The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion (Paperback)

The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion By Simon Marshall, PhD, Lesley Paterson Cover Image
$24.95
Sorry, Currently unavailable or backordered

Description


The Brave Athlete solves the 13 most common mental conundrums athletes face in their everyday training and in races.

You don’t have one brainyou have three; your ancient Chimp brain that keeps you alive, your modern Professor brain that navigates the civilized world, and your Computer brain that accesses your memories and runs your habits (good and bad). They fight for control all the time and that’s when bad things happen; you get crazy nervous before a race, you choke under pressure, you quit when the going gets tough, you make dumb mistakes, you worry about how you look.

What if you could stop the thoughts and feelings you don’t want? What if you could feel confident, suffer like a hero, and handle any stress? You can.

The Brave Athlete from Dr. Simon Marshall and Lesley Paterson will help you take control of your brain so you can train harder, race faster, and better enjoy your sport. Dr. Marshall is a sport psychology expert who trains the brains of elite professional athletes. Paterson is a three-time world champion triathlete and coach. Together, they offer this innovative, brain training guide that is the first to draw from both clinical science and real-world experience with athletes.

That means you won’t find outdated “positive self-talk” or visualization gimmicks here. No, the set of cutting-edge mental skills revealed in The Brave Athlete actually work because they challenge the source of the thoughts and feelings you don’t want. The Brave Athlete is packed with practical, evidence-based solutions to the most common mental challenges athletes face. Which of these sound like you?
  • Why do I have thoughts and feelings I don’t want?
  • I wish I felt more like an athlete.
  • I don’t think I can.
  • I don’t achieve my goals.
  • Other athletes seem tougher, happier, and more badass than me.
  • I feel fat.
  • I don’t cope well with injury.
  • People are worried about how much I exercise.
  • I don’t like leaving my comfort zone.
  • When the going gets tough, the tough leave me behind.
  • I need to harden the f*ck up.
  • I keep screwing up.
  • I don’t handle pressure well.


With The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion, you can solve these problems to become mentally strong and make your brain your most powerful asset.

About the Author


Dr. Simon Marshall trains the brains of endurance athletes and fitness enthusiasts to become happier and more mentally tough. He is former Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego and Professor of Exercise Science at San Diego State University where he was Director of the Graduate Program in Sport & Exercise Psychology. He has published over 100 scientific articles on the psychology of exercise and has been cited in the scientific literature over 10,000 times. He has served as invited expert on exercise science for the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Cancer Society. He is currently the Performance Psychologist for the BMC Racing team, an elite WorldTour professional cycling team. As the sherpa-husband of professional triathlete Lesley Paterson, he is the founding member of Team S.H.I.T. (Supportive Husbands in Training), and competes in triathlon or cycling events as the husband of Lesley Paterson.

Lesley Paterson is a professional mountain biker, 3-time world champion in off-road triathlon, an Ironman® triathlon champion, endurance coach, and foul-mouthed Scots lassie. Growing up in Scotland, Lesley was the only girl on an all-boys rugby team, which is where she nurtured her love of dirt and dirty words. Banned from the team when puberty struck, she took up cross-country running and triathlon and was soon winning national titles and competing internationally. Lesley founded Braveheart Coaching to train and inspire endurance athletes to compete with passion, toughness, and an unwavering “Braveheart” spirit in overcoming obstacles. Paterson is a trained actress, a screenwriter, and personal trainer to Hollywood actors.

Praise For…


"Lesley Paterson is one of the most mentally tough professional athletes I know, and Simon Marshall knows why. Their special sauce has finally been bottled and the strategies described in The Brave Athlete promise to help athletes of all abilities become dirty fast.”
Tim Don, World Champion triathlete

“Forget marginal gains, Dr. Simon Marshall understands the most important part of performance: the athlete’s mind. His expertise is an invaluable resource to help athletes master theirs.”
David Bailey, PhD, Head of Performance at BMC Racing Team

“My training background and philosophy evolved under the coaching of Lesley and the mental slapping of Simon.”
Jessica Cerra, professional cyclist

“I have admired Dr. Simon Marshall’s talent as a scientist and a communicator for more than two decades. In The Brave Athlete, he brings this talent to the fore as he translates psychological science into meaningful strategies to help athletes become more confident, motivated, and calm.”
Dr. Kirsten Davison, Professor of Public Health, Harvard University

“At the Leeds Triathlon Centre, we pay as much attention to psychology as we do to physiology. Few things are simple in sport but in The Brave Athlete, Simon and Lesley tackle the complexities of getting the best from yourself in a clear and engaging way.”
Jack Maitland, Head Triathlon Coach, Leeds Beckett University

The Brave Athlete will take you deep inside yourself so that you can identify what you thought were your limits and, with Simon and Lesley’s help, smash them to smithereens.”
Bob Babbitt, host of Babbittville Radio, USA Triathlon Hall of Fame inductee

“Simon and Lesley get to the heart of what it takes to be a brave athlete. It’s about creating a mindset that goes to bat for you rather than against you. The Brave Athlete is an invaluable guide to help you sort your head out. Plus it’s funny. Really bloody funny.”
Flora Duffy, World Champion triathlete

“Marshall and Paterson, in some kind of post-Western duo, limn their own version of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Only the guns and whiskey are replaced with doctoral degrees and world titles. In The Brave Athlete they challenge the reader to draw swords on the psychic battlefields of sport but do so with the gift of Continental mirth and compassion.”
Scott Tinley, two-time Ironman World Champion, author, and teacher

“Working with Lesley and Simon has been one of the biggest life-changing experiences.”
Mauricio Méndez, XTERRA World Champion and Ironman 70.3 champion

“Simon and Lesley bring years of training at the world-class level, in multiple sports, together with years of working in academiaall in the real world.”
Janel Holcomb, professional cyclists and coach


Product Details
ISBN: 9781937715731
ISBN-10: 1937715736
Publisher: VeloPress
Publication Date: June 8th, 2017
Pages: 360
Language: English