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BOOK REVIEW
Running Times Magazine
Your Performing Edge: The Complete Mind-Body Guide for Excellence
in Sports, Health, and Life, by JoAnn Dahlkoetter (Pulgas Ridge
Press, 2002)
Sports psychology books sometimes leave us worse off than we were before
reading them. They mean well, offering philosophies and techniques
aimed at sharpening the mental aspect of our running. All this information,
however, seems esoteric and detached, much like the peak form that
most of us are still left without.
JoAnn Dahlkoetter’s Your Performing Edge stands out from the competition
thanks to its practical, tried-and-true advice. Like other books of
its kind, Your Performing Edge talks a big game, evidenced by its subtitle,
"The Complete Guide to Success and Fulfillment in Sports and Life."
Unlike others, Dahlkoetter’s book offers tips and methods that
are specifically applicable to our running. Through these examples,
Dahlkoetter is able to communicate her philosophy.
The book describes a step-by-step program intended to develop a mindset
that leads to breakthrough performances. Dahlkoetter, a renowned performance
consultant, elite runner and triathlete, and a licensed psychologist,
lays the foundation for her program by giving a description of a mentally
focused athlete. Interviews and anecdotes of champion athletes, like
Stacy Dragila, Dan O’Brien and Lance Armstrong, lend credence
to Dahlkoetter’s words.
Dahlkoetter then stresses the importance of relaxation to peak performance.
Though relaxation is far from a groundbreaking topic when it comes
to sports psychology, here the author walks you through specific yet
simple relaxation techniques, mostly derived from visualization and
meditation, which are easy enough that athletes of all levels can perform
and benefit from them.
Throughout the talk of champion athletes, breakthrough performances,
and relaxation, Dahlkoetter integrates a discussion of the role of
sports in our lives. She reminds us that sport is a metaphor for life,
and is not life itself. Remembering this seemingly obvious point may
be the most essential key to peak performance, and this truth becomes
more profound as you progress through the book.
—Walter Alarkon
This review originally appeared in the October 2001 issue of Running
Times.
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