Shoe Dog is one of my favourite books. 

It’s the autobiography of Nike’s founder, Phil Knight.

One great passage in the book reflects on his time as a middle-distance runner at college

"I thought back on my running career at Oregon. I’d competed with, and against, men far better, faster, more physically gifted. Many were future Olympians. 

"And yet I’d trained myself to forget this unhappy fact. People reflexively assume that competition is always a good thing, that it always brings out the best in people, but that’s only true of people who can forget the competition. 

"The art of competing, I’d learned from track, was the art of forgetting, and I now reminded myself of that fact.

"You must forget your limits. You must forget your doubts, your pain, your past. You must forget that internal voice screaming, begging, 'Not one more step!'

"And when it’s not possible to forget it, you must negotiate with it. I thought over all the races in which my mind wanted one thing, and my body wanted another, those laps in which I’d had to tell my body, 'Yes, you raise some excellent points, but let’s keep going anyway. . .'"

A fascinating insight into the internal battle we all face in the sporting arena.

Every match has that moment where your mind says no. 

The best players are those with the ability to keep going regardless. 

That voice gets quieter the more you ignore it.

And more often than not, it's the players who've done the work over the past few months and years that can push past it.

Discipline in training and nutrition builds a mental toughness that shows up on match day.

You know deep down you've put the work in. That's how confidence is built. 

That's how you win the battle in the mind.

*****

Quote To Think About

"I had serious problems with alcohol and drugs. GAA saved me. I came from a tough household, a very low-income life. My father left when I was four or five. Alcoholic. Couldn't fight it."

—Padraig O'Hora

*****

What I'm Reading

"It started with a fella called Yank. Last summer, Phillip O’Neill (nicknamed Yank “because he tried to go to America once”) goaded his friend Fitz, the guitarist in Kingfishr, into writing a song about Killeagh. All the other clubs around the place have songs they sing after matches. Why not us?

“They were looking like they were going to get to an east Cork Junior A final,” Fitzgibbon told The Two Johnnies earlier this year. “I was down in Killeagh, drunk, and I made a deal. If ye get to the final, I’ll write a song. Lo and behold, they got to the final and I got the text off Yank to write the song.”

The story of Killeagh: How a hurling club in east Cork inspired the summer’s best-loved song is a great piece by Malachy Clerkin, with Kingfishr guitarist Eoin Fitzgibbon on the birth of the popular song..

*****

What I'm Listening To

Malcom Gladwell Talks Sport on the Real Science of Sport Podcast - a very entertaining listen for any sports science or S&C nerds.