Vic Braden's Mental Tennis: How to Psych Yourself to a Winning Game [Paperback]

Vic Braden (Author), Robert Wool (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 1994

Whether you are a tennis novice, a beginner ready for competition, a club player with an eye on the tournament trophy, or a professional stuck in a rut, Vic Braden's Mental Tennis shows you that your mind can be the single best tool to reconstruct your game. In his new breakthrough book, Vic Braden demonstrates how to improve your physical performance dramatically and develop a winning mental attitude - both on the court and off. Vic Braden is America's favorite tennis coach, recognized and respected by professionals and amateurs alike. In addition to being a licensed psychologist, he has been a major force in tennis - as a player and a teacher - since the early 1960s. In Mental Tennis, he draws upon his unique background and years of personal research - tested on thousands of his students - along with the latest technical and statistical information, and shows you how to maximize the potential of your mind to achieve peak playing skills, while boosting your confidence and enjoyment of the game. With his characteristic humor and charm, and using entertaining and instructive examples of famous players and matches, Vic Braden identifies common problems that can undermine your performance on the court, and explores their causes. He provides important psychological insights, and expert advice on how to overcome mental obstacles - such as self-doubt; lack of focus; guilt about winning; the stress that stems from a fear of losing, being humiliated, or letting down your doubles partner - and challenges you to set realistic and healthy goals for improvement. In addition to methods for long-term progress and fundamental behavior modification, Vic Braden's Mental Tennis also provides quicktriggers for immediate results; effective strategies to reverse years of bad habits; and tips on how to psych out your opponent, how to perform well under pressure, and how to maintain concentration and tune out external distracti

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (April 13, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316105171
• ISBN-13: 978-0316105170
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #855,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Definitely Maybe, June 20, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Vic Braden's Mental Tennis: How to Psych Yourself to a Winning Game (Paperback)

Mr. Branden spends a large section of the book going over identifying the mental issues in playing tennis. This is done well however, actually finding solutions is not done clearly at all.
The best part of the book were the simple tips such as putting more height on the ball over the net, getting one more ball back and improving just one shot in your repertoire.
This isn't a bad book but there are better books out there that have worked out much better for me. I would recommend Total Tennis by Peter Burwash and Bill Tilden's How to play better Tennis. The subject matter is different and I feel they have more value.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Always losing? It might be in your head, June 22, 2003

By 

L. Blumenthal "lynn" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vic Braden's Mental Tennis: How to Psych Yourself to a Winning Game (Paperback)

After being praised by pros and even attending adult tennis camp, I still found myself choking in matches. Although I'm a female who grew up pre-Title IX, I thought I could learn how to compete, but it just wasn't happening. No matter how much I learned about form and strategy, when it came to game time, I'd lose.

This book has helped explain what's going on in my head and what I can do to either win or just plain enjoy tennis for fun. It's going to take some time to put Braden's tips to use, but his common-sense approach simple to understand and the data he uses to back it up convinces even the skeptics.

Here's one tidbit that makes sense: get back one more ball, and you'll up your game-wining percentage by 33 percent. That's an amazing number and I find myself diving for balls now that I ordinarily consider hopeless. I'm going for that 33 percent!

Recommended for all all levels of play.

Only caveat: they could update this edition. Some of the players used as examples retired years ago.

Lynn

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Bathroom Reading, December 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Vic Braden's Mental Tennis: How to Psych Yourself to a Winning Game (Paperback)

Yes, exactly that. Braden produces an easy-to-read book that dips into a bit of almost everything tennis except strokes. So he covers physics, genetics, statistics, psychology, great tennis personalities, finding a coach, tennis parents....ummm, yes, you got it. It's not so much about the mental side of tennis as a collection of tennis television commercials that every now and then touch upon the mental side of the game. So it goes alongside my people magazine (Vic is a marvelous rambler!) into the bathroom. And even when it covers the mental side, it is not very practical. There are other books that cover the mental game much better (e.g., Inner Game of Tennis, Zennis, Smart Tennis, etc). Still it is well-written and enjoyable and more decorative than potpourri by the bath.