I Can: The Teenage Athlete's Guide to Mental Fitness

I can. It is the mantra of many successful athletes. The successful athletes we all enjoy watching and aspire to join don’t just work physically hard – they learn how to use their brain really well too. In their time in sport they have learnt tonnes of mental skills and have honed a performance focused mindset to give themselves the best chance of achieving their sporting dreams. This book is designed to help you become one of these athletes. Someone whose body can already show off brilliant sporting skills but who now wants to learn to master the mental skills too. The book covers what it takes to be successful, how to handle competition nerves, ways to push harder and get braver, techniques to build your confidence, ways to improve your emotional control, activities to increase your concentration and focus, tactics for dealing with setbacks and injury, advice on how to feel comfortable in the sporting world and finally tips on how to look after your wellbeing as an athlete. In each chapter there are questions to think about and answer, activities to complete and elite insights and interviews from some of the best athletes in the world. The skills we cover will not only help you in sport, but also in school, music, and any other hobbies. So, if you want to be able to say ‘I can’ with confidence and know that you can handle whatever your sport throws at you, then open up this book and get started on developing your mindset for sporting success. Author Bio: Dr Josephine Perry is a Chartered Sport Psychologist who has worked in 24 sports, with novice athletes just starting out through to world champions. She teaches athletes the skills they need to overcome barriers to success and ensures they feel more comfortable and confident when they compete. She helps athletes set realistic but exciting goals, overcome fears or anxieties around competition, develops their techniques to deal with those periods when it feels like their mind is self-sabotaging their ambitions and gets athletes to the start of their competitions feeling confident and excited. Praise for I Can: “This book is not just key for young athletes, but also extremely useful for sport psychologists working with this population” Dr Amy Whitehead, School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University “I’d have loved to have had this as a teenager” Amy Williams MBE, Olympic Champion, Presenter, Speaker, Author, Physical trainer “I struggled with self-doubt and confidence. When I look back at this time, I often wonder how many times I underperformed due to this. "I Can" by Josie Perry is what was missing. This book although written for teenagers, is a brilliant guide for all of us to optimize our performances” Greg Bennett, Multiple Triathlon World Series Champion, Multiple Olympian, Author, Podcast host - The Greg Bennett Show “An insightful and practical approach providing much needed support and understanding for young people. Everything from the language to the layout is thoroughly thought through and very powerful” Jenny Coady, High Performance Coach Developer, UK Coaching, Performance Coach: West Ham United Women, Former International Basketball Player and Coach. This book takes pains to consider that education is a vital tool in any athlete’s armoury. Learning its lessons may have helped me considerably through the trials and tribulations that is competitive sport. I could have won more medals, being more satisfied and probably been kinder to myself in general” Jodie Swallow, Olympian, twice ITU Long Distance World Champion, Ironman 70.3 World Champion, twice Ironman African Champion, and Ironman Asia Pacific Champion “This book is an invaluable guide for any young athlete wanting to build their mental toolkit, and practising the suggested exercises is a great way to kickstart success in sport and other areas of life” Lizzie Simmonds, Double Olympian, Business Coach, Blogger Read more