Discussion of Mental Game Books

[golfortennis]

I know there have been plenty of threads about which books, but I was wanting to take a bit of a different approach.  I have recently read or re-read Golf is Not a Game of Perfect, Your 15th Club, and How Champions Think by Bob Rotella.  He appears to have several other books beyond those.  What I found by the end of the last one was, while there were some different examples in later books, by and large they said the same thing.  Have people who have read his other books found this to be the case? ETA:  This is not to say the books were bad.  Quite the opposite actually.  Just that it feels like reading one of the books would get me to the same place. 

 

I'm also looking at Pia Nilsson/Lynn Marriott, and see they have several books.  Are they essentially all rehashes of their own books?(I know they will be different from Rotella, so just sticking within author's works.)

 

I just don't want to focus too much time on multiple books if one book will get me the same info, and maybe this will help someone else at some point.   

Edited September 23, 2021 by golfortennis

[Hawkeye77]

So read the one offs?  

 

Watson, Floyd, O'Hern, Armour.

[Shilgy]

Just like those teaching the swing the mental game gurus will always find various ways of saying the same thing different ways to reach different students.  We all internalize things in a different manner just like we all translate swing change suggestions and get various physical results.

 Base on the op name may I suggest someone other than Pennick?

 

Read the Inner Game of Golf by Timothy Gallwey.  He also wrote the Inner Game of Tennis.

 

Enlightening stuff imho.  Dang…now I feel the urge to go read it again! 🧐

[baudi]

Not sure what you are looking for but my anchor is zen in the art of archery. 

[golfortennis]

1 hour ago, Hawkeye77 said:

So read the one offs?  

 

Watson, Floyd, O'Hern, Armour.

 

Read O'Hern.  Was good.  Assuming you mean Elements of SCoring by Floyd?  Read that one before.  Armour?  You may have piqued my curiosity. 

 

Not saying I don't want to read Marriott/Nilsson.  Just don't want to read all the books if they are basically the same.  Rotella is worth a read.  But maybe not worth 10 books of reading.

Edited September 24, 2021 by golfortennis

[golfortennis]

56 minutes ago, Shilgy said:

Just like those teaching the swing the mental game gurus will always find various ways of saying the same thing different ways to reach different students.  We all internalize things in a different manner just like we all translate swing change suggestions and get various physical results.

 Base on the op name may I suggest someone other than Pennick?

 

Read the Inner Game of Golf by Timothy Gallwey.  He also wrote the Inner Game of Tennis.

 

Enlightening stuff imho.  Dang…now I feel the urge to go read it again! 🧐

 

I'm encouraging people to read!  🤪

 

Read the Inner Game of Tennis.  Gallwey is a good writer.  

 

  

[Hawkeye77]

A Round Of Golf With Tommy Armour is great and Watson's Strategic Golf is great.

 

In the end, at some point, all the mental game books start to seem the same, but those two books focus on actual play.  O'Hern I thought more so on PSR when you boil it down.

 

I have two of Pia's books - their first one is okay, the second to me is the first one plus blah, blah and the PSR takeaway for me was "it" and not much more.  Rotella is okay but I agree, after awhile it gets redundant, but I've only read three, lol, but won't read a fourth.

[Medson]

3 hours ago, golfortennis said:

 

I'm encouraging people to read!  🤪

 

Read the Inner Game of Tennis.  Gallwey is a good writer.  

 

  

 

For some odd reason, I decided to read Inner Game of Tennis. It was such a great mental book for sports across the board. I always thought tennis and golf are very different from mental perspective. In golf, you need to stay calm. In tennis, you need to play angry and need to have that killer mentality. 

 

After reading the book, I thought some mental tactics and framing are applicable for both golf and tennis. 

[Shilgy]

27 minutes ago, Medson said:

 

For some odd reason, I decided to read Inner Game of Tennis. It was such a great mental book for sports across the board. I always thought tennis and golf are very different from mental perspective. In golf, you need to stay calm. In tennis, you need to play angry and need to have that killer mentality. 

 

After reading the book, I thought some mental tactics and framing are applicable for both golf and tennis. 

I encourage you to read the Inner Game of Golf then.  He explains how he transferred the tennis ideas to golf quite succinctly.

 

In the golf book his work with Al Geiberger is really enlightening.

[Medson]

1 hour ago, Shilgy said:

I encourage you to read the Inner Game of Golf then.  He explains how he transferred the tennis ideas to golf quite succinctly.

 

In the golf book his work with Al Geiberger is really enlightening.

Thank you for the recommendation. 
 

Do you think the golf book is sufficiently different from his tennis book? 
 

I think to @golfortennis’s point, I wonder some of these books from the same author are just repetitive. 

[Nels55]

Lots of good books mentioned above!  Here are a few more:

 

The best mental game book that I have read is 'Extraordinary Golf' by Fred Shoemaker it helped me a great deal and based on my recent attitude I need to read it again LOL. 

 

Also I would recommend reading 'The Practice Manual' by Adam Young.  I found learning about the 5 levels of focus very enlightening.  In addition the idea of using swing goals to get the body to self organize the correct movements is interesting and practical.

 

'The Secret of Golf' by Joe Posnanski is a really good read and provides some nice ideas on the mental side of things.

 

'Clear Key' by Carry Mumford was a really interesting approach to the mental side of golf that some found extremely worthwhile.  I guess that it is no longer available though.  Here is a thread:

 

[Shilgy]

7 hours ago, Medson said:

Thank you for the recommendation. 
 

Do you think the golf book is sufficiently different from his tennis book? 
 

I think to @golfortennis’s point, I wonder some of these books from the same author are just repetitive. 

I have not read the tennis book but I would certainly think so as the sports are so different in their challenges with tennis being so reactionary and golf the player must initiate the movement.

  That said he does mention often the challenge he had transferring the mental part of tennis to the game of golf.  

[dbleag]

 

Lorem

 

Edited September 25, 2021 by dbleag

[xmanhockey7]

Rotellas stuff all says basically the same. I’m a big fan of Michael Lardon’s book. Unique from everything else and a way to actually measure how you’re doing mentally. 

[smashdn]

It is easier to "think better" when you can play better.  Having a good playing strategy, one that supersedes what you want to do, is one founded on a very strong understanding of what you can and will do and are capable of doing.  In other words, a bad strategy is one you will not pull off.  A good strategy is one you can do.  

 

Mentally you don't get in your own way when the ball is going where you want it. That becomes easy, carefree golf. 

[stingerfade]

A really good on e is Be the Target. This one really resonates with me. 
 

also be a player is good. They all kind of say the same thing but in a different way.