The New Toughness Training for Sports: Mental Emotional Physical Conditioning from One of the World's Premier Sports Psychologists

by Jim Loehr, Dan Jansen (Foreword by), Chris Evert (Foreword by)

For nearly a quarter of a century, top sports psychologist James E. Loehr has been training world-class athletes, from Olympic gold medalist speed-skater Dan Jansen to tennis stars Monica Seles and Jim Courier His bestselling book, Mental Toughness Training for Sports , is a classic. In The New Toughness Training for Sports , he offers a toughness program that allows you to play at the very top of your game--every time. You'll learn how to trigger you Ideal Performance State (IPS) on demand and gain the heightened physical, mental, and emotional mind-body toughness so vital to sports.

Genres: Psychology, Sports, Nonfiction, Self Help, Health

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

About the author

Dr. Jim Loehr is a world-renowned performance psychologist and author of 16 books including his most recent, The Only Way to Win. He also co-authored the national bestseller The Power of Full Engagement.

Dr. Loehr’s ground-breaking, science-based energy management training system has achieved world-wide recognition and has been chronicled in leading national publications, including the Harvard Business Review, Business Week, Fortune, Newsweek, Time, US News and World Report, Success, Fast Company and Omni. He has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Nightline with Ted Koppel, the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and CBS Morning News, and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

From his more than 30 years of experience and applied research, Dr. Loehr believes the single most important factor in successful achievement, personal fulfilment and life satisfaction is the strength of one’s character.
He strongly contends that character strength can be built in the same way that muscle strength is built
through energy investment.

Dr. Loehr has worked with hundreds of world-class performers from the arenas of sport, business, medicine and law enforcement, including Fortune 100 executives, FBI Hostage Rescue Teams, and military Special Forces. Corporate clients of the Institute represent hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, including Procter & Gamble, The Estée Lauder Companies, FBI, GlaxoSmithKline, PepsiCo, and Citigroup Smith Barney. A sampling of his elite clients from the world of sport include golfers Mark O’Meara and Justin Rose; tennis players Jim Courier, Monica Seles, and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario; boxer Ray Mancini; hockey players Eric Lindros and Mike Richter; and Olympic gold medal speed skater Dan Jansen.

Dr. Loehr possesses a masters and doctorate in psychology, serves on several prestigious scientific boards and is a full member of the American Psychological Association, the American College of Sports Medicine, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and the Association for
Applied Sport Psychology.

The Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute is the pioneer in delivering a science-based energy management training solution. Based on over 30 years of proprietary research, the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute has worked with elite performers, including Olympic gold medalists, military Special Forces, Hostage Rescue teams, surgeons, and Fortune 500 CEOs to achieve sustained high performance. In 2015 alone, 25 of the Fortune 100 companies participated in Corporate Athlete® training, delivered across 32 countries, in over 500 sessions.

Reviews

[connor bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is designed to help athletes get stronger mentally physically and emotionally. It goes into great detail about all the types of weakness and how to improve them. It also includes training exercises to mark your progress in all kinds of categories. The theme of the book is to improve all aspects of your game.This book is similar to most sports movies because the protagonist team always has to overcome the same physical emotional and mental hurtles that are talked about in this book. This book can and will help out my mental toughness which is the whole reason I read this book in the first place. I liked this book a lot, I learned all about how to be more stable and how to deal with pressure and overcome negative emotions. I believe this book has and will help many people do the same. Overall this was the best toughness book I have ever read.

[Jordan Shipman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have this love hate relationship with sports psychology books.

On one hand--I'm an active brazillian jiujitsu competiutor in my thirties and I never competed or participated in sports in high school or college--it is good for me to read this stuff. My mental game is sorely lacking. I compete often so it is good for me to be feeding myself this material and constantly improving my mindset.

On the other hand, I get bored reading this stuff. There isn't really a story (except for anecdotes peppered throughout) to keep me engaged so it's not really a book I can plow through, excited for any opportunity I can get to pick it up. So reading this book was more like a discipline, 20 pages a day untill I finished.

All that being said, despite being 20 years old (I took the nutrition and some of the other cutting edge science with a grain of salt) this book was the best combination of insight + practical actionable advice I've read thus far.

I reccomend to anyone looking to improve their mindset and get tougher in sports.

[Trenty Cents · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give 10 stars I would. Best book, not just on toughness in sport, but life in general. Anyone looking to be more resillient in any area of their life (work, family, relasionships) should make this book their next book.

[Ed Barton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for coaches or anyone looking for information on how to increase physical and mental toughness systematically. While the book is getting old, the foundations are excellent, and the ties between mental, physical, and emotional toughness are explored and strategies discussed to drive improvement. The approaches discussed in the book, including the end of chapter exercises, are great for a coach to use as part of athletic programs at almost any age—a good read.

[Sanath Sambamoorthi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive toughness training for athletes which is both easily applicable and useful for any kind of skill development. Special props for identifying the necessity of acting skills for high performance, how to develop them, and the necessity to wave to relaxation and rest in order to engage harder in the field. I'll be a student of the content in this book for the rest of my life. Will revisit this one many times. Fantastic.

[brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

My uncle gave me this book in High school and it has been one of the most influential books to my life. Before this book I didn't think about playing sports I just did. For some reason I just connected with this book and have re-read, and recommended many times over the years. I've read countless sports books and this one will always be at the top for me.

[Charles H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has some useful tips that I will apply to my own training, but I would have liked to see more scientific evidence for a lot of it. That said, I'd definitely recommend it to someone interested in the topic; it's possible some of it is a bit outdated at this point but there's certainly no harm in it and (like I did) you'll probably find things that you can apply to your own training.

[Diego Cerezo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book in a sentence: a sports psychologist’s theory of mental toughness training for sports, it’s 90s science which can be used in day to day life.

Key lesson learned: our brain works best in waves, you need intense concentration during critical times and extreme relaxation in between them.

[Peter Shipman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly relevant for improving your life skills far beyond competition. Even after 40 years of training and competition I found this revealing liberating and empowering.

[pnut · Rating 2 out of 5]

a little repetitive, really dumbed down, and unorganized in the writing style but still worthwhile concepts

[Evan Bageris]

I read it like 15 years ago so I don't really remember. But come to think of it, I am pretty tough. That doesn't look like it spelled right....tough. Ram Tough. It looks like though. Anyway, I don't know if it's because I read this book, but ask around, I'm pretty tough. I mean I've been training for it so......you know......for sports. Yeah, when it comes to sports I am definetly tough. I don't like to brag, but I've training for it, you know, for toughness.....in sports especially. So I guess it's been working.

[Carrie Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shaped me. I read it in high school as a tennis team assignment, but still find quotes come to mind from it when I'm in tough situations. It is all about being in control of your physical, mental, and emotional self so you can be in your ideal performance state, which we all want to be in at all times in everything we do. You don't need to read it cover to cover, but it's worth pulling some concepts out of.

[Amanda Friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first competitive book I've read, and I love it. I am not sure if it is because this book is truly amazing or if it is simply because I love competition, but this book was jampacked with wonderful insights! It helped me understand the whole picture of mental, physical, and emotional health. All three work together to perform a tough athlete who performs at their peak. If you are an athlete aiming to perform their best, read this book. It does not disappoint.

[Folkert Wierda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Competitive sport is tough on the mind. So the mind requires as much toughening and training as the body. Loehr provides a no-nonsense walk-through on how the mind and body work in unison to competitive success, or how the mind can obstruct it. I get several clues from this book that I use in my daily training and in races. Nothing revolutionary, but common sense in a well organized fashion.

[Sarah Bergmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This author had some interesting ideas about how to compete at your top level more consistently. Some of the ideas were standard, some were new. The book was only 200 pages and probably didn't really need to be that long but was worth the read.

[Cris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is no longer new, but is still very timely and uselful. Love the concept applied to business and particularly a job search. Lots of great tips and motivators.

[Nickytort · Rating 3 out of 5]

My dad read it and gave it to me to read.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was OK. So much of this was common sense but it had some good tid bits. My son was reading it. His coach recommended it.

[Kristi Lambert deter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I preferred this book to The Mind Gym. Both are great, but this one resonated with me a little more. Every athlete should read both these books.

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

i wish i had the patience to stick to this book's suggestions!

[Julie Glynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to apply strategies, but it was aimed at teenagers which was a little hard to relate to.