The Ultimate AthleteWe 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. |
Contents
Adventures of the Body and Spirit | 3 |
The Hidden Dimensions of Sports | 30 |
Aikido and the Mind of the West | 47 |
Introduction to the Energy Body | 60 |
Energy Exercises | 82 |
The Energy Body in Conventional Sports | 98 |
New Games with New Rules | 109 |
Toward a New Physical Education | 133 |
The Game of Games | 151 |
Running | 170 |
Falling Flying | 190 |
Diving | 207 |
Risking Dying | 216 |
The Dance within the Game | 229 |
Ideal and Actuality | 241 |
A View from the Year 2000 | 259 |
Common terms and phrases
aikido attack awareness Babcock balance ball become begin boys Brand breathing catcher coach consciousness context create culture dance death dreams earth Energy Body exercise existence experience eyes feel field flight flow flying football Frisbee Game of Games golf Guy Murchie hands hara hard helper high school Homo Ludens Huizinga human Integral Transformative Practice involved Johan Huizinga judo Juilland limits Lindbergh look Maxwell Field Michael Murphy mind move movement muscles Nadeau offered Olympic pain participants partner perception Perennial Philosophy physical education physical-education plane play players possible practice relaxed Robert Nadeau Roger Bannister runner satchitananda seems sense simply skiing space spirit Squadron Stewart Brand strategy teacher tells tennis thing tion told transformation turn Ultimate Athlete Uyeshiba volleyball walk winning words workshop
