Ancient Sports

It's hard for modern listeners to truly grasp the spectacle that was arena sports in ancient Rome, which pitted man against man and man against beast in mortal combat. Our modern games of football and hockey, or even boxing and MMA, truly pale in comparison. The Gladiators is a comprehensive survey of these ancient sports, focusing on gladiatorial combat and the beast hunts (venationes).

In The Ancient Wisdom of Baseball, author Christian Sheppard interweaves Homer’s epics with glorious stories from the green fields of America’s pastime, celebrating Achilles’ courage and Odysseus’ cunning along with the virtues of Hall of Fame players such as Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth and of great teams such as the 2004 Red Sox and the 2016 Cubs. Along the way, Sheppard humorously recollects trying to raise his baby daughter true to the teachings of ancient myth and his beloved game.

In ancient Rome, death was entertainment. In their struggle, we see ourselves. Step into the roaring heart of the Colosseum—where sand drank blood, emperors ruled by spectacle, and men fought not only for survival but for eternal glory. Gladiators of Rome reveals the astonishing truth behind one of history’s most misunderstood institutions: the Roman arena. Far from mindless brutality, the games were a mirror of an empire—its politics, religion, engineering, and obsession with power. Drawing on ancient texts, archaeology, and modern scholarship, Simpson Varro reconstructs the world of...

Whakapapa is a Maori idea which embodies our universal human need to belong. It represents a powerful spiritual belief—that each of us is part of an unbroken and unbreakable chain of people who share a sacred identity. Owen places this concept at the core of his methods to maximise a team's performance.

From an award-winning, bestselling author, a year inside Ivy League Football, unveiling the heart and soul of college football’s oldest teams as they compete amidst a rapidly changing collegiate sports world. The history of the Ivy League dates back to 1869 when Princeton played the first...

Ability on its own has never been enough. The best athletes know that their secret weapon is the power of their mind. Dr. Stephen Simpson works with many of the world's top sports stars and poker players. So you want to discover the most effective mind secrets to use in your favourite sport to take your game to at least the next level? Excellent. You will find many in this book. Discover how to unleash your massive potential! These secrets of the top sports stars earned them a whopping total of $447 million in just a single year. Now YOU will discover the secrets of success used by our top ...

In 490 BCE Pheidippides ran for 36 hours straight from Athens to Sparta to seek help in defending Athens from a Persian invasion in the Battle of Marathon. In doing so he saved the development of Western civilization and inspired the birth of the marathon as we know it. Even now, some 2,500 years later, that run stands enduringly as one of greatest physical accomplishments in the history of mankind.

Soccer is not chaos. It is not merely running, kicking, or chasing the ball. It is a structured contest of territory, timing, deception, and willpower. And nowhere is this clearer than when we reinterpret the world’s most beloved sport through the timeless strategic lens of The Art of War. In The Art of War for Soccer: Strategy, Tactics, and Psychology on the Modern Pitch, the game is recast as a battle of space, rhythm, and resilience, where victory belongs not just to the fastest or most talented but to those who prepare most deeply and adapt most intelligently. Drawing on parallels ...

Tai Chi is a form of Chinese martial arts that has been shown to promote body and mind capabilities by enhancing a person's stamina, strengthening the body, and boosting overall mental capacities. This, in turn, allows you to have a better life that is harmonious with the forces around you. From among the many hundreds of Tai Chi techniques, this audiobook presents the basic movements you'll need to get started.

Why do we run? To what end, all the effort and pain? Wherefore this love of muscle, speed, and sweat? The Greeks were the first to ask these questions, the first to suspend war, work, politics, to enjoy public celebrations of athletic prowess. They invented sport and they were also the first to understand how physical activity connected to our mental well-being.

Winning Not Fighting draws on the philosophy of Wing Tsun, an ancient Chinese martial art, to offer a profound and practical guide to achieving success at work, life and business. By explaining what these teachings reveal about decision-making, professional relationships, personal targets and positivity, it challenges some of our deepest held assumptions and forces us to unlearn many ideas that inform our current ideas on professional success. Why, for example, do we refer to business through a lens of conflict?

On Horsemanship, also sometimes titled The Art of Horsemanship, is a treatise written about 350 BCE by the Athenian historian, soldier, and student of Socrates, Xenophon (c. 430-354 BC). The treatise is a "hands-on" manual which deals with the selection, care, and training of horses in general.

Two Years Before the Mast is an 1840 memoir by the author Richard Henry Dana. A Harvard graduate, he spent the years 1834 to 1836 as a sailor on a merchant ship on a voyage from Boston to California. The journey took them past Cape Horn on the Tierra del Fuego archipelago where the Pacific and Atlantic oceans meet. Dana provides detailed descriptions of ship life and the technical aspects of sailing. A chapter on California and its inhabitants offers valuable historical insights on the state which was then a foreign land.

In ancient Greece and across the Mediterranean, kingdoms strive for dominance. The great powers of Carthage and Egypt look on with avarice as the might of the Greeks is spent warring between themselves, oblivious to external dangers. Year in and year out, the people suffer at the hands of their rulers and the famine and pestilence that comes with conflict. The great rulers of the day are themselves helpless to end this cycle of destruction. While life on the battlefield is cheap, the slave trade flourishes through the years of interminable battle and death.

Are you tired of gripping too tight, overthinking every swing, and watching bad shots unravel your entire round? The harder you try, the worse it gets. But what if the secret to great golf isn’t more effort—it’s less? In Effortless Golf, you’ll discover a revolutionary approach to mastering the game by letting go. Inspired by Zen Buddhism, Stoic philosophy, Taoist wisdom, and modern flow psychology, this book reveals how the greatest golfers—Ben Hogan, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and others—find their best golf through relaxation, not control.

Choose a stroke and get paddling through the human history of swimming! From man's first recorded dip into what's now the driest spot on earth to the splashing, sparkling pool party in your backyard, humans have been getting wet for 10,000 years. And for most of modern history, swimming has...

How to master the ancient art of moving meditation! The practice of Tai Chi provides many benefits to the human body. Aside from the physical benefits, the practice of Tai Chi can bring improvements in different aspects. Learning to master Tai Chi challenges your physical and mental capabilities. Tai Chi requires effort, patience, and discipline. Improved coordination. Tai Chi progressively improves your gross physical coordination and even the most subtle aspects of physical movement.

Ancient Olympia is not just the birthplace of the Olympic Games, it is also the origin of philosophical ideas that resonate even today. Combining the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle with the art, archaeology, and history of Ancient Olympia, this short book offers ancient Greek insight on the nature of sport, athletes, and human excellence, as well as the less-expected topics of women, beauty, fairness, and peace.

Did you know that the Mesoamerican civilization used acupuncture? Or that Da Vinci discovered the eddy currents around the aortic valve? While these may seem like mere trivia, the truth is that even in the medical field, history matters. In fact, we still use some of ancient Egypt’s assessment and treatment techniques in physiotherapy and orthopedics today. Combining the history of various exercise methodologies, including yoga, tai chi, qigong, and Pilates, with current research and clinical experience, author and physiotherapist Alex Daulat provides a unique guide that builds on the ...

In the form of several journeys, beginning in January 2019, Neil Ansell returns for solitary walks to the New Forest in Hampshire, close to where he was born. With beautiful sightings and observations of birds, trees, butterflies, insects and landscape, this is also a reflective memoir on childhood, on the history of one of the most ancient and important natural habitats in the United Kingdom and on the Gypsies who lived there for centuries - and were subsequently expelled to neighbouring cities.