A New York Times bestseller “A smart and important book.”—Gretchen Reynolds, author of The First 20 Minutes Publications as varied as Wired, Men’s Fitness, and The New Yorker are abuzz over the New York Times bestseller Faster, Higher, Stronger. In it, veteran journalist Mark McClusky explains how today’s top athletes are turning to advanced technology and savvy science to improve their performance. Sports buffs and readers of David Epstein and Gretchen Reynolds will want to join McClusky as he goes behind the scenes everywhere from the Olympics to the NBA Finals, from the World Series to the Tour de France, and from high-tech labs to neighborhood gyms to show how athletes at every level can incorporate cutting-edge science into their own workouts.

The first book to gather firsthand accounts of successful practices, and thinking habits, of sports legends and super-athletes—from across sports including football, baseball, basketball, boxing, golf, car-racing, and swimming—this work holds lessons that can power not only athletic success, but winning in any daily challenges of life or work. The result of years of research, Psychology of Champions offers the very personal words of star athletes who explain how they overcame such obstacles as fear, discouragement, and anxiety, and were able to move on to success. Each story—including from those of baseball great Ted Williams, basketball star Michael Jordan, football's famed Deion Sanders, and dozens more from across sports —is unique. Yet, the authors determine that, when all is said and done, the overriding variables accounting for the greatest success fall into three categories: motivation, confidence, and concentration. Barrell and Ryback spell out the rules for such success after each section in this absorbing book. The result is a book that not only entertains and educates us with firsthand accounts of ever-popular sports heroes, but also instructs athletes, amateur or professional, and arguably anyone with a goal to achieve in work or life. In-the-moment accounts reveal just what to do in various critical periods of sports competition—from being at bat in baseball, to making an instantaneous decision as a quarterback, firing the winning basket in the dying moments of a game, or launching the winning move in boxing or judo. Barrell and Ryback draw the lessons together in what they term The Focus Edge mindset. That mindset—and this book— says one former Olympian, take greatness and make it accessible to you and me.

A New York Times bestseller 'A sensation ... a rollicking tale well told' - The Times At the heart of Born to Run lies a mysterious tribe of Mexican Indians, the Tarahumara, who live quietly in canyons and are reputed to be the best distance runners in the world; in 1993, one of them, aged 57, came first in a prestigious 100-mile race wearing a toga and sandals. A small group of the world's top ultra-runners (and the awe-inspiring author) make the treacherous journey into the canyons to try to learn the tribe's secrets and then take them on over a course 50 miles long. With incredible energy and smart observation, McDougall tells this story while asking what the secrets are to being an incredible runner. Travelling to labs at Harvard, Nike, and elsewhere, he comes across an incredible cast of characters, including the woman who recently broke the world record for 100 miles and for her encore ran a 2:50 marathon in a bikini, pausing to down a beer at the 20 mile mark.

The world of high-performance athletics is changing forever. Not so long ago, you could compete at the top level with hard work and a good coach. Today, it s impossible to separate the achievements of athletes from the scientists who support them. Veteran journalist Mark McClusky takes readers behind the scenes with a new generation of athletes, coaches, and scientists who are changing our understanding of human physical achievement and completely redefining the limits of the human body.