| Foreword to the New Edition | ix |
| Introduction | xi |
| 1. | Motivation: The Pleasures of Small Motions | 1 |
| The Instinct for Play | 3 |
| The Value of Proper Motivation | 5 |
| Pleasure and Other Motivations | 7 |
| 2. | Body in Mind: What the Mental Game is About | 11 |
| The Bodily Mind | 12 |
| The Conceptual Mind | 14 |
| Can Mental Skills Really Be Learned? | 16 |
| Acquiring a Sound Mental Game | 17 |
| 3. | A Sense of the Game: Conscious and Unconscious Controls | 19 |
| Division of Labor, Part One | 20 |
| Developing Unconscious Controls | 22 |
| Division of Labor, Part Two | 26 |
| Relaxing Conscious Controls | 29 |
| 4. | Concentration: The Well-Ordered Mind | 31 |
| Concentration in a Nutshell | 32 |
| Filling in the Picture | 34 |
| Focus | 38 |
| Distraction | 40 |
| Concentration as Choreography | 44 |
| 5. | Rhythm: Put Some Music in Your Moves | 47 |
| Why Rhythm Matters | 47 |
| Understanding Rhythm | 50 |
| Becoming Rhythmic | 52 |
| Tempo | 57 |
| Play as Dance | 58 |
| Interlude | |
| Dead Stroke: All Together Now | 61 |
| 6. | Emotions: The Source of Playing at All | 65 |
| Emotions and Performance | 66 |
| The "Right Amount" of Emotion | 68 |
| Modulating Your Emotions | 68 |
| Shaping Your Emotional Climate | 69 |
| Controlling Your "Current Weather Conditions" | 71 |
| The Moral of the Story | 76 |
| 7. | Confidence: The Security of Accurate Expectations | 77 |
| Confidence and Self-Image | 78 |
| Effective Confidence | 80 |
| The Pool Journal | 83 |
| Confidence, Probability, and Your Current Skills | 85 |
| The Banality of Confidence | 87 |
| 8. | Motivation Revisited: Moved by Desire | 89 |
| Essential Traits and Idiosyncratic Meanings | 91 |
| Motivation and the Place of Pool in Your Life | 95 |
| The Disaster of Single-Mindedness | 97 |
| Optimizing Motivation | 98 |
| 9. | Competition: Finding Out Who's Who | 101 |
| What Makes Competition Different? | 102 |
| The Fundamental Challenge of Competition | 104 |
| The Basic Solution | 107 |
| Confidence and Respect | 109 |
| 10. | The Opponent: Why Competing Is Competing | 113 |
| The Inevitability of Noticing | 114 |
| How the Opponent Matters 101 | 115 |
| The Opponent and Your Game Plan | 117 |
| Competitive Styles: Dominants and Egalitarians | 118 |
| The Point of Competing, Again | 121 |
| 11. | Almost Neurotic: Competitive Problems of Peculiar Sorts | 123 |
| Fear of Harsh Judgment | 124 |
| Fear of Winning | 126 |
| Solace from Neurotic Experience | 129 |
| 12. | Competition and Pleasure | 131 |
| Panic and Pleasure | 133 |
| The Best Indicator | 137 |
| The Romance of the Game | 139 |
| For Further Reading | 141 |
| Acknowledgments | 143 |
| About the Author | 145 |
