these three more traditional sports. But there are a number of issues that come up for endurance athletes (triathlon, marathon, long-course cycling) that aren't even touched on in this book.
I think the author could do a second version that touches on how to continue pushing through the pain when you're 10 hours into a 15 hour effort to complete an Ironman and your head wants to quit. He touches on this in a chapter on determination, but it's one thing to sit on the sidelines and tell someone "don't quit!"; it's another thing to figure out how to manage what's behind your ears and he doesn't do a good job of addressing that. Or how to psychologically deal with a mass swim start. Or the psychological issues of training for 6 to 9 months for a single event.
I read this entire book and felt like only about 1/4th could apply... maybe more if I was forced to make the connections myself, but that's not really what I was looking for. Not saying it's a bad book, but if you're looking at this for endurance sports you might pass.