Bücher veröffentlicht von Dark River

3v3 football training is gaining serious momentum in the world of coaching. As players develop, they need to become truly confident with the ball, and the best way to achieve mastery is by maximising their touches on the ball. So, how can we offer lots of interactions with the ball and learn the key principles of the sport? Through triangles, a shape at the heart of football - in both attack and defence - which is comprised of three players.Peter Prickett returns with the follow-up to his 2018 3v3 bestseller with new practices that link directly into finishing and creating goals. In this sequel to Developing Skill: A Guide to 3v3 Soccer Coaching, the advancement of the core principles of football through small-sided games is explored further. This book's focus is on the creation and conversion of goal scoring opportunities, as well as deeper dives into session design to help coaches create better practices.Developing Skill 2: A Guide to 3v3 Soccer Coaching outlines how you can use and incorporate the 3v3 method into your training and provides more than 85 ready-to-use, illustrated practices. It also details how best to run warm-ups, how to work with different pitch sizes and shapes, and much more.

The football referee. Charged with controlling the players and enforcing the laws of the most popular and passionate game on the planet, they are often alone and always outnumbered. They ply their trade in the face of competitive athletes and a partisan crowd, all desperate to sway judgments in their favour. Along with players and coaches, they are the only people who can influence the result of a football match, yet despite such importance, there are many questions.- Are referees influenced by the crowd?- Do referees favour the home side?- Do 'big name' players and managers get treated differently?- Are referees arrogant?- Why would anyone want to be a referee?- Do we really trust the referee?- Do we neglect the mental health of referees?- How can a referee prepare psychologically for a game?In Blowing the Whistle: The Psychology of Football Refereeing, these questions, and more, are answered.Meticulously researched and written by leading authority Stuart Carrington, a multitude of views from the terraces, the media, academic studies, and referees themselves are brought together to bust myths and shine a light on the misunderstood, rarely appreciated, and often vilified individuals who are central to the beautiful game. Vital lessons from psychology are explored to ensure no stone is left unturned in finally understanding: what is it really like to referee a football match?Testimonials"This wonderful book gives an insight into the decision-making process, and an in depth look at officiating. It should be read by all stakeholders in the game to achieve a better understanding of the role of the referee. It turns perception into reality and will improve the performance of every referee who reads it. It is without doubt the best book I have read on officiating." Keith Hackett, FIFA Referee 1981-1991; Former PGMOL General Manager, and author of You are the Ref."Good reading. An interesting insight into the mental health and attitudes of referees." Lee Markwick, The Referees' Association: Welfare, Representation & Partnership Lead.

The pre-season is often the time that readies a soccer team for success. Get pre-season right and a team hits the ground running; they mesh as a unit, find their rhythm, and win matches. Get pre-season wrong, however - due to unfit, tactically unsure, or out-of-form players - and it can be very hard to turn things around.Vasilis Papadakis is a UEFA A coach, Head coach, and Academy Technical Director of Panakrotiriakos F.C. For the 2016/17 season, he was head coach of Paleochora F.C. - the year they were league winners in their Greek Football League. In Pre-season Soccer Training, Vasilis shares the entire 7-week pre-season programme he used with his team in that championship-winning year.Pre-season Soccer Training covers the key elements of pre-season training including fitness drills, tactics, team understanding, skill development, set pieces, and transitional play. Using more than 165 illustrations, over 50 sessions, this book will help coaches of all levels to learn what a tested and effective pre-season can look like. The book is based on the current know-how and coaching being taught in UEFA classrooms, and sessions can be tweaked based on the age and experiences of your players.

As soccer players develop, they need to become truly confident with the ball, and the best way to achieve mastery is by maximising their touches on the ball. So, how can we offer lots of interactions with the ball and learn the key principles of the sport? Through triangles - a shape at the heart of football, in both attack and defence, and which is comprised of three players.In this book, coaches of all levels, working with players across all age groups and abilities, will learn to utilise the 3v3 method to develop skilful individuals and effective teams. The book builds up from 1v1 to 3v3 through technical exercises that improve individual skills. Then, it moves beyond 3v3, adding in more players (including goalkeepers), as situations demand it.With a core 3v3 training foundation, players will be able to explore and cement numerous key parts to their games, with depth and width, unlocking the various combinations - such as overlaps, one-twos, third-man runs, and more - which are used at all levels of the sport. At the same time, players will have ample opportunities to develop and perfect creative dribbling moves.Developing Skill: A Guide to 3v3 Soccer Coaching outlines how you can use and incorporate the 3v3 method in your training and provides more than 90 ready-to-use, illustrated practices. It also details how best to run warm-ups, how to work with different pitch sizes and shapes, and much more.About the author. Peter Prickett is an FA affiliate tutor with a decade of experience coaching with various organisations. He was one of the first coaches in England to obtain the UEFA B Futsal qualification. Peter is currently studying for a Masters in Performance Football Coaching.

In England & Wales, every criminal case starts in a magistrates' court, and most end there. Last year, the 14,000 magistrates dealt with almost 1.4 million cases.But, what exactly does a magistrate do, who are they, and how are they recruited and trained? Are they out-of-touch and unrepresentative, or still fit for purpose with a role to play in today's increasingly sophisticated and complex judicial system?The Secret Magistrate takes the reader on an eye-opening, behind-the-scenes tour of a year in the life of an inner-city magistrate. Chapters cover a variety of cases including the disqualified driver who drove away from court, the Sunbed Pervert, and Fifi the Attack Chihuahua.The Secret Magistrate is an inner-city magistrate who has sat on the bench for several years, and who has strong views on the role of magistrates within the Criminal Justice System. All names have been changed to protect both the innocent and the guilty.Foreword by Malcolm Richardson OBE [Chair, Magistrates Association, 2015-17]

It started with a question, "What are the fundamentals of soccer?"Whilst there are hundreds of books that look into the specific principles of coaches like Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, and Marcelo Bielsa, there is no core, distilled text on the key principles of the game.Until now.Join best-selling author and coach - Peter Prickett - as he puts soccer under the microscope and breaks it down into its constituent parts. By addressing the two primary phases - in-possession and out-of-possession - the book examines the five attacking and five defending principles, plus the transitions between each phase, to reveal the underlying heart of the beautiful game.These principles have underpinned coach education for decades and largely been unchallenged. When examining them, other deeper values emerge to support the one true principle - to score.Designed for coaches and soccer fans interested in the theory of soccer, this handbook - filled with more than 90 illustrations and diagrams - is a must-read for anyone looking to understand the foundations that soccer is built on.Peter Prickett is the author of:3v3 Soccer Coaching: The Complete CollectionDeveloping Skill: A Guide to 3v3 Soccer CoachingDeveloping Skill 2: A Guide to 3v3 Soccer Coaching3v3: Inspired By Legends

¿This short, no-nonsense book is a must-read for anyone looking to understand whether they have a dependency on alcohol.Alcohol dependency - where alcohol has a hold over someone's behaviour - affects people from all walks of life. It can impact an individual's health, wealth, relationships, life fulfilment, and so much more.In The Honest Truth, we explore how to evaluate whether someone has a dependency on alcohol through the ACR: the Alcohol Consumption Regime. It is a focused, simple, six-week programme punctuated with periods of permitted drinking and periods of non-drinking. By the end of it, the reader will see, for themselves, whether alcohol has control over them. With this knowledge in place, they are now better equipped to determine how to move forwards should they need to. The ACR can also be used as a day-to-day routine to moderate and safely control drinking patterns.Developed over decades of work with alcohol dependents, the ACR offers the proof that people require when judging their drinking habits. This no-nonsense, concise book also contains a variety of background information, case studies, signs of dependency, and beyond. The Honest Truth will be one of the most valuable books you will ever read.

It's Just a Ball is a book for anyone who lives and loves soccer. Founded on the author's unique set of experiences, it is a personal exploration of the beautiful game - delivered through a series of personal accounts, broader stories, studies, and interviews - capturing the unique journeys of players, coaches, and people from around the world who have found success in unconventional ways. Throughout it all, one key message emerges: the importance of not just playing soccer, but of embracing it as a lifestyle! From the streets and training centers of Europe and the United States to the beaches of Brazil, the book explores not only what makes soccer great, but what makes a great soccer player. Sections include deliberate practice, the value of repetition and rehearsal, 10,000 hours, the impact of culture, and development facilities. It's Just a Ball attempts to make sense of theories and concepts on how a player makes the leap from good to great, and great to elite.Whether you are a player, coach, or a fan, each chapter explores different lessons pulled from the pitch and which can be applied to life. This book challenges traditional learning theories, and links methods used across disciplines and artforms back to soccer. It's Just a Ball is a must-read addition to any bookshelf on the world's universal sport.

Do you coach footballers and want to build a practical, possession-based soccer curriculum? You've come to the right place!Through The Thirds - from leading youth coach Tony Mee - offers a practical methodology for football coaches working with 12+ year-old footballers, who want to see their teams play with technique, confidence, and tactical intelligence.Based around a real-world training programme - which has been developed and delivered by Academy coaches with Academy players - it provides a logical series of progressions, and the opportunity to develop players across all areas of the pitch, both offensively and defensively. The practices are designed for the 11-a-side game, and different team formations, and provide a complete season's programme of work. In turn, the book contains more than 140 fully-illustrated exercise plans in colour, alongside instructions for developing attacking play, strong defences, and effective transitions.Chapters cover a host of areas, including: players' roles and responsibilities, warm-ups, developing play from the defensive third, developing play in the attacking third (including finishes), transitions from the defending third, and more.Whatever level you coach at, Through The Thirds is a must-read coaching guide!Note: Author royalties generated from this book will be donated to the Huntington's Disease Association.

The Italian-American family is a unique and wonderful cultural entity. From the bond between generations, to collective responses to adversity, to its overwhelming love of food - the family is central to Italian-America.Sharing stories of her extended Italian-American family in this personal memoir, Marcia Brennan shows how cultural histories can be deeply interwoven with the magic of blessings, curses, and other forms of creation. From the rituals employed to ward off bad luck, to the mischief of older family members, to Italian toasts and swear words - Put It On The Windowsill shines a light on the multi-faceted world of Italian-American people.Both humorous and poignant, the book is filled with stories and insights from the author's upbringing that will be familiar to Italian-Americans across the world. The book draws on rich details of cultural history to evoke the intimacy of spirit presences. These presences extend from the memory of previous generations to encounters with sacred objects, near-death experiences, and transcendent visions.The author also describes how whole worlds were created out of almost nothing, while the magic of the home served as a stage for sacred expressions of love. The book includes over 40 traditional family recipes, which represent both expressions of Italian-American cultural heritage and practical forms of creation.

Great Britain, the 1980s. VHS is rapidly becoming popular, and the more gory and violent the movies, the better. One company has latched on to this trend quickly - selling and renting controversial films to the public. It is called the Video Instant Picture Company, a.k.a. VIPCO.Founded and run by Michael Lee - Mike to his friends - this small independent video distributor would swiftly grow into a money-making machine and become synonymous with the so-called 'Video Nasties' scandal. Indeed, as VIPCO grew, Mike would become a millionaire, find his company raided by the police, nearly go broke, then resurface to trade in on the memory of the Nasties during the nineties and beyond.VIPCO would give the iconic Zombie Flesh Eaters its first-ever UK home video release, create the headline-grabbing artwork for The Driller Killer, and produce the outlandish Spookies, amongst other notable achievements. Later, the company would gain notoriety for re-releasing some of the Nasties on sub-par DVDs and offering titles with shoddy video sleeves.VIPCO would disappear from retailer shelves in 2007. It has now been over a decade since the firm's closure, and many of VIPCO's former titles have found welcome homes with other horror genre distributors, but VIPCO is still shrouded in mystery...James Simpson, a former writer for horror movie magazines and websites, reveals the real reason why the controversial VIPCO closed, as well as detailing its long and complex history. With insights from those who worked with Mike Lee, and those who worked for rival firms, Video Nasty Mayhem opens the vault on VIPCO and finds there are plenty of surprises. The book also reviews more than 60 of VIPCO's films, offers a standalone chapter on cult director Lucio Fulci, highlights Mike Lee's turn at producing movies, and more. For anyone interested in the history of British film and distribution, Video Nasties, plus horror, cannibal and zombie movies, Video Nasty Mayhem is a must-read!

Togetherness is a powerful state of connection between individuals that can lead to amazing triumphs. In sport, teams win matches, but teams with togetherness win championships and make history.If you want the individuals on your team to develop their skills and reach their potential, get them 'together'. The key to this, is to understand your players' group memberships and how to harness them, to create a unique team identity that is special to "us".This concise and practical book - from Dr. Matt Slater, a world authority on togetherness - shows you how you can develop togetherness in your team. The journey starts with an understanding of what underpins togetherness and how it can drive high performance and well-being simultaneously. It then moves onto practical tips and activities based on the 3R model (Reflect, Represent, Realise) that you can learn and complete with your team to unlock their togetherness.The 3R model provides you with a framework to take your team on a journey from "me" to "we".With memorable stories from the world of high-performance sport, and a robust evidence-base, this book will help you to create and maintain togetherness in your team - whether in sport or other fields such as business or voluntary sectors - simply and effectively.Achieve the impossible with your team... through togetherness.

Whether we hail from Napoli or New York, Bari or Boston, Poughkeepsie or Palermo, there is a special quality that binds us - Italiani nel Mondo - together.And that agent is Italianità, the essence of being Italian.We are all Italian, but trying to define exactly what that means - what makes us all part of one global family - well, that can be a little tougher.In this book, William Giovinazzo explores the culture and history of Italians and Italian-Americans, from the time when the Greeks first colonized Italy, to the influx of Italian immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries, to John Travolta strutting his stuff in a New York disco.In an insightful and entertaining journey, which also takes in food, religion, relationships, and - of course - the Mafia, we explore how the two groups are the same and how they differ. Ultimately, we discover how Italianità is a complex and multifaceted entity; it's what makes Italian and Italian-American societies the wonderful, life-affirming, vibrant cultures that they are.Foreword by Anthony Fasano, host of The Italian American Podcast, and author of Forty Days in Italy Con La Mia Famiglia.

The development path for soccer players contains many elements: from technical execution, to tactical awareness, to mental strength, and more. But as players progress, they specialise, and skillsets and practices advance, based on the specific requirements of their positions. At this point, coaches need to offer tailored coaching.With forwards, a key aspect to developing finishing and scoring goals is to focus on executing the right techniques when under pressure. This can be achieved by placing the forward in game-realistic positions and scenarios, then allowing them to 'practise' appropriate techniques. In doing so, they develop a feel for a successful strike and continue to build their skills until they become comfortable. Aimed at football coaches of all levels, and players of all ages and abilities, Developing Soccer Players: Forward-Specific Practices seeks to develop, and enhance, the skills and functions of forward players through low numbers training. This includes the player on their own, with a coach, and in small-sided games.Detailing research into technique, psychology, and using the statistics of how goals are scored in the modern game, this book highlights where and how modern goalscorers get their goals, and serves up exercises to help players develop and excel accordingly.Developing Soccer Players: Forward-Specific Practices offers drills that develop the full range of core finishing techniques including volleys, headers, and both sides of the boot. The book also provides a wide spectrum of game scenarios including: across goal finishing, combination finishing, across defender finishing, second phase finishing, and more.Containing more than 40 illustrated soccer templates, the book presents a core coaching reference that will help coaches take their forwards to the next level.About the author. Dan Bolas has been working in football for the past 15 years, with a focus on developing and improving players of all ages and abilities. For the last nine years, he has been coaching in English academy football, working with some of the best young players and alongside some of the most experienced coaches in the game. Dan holds the UEFA A Licence qualification and is a graduate of the Premier League's innovative Elite Coach Apprenticeship Scheme.

Successful soccer coaches are constantly seeking new ways to learn, evolve, and improve.Very often, footballing success is defined by mindset, and the real winners are the coaches, players, and teams who enter the competitive arena best prepared mentally and emotionally. They can perform in the moment, under pressure. Psychology plays a pivotal part in creating and sustaining peak levels of performance. Coaches who cultivate positive, healthy, winning attitudes and build a culture of competitive toughness to be at their best when it matters the most, achieve the highest results. Successful high-performance cultures of tomorrow will be defined by the leaders who think more about the virtues of human development and behaviour than any other aspect. The most forward-thinking soccer coaches want to be ahead of the game.The Future Coach offers proven principles from soccer psychology for coaches to create winning cultures and re-define coaching excellence. Based around practically applied principles of performance psychology, coaches will gain the opportunity to explore how the values, beliefs, and expectations they hold, shape their coaching behaviour and end up defining the environment they work in and players they work with.The Future Coach offers simple, fast, hands-on guidance and advice to create confident players who can think independently, co-create and self-manage performances. Coaches will learn new ways to design and implement their playing philosophy, identity, and style of play on and off the field with clarity and confidence.Drawing on his pitchside and changing room experiences from behind the scenes in the Premier League and English Championship divisions, author - psychologist and UEFA A Coach - Tom Bates invites coaches to journey with him turning optimism, energy, and inspiration into positive performance outcomes and results!> Learn How to Share your Style of Play for complete buy-in, on and off the field> Create a team Culture that fosters competitive excellence and mental toughness> Understand the dynamics of how to create happier, healthier, winning teams> Build positive and cohesive relationships based on mutual trust and authenticity> Breed confident players who are driven to challenge themselves and each-other> Create Forward Thinking, Self-Managing, Independent Learners> Develop your own inspired leadership techniques to use with your playersAbout Tom Bates Tom Bates is a leading Performance Psychologist and UEFA A Licence Coach. Over the last ten years, he has worked with youth and senior domestic international athletes, coaches, managers and teams, helping them to perform under pressure and be at their best when it matters the most. Starting his career at Cambridge United, he moved to AFC Bournemouth and quickly progressed to Birmingham City FC and West Bromwich Albion FC during their years in the English Premier League, before taking up his current role at Aston Villa FC. Tom works internationally promoting the importance of Mindset in achieving excellence in football including the acclaimed TEDx talk: "Imagination - The Power of Creativity". Tom currently works as Head of Performance Psychology & Culture at Aston Villa FC in the English Championship.

How many awful presentations have you attended? How many have you given?Awful presentations are too often the norm, with swathes of text on the screen, presenters speaking over everyone's heads, little interaction, no stories, poor images, and a bored audience. Why?In this book, presentation specialist Barry Brophy explains why competent people give hapless presentations. And it's not because of nerves. Most of what you thought you knew about presentations is wrong; successful presentations are not about speaking but listening. They are not about your knowledge but the audience's needs. They are not about ditching PowerPoint but using it properly. They are not about overcoming fear when speaking but overcoming caution when preparing.The truth is you already have the skills to present - your conversational skills - and anyone can craft a spellbinding presentation. Conversations work whereas presentations invariably fail, and this book explains the hidden mental habits which can lead you to misuse your already-perfected speaking skills when presenting.You will learn to:> Make your presentations zing. A presentation is not facts, it's an interpretation of facts. Your job as a presenter is to advise and guide your audience.> Communicate knowledge to an audience at any level. A presentation fits into a wider communication chain. Understanding this will help you to figure out what works in a presentation - stories, images, videos, examples, analogies, demonstrations, interaction - and, crucially, what should be left out.> Make your presentation audience-centred not presenter-centred. Don't define your presentation based what you know but rather on what the audience needs to hear.> Connect with your audience. Content is the dominant factor in a presentation, not delivery. You already know how to deliver; you do it every time you open your mouth. The key is to tap into this conversational energy and fluency.> Embrace PowerPoint to make your presentations first class.

Part-diary, part-guide, part-warning - The GoodFather is a light-hearted, invaluable look into the world of first-time fatherhood.Detailing the author's eye-opening path of discovery, the book charts his journey (alongside that of his partner and their baby) as he goes through pregnancy for the first time. The nuggets of information he picks up along the way, the tips to help smooth the process for all parties, and the precious opportunities to bank some brownie points, are all detailed.This isn't your typical lecture on pregnancy and fatherhood, rather a real, tangible, honest account of what will happen, and how to survive it.In this book:> Learn essentials such as key dates, what happens at maternity appointments, what to pack for the hospital, and how to avoid blowing your cash on needless baby tat.> Dig into an A-Z terminology guide to help you navigate the ridiculous amount of jargon that comes with being an expectant father.> Get up-to-speed on baby milestones and size guides, some painfully-learned maternity shopping advice, and the importance of good snacks.> Oh, and a chapter about sex. Don't get your hopes up. Seriously.> This book also features regular 'real parents tips' from mothers and fathers whose comments haven't been passed through some rose-tinted filter.The AuthorLee Price is an award-nominated national print journalist and published sportswriter. Previously of Shoot! magazine, and a feature writer at The Sun newspaper, Lee is currently 'PR & Mischief Champion' at Paddy Power. Lee has written a number of previous titles including: FIFA Football: The Story Behind The Video Game Sensation, The Bundesliga Blueprint: How Germany became the Home of Football and Turning My Back on the Premier League.

Whatever sport you coach, building a successful sports program can be an enormous, sometimes daunting, task filled with many responsibilities and demands. Questions and decisions wait around every corner, often pulling a coach away from long-term considerations. How can you build a program when daily challenges require your attention?In reality, those daily challenges form some of the building blocks and foundations to any program. As a coach, you have the opportunity every day to showcase your critical thinking, creativity, player-management skills, philosophy, integrity, and character with every decision you make.In "Building a Successful High School Sports Program", former High School Soccer Coach DeAngelo Wiser addresses the fundamentals of building a successful High School program. He covers numerous topic areas including how to choose team players, bringing them together, managing expectations, how to define success, working with administrators and colleagues, tracking progress, dealing with personal adversity, and much more.The book also includes contributions from a dozen highly successful High School coaches and Athletic Directors who offer decades of real-world wisdom and high-value advice. The book's foreword is by one of the world's leading and most recognizable Sport Psychologists - Bill Beswick.Whether you coach football, tennis, soccer, baseball, basketball, volleyball, swimming, track & field, or any other High School sport, by the end of the book, you will learn:- how to build a winning program- how to properly integrate philosophies and principles into your work- how to keep track of success and document the essentials- how to sell your program and create outside buy-in- how to create a cohesive team and sporting environment- how to create a team underpinned with character and integrity- how to manage players and yourself when times get toughBuilding a successful program takes patience and determination, but is a journey you'll never forget.Contributors: Bill Beswick, Molly Grishman, Dave Barney, Jody Hamilton, Jean Kesterson, Aaron Ocampo, Mike Bowlin, Karen Vanover, Cy Tucker, Bob Koski, Daniel Sandlin, and Kevin Wright.

The selling environment and role of the sales professional have changed.Forever.Gone are the days when the organisation, the product, or the solutions provided the greatest opportunity for differentiation. Today is no longer about features and benefits, need-satisfaction, or solution selling; it's about the role that the sales professional plays as the single biggest point of differentiation.The Credible Expert provides you, the sales professional, with the second installment of the GO NAKED series, this time with an even more thought-provoking and practical perspective on how to stand out, create more opportunities, and grow your business.It breaks down the steps required for securing opportunities and making sales so that - irrespective of your experience - you will be able to select the right customers, deliver compelling messages, learn how to create personal value and significance, and develop thought-provoking and change-enabling discussions. Everything is geared towards one thing: making you the most successful salesperson possible.Based on the inherent belief that it's the salesperson that makes the biggest difference in delivering successful outcomes, this book will provide you with a step-by-step guide to becoming the Credible Expert in your market. By following its methodology, you will stand out, create more opportunities, and deliver business success.

How the mighty can fall. A three-goal home defeat to Aldershot on 7 May 2011 consigned regional footballing superpower Lincoln City to relegation from the Football League. It was an unexpected and potentially fatal position for a club of Lincoln's size and history to find itself in.Desperate for an immediate return to League football, Lincoln's renaissance from the depths of the Conference took six painful years. Five years of crushing mediocrity carried the club further and further from football's elite, and it was not until April 2017 - under the stewardship of the inspirational Danny Cowley - that Lincoln made their triumphant return to League Two as National League Champions. In the words of Cowley himself, it was a minor football miracle.Six Years In Purgatory: The Story of Lincoln City in The Conference 2011-2017 presents a comprehensive day-by-day record of The Imps during those six years in football's wilderness. Every league and cup game is detailed, together with transfers, tales from the boardroom, years of dire financial struggle and, finally, that glorious 2016-17 rollercoaster ride which ended with promotion and a record-shattering FA Cup campaign which brought Lincoln City global exposure. All 147 players to have appeared for the first team are covered in detail, together with a retrospective of each manager and a host of relevant statistics. The long and tortuous road endured by the club and the Sincil Bank faithful is laid bare for all to see.With a foreword by Danny Cowley and a detailed personal review by Chairman Bob Dorrian, Six Years In Purgatory is a must-read for all Lincoln City fans.

Cycling is one of the world's great sports. From The Tour de France to the Paris-Roubaix to velodromes across the globe, it encompasses many disciplines: from climbing mountains to massed sprints to the loneliness of the time trial. But what separates race winners from the nearly men? Top cyclists are physically similar, train the right way, eat the right things, and yet there is something that separates them. It's their hidden engine - not a secret mechanical aid - but what's between their ears that makes the difference. In this superbly-researched and accessible book for fans of cycling, psychologist and cycling author Martijn Veltkamp gets to the heart of the supremely demanding and challenging sport of professional cycling, and the mental side of performance that drives success. He addresses fundamental questions in an easy-to-read way, including: what motivates riders and how does motivation affect performance? Where does a rider's fear of descending originate from, and how do you get rid of it? Why do some cyclists succumb under pressure, whilst others do not? Why is cycling on your own mentally more challenging than when in a group? Written for connoisseurs of cycling, but equally rewarding for general readers, the book examines cycling from the viewpoint of classic psychological studies, and stage and race histories, as well as interviews with former professional riders. The Hidden Motor is a must-read book for anyone who wants to know all about this most exceptional of sports. This book is the English language translation of De Verborgen Motor, originally published in The Netherlands in 2015.