Competitive Fire [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Michael Clarkson (Author) "This section will focus on the arousal that athletes often experience in the heat of battle and how it can change them or their performances..." (more)
Key Phrases: arousal zone, task vision, emotional drive, New York, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Physical talent alone isn't enough to be a sports champion. The greatest athletes have a special drive from within—a burning desire to be their very best and to excel in competition.

For every athlete wishing to excel in sports, Competitive Fire may very well be the spark he or she needs to think and perform like a champion. Superstars like Michael Jordan, Steffi Graf, Muhammad Ali, Jack Nicklaus, and Edwin Moses were able to harness this inner fire and, during the peak of their careers, dominate their sports. Coaches like Pat Summitt, Dan Gable, Vince Lombardi, and John Wooden have been able to inspire and channel this competitive drive in athletes and teams to develop great dynasties in their sports. Now award-winning author Michael Clarkson captures and explains this common, essential ingredient of sports champions in Competitive Fire.

Combining thought-provoking analysis and extensive research with engaging anecdotes, revealing quotes, and sidebars featuring many past and present premier athletes and coaches, Competitive Fire provides an inside look at the mental and emotional makeup of sports’ most successful figures. At the same time, the book presents many practical tips for developing this special winning mindset.

About the Author
Michael Clarkson is a sportswriter for the Toronto Star. Over the past decade, he has interviewed, studied, and researched athletes in all types of sports, focusing especially on the motivational techniques of elite athletes. His research and insights into athletes’ behavior and motivations have received substantial worldwide attention and acclaim.

As a player and coach, Clarkson has won many amateur championships in basketball and soccer. He has been a newspaper journalist for more than 30 years, winning 11 national and international awards. Clarkson lives in Mississauga, Ontario.

Product Details

• Paperback: 253 pages
• Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers; 1 edition (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880118652
• ISBN-13: 978-0880118651
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #280,971 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Competitive Fire - Not my favorite book on the subject, June 7, 2000

By	Michael Hojnowski (Ithaca, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been reading a number of Sports Psychology books of the past months. I found Competitive Fire to be the least compelling of the books I've read. Clarkson provides many quotes and examples from professional athletes, but doesn't manage to organize the material in a way that provides "Insights to developing the warrior mentality". I found it to be a repetitive collection of quotes with no particular direction.

I much prefer and recommend Flow in Sports by Susan A. Jackson, or In Pursuit of Excellence by Terry Orlick. You might also check out Mastery by George Leonard, or The Mental Edge by Loren Christensen.