The greatest athletic performances spring from the mind, not the
body.
Elite athletes have known this for decades and now science is learning
why it's true. In his fascinating new book How Bad Do You Want It?,
coach Matt Fitzgerald examines more than a dozen pivotal races to
discover the surprising ways elite athletes strengthen their mental
toughness.
Fitzgerald puts you into the pulse-pounding action of more than a dozen
epic races from running, cycling, triathlon, XTERRA, and rowing with
thrilling race reports and revealing post-race interviews with the
elites. Their own words reinforce what the research has found: strong
mental fitness lets us approach our true physical limits, giving us an
edge over physically stronger competitors. Each chapter explores the how
and why of an elite athlete's transformative moment, revealing powerful
new psychobiological principles you can practice to flex your own mental
fitness.
The new psychobiological model of endurance performance shows that the
most important question in endurance sports is: how bad do you want it?
Fitzgerald's fascinating book will forever change how you answer this
question and show you how to master the psychology of mind over muscle.
These lessons will help you push back your limits and uncover your full
potential.
How Bad Do You Want It? reveals new psychobiological findings
including:
- Mental toughness determines how close you can get to your physical
limit.
- Bracing yourself for a tough race or workout can boost performance by
15% or more.
- Champions have learned how to give more of what they have.
- The only way to improve performance is by altering how you perceive
effort.
- Choking under pressure is a form of self-consciousness.
- Your attitude in daily life is the same one you bring to sports.
- There's no such thing as going as fast as you can--only going faster
than before.
- The fastest racecourse is the one with the loudest spectators.
- Faith in your training is as important as the training itself.
Athletes featured in How Bad Do You Want It?: Sammy Wanjiru, Jenny
Simpson, Greg LeMond, Siri Lindley, Willie Stewart, Cadel Evans, Nathan
Cohen and Joe Sullivan, Paula Newby-Fraser, Ryan Vail, Thomas Voeckler,
Ned Overend, Steve Prefontaine, and last of all John "The Penguin"
Bingham
