The Mindful Athlete

Secrets to Pure Performance

By: George Mumford, Phil Jackson - foreword

Narrated by: J. D. Jackson

Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Michael Jordan credits George Mumford with transforming his on-court leadership of the Bulls, helping Jordan lead the team to six NBA championships. Mumford also helped Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom and countless other NBA players turn around their games. A widely respected public speaker and coach, Mumford is sharing his own story and the strategies that have made these athletes into stars in The Mindful Athlete: The Secret to Pure Performance. His proven, gentle but groundbreaking mindfulness techniques can transform the performance of anyone with a goal, be they an Olympian, weekend warrior, executive, hacker, or artist.

Mumford's deeply moving personal story is unforgettable. A basketball player at the University of Massachusetts (where he roomed with Dr. J, Julius Erving), injuries forced Mumford out of the game he loved. The meds that relieved the pain of his injuries also numbed him to the emptiness he felt without the game and eventually led him to heroin. After years as a functioning addict, Mumford enrolled in Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program, and made meditation, on and off the cushion, the center of his life. He kicked drugs, earned a master's degree in counseling psychology and began teaching meditation to inmates and others.

When Michael Jordan left the Chicago Bulls to play baseball in 1993, the team was in crisis. Coach Phil Jackson, a long-time mindfulness practitioner, contacted Dr. Kabat-Zinn to find someone who could teach mindfulness techniques to the struggling team - someone who would have credibility and could speak the language of his players. Kabat-Zinn led Jackson to Mumford and their partnership began. Mumford has worked with Jackson and each of the eleven teams he coached to become NBA champions. His roster of champion clients has since blossomed way beyond basketball to include corporate executives, Olympians, and athletes.

©2016 George Mumford (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Amazing

This is a must-read (or listen) for any competitive athlete. I learned how to reframe my thoughts as I approach my workouts and competitions to a more constructive and conscious experience as opposed to doubt or fear.

Great book

Great book about mindfulness and how to practice mindfulness and awareness - to stay in the present moment which will ultimately help your performance.

A gateway book to mindfulness practice

I’ve started and stopped at least 10 books on mindfulness. This is the one that finally pulled me in. George Mumford puts mindfulness into a western frame of reference which finally helped me relate to it. I could picture his retelling of the Bulls, Lakers, Bruce Lee and Dr. J because that was my childhood. Those were my superheroes. Now I can look at them to see not just great athletes, but masters of their own mindful practice. This is a gateway book for deeper study.

A Great Reawakening Call

George Rumford’s profound, entertaining insights on the process and gain for living a mindful life ring true in my experiences approaching the same. His tools and techniques he shares for reaching the mindful state are both actively wise and applicable for the athlete or general practitioner. I am motivated to buy the paper book to compliment this audio version, which I will listen to again and again.

Mindfulness works! I appreciated his coaching and caring advice. He brings me back to familiar paths.

Great storyline and fantastic reader

This book has inspired me in multiple ways and i am quite glad to have listened to it.

PACKED FULL OF KNOWLEDGE

The amount of knowledge packed into this book is amazing. I highly recommend this book to all athletes.

Worth The Time

This one is worth it to listen through a few times to get the content to fully sink in. Highly recommend.

A Great Life Tool

This book could also be called “The Mindful Human Being: A Playbook for Life.” The wisdom, insight, techniques are for everyone. Thank you, George Mumford, for teaching us how to thrive!

Excellent!

Loved this book it is everyone. Not just athletes. Thank you for this beautiful work!

I think I was looking for more…

Of how to get there. Suggestions were great and I will try them but I was looking for actual training. My fault , the book is good. Chapter 4 or 5 (I can’t remember which) will be listened to again.