The Champions Mind overviews a variety of strategies for strengthen an often overlooked aspect of athletics: the athlete’s mind. We often focus heavily on training our body through workouts, conditioning, and strength training but training our minds as well unlocks a whole new level of potential. The author uses metaphors and storytelling to drive home the message of various techniques you can use to strength your mind.
The author describes how excellence in sport requires efforts in 4 areas: psychological (mindset), physical (fitness/strength), technique (proper mechanics), and tactical (game strategy). This novel is a great way to learn ways to improve on the psychological aspect of being an athlete in any sport. In particular, Chapter 2 overviews a variety of great mental skills for sport and ways to master them including goal setting, mental imagery, self talk, confidence, focus, breath control, mental toughness, anxiety management, enjoyment, body language, managing intensity, and personal affirmations.
In addition to a variety of skills the author also provides a great mindset focus for being an athlete. I really enjoyed his focus on intrinsic motivation, growth mindset, and letting go of the aspects of sport you cannot control or change. It’s a helpful outlook on sport that can help in achieving a healthy mindset in which you are driven to work hard but not so hard on yourself that you become overly critical which can cause poor performance and negative mindsets overall.
I’m a big proponent of the importance of training your mind as much as your body in running. When racing and pushing the limits of your physical fitness it will be your mindset, not your physical limits, that determine how much further and faster you can push. I’ve personally seen big performance jumps after focusing more on having a positive mindset while training and racing and believe focusing on mindset can often be a key change to big breakthroughs.
While not specifically focused on running, there is much to learn on mindset in sport and life from this book. If you’re looking for a guide on how to build a strong and positive mindset to aid in pushing yourself to attain your next running goal, this is the book for you.
Next month: Let Your Mind Run by Deena Kastor