The Mental ABC's of Pitching: A Handbook for Performance Enhancement

Rating:
Summary: College Coach Finds Book Helpful
Review: I am an assistant coach at the University of Virginia and love Dorfman's work (see The Mental Game of Baseball). The information he provides in this book allows pitchers to take control of their performance. So often, players work hard, but cannot figure out why they don't perform better. This book shares the experience of a person who has actually taught major league pitchers how to perform near the highest level that their ability allows. It is well-written and a must for any high school (and up) pitcher who truly wants to find out how good he can be (that is - he is willing to pay the price of hard work for success on and off the field).

Rating:
Summary: College Coach Finds Book Helpful
Review: I am an assistant coach at the University of Virginia and love Dorfman's work (see The Mental Game of Baseball). The information he provides in this book allows pitchers to take control of their performance. So often, players work hard, but cannot figure out why they don't perform better. This book shares the experience of a person who has actually taught major league pitchers how to perform near the highest level that their ability allows. It is well-written and a must for any high school (and up) pitcher who truly wants to find out how good he can be (that is - he is willing to pay the price of hard work for success on and off the field).

Rating:
Summary: Confusing
Review: Just trying to make up a catchy paragraph for each letter of the alphabet does not amount to much. You may get a few throw away one liners from this book, but confusion is assured.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book, but a TOOL that should be USED
Review: Noooooo !! Don't let the book aside because it seems to be a usual or boring ABC dictionnary. Take your time to look at the content. The paragraphs are linked together with a lot of callbacks. It really forms a great GLOBAL mental APPROACH to the act of pitching and not only a sum of psychological analyses. This book is mainly descriptive, based on experience and examples and that can repulse some people. However if you have the commitment to go further reading, you will profit from the KEY POINTS and PRACTICAL ADVISES given at the end of each paragraph. Put these tips into your practice program progressively, learn them, try them, adapt them, get feedback down the line and adjust. If not used, this reference will be wasted and will only remain a good book that you have read on the sofa. It is said "Every player and coach will HAVE one". Even if it is highly interesting only reading it, I hope that every player and coach will USE it to complement its program in the bullpen. It will be hard to write a better book on the subject before a long time.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book, but a TOOL that should be USED
Review: Noooooo !! Don't let the book aside because it seems to be a usual or boring ABC dictionnary. Take your time to look at the content. The paragraphs are linked together with a lot of callbacks. It really forms a great GLOBAL mental APPROACH to the act of pitching and not only a sum of psychological analyses. This book is mainly descriptive, based on experience and examples and that can repulse some people. However if you have the commitment to go further reading, you will profit from the KEY POINTS and PRACTICAL ADVISES given at the end of each paragraph. Put these tips into your practice program progressively, learn them, try them, adapt them, get feedback down the line and adjust. If not used, this reference will be wasted and will only remain a good book that you have read on the sofa. It is said "Every player and coach will HAVE one". Even if it is highly interesting only reading it, I hope that every player and coach will USE it to complement its program in the bullpen. It will be hard to write a better book on the subject before a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Exactly what pitching is meant to be
Review: This book gives exactly what is needed to pitchers who have not explored their craft to the fullest. This book gives you, the pitcher, the opportunity to not only get better, but to become a professional at the game you love.

Rating:
Summary: Exactly what pitching is meant to be
Review: This book gives exactly what is needed to pitchers who have not explored their craft to the fullest. This book gives you, the pitcher, the opportunity to not only get better, but to become a professional at the game you love.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderfully wise and inspirational book
Review: This is a really beautiful book to read. It is a must for all pitchers and their coaches. But it is more than that because it is also about life in general though especially relevant to anyone who loves baseball. It is about being philosophical about our failures and being courageous enough to go out to win in the face of them. In that sense anyone who reads this book will feel a little wiser about life both on and perhaps also off-field regardless of whether they are a baseball player or not.