About the Author

DR. KEITH BELL currently has seventeen books published with another handful on the way.  The separately copyrighted “Winning Isn’t Normal Passage” (WIN), which is the heart of Bell’s most popular book: “Winning Isn’t Normal,” is likely one of the most read and widely used literary work in history.

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST: A pioneer in the field of sports psychology,
Dr. Bell formulated his ideas for enhancing sports performance and pursuing excellence while a PhD student at The University of Texas at Austin. He went on to test his ideas on himself and then, in the mid-70’s, found his way to introduce and implement his ideas with many of the UT Longhorn teams, and later the Kenyon College Lords and Ladies; arguably the most successful collegiate athletic teams of all time in any sport.

The first full-time sports psychologist in private practice, Dr. Bell has served as National and Olympic team Sports Psychologist for the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Cayman Islands as well as consulted with hundreds of teams/groups and thousands of individuals around the world in a very wide range of sports/businesses/fine arts/performing arts and other areas concerning the pursuit excellence and success, outperforming the competition, and maximizing enjoying the process.  He  is considered the father of swimming psychology and is internationally recognized as one of the foremost experts on sports and human performance enhancement.

COACH: Dr. Bell has coached swimming at every level from summer club to collegiate, university, national, and Olympic teams. He has coached runners, triathletes, softball, and soccer.  While at the helm of the University of Texas Women’s Swim team, as its first paid Head Coach, they immediately won the Southwest Conference Championships. Later, Dr. Bell coached his wife, 1972 Olympic Triple Gold Medalist, Sandy Neilson, as she returned to the sport after a 12-year hiatus. At age 32, Neilson-Bell placed 5th at the 1988 Olympic Trials with a time that would’ve made finals at the Seoul Olympics. Sandy Neilson-Bell became the first woman to rank Internationally in 3 different decades, for which Dr. Bell was a 6-time recipient of the American Swimming Coaches Association Certificate of Excellence for Outstanding Coaching Achievement in the USA. Dr. Bell also founded and coached 6 masters swimming teams and in 1988, while coaching TeamTexas, he was named USMS Coach of the Year.

SWIMMER: a 4-time All-American while at Kenyon College, Bell hit lifetime best times in his 50’s.  The first male swimmer to win 11 Gold Medals in a single USMS National Championships and one of a small number of swimmers to hold USMS age group national records concurrently in 3 different age groups, between 1980 and 2000 Bell established 33 World and 96 National Masters Championship Titles and set 2 World and 65 National Masters Records.

Having not missed a single day of training since early 1989, Dr. Bell’s “streak” currently stands at more than 13,500 continuous days; a distance that would virtually put him on his 2nd lap around the  world and has inspired many to consistent exercise for health, enhanced competitive performance and enjoyment.  In recognition of the tremendous influence Dr. Bell has had on others and the contributions he has made citywide as well as worldwide, in 2016 the City of Austin proclaimed September 3rd as “Keith Bell’s Celebrate Swimming Day.”