Books by Eric Batchler
Book One is a survival guide for players, loaded with tools you can use today, stories to help you understand why they work, and theory to keep you thinking. Books Two and Three build the why and the how for coaches. Book Four goes deepest into administration. Wherever you start, Eric writes so the tools reach your hands, not just your bookshelf.
The Capacity Series
Every book starts from the same picture: a cup, some sand, and the room left over. The sand is stress — practice, school, family, the crowd. The cup is potential. Capacity is what’s left to fill. Most programs try to build bigger cups. The Capacity Series is about clearing the sand and protecting the room, with real tools instead of slogans — for athletes first, then for the coaches, programs, and administrators around them.
Peak Mental Performance for Athletes
Don’t just push harder — Capacity turns potential into performance. Book One of the Capacity Series is a practical playbook for the mental game: real-time tools to protect confidence, manage stress, and turn pressure into preparation. Built for athletes, with coaches, parents, and administrators in mind too, it gives everyone around the game a shared language for the mental side of sport, plus hands-on tools you can use today, stories that show why they work, and theory to keep you thinking.
From Slogans to Systems
More reps won’t fix a full cup. From Slogans to Systems is Book Two of the Capacity Series, written for coaches, athletic directors, and program builders ready to trade slogans for a working system. Eric Batchler shows how to design a program where mental performance is built in, not bolted on — with the ACCESS framework, tools to spot the stress filling your athletes’ cups before it costs you the season, and a leadership playbook that breeds leaders instead of dependents. You don’t need to read Book One first; this is the entry point for the coach-and-administrator track. Stop coaching by slogan. Start coaching by system.
The Mental Performance Toolbox
Tools matter because pressure does not respond to good intentions. The Mental Performance Toolbox is Book Three of the Capacity Series — the applied-systems installment for coaches ready to move from theory to practice, packed with breath work, anchors, visualization, self-talk, and self-scouting tools athletes can actually reach for when the pressure spikes and the crowd gets loud. It also tackles two things every coach manages but rarely names out loud: the real math of fairness and playtime, and the permission a room needs to fail without falling apart. Inside: a five-tool mental performance system, scripts for the playtime conversation parents actually want to hear, and a framework for turning failure into information instead of punishment. Stop managing moments. Start building a toolbox.
ACCESS: A Framework for Ethical, High-Performance Coaching
ACCESS: A Framework for Ethical, High-Performance Coaching is Book Four of the Capacity Series — the deep-dive installment that brings the ACCESS framework introduced in Book Two into full focus: Adaptation, Consent, Culture, Equity, Safety, and Sustainability. Written for coaches, athletic directors, and program leaders who want more than a slogan, this book walks through each pillar in detail, showing what ethical, high-performance coaching actually looks like day to day — not just in the highlight-reel moments, but in the small decisions that build or break a program’s culture. It’s the closing installment of the coach-and-administrator track that began with From Slogans to Systems and The Mental Performance Toolbox, bringing the series’ full coaching framework together in one place.
Capacity Workbooks
Capacity: Mental Performance Tools for Athletes Workbook
The Capacity Workbook is the hands-on companion to Peak Mental Performance for Athletes, built for readers who’ve already met Nia, Tito, and Big Mike and are ready to put the cup-and-stress-layers story to work. Instead of more reading, you get guided worksheets and exercises that walk you through mapping your own stress layers, identifying what’s filling your cup, and building the mental performance habits Book One introduces. It’s designed to be written in, not just read — a practical, athlete-facing tool for turning the ideas into your own routine. Best used alongside Book One, or as a refresher any time you need to reset.
Capacity Companion Workbook: Tools, Forms and Templates for Coaches and Programs
The Capacity Companion Workbook is the functional, coach-and-administrator-facing toolkit that runs alongside all four Capacity books. Where the books teach the ideas, this workbook gives you the forms, templates, and worksheets to put them to work across your program — from mapping stress layers and running the playtime-fairness conversation to applying the ACCESS framework and building your own version of the five-tool mental performance system. No narrative, no story — just the practical tools coaches and athletic directors need to run a program on this framework. Keep it on hand as a working reference alongside whichever Capacity book you’re implementing.
CCS Stories
CCS Stories is the fiction side of the Capacity universe — the same ideas about pressure, composure, and mental performance, told through story instead of frameworks. Set at Cross County Schools, these are novels for young readers, families, and the coaches and teachers who work with them.
Oh-No, Tito
Tito Vega can guard anybody in the district. Fifteen feet from the basket, he falls apart. He’s a junior guard at Cross County who is thirty-one percent from the free-throw line, and every student section in the league knows what to do with a number like that — wait for the miss, then start the chant. Oh-No, Tito is Book One of CCS Stories, one brutal high school season built around a coach with an actual plan, a crew that won’t let Tito stand out there alone, and a single shot he has to learn to take with the whole gym watching. Written for young readers, families, and anyone who coaches, raises, or roots for a player who has heard that chant.
Free Previews
Want a taste before you buy? Every published Capacity book is available to sample through Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature on its book page, so you can read the opening chapters and get a feel for Nia, Tito, Big Mike, and the rest of the Cross County crew before you commit.
About the Author
Eric Batchler is an author, podcast host, and mental performance coach who helps athletes, coaches, and organizations close the gap between potential and execution. He’s the author of the four-book Capacity series and CCS Stories, and the host of the Unlocked and Sane Enough podcasts. Eric draws on years of real-world coaching, a background in broadcast radio as a former AM 630 ESPN talk host, and experience in high-reliability industrial safety leadership to turn motivational slogans into practical, repeatable systems for performing under pressure. He’s a Certified Mental Performance Coach, an NLP Master Practitioner, and holds a B.S. in Environmental Science.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to read the Capacity books in order?
Book One lays the foundation, and each book after it builds on the ideas before it, so reading in order gets you the most out of the series. That said, each book stands on its own if you’d rather start with the topic most relevant to you right now.
What’s the difference between the books and the workbooks?
The books teach the Capacity framework through story, examples, and explanation. The workbooks are the hands-on companion — guided worksheets and exercises that help you put those same ideas into practice in your own sport or program.
Who are the Capacity books for, and who are CCS Stories for?
The Capacity series and workbooks are written for athletes, coaches, and parents who want practical mental performance tools. CCS Stories takes those same ideas and tells them through fiction for young readers and families.
Can I preview a book before I buy it?
Yes — every published book is available to sample through Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature on its listing page, so you can read the opening pages before you decide. Books still in production are marked “Coming Soon” and will get preview and buy links once they’re live.
Find the Right Book to Start With
Whether you’re an athlete building your own mental performance toolkit, a coach or parent looking for practical resources, or a young reader ready for a story about pressure and composure, there’s a Capacity book built for where you’re starting. Explore the full series or reach out with questions.