My Little Red Book

I guess it’s only fitting that my first book review discuss Dr. James Loehr’s The New Toughness Training for Sports:  Mental, Emotional and Physical Conditioning from One of the World’s Premier Sports Psychologists.  This little red book profoundly impacted my coaching career.

I knew of Dr Loehr’s work prior to the publication of this book – most of his early clients came from the tennis world and I’d heard Jim speak at a few conferences.  When the book finally came out in 1994 I devoured it from cover to cover.  I wanted to synthesize the various material from his presentations and discover the big picture.  I wanted to figure out the model.

Growing up, I didn’t consistently exhibit the “killer instinct” (as it was called way back when) so I was so relieved to learn that one’s Ideal Performance State (IPS) is a learned response, not an inherited one.  Dr. Loehr defines toughness as  “the ability to consistently perform toward the upper range of your talent and skill regardless of competitive circumstances”.  I wanted to know how to teach this skill to my athletes.  This book showed me how.

Even though I’d been in Berkeley for a few years, Jim’s book showed me how the mind and the body are one.  His “performance triad” shows that toughness is mental, physical and emotional. When you impact one sphere all are impacted.  Thoughts, feelings, health, happiness and performance are all intimately interconnected and influence performance on and off the playing field.  Being a bit of a geek, I loved that he discussed the science behind this seemingly “woo-woo” phenomenon.

I loved learning the connection between acting and competing. A successful actor is a person who is able to summon whatever emotions and physiology are required to bring the script to life.  Great actors are so convincing they get us to shell out $12 to watch them pretend to be someone else! How do they do that?  Well, acting skills control our physiology.  I learned how to help my athletes become top-notch performers.

A major key to the Toughness Training Program is to create rituals of success – ones that will summon the most appropriate and adaptive response to whatever life throws at you.  A ritual is a “controllable sequence or disciplined pattern of thinking and acting that enhances your ability to perform at your best”.  A big part of my coaching is helping athletes (and coaches) discover their success rituals on and off the court.

This book has been around a while and I still think it’s one of the best performance training books to date.  I can’t tell you how many copies I’ve purchased over the years.  It is a constant staple in my lending library.  You can order it below.

Happy Reading!

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