Product Description

The Mental Athlete is the applied sport psychology handbook for competitors and coaches. It contains exercises, tests, and worksheets that will guide you through the steps of mental achievement for improved performance.

This conditioning manual for the mind helps you

-enhance mental strengths and address weaknesses through effective self-assessments,
-increase confidence in personal abilities and overcome the fear of failure,
-heighten awareness of inner-thought processes and learn ways to improve them, and
-initiate action and respond intuitively and positively to challenges.

Maximize your physical skills by fully developing your mental skills. Perform your best with The Mental Athlete!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26532 in Books
• Brand: Human Kinetics
• Published on: 2003-07-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780736046541
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Kay Porter, PhD, has worked in the sport psychology field since 1979 and has trained hundreds of athletes and teams. She is the owner of Porter Performance Systems, a training, counseling and consulting company. Formerly a professor at the University of Oregon, she spent 13 years as a sport psychology consultant to the athletic department.

She is a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee Sport Psychology Registry and a consultant in sport psychology, certified by the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AAASP). She is considered an international expert in the field of mental training and has given presentations and workshops at conferences nationally and internationally.

Porter is a former varsity athlete in tennis and was a national champion in master’s track in the 1500 meters and competed in master’s running for 20 years. Additionally, she coaches a walking group every year for the Portland Marathon. Porter has published more than 30 articles on mental training and peak performance and has produced two videotapes and 20 recorded guided visualizations for sports performance. She wrote The Mental Athlete in its original version and was published in English, German, French, and Japanese. Additionally, she is the author of a book titled Visual Athletics published by W.C. Brown/McGraw-Hill.

Porter lives in Eugene, Oregon, and enjoys running and walking marathons, hiking, meditating, and traveling.

Customer Reviews

Mental Athlete is the most beneficial book I've ever read!
This is the best mental training book that I have ever found. In 1985 I was on the National Team for my sport, but I was not up to par for the other aspects of my sport. I found "The Mental Athlete" and it totally changed my athletic life. The book teaches you how to visualize, do relaxation exercise, run mental training programs, etc. Even though it is not specific to my sport, you can incorporate the techniques into any sport. It is an amazing book. It is not a boring, hard to understand technical book, it is written very well. This book took me from a good athlete to a National Champion (many times over). This book is worth it's weight in gold.

Easy to read with step by step instruction
I bought this book along with "The Mental Edge" for my college freshman daughter who is extremely busy with school and basketball. I wanted an easy step by step guide to help her with the demands and pressure of basketball. The author gives many examples of positive affirmations and actual scripts of visualizations, for specific sports, that are easy for someone who isn't used to self help type language to understand. There are good sections on an athlete's anger (which I consider frustration since it's anger at yourself) and fear (choking). The book isn't full of cheesy anecdotes. I considered this book far better than The Mental Edge.

One disappointment is the part on breathing. I can't even call it a section since it's basically a paragraph. If one isn't familiar with breathing techniques from yoga, martial arts, lamaze etc. than it isn't very clearly explained. A few diagrams and breathing execises should have been used since this is an important aspect of mental strength and is mentioned elsewhere in the book.