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WINNER OF THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2020 – GENERAL OUTSTANDING SPORTS WRITING

‘A fascinating book about the psychology of elite sport… Mind Games explores compelling territory.’ – Don McRae, the Guardian

‘An amazing book that I very much enjoyed.’ – Simon Mundie, Don’t Tell Me the Score (BBC Podcast)

‘…a fascinating book’ – Daily Mail

It’s well known that to reach the top in elite sport, you need to have spent years honing and perfecting your physical ability. However this is only part of the template required to win – the other half is about mind games.

Throughout her career as one of the world’s top athletes, Annie Vernon struggled with existential questions about the purpose of sport in our comfortable, first-world society: Why do we do it? What is it in our psyche that makes us push ourselves to the limit? What allows us to mentally overcome the physical pain?

Now retired from competition, Olympic silver medallist and world champion rower Annie Vernon has decided to look for answers to these questions. Drawing on her personal experiences and interviews with some of the best coaches, athletes and psychologists from across the world of sport – including Lucy Gossage, Katherine Grainger, Matthew Pinsent, Brian Moore, Brian Ching and Dr Steve Peters – Annie discovers the secrets of how athletes train their brains in order to become world beaters.

Annie debunks the myth that elite performers are universally cool, calm and brimming with self-assurance. Through exploring the bits on the inside that nobody can see, Annie instead creates a new understanding of what it takes to be successful in sport and uncovers that, in fact, an elite athlete is not that different from you and me.

It’s simply a question of mind games.

Publisher Review

An amazing book that I very much enjoyed. -- Simon Mundie * Don't Tell Me the Score (BBC Podcast) * A tour de force of elite sport, nerves, expectation and pressure from all perspectives. * Matthew Pinsent * A fascinating book about the psychology of elite sport... Mind Games explores compelling territory. It asks searching questions about the mentality required to succeed at sport's highest level while mining themes of self-doubt, determination, competitiveness and why "talent needs trauma" to blossom. -- Don McRae * the Guardian * There is no better person to shed light on the fascinating subject of sports psychology than two-timed World Champion, Olympian and talented sports journalist, Annie Vernon * Chrissie Wellington OBE * Loved it... I would recommend it to all of you. * BBC 5 Live, Jazmin Sawyers * I played professional rugby for 13 years and it was amazing to read in Mind Games that the doubts and challenges I felt during that time weren't mine alone - they were shared by my peers across different disciplines. I wish I'd had Mind Games as a reference book during my career as I'm sure it would have made me much stronger to know I wasn't alone in my thinking. * Chris Bentley, former professional rugby player * As engaging as it is broad-ranging... After reading and thoroughly enjoying Mind Games, I'll look at lots of sports in a quite different way... I highly recommend adding it to your own collection. * Peter Cossins *