The Genius of Athletes What World-Class Competitors Know That Can Change Your Life

Whatever your biggest goals are in life, learning to think like an athlete is a game changer.

If you ask research psychologist Noel Brick and bestselling fitness author and journalist Scott Douglas, the “dumb jock” stereotype is way out of bounds. Modern advances in sports psychology confirm what fans have known all along: No world-class athlete—whether an Olympic runner, swimmer, or cyclist, or a pro basketball, baseball, or football player—gets to the top without a strong mental game. Champion competitors have unique ways of taking stock of a situation, self-motivating, and even thinking about time. Cutting-edge discoveries (including those by Dr. Brick) reveal exactly how they do it—and how we can, too.
 
You don’t need to be facing a literal hurdle to use elite athletes’ tool kits of strategies: They can help you stick the landing at a job interview or get your thesis to the finish line. Brick and Douglas pair groundbreaking science with a highlight reel of instructive moments from across the sports realm to show how legendary marathoner Meb Keflezighi runs on self-talk and how making if-then plans at practice buoyed Michael Phelps to a gold medal at the Olympics. Wherever you are in your own ambitions—from the “middle muddle” to the final stretch—The Genius of Athletes will put you right in the zone.

Noel Brick, PhD, is a British Psychological Society–chartered psychologist, a lecturer in sport and exercise psychology at Ulster University, and a researcher on the psychology of endurance performance. He has published research in the most prestigious sport and exercise science journals, such as Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (flagship journal of the American College of Sports Medicine) and Psychology of Sport and Exercise (flagship journal of the European Federation of Sport Psychology). He has presented his research at global academic conferences, including the annual congresses of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, the British Psychological Society, the European College of Sport Science, and the European Federation of Sport Psychology. Noel has completed more than thirty marathons and ultramarathons. He is a native of Kerry and lives in County Antrim, Ireland.
Scott Douglas is a contributing writer for Runner’s World, and has held senior editorial positions at Runner’s World and Running Times. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Running Is My Therapy,The Genius of Athletes, Advanced Marathoning, and the New York Times bestsellers Meb for Mortals and 26 Marathons. He has written about fitness and health for Slate,The Atlantic,The Washington Post, and Outside, among other outlets. Scott has run more than 100,000 miles since taking up the sport in 1979. He lives in South Portland, Maine.