Changing the Game


Book Description

The modern day youth sports environment has taken the enjoyment out of athletics for our children. Currently, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports by the age of 13, which has given rise to a generation of overweight, unhealthy young adults. There is a solution. John O’Sullivan shares the secrets of the coaches and parents who have not only raised elite athletes, but have done so by creating an environment that promotes positive core values and teaches life lessons instead of focusing on wins and losses, scholarships, and professional aspirations. Changing the Game gives adults a new paradigm and a game plan for raising happy, high performing children, and provides a national call to action to return youth sports to our kids.




Train Your Mind for Athletic Success


Book Description

Much too often, the mental aspect of sport performance is overlooked. While all top athletes are in outstanding physical condition and technically exceptional, mental preparation is often what separates the best from the rest. This is just as true for young athletes as it is for pros and Olympians. And even though relatively few athletes will ever reach the top of their sport, the attitudes and life lessons learned from mental training—such as motivation, confidence, focus, perseverance, and resilience—will serve them well in all aspects of their lives. In Train Your Mind for Athletic Success: Mental Preparation to Achieve Your Sports Goals, Dr. Jim Taylor uses his own elite athletic experience and decades of working with some of the world’s best athletes to provide competitors of every ability with insights, practical exercises, and tools they can use to be mentally prepared when it really counts. His Prime Sport System explores the attitudes that lay the foundation for athletic success, the mental obstacles that can hold athletes back, the preparations they must take, the mental muscles they should strengthen, and the mental tools they need to fine tune their competitive performances. Most importantly, Dr. Taylor shows athletes practical strategies they can use to become mentally strong so they can perform their best when it matters most. Train Your Mind for Athletic Success goes well beyond the typical mental skills that are discussed in other mental training books. Readers will not only learn why mental preparation is so important to athletic success, but also where they personally are in each area thanks to brief mental assessments in each section of the book. In addition, each chapter includes exercises to show athletes how to incorporate mental training directly into their overall sport training regimen. The most comprehensive and in-depth book on mental preparation for athletes available, Train Your Mind for Athletic Success is an essential read for athletes, coaches, and parents.




The Psychology of Baseball


Book Description

Readers can get inside the minds of the stars of the diamond in this extraordinary tour of brain power, psyche, and sheer will of Major League players. 20 illustrations.




This Is Your Brain on Sports


Book Description

"THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS is a must read for anyone involved in or simply interested in sports. It tells the real story of what I went through and how countless athletes of all levels are still going through now.....unnecessarily. When no one else could, they helped me to recognize how my throwing problems came directly from sports traumas that were stuck in my brain. And then Grand and Goldberg had the knowhow to release it with the miracle of Brainspotting." Mackey Sasser Former catcher for NY Mets "THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS is a MUST READ for athletes, their parents and coaches, as well as for all psychotherapists and performance experts. In case you didn't know it, THE YIPS has a clearly explainable relationship to past trauma. All one has to do is take a detailed history of the life of an athlete from his/her earliest childhood, relate that to his/her history of physical injuries and throw in a dollop of shame and criticism from parents and coaches and the reason for the yips emerges with crystal clarity. These facts are clearly illustrated in this compelling, fascinating and ground-breaking book by Drs. Grand and Goldberg. Brain-based principles of body-based memory, neurosensitization and cue-related anxiety from the trauma literature clearly prove that the yips come from post-traumatic stress syndrome. And Brainspotting has shown to be dramatically effective in mitigating, and even healing, this vexing syndrome." Robert Scaer, MD Author of THE BODY BEARS THE BURDEN and THE TRAUMA SPECTRUM THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS: Beating Blocks, Slumps and Performance Anxiety for Good is the ground-breaking book that will change the face of sports performance forever. This book introduces the breakthrough concept of STSD (Sport Traumatic Stress Disorder). Grand and Goldberg have discovered that STSDs are the cause of most significant performance problems. Performance blocks and anxiety, including the yips, stem from accumulated sports traumas including sports injuries, failures and humiliations. The authors also introduce the Brainspotting Sports Performance System (BSPS) which quickly finds, releases and resolves the sports traumas held in your brain and body. An easy read, THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS is filled with engaging, informative, inspiring stories. These case examples illustrate how professional, elite, collegiate and junior athletes have been freed for good from this silent "epidemic" of performance blocks and anxiety including: the yips, "Steve Blass disease," "Mackey Sasser syndrome," protracted slumps, balking, choking and freezing. THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SPORTS provides the answers and the cure for athletes, their coaches and parents about "Beating Blocks, Slumps and Performance Anxiety for Good " Grand and Goldberg also show how their BSPS can take all athletes to levels they could only heretofore dream of www.thisisyourbrainonsports.com




Raising Young Athletes


Book Description

Sports are an amazing environment in which to raise children. The benefits they gain from athletic participation are many, including physical, personal, and social. Yet, there is also a dark side to today’s youth sports culture, as an emphasis on winning has made what was once fun become a burden for many young athletes. As a result, parents can’t always be certain their children’s athletic involvement will be safe and enjoyable. In Raising Young Athletes: Parenting Your Children to Victory in Sports and Life, Dr. Jim Taylor—an internationally-recognized authority on sport psychology, child development, and parenting—offers a guiding hand to help parents ensure their children’s sports participation encourages positive attitudes and promotes healthy developments as they move toward adulthood. The role of parents in shaping their children’s sports experience has never been more important, and Dr. Taylor shows parents how to send the right messages to their young athletes with clear and practical advice. Whether playing sports just for fun or with aspirations to play professionally, Raising Young Athletes helps parents steer their children toward a healthy, positive experience. As such, their participation will become an impactful part of their lives that will prepare them to be victorious both in sports and in life.




The Art of Fear


Book Description

A revolutionary guide to acknowledging fear and developing the tools we need to build a healthy relationship with this confusing emotion—and use it as a positive force in our lives. We all feel fear. Yet we are often taught to ignore it, overcome it, push past it. But to what benefit? This is the essential question that guides Kristen Ulmer’s remarkable exploration of our most misunderstood emotion in The Art of Fear. Once recognized as the best extreme skier in the world (an honor she held for twelve years), Ulmer knows fear well. In this conversation-changing book, she argues that fear is not here to cause us problems—and that in fact, the only true issue we face with fear is our misguided reaction to it (not the fear itself). Rebuilding our experience with fear from the ground up, Ulmer starts by exploring why we’ve come to view it as a negative. From here, she unpacks fear and shows it to be just one of 10,000 voices that make up our reality, here to help us come alive alongside joy, love, and gratitude. Introducing a mindfulness tool called “Shift,” Ulmer teaches readers how to experience fear in a simpler, more authentic way, transforming our relationship with this emotion from that of a draining battle into one that’s in line with our true nature. Influenced by Ulmer’s own complicated relationship with fear and her over 15 years as a mindset facilitator, The Art of Fear will reconstruct the way we react to and experience fear—empowering us to easily and permanently address the underlying cause of our fear-based problems, and setting us on course to live a happier, more expansive future.




Coaching Athletes to Be Their Best


Book Description

Part 1. Motivational interviewing -- Part 2. Toolbox -- Part 3. Around the field -- Part 4. MI playbook.




The Corporate Athlete


Book Description

"As Jack Groppel so aptly explains, the rigor of corporate athletics is often even more demanding than that of professional athletes. In my world, one does not have the luxury of an off-season. . . . This book is a must read for all those striving for the gold."-Arthur M. Blank, CEO and President, The Home Depot "Wow! This is an incredible book. Every person in business should read The Corporate Athlete from cover to cover and apply it every day."-Brian Tracy, author of Maximum Achievement: Strategies and Skills That Will Unlock Your Hidden Powers to Succeed Today's corporate world is much like the world of professional sports-it is fiercely competitive and mentally and physically demanding, and it requires constant, vigilant training. More than ever, to maintain health, happiness, and career success, executives and employees must become Corporate Athletes. In this book, top business consultant, trainer, and lecturer Jack Groppel shows you how to use the training mentality of elite professional athletes. Based on the latest scientific research, The Corporate Athlete shows corporate competitors how to achieve maximum performance levels-both inside and outside the corporate world. Drawing on the parallels between sports and business, Jack Groppel reveals the integral roles that nutrition, fitness, and self-improvement-mental, physical, and emotional-play in giving Corporate Athletes their winning edge. It's an edge that's crucial if you need to come to a meeting fresh off the plane, pull out all the stops on a big presentation, cut the major deals-and still have the energy to enjoy time with family and friends. This practical and beneficial 21-day program will give you, no matter how overworked you are, the stamina and commitment to develop a world-class career. Learn to: * Have as much energy for your family at 8 p.m. as you have at the office at 8 a.m. * Be on when you need to be on * Respond to change, adversity, and crisis more constructively * Display more positivity and confidence * Eat properly on the road, in the air, and before and during business meetings * Slow down the aging process Take advantage of the same secrets that Dr. Groppel has used to help high-stress professionals-from Olympic athletes and NHL stars to fast-lane executives at major companies like Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Estée Lauder, and Bristol-Myers Squibb-get themselves in fighting shape. Here is the program that will train you to perform at the highest possible levels in both your professional and your family life-because taking optimum care of yourself, mentally and physically, is the best way to take care of business. "Outstanding . . . The Corporate Athlete is a truly comprehensive program to help you achieve both your personal and your professional goals. It will help you take control of your life and effect positive physical, mental, and spiritual change."-Darlene Hamrock, Regional Vice President, Clinique Why do so many top performers call themselves Corporate Athletes? "Today's challenging business climate requires every top executive to be perfectly fit both mentally and physically. The Corporate Athlete is must reading for everyone who wants to manage his or her business, career, or profession effectively while living a balanced life. Buy it-it's a great investment."-Leonard Lauder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Estée Lauder Companies, Inc. "This is the book to teach you how to perform your job at the highest level possible while maintaining maximal health and happiness."-Jim Courier, French Open champion and former world No. 1 tennis player