Even the most physically gifted athletes struggle in competition when they lose control over their thoughts and emotions. Mastering Your Inner Gamearms you with the tools to understand, manage, and maximize your mental and emotional forces--factors that often determine whether you're an all-star and or an "also-ran." Author David Kauss looks at how athletic performance fits into your own life experience. His "total athlete" system takes into account your internal strengths and weaknesses instead of applying a predefined set of mental training exercises. Mastering Your Inner Gamebegins by presenting five vivid case studies that illustrate real challenges faced by real athletes. You'll experience the thoughts and emotions the competitors were dealing with as they worked to overcome their obstacles using Kauss' personalized mental training methods. Then you'll begin to understand how the method can work for you--whether it's breaking out of a slump, building confidence, or sharpening your focus. Kauss then leads you through the process of self-assessment. Self-guided exercises help you recognize the people and events in your life that have either contributed to your success or undermined your sport performance. Plus, you'll learn more about how your life has shaped your athletic identity through additional exercises that - reveal your motives for participating in sports, - expose your hidden fears, - tap into the power of your daydreams, and - identify your personal core values. Once you have pinpointed the underlying causes of your performance blocks, Kauss teaches you how to develop individualized mental training packages that will help you perform your best no matter how difficult the challenge. Only by analyzing and then rechanneling these forces in positive ways will you truly be able to reach your full potential.