Jim Taylor – Train Your Mind for Athletic Success: Mental Preparation to Achieve Your Sports Goals

In this intense and comprehensive guide to the mental component of physical exercise, Taylor, a psychologist who works with athletes, adopts the stance of a coach taking the reader through a workout. Peppered with exercises, the book encourages active participation, challenging fitness enthusiasts to identify and confront their mental weaknesses. Taylor offers upbeat catchphrases such as ‘every day is a good day of training’ and ‘remove the word perfection from your vocabulary.’

The goal is to achieve the performance level he calls ‘prime sport,’ which means competing ‘consistently at a high level in the most challenging conditions.’ Addressing the athlete’s attitude toward sport, negative feelings, and fear of failure, Taylor poses questions to ask and answer before an athlete even sets foot in the gym.

Once in the gym, Taylor writes, ‘Train like you compete,’ be positive whenever possible, and when things don’t go well, ‘use negative thinking positively.’ Taylor has some unorthodox tips, telling readers, for instance, that smiling even when unhappy can help relax the mind and lower intensity. Even non-athletes should find value in Taylor’s sage advice about applying oneself purposefully to challenging endeavors. (Publishers Weekly)

This book, authored by the very experienced and highly competent consultant, Jim Taylor, is a substantial contribution to the advancement of applied sport psychology, mental preparation, and training. In a manner that is practical as well as conceptually and technically sound, Jim describes his Prime Sport system which considers the athlete not only as a performer but also as a person.

This system, which assists the athlete to strive for consistent high level performance under challenging circumstances, is a non-trivial advance in the applied professional literature. This is a book that is not conflated with rhetoric and general discourse. Rather, it is a necessary resource for athletes, sport psychologists, mental skills coaches, and other who want to deal with sport in the real world. (Charles A. Maher, Sport and Performance Psychologist, Cleveland Indians)

I have read many sport psychology books for athletes and it is very difficult to combine proven strategies with writing that speaks clearly to athletes, using their words and matching their experience. Dr. Taylor’s book meets this challenge beautifully. Athletes who use the information and tools in Train Your Mind For Athletic Success can expect to be as mentally prepared as they can be to perform their best when it matters most. (Gloria Balague, Sport Psychologist, Chicago Bears, USA Track & Field)

Dr. Jim Taylor is an internationally recognized authority on the psychology of sport. He has worked with junior-elite, collegiate, Olympic, and professional athletes for more than thirty years. He is a former world-ranked alpine ski racer, second-degree black belt in karate, marathon runner, and Ironman triathlete. His blog posts have been read by millions on psychologytoday.com, huffingtonpost.com, and on his website, www.drjimtaylor.com. Dr. Taylor is the author of many books, including the Prime Sport series, Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child, and The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training.