CLYDEBROLIN.COM
  • Home
  • Books
    • In The Zone
    • Overdrive >
      • OverdriveF1.com
  • Reviews
  • Quotes
  • Blog
  • Contact

Read all about the extremes of sport - from Ironman to ocean rowing to big wave surfing

9/10/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Many thanks to the Euronews website LivingIt for featuring a selection of new articles - based on In The Zone - exploring the mental side of performing at the absolute limit in some of the most extreme sports out there.

Ahead of this weekend's Ironman World Championship at Hawaii's Kailua-Kona, hear from the 2015 and 2016 world champion Jan Frodeno (pictured above). The German is clearly one of the fittest human beings on the planet but you can find out why he considers that even in the ultimate physical challenge, the difference between the best and the rest is always about mental strength.

Click here to read all about it...

Picture
It is now seven years since Roz Savage completed the final leg of a truly epic adventure, becoming the first woman to row single-handed across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. She told me she didn't feel strong mentally at first, but over the course the experience of taking on such a huge challenge she learned all about the true meaning of resilience.

Click here to find out more...
Picture
Finally, in an exclusive interview big wave surf legend Garrett McNamara describes the spiritual experience involved in taking on the most violent experiences nature can throw at us: 'I look at the tallest tree, the mountains, the ocean and the universe, attract it and breathe it all in...'

If you want to feel the force, read on.
0 Comments

Flying high? It’s the fast way to clear the mind

2/6/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Japan's Yoshihide Muroya flies through the pylons en route to victory at the 2017 Red Bull Air Race in San Diego, USA

Mindfulness. Pure focus. Total concentration. That magical sensation of quieting the mind and living in the now…
 
These concepts have only recently breached mainstream Western consciousness, yet over the last decade they have gained ever greater prominence. But it’s not just about sitting cross-legged on a mountaintop, or even staring at a candle in the living room. The path to ultimate inner peace can appear anywhere – and a shortcut is often found in conditions that are diametrically opposed to any idea of ‘calm’.
 
Sport is a classic example, especially those involving extremes of speed – such as the world’s fastest form of motorsport, the Red Bull Air Race, where single-seater planes twist, spin and loop just metres above land and sea.
 
In the new book In The Zone, Germany’s reigning air race world champion Matthias Dolderer insists: ‘You’re so focused and concentrated there is nothing else that can distract you. You don’t have time and you are fully 100 percent concentrated on what you’re doing. When you fly, whatever happened before this is gone. Actually, to fly in the racetrack is the best way to get rid of all distractions.’
 
Mindful? Focused? Concentrated? Check. This clutter-free mind is crucial for sport, hence why techniques to induce this state of mind are now commonplace. Legendary NBA coach Phil Jackson used this approach to mould his successful Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers teams, while Nico Rosberg admits he turned to meditation to find the mental strength to beat Lewis Hamilton to the 2016 F1 world championship.
 
But really there’s nothing new about this hunt; ‘Zen’ Buddhism is a derivation of the Indian Sanskrit ‘dhanya’ meaning meditative concentration. Today Japanese air racer Yoshihide Muroya makes for a good example as a practitioner of zazen, which translates as ‘sitting meditation’.
 
‘Meditation helps me because it’s mental training,’ Muroya tells me for In The Zone. ‘At an air race I do it every morning. I use it to focus on myself, just to calm down and take away the extraneous thoughts that have been going through my head. In racing there’s no time to think so you need to be focused and automatic.’
 
Something must have paid off: Muroya heads to his home race in Japan’s Chiba this weekend looking for a repeat of his debut win at the same venue last year. He also won this year’s latest race in San Diego to raise hopes of a Japanese motorsport double in a week following Takuma Sato's Indy 500 win. Best of all, Muroya insists we can all reap the rewards of ‘looking inside’ even if our own office moves rather slower.
 
‘Meditation is good for flying and it’s a big help for life too,’ he smiles. ‘Everyone can benefit from it. We all have so much going round our brains all the time and we normally look outside so it’s quite difficult to look deep inside. But it’s really good to calm down and looking inside helps make life easier for anyone.’

Read In The Zone to hear more from British Red Bull Air Race world champions Paul Bonhomme and Nigel Lamb plus Canadian racer Pete McLeod, among 100 exclusive interviews with stars of world sport
Picture
Japan's Yoshihide Muroya celebrates victory in the latest round of the 2017 Red Bull Air Race in San Diego, USA
0 Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Clyde Brolin spent over a decade working in F1 before moving on to the wider world of sport - all in a bid to discover the untapped power of the human mind.

    His first book Overdrive was shortlisted for Best New Writer at the 2011 British Sports Book Awards.

    In The Zone - featuring 100 interviews with the greats of world sport - is out now...

    Picture

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017

    Categories

    All
    Action Sports
    Adventure
    Air Racing
    Athletics
    Audiobook
    BASE Jumping
    Basketball
    BMX
    Boxing
    Business
    Charity
    Climbing
    Creativity
    Cricket
    Cycling
    Deals
    Dreams
    Endurance
    Football
    Formula 1
    Golf
    Hurling
    Indy 500
    Ironman
    Kitesurfing
    Land Speed Record
    Marathon
    Media
    Meditation
    Mental Strength
    Mindfulness
    Motocross
    Motorcycling
    Motor Sport
    Mountaineering
    Olympics
    Out Of Body Experience
    Out-of-Body Experience
    Paralympics
    Podcasts
    Politics
    Psychology
    Rally
    Religion
    Resilience
    Reviews
    Rowing
    Rugby Union
    Running
    Science
    Skiing
    Skydiving
    Spirituality
    Surfing
    Swimming
    Teamwork
    Technology
    Tennis
    Triathlon
    TV
    Visualisation
    Windsurfing
    Work Ethic
    World Cup

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
Site powered by Weebly. Managed by Easy Internet Solutions LTD
  • Home
  • Books
    • In The Zone
    • Overdrive >
      • OverdriveF1.com
  • Reviews
  • Quotes
  • Blog
  • Contact