The Prague Tribune -- which touts itself as the "Leading Business and Lifestyle Magazine in the Czech Republic" (who knew?) -- writes about training the winning mind:

Many superior athletes use mental imagery, or guided visualization, and medical experts have tested this method. A recent article published in the Journal of Sports Science states: "The power of mental imagery in sport performance has been widely noted. Keep your mental rehearsing of your upcoming races positive and it may contribute to new personal records."

Many years ago when I was a basketball force known to my friends as "The White Terror," I attended a basketball camp where the camp director, Dick Meyers (who just recently retired -- congrats on a great career, Dick!), used to tell the story of Cy Young award winner Steve Stone. The year Stone stunned baseball and won 25 games he was known to meditate between starts, imagining every pitch he would throw the next time he took the mound. His hours-long meditation was so intense he'd break out in a sweat and would be exhausted by the end of it.

I used meditation to help with my free throw shooting. I'm not sure it helped since my efforts from the charity stripe were so bad to begin with, I could not possibly have gotten worse. But it certainly didn't hurt. Anyway, meditating helped Stone train the winning mind. If it worked for him, it just might work for you.