A thrill ride of a book, empowering in its implications of what any individual can achieve.
Every kind of human performance—a record-breaking athletic feat, a major scientific breakthrough, a stunning jazz solo—is made possible by tapping into an elusive and extraordinary state of consciousness called “flow.”
In action and adventure sports, in particular, athletes can be described as "flow junkies.” These men and women surf waves as tall as skyscrapers, climb sheer rock faces without equipment and parachute onto remote mountainsides for the thrill of skiing where no one has been before. All these pursuits are as dangerous as they are electrifying, and all of these athletes say that they rely on the “flow state” to succeed—even that, incredibly, the flow state itself may be the ultimate goal. Flow Genome Project co-founder Kotler (A Small Furry Prayer: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life, 2010, etc.) argues that flow is more than just the key to death-defying performance; it’s also the secret to everyday happiness and fulfillment—and that mastering the state of flow is within reach for anyone. However, top action and adventure athletes may be the singular connoisseurs of the flow state: They have acknowledged the powerful effects of flow for years, and cultivating a flow state is a significant piece of their training. Kotler spent more than a decade interviewing and reporting on these athletes, analyzing their behaviors and motivations, as well as investigating how cutting-edge technologies enable a neurological breakdown of the flow state. The author describes a state where the fear of death disappears, blurring the line between possible and impossible. If a mastery of flow can be accomplished without an environment of extreme physical risk, a paradigm shift of enormous consequence may occur—even, as one high-performance athlete suggests, “the next stage in human evolution."
A thrill ride of a book, empowering in its implications of what any individual can achieve.Pub Date: March 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4778-0083-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Amazon/New Harvest
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Spitz attempts to cash in on the 25th anniversary of the New York Knicks' first NBA championship in 1969 in a style that combines the worst elements of rock criticism, celebrity tell-all, and all-sports radio. To read this book cover to cover, one would think Spitz (Dylan: A Superstar, 1988, etc.) was the 13th man in the Knicks rotation. However, a quick glance at the sources tells a different story: This is nothing more than a cut-and-paste quickie in a classy cloth binding. It's not that he gets his facts wrong—after all, he's cribbed from the best in describing how general manager Eddie Donovan built the squad; how the team grew as a unit, especially after adding power forward Dave DeBusschere; how they finally surpassed the Boston Celtics (league champions in 11 of the previous 13 years); and the unfolding of their 196970 run at the NBA crown. But the way he tells this story, implying a familiarity with events and people that he seems not to have had, will get under the skin of anybody who's even seen a photograph of the Knicks' championship team. Spitz's character studies—of Rhodes Scholar, small forward, and future US senator Bill Bradley; stoical team captain and center Willis Reed; superfly guard Walt ``Clyde'' Frazier; role players like Dick Barnett; and rookie benchwarmer Johny Warren—are long on detail but conspicuously lacking in substance. A similar cursory approach makes the author's windy explanation of the realpolitik of the City Game (as urban playground hoops is known) fall somewhere between pathetic and unintentionally hilarious. Further compounding this lazy effort are the numerous anachronisms (such as referring to a 747 taking off in 1969, when 747s didn't go into commercial use until 1970). A curious footnote, considering the author (who has profiled Woodstock I as well as Bob Dylan) appears to be stuck in 1969.
Pub Date: March 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-15-193116-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1995
For a sport that promotes itself as ``the game for a lifetime'' for everyone, golf has a pretty sorry record where women are concerned, and Chambers recounts some of the key battles. When the second US Open was held in 1896, the United States Golf Association's leadership bravely allowed John Shippen, who was half black, half Native American, to play. Regrettably, the sport has had a less brilliant track record over the rest of its American history; but in the wake of the Shoal Creek scandal surrounding that country club's exclusionary membership policy, things have begun to improve for minority men. Not so for women. Chambers, whose unusual credentials (contributing editor to Golf Digest and a columnist for the National Law Journal) make her uniquely qualified to tell this story, recounts the various ways in which private country clubs have traditionally given women golfers the shaft. Providing a wealth of anecdotal evidence, she shows how women are excluded from full membership by many clubs. Barbara Litrell, publisher of McCall's, found that the prestigious Wykagyl Country Club would allow her husband to be a member but not her, even though her company was paying the initiation fee. We also see how women whose marital status changes are unfairly discriminated against (unlike men, widowed or divorced women who remarry must often pay new initiation fees), and how determined individuals have fought back with mixed results. At a time in which the sport is experiencing a continuing boom, with 37% of all new players being female, the issue is one with a growing impact in the sports world. Unfortunately, although the book is well researched and reported, it is rather drily written and awkwardly structured, with an uneasy mix of history and activist how-to. Despite its shortcomings, a useful study of one of the less examined dark corners of American sport. (First serial to Golf Digest)
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-671-50151-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
