The Best

How Elite Athletes Are Made

By: Mark Williams, Tim Wigmore

Narrated by: Stuart Nurse

Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Never have the best sportspeople seemed so far removed from the rest of us. So how are these extraordinary athletes made, and what do their achievements tell us about success? The Best reveals how the most incredible sportspeople in the world got that way. It is a unique look at the path to sporting greatness. This is a story of origins, training, luck, and serendipity, as well as of sports science and cutting-edge technology. Packed with gripping personal stories and interviews, you will discover how the best athletes develop the extraordinary skills and muscle memory that allow them to perform remarkable acts without consciously thinking about them.

The Best deconstructs the myths, like the notion that 10,000 hours of practice are needed to make it to the top, and explores the hidden power of the mind to reveal how athletes really think and process information during high octane competition. It gets inside the minds of champions, deconstructing what athletes see during matches and explaining how they do what they do.

Drawing on examples and lessons from throughout the sporting world, this is for anyone who wants to know what it takes to be the best.

©2020 A. Mark Williams and Tim Wigmore (P)2020 Tantor

Better book than expected, very insightful

First of all, the most entertaining aspect of the book is that every American that was quoted ended having a Southern Redneck accent regardless of where they were from and race. Regardless, I thought this book would be filled with cliches and stories about Michael Jordan and his underdog path, however, it wasn't like that at all and found this book very insightful. I especially enjoyed some of the origin stories and how chance typically determines whether someone will become an elite athlete or not. It really went into the details about how some sports you need to invest time earlier into the development compared to others, and doesn't just spout out the same Gladwell Outliers argument that we've become way too used to. Another aspect that I found interesting was when they discussed the concept of perfectionism but NOT in a way that glamorized it but shed light on how elite athletes are more prone to mental health issues due to the path they've taken, with the Olympics and the whole Simone Biles situation it makes that situation more understandable.