The Ultimate Athlete [Paperback]

George Leonard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2001

We are born with the God-given right to move efficiently, gracefully, and joyfully. We lose this right only through society's mind-body split, faulty modes of physical education, and overemphasis on "winning." George Leonard's simple and radical notion is that within each of us, regardless of age, sex, or physical condition, there exists an ultimate athlete waiting to be born. With a poet's passion, fifth-degree aikido black belt Leonard evokes the transcendent moment in sport—the catch that defies gravity and chance, the play that makes time stand still—as emblematic of the Greater Game of embodiment itself, of life and death, a Game we all can play to depth and breadth of body and soul. The Ultimate Athlete helped create the participatory sports boom of the 1970s and 1980s. This revised edition is addressed to a new generation of ultimate athletes.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A good book for anyone who has ever failed or felt clumsy about using their body. It's enough to make you want to go out and run a mile for the sheer joy of it."
—The Baltimore Sun

"For George Leonard, the lovers' quarrel between mind and body was a major error in Western thought. We are discovering that our bodies are models of the environment, even the world. The discredited human animal is heard to roar once more."
—The New York Times

"The Ultimate Athlete does a good deal of clean, amply researched thinking on the body and the games we've made it play. It's a high, lyrical, free-spirited book, a sort of Chagall painting in prose that transmits the author's abiding love for physical activity free of the mean motivations: blood and competition."
—Playboy

About the Author

Geroge Leonard is author of a number of books on human possibilities and social change, including Education and Ecstasy. Leonard holds a fifth degree black belt in the martial art of aikido, and is co-owner of an aikido school in Mill Valley, California. He is married and has four daughters.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books; Revised edition (January 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556433492
• ISBN-13: 978-1556433498
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.9 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #206,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

George Leonard has introduced LET to more than 50,000 people in the United States and abroad. He is the author of a number of books on human possibilities and social change, including Mastery.