Book
Playing Your Best When It Counts
How do you train mental performance skills in practice? This book was created with this question in mind and is designed to provide a solid foundation for developing and executing the mental skills necessary for playing your best when it counts. You will find the material in each chapter to be very applicable to your performance reality. Each chapter leads you into thinking about and applying the information directly to your practices and performances.
Contents
Introduction /1
Parallel Paths to Performance Excellence. Playing Your Best When it Counts.
Part I: Developing Mental Performance Skills
1. Harnessing Your Passion to Perform /8
Passionate Commitment. Passion as the Mother of Discipline. Going After your Best. Connecting with Your Passion. Make a Mastery Script. Keep a Mental Journal.
2. Mental Skills for Musicians /23
Mental Skills Model. Trusting What You’ve Trained. Mental Performance Skills. Mental Abilities. Mental Disciplines.
3. Trusting What You’ve Trained /39
Trust as a Specific Performance Skill. The Inner Game. The Inner Battle. Levels of Self Belief. Personality and Trust. Trust During Performance. Practicing a Trust Focus.
4. Self-confidence From Inside-Out /61
Choosing to be Confident. Self-coaching. Perfectionist’s Self-Talk. Expanding Your Natural Child. Performance Routines.
5. Managing Your Attentional Focus /85 Characteristics of Concentration. Concentration and Anxiety. Refocusing your Attention. Focus Mapping.
6. Creating a Positive Performance Mindset /102
Performance Anxiety.Positive Performance Mindset. Performance Mindset Model. Coping Strategies. Reframing Perceived Threats. Creating a Positive Performance Mindset.
Part II: Getting Where You Want To Go
7. Designing You Performance Future /127
Self-leadership. Self-leadership Tools. Self-leadership Process.
8. Making It Happen /137
Self-management. Self-renewal. Time Management. Positive Rituals. Goal Attainment