The Playmaker's Advantage: How to Raise Your Mental Game to the Next Level

The insights Dr. Zaichkowsky shares and explores relate to most every aspect of living productive successful lives. He mixes some serious clinical research with vignettes about contemporary sports heroes and recognizable championship scenarios that allows the reader to understand the theory in a real-world way. The book is well-seasoned with quotes from the leading champion professional coaches and players from basketball to soccer, Australian football and several other individual and team sports. The book is finely edited to make it eminently readable. It's not just about when and how to teach young people the way to achieve top-tier performance, but more a recognition of the role that the mind plays in that quest. This is a guide for self-reliant, mindful non-neurotic living we can each apply in our daily lives. Move over Dr. Jordan Peterson.

I have read many books and articles on related topics. While I felt the book got off to a slow start, and for my taste and interests there were too many hockey connections, the last half of the book in particular was very well done in its discussion about the current and perhaps future of sport and performance science.

Excellent. Especially useful for parents of young athletes and coaches in youth sports. Full of research-based rationales for how to work in youth sports.

Good book that asks the question what makes an athlete a playmaker. It sets the table for a lot of future discussion. It tries to frame the conversation about what makes someone a good player and then a great player.Unfortunately it seems as though this book is only a primer. It attempts to give a vocabulary and a starting point to understanding what makes someone a great playmaker.I would be shocked if there is not a follow on book in the near future.

This book highlights the new/neural pathways to coaching and the need to understanding the cognitive skills of youth through to adulthood in development of athletes in any code.This book will become my reference work as a go to for inspiration and the personal desire to improve through continued research into the importance of mental side of sport.

Books of this type are not for noobs. The basics and fundamentals must be ingrained before this strategy is applied. This gets the student or coach stuck at 90%+ to break through plateaus. In some sports, 100% can not be achieved. Some sports allow 100% occasionally. This book will help one get there.

Engaging and practical presentation of information that makes it so much easier to follow and use in the coaching world. It’s not overly academic, the authors took the time to bring everything down to where it is accessible if you aren’t a trained psychologist. Very useful book!

This books begins to break down the mental aspect of athletic development. More importantly, the authors do so in a way that can benefit coaches and players of all levels. Parents can and should read too.

Excellent book. Recommended for anyone who takes their coaching seriously.

Great book, value for money, a great read for all sports people.