Performance Excellence: Stories of Success from the Real World of Sport and Exercise Psychology

Performance Excellence: Stories of Success from the Real World of Sport and Exercise Psychology provides concise and effective lessons on a variety of psychological skills and broader concepts within the domains of exercise, sport, and performance psychology. These skills and concepts include team cohesion, dynamics, and leadership; goal-setting, motivation, and adherence; exercise identity, athletic identity, transitions, and self-awareness; mental training; mindset; and facing and overcoming challenges such as anxiety, burnout, and rehabilitation. Each chapter includes a short educational piece that centers on the select concept and subsequent examples that highlight how the concept works in real life. At the end of each lesson a few takeaways are provided.

Over 60 stories of real-world examples provide poignant and compelling lessons and make the material come alive. These stories show the reader in an accessible and engaging way how to apply the sport and exercise psychology concepts outside the classroom. Ultimately, Performance Excellence serves as a wonderful resource for students, as well as for sport and exercise practitioners.

Michael Sachs is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, College of Public Health, at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. He is co-editor of Applied Exercise Psychology: The Challenging Journey From Motivation to Adherence, and is associate editor of Psychology of Running and coeditor of Running as Therapy: An Integrated Approach. He also co-wrote The Total Sports Experience for Kids: A Parents' Guide to Success in Youth Sports. He is a co-editor of the 12th edition of the Directory of Graduate Programs in Applied Sport Psychology. Sachs is a past-president of both the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) and Division 47, the Society for Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology, of the American Psychological Association (APA). He is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant with AASP.

Lauren S. Tashman, PhD, CMPC, is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant with the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), providing mental performance coaching, leadership advising, and team/organization consulting in sport, exercise, and non-sport performance settings in New York City and worldwide. She has consulted with a variety of sports, such as golf, softball, baseball, gymnastics, soccer, rowing, swimming and diving, tennis, basketball, and volleyball at a variety of levels including youth, collegiate, professional, and national/Olympic.

Tashman was previously an associate professor in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology (SEPP) as well as Coordinator of the Master’s program in SEPP at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida. She also served as the Coordinator of Sport Psychology Services, providing mental performance coaching to the Barry athletes, coaches, and teams as well as supervising the master’s students with their practicum experiences. She is the co-editor of two books: Becoming a Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology Professional: A Global Perspective (2014) and Global Practices and Training in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology (2016).

Selen Razon is an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology, College of Health Sciences at West Chester University. She is co-editor of the recently published Applied Exercise Psychology: The Challenging Journey from Motivation to Adherence. Razon’s research interests focus on exercise promotion in underserved populations and the effects of exercise on cognitions and affects.