Winning the Inner Game

"This is a GREAT book not just for young athletes but ANYONE trying to achieve ANYTHING!"

I repeat. This is a great book. It is laid out very readably, with great examples and illustrations. It gives profound insights that the Pros know but are difficult for most of the rest of us to comprehend. That’s because many of these insights are counterintuitive. Ergo: there are new ways to THINK presented here that almost any achiever will find fresh and helpful. I especially appreciated the tennis examples. I played on my high school and college teams, not knowing the scintillating tricks presented in this excellent book. Consequently, I was never more than just mediocre. For forty years I was never able to get back to tennis. In my senior years, I finally got back to trying to learn how to play the game of tennis. It was a real revelation… The most profound insight wasn’t from Pros I paid to give me lessons: but that I must become my OWN teacher. The reason I purchased this book was part of my continual self-education (watching pro-matches, videos, and studying every book on the subject), always seeking new insights. I was not disappointed! The sections I found the most instructive in this short book were those dealing with the following topics: “resetting” by specific action; the “flush it rule”; the “big lie” about winning; what true confidence is based upon (and how to get it); redirecting one’s negative self-talk to specific, helpful targets (great tennis example here); helpful MANTRAS; how to not dwell on the failures; redirecting butterflies to become jet fuel (!!!!); why and how to deliberately “fake” a positive stance; the magic word that changes self-deprecative negative truth into strong motivation; how not to be seduced by HAPPINESS; and how to adopt the main “Pro Mindset” (the greatest motivator of them all, very powerful!) Furthermore, I’d like to conclude this review with the observation that these powerful, practical tools so kindly laid out here for achieving success are FOR ANYONE TRYING TO ACHIEVE ANYTHING. Yes, I know one shouldn’t “bold” written words too much, but that is a key “take-home message” for buying and reading this well-written book! Just like school athletic programs in general, it’s not just about getting good at exercising or playing a game. No, those school programs when well-executed TEACH HOW YOUNG PEOPLE CAN SUCCEED IN LIFE. These profound but imminently doable suggestions are just as effective at promoting success in business, academia, research, service, in the military, or manufacturing. Under intense pressure, under withering scrutiny, beset by doubts, facing failures… I’ve been there. I just wish that instead of having to struggle for many years to get the best mindset, I’d had this book to read in my school days! Indeed, this should be a textbook for all school athletic programs, part of their required reading! (Or, given by clever parents to their kids starting a school athletic program, for truly giving their own kids the “winning edge” not just in their selected sport but in their entire life-endeavors.) Highly recommended!