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Competitive Fire: Insights to developing the warrior mentality of sports champions by M. Clarkson has been around for more than a decade but its a classic. This book has many inspiring stories of great athletes from almost every sport and pointers from the best athletes and coaches that ever lived. The author is a sports journalist for over 30 years and not only is he a great story teller, he also chose amazing stories that depict the “competitive fire.” From uplifting stories of underdogs to vivid recollections of the mindset of athletes that broke world records, this book will undoubtedly fuel your fire and tap into your inner champion.

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Mind & Muscle by B. Whitmarsh, PhD is one of the first exercise psychology handbooks in my collection. It is tailored for bodybuilders but it is very useful for fitness trainers and for regular gym-goers. This is not your stereotypical motivational book filled with encouraging words and cliches like “No pain, no gain.” This book has worksheets and practical strategies for the mental aspects of working out, from overcoming motivational barriers to pushing workout intensity and breaking through plateaus. This book has the perfect blend of exercise science, with periodization charts and nutritional plans, and exercise psychology, with self-awareness charts and visualization techniques.

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Cultural Sport Psychology by R.J. Schinke and S.J. Hanrahan is a great textbook for sport psychology consultants, students, and enthusiasts who are interested to learn about the future of sport psychology, which is more global and diverse.  As sport psychology grows as a field, it is inevitable for it to expand and branch out from its mostly Western-centric roots to a more culturally-adaptive discipline.  I have met some of the contributors in this book and these sport psychology scholars and professionals do practice what they preach.  Worthy of mentioning is Dr. William Parham, who is a big advocate of multiculturalism in both clinical psychology and sport psychology and the book mentioned his multicultural guidelines for practice.  I knew Dr. Parham while I was a student at John F. Kennedy University where he served as the Dean of the Graduate School of  Professional Psychology.  Dr. Parham also worked with UCLA teams and the LA Lakers.  Although this is basically a textbook, it is an easy and fun read.  It uses current and relevant sport examples for discussions such as Terrell Owens’ postscore celebrations.

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