Success Mantra in Sports - A book that unravels latent mind power to achieve high performance

From left to right – Author M. N. Viswanath, veteran coach and Dronacharya awardee Lingappa, and Ashwini Nachappa(Image: Sportstarlive)
1

The book, Success Mantra in Sports, written by sports psychologist MN Viswanath, was released by Arjuna Awardee, Ashwini Nachappa recently. At a time when there is a dearth of good literature on sports psychology in India, this book comes as a boon to sportspersons to train their mind and enhance their performance.

The 376-page book addresses key mental aspects of sports in an easy and simple manner, with a lot of anecdotes, and narrates personal experiences of top national and international sportspersons.

“Many years back, I found it difficult to find professional psychological support for my table-tennis-playing son which prompted me to write the book,'' revealed MN Viswanath, the author, to Sportskeeda.

Sports Mantra is a practical book with concepts, ideas, mind drills, incidents, and interviews. Topics like emotions and emotional intelligence, motivation, how to handle pressure, the importance of focus and the power of self-confidence were dealt with in detail. Tools were provided for the coaches on how to assess these values.

The chapter on the power of the sub-conscious mind and meditation talk about important means to harvest and realise the potential of athletes, which are not commonly found in the Indian sports scenario.

The author feels that the mental aspects play a bigger role than the physical aspects in any sport and sportspersons need to be aware of the deeper psychological aspects to benefit from training and planning.

After setting the tone on the importance of a sound mind in achieving desired results and the urgent need for mind skill training, the author goes on in detail about different aspects that a player comes across in his daily sporting life. After talking about how motivation nurtures the drive to excel, he details the role played by self-confidence and the power it creates for a sportsperson.

The book also provides practical tools in sports psychology for coaches and athletes to improve themselves, both at the basic and fundamental level, and a couple of chapters deal with the inputs necessary for high-performance training.

The sports psychology themes presented in the book have a range of coping strategies that are suitable for use by the athletes, sportspersons, trainers and coaches as well. After explaining the techniques of concentration and focus, the book also provides useful notes on how to overcome distractions.

It goes on to narrate the importance of meditation and the power of the sub-conscious mind in different chapters. The author also discusses different ways of dealing with pressure and expectation and how an athlete can cope with such situations with real-life examples.

The lines on choking are interesting and help sportspersons understand and overcome the disconnect between the mind and the body and cultivate a never-say-die attitude with proper mind-skill training.

In the chapter on Emotion in Sports, the author, after detailing how emotions play an important role in affecting high performance, talks about aggression, violent behaviour, temperament and character. Without sermonising, he speaks about how aggression can be directed correctly to achieve peak performance by avoiding hostile aggression in favour of instrumental aggression. Thus the intention will be to gain an advantage and not to physically harm the opponent.

Visualisation in Sports is another important chapter where the author airs his views on how one can win the game in the mind. He starts with a quote from athlete Marti Liquori, “If you want to be a champion you will have to win every race in the mind over a hundred times before you win it in real life that last time.''

Mental toughness is a word commonly used but is not understood adequately by athletes, the author feels. Mental strength and how to develop it are narrated through the words of different people in the chapter on mental toughness. He also talks about how mental toughness can override pain and help perform in difficult situations.

Apart from these sporting topics, the author dealt with two important subjects, `Mysticism in Sports and the Role of Parents in making an athlete' that make the book complete and a must read for parents of budding and aspiring sportspersons. He advises parents not to push their children and to keep the fun and enjoyment alive.

The book brings sports psychology concepts to the general public in India at an affordable price. It points to correct thoughts and actions which anyone can put to good use to improve performances and enjoy sports. It also comes at a time when the country lacks quality publications on sports psychology.

But for a few spelling mistakes, crowded layouts and sometimes long narrations, the book has good value and is an everyday handbook for anyone in the sports field. It is easy to understand and is recommended both for juniors and experienced athletes. This book is also useful for any sportsperson or sports coaching staff, who wants to learn key concepts in achieving peak performance through training both the mind and the body.

Edited by Staff Editor