Think Like a Champion: A Guide to Championship Performance for Athletes in All Sports [Hardcover]

Dick Devenzio (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Fool Court Pr (January 1997)
• ISBN-10: 9997053060
• ISBN-13: 978-9997053060
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,571,458 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe the best book on winning!, October 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Think Like a Champion: A Guide to Championship Performance for Athletes in All Sports (Hardcover)

I have read all of Dick's books and though it's hard to pick, Ihave to say that this may be his best one. No one should be allowed to coach or participate in sports without this book as their text!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Guide To Championship Performance In Sports., January 10, 2004

By 

Hanie E. Cole III "HC3" (Chocowinity, North Carolina United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Think Like a Champion: A Guide to Championship Performance for Athletes in All Sports (Hardcover)

This is Dick DeVenzio's 2nd greatest book that he wrote. The Greatest is There's Only One Way To Win. A few exerpt's from Think Like A Champion.

Hardback Total pages 414
Table Of Contents- Page
Introduction To Athletes 9
Introduction To Coaches and parents 12
How to use this book effectively 14
Think Like A Champion from
A to Z, 122 Entries 15
Index 411

122 Chapters

A few Favorite exerpt's from Think Like A Champion.

From the books inner cover jacket:
" Covering everything from Overconfidence, chocking under pressure, underconfidence, and playing with teammates you don't like, to slumps, doldrums, academics, and how to increase speed and quickness, THINK LIKE A CHAMPION is a valuable guide for athletes who want to excel. Its practical advice is broken down into 122 short sections on situations that athletes commonly encounter. Becoming a champion is not easy; it takes hard work and lots of preparation. Reading a book won't magically turn you into a champion, But it can save you a lot of time, help pave your way, and inspire you. This book shows how champions think and how they respond in a variety of situations. If you want to succeed in sports, you will want to read THINK LIKE A CHAMPION.

Page 3 "Championships are not won on the night of a big event, but years before by athletes who commit themselves daily to championship principles."

Page 4 "I hope the floor is real slippery tonight or the ball has to much air...You Have to embrace the conditions, not complain about them."

Page 12 "In fact, the best coaches teach athletes to expect some bad calls, factor them in, and still prepare to win."

Page 31 Chapter 4 ADVERSE CIRCUMSTANCES: A A CHANCE TO SHOW OFF!
"What a shame that those athletes don't have a great coach reminding them every day that adverse circumstances are normal, they are expected, awaited, and to be viewed simply as a chance to show off--in the best way possible...start viewing every negative circumstance as an opportunity."

Page 52 Chapter 10. BLAME YOURSELF!
"All sorts of things go always go wrong. Big Deal. We know that. That's the given athletic algebra. The only unknown is YOU...Ask yourself if you have reached the point in your athletic development where you can lead your team in scoring and play the best defense and still walk off the field, having lost, feeling sincerely that the loss was YOUR fault."

Page 117 Chapter 32 EXCUSES
"In sports, there's a refershing concreteness and finality, someone wins, someone loses. The losers, of course, have excuses, but fortunately, no one cares. My Father/coach always said: Let them have the excuses for losing. Let US offer the reasons for winning."

Page 131 Chapter 36 FOCUSING ON YOURSELF.
"Focusing on your is the major theme in this book, appearing again and again, in one form and another, so I won't elaborate any further. I'll let this section stand simply as another reminder. When all sorts of negative incidents, circumstances and events are going on around you, focus your attention on what YOU can do to make something postitive happen. What can you do?

Page 159 Chapter 47 IMAGINARY CHAMPIONS
"To become a champion, it is necessary to get yourself, to the fullest extent possible, to practice with the idea that you are playing against good players, against champions in big games that really matter. Keep in mind, always, that you are practing against imaginary CHAMPIONS, and make the moves, hit the shots, swing the bat, run and fake-- in ways that will work against champions."

Page 184-187 JUSTIFICATIONS
"If you don't eliminate your legitimate justifications for failure, they will actually contribute to eventual failure."

Page 356-358 THREE PLAYS
"You grow up thinking that graet means awesome and that dismal means terrible; and then you find out that these words mean 68-65, in overtime! When you think of how little difference there is between great teams and mediocre teams, it's astonishing. A so-called great team may be described with terms like invincible, incredible, awesome, powerful, perhapsthe best of all time. Three plays. Sometimes... often separate greatness from mediocrity. It is this awareness that turns coaches into fanatics, champions into perfectionists, and cliches into wisdom. I mean, isn't it time for you to tighten the screws, to turn your play up a notch, to play like there's no tomorrow, to show what you're made of, to win one for the gipper, or at least to put your pants on one leg at a time."

This is a great book on thinking about sports.