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.

Scott Douglas is a senior editor for Running Times. He has been the magazine’s editor-in-chief and has contributed articles on running to Runner’s World, Slate, the Washington Post, and Men’s Fitness among others. He has co-written four books on running, including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Running and Advanced Marathoning, and has run more than 95,000 miles since taking up the sport as a teen. He lives in South Portland, Maine.