Courage over Confidence: Managing Mind Chatter and Winning the Mental Game

Courage over Confidence offers a new approach to conquering the mental game of sports. Written for competitive young athletes as well as professionals and Olympians, it is also a game changer for coaches and parents looking for ways to further help their aspiring athletes.

In this book, renowned clinical and sport psychologist Dr. Mitchell Greene explodes one of the field’s most common and malicious myths—that confidence is a prerequisite for athletic success. The evidence shows that most athletes find it nearly impossible to sustain positive thinking when their minds are riddled with mind chatter—that unwelcome, doom and gloom self-conversation that crops up in high-stakes competitions. Chatter-filled athletes will excel in practice but struggle to perform on game day and they will fear the stakes of losing despite having trained to compete at their best.

The clear instructions in Courage over Confidence provide guidance for managing mind chatter and a method for “joining forces” with that negative voice rather than battling it. With courage over confidence, good players can learn to become great competitors.