The Game Plan, Steve Bull

Published by Capstone

Buy it now from Blackwell Books

Winning through ‘mental toughness’

Steve Bull is consultant psychologist to the England cricket team. He has been the Great Britain Team Psychologist at three Olympic Games. He has a twenty year track record of success working with people in sport and business. He has an honorary doctorate for outstanding work as a sport psychologist. His book is filled with good advice; quotes from famous successes from all walks of life; a whole final chapter on how to put it all together and succeed.

Why then did I find Steve’s book so unsatisfactory? Firstly, I think, because of the continual emphasis on ‘toughness’. It begins to grate after a while. I know ‘macho’ is the flavour these days, but wouldn’t ‘resilience’ have done the job just as well without the overly aggressive connotations? Then there are the ‘four key areas of toughness’ (at least it wasn’t seven!) – ‘turnaround’, critical moment’, ‘endurance’ and ‘risk management’ toughness. They all sound so naff!

Now this is a shame which may say more about my prejudices than it does about Steve Bull’s book; but I have to say I found it all mildly depressing. The content is full of good ideas and his record, in and out of sport, is outstanding, so please pop along to your local bookshop and thumb through a few pages before making your decision.

And don’t let Britain’s sporting record put you off – just think how bad it might have been without Mr Bull!