Discover the next frontier in sports training—improving your mental game, no matter your age or experience—and how to become the Playmaker, both in your professional and personal life. Coaches search for it. Parents dream of it. Fans love it. Athletes want it. The playmaker on any sports team possesses it: an elusive, intangible quality combining anticipation, perception, and decision-making skills. This quality raises their game above the competition and allows them to pass when no one else can, anticipate the movement of opponents, avoid costly mental mistakes, and ultimately, hold the team together. Now, for the first time, cognitive science research is revealing the secrets of the playmaker’s keen sense of awareness. Just as tests of speed, strength, and agility have provided a baseline of physiological biomarkers, coaches can now capture cognitive metrics including attention, pattern recognition, anticipation, and the ability to take quick, decisive action during the chaos of competition. The Playmaker’s Advantage is a groundbreaking book that will educate athletes of all ages about this essential creative capability in an accessible, easy to understand method.

"Darryl knows my game now. He knows what's going to work and what's not going to work. It's about fine-tuning it and always trying to improve.... It's an ongoing conversation about how to get better and how to pick up a little thing here or there to give yourself an advantage." —Patrick Kane, from his foreword An unmissable look at how even hockey's best find ways to get even better. Darryl Belfry is regarded as hockey's premier development coach, with clients including Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, John Tavares, and Auston Matthews. But his highly sought-after training methods aren't only for elite NHL stars; they have helped players of all levels uncover new pathways to performance excellence. Packed with fascinating stories and valuable insight, Belfry Hockey: Strategies to Teach the World's Best Athletes details this powerful curriculum, developed over years of persistent research. It's a system that emphasizes discovering authentic identity, pinpointing translatable skill, building a personal performance matrix, and more. Not only will players learn hundreds of techniques to improve their game, but teachers—inside and outside of hockey coaching—will gain an arsenal of groundbreaking strategies to connect with their students.

Presented in a unique reversible-book format, this is the ultimate Ohio State University fan guide to the passionate and historic rivalry between the University of Michigan Wolverines and the Buckeyes. Full of interesting trivia, hilarious history, and inside scoops, the book relates the fantastic stories of legendary Buckeyes coaches and star players, as well as the numerous villains who have represented the maize and blue over the years. Like two books in one, this completely biased account of the rivalry proclaims the irrefutable reasons to cheer the Ohio State Buckeyes and boo the Michigan Wolverines and shows that there really is no fine line between love and hate.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO BUILD REVENUE-GENERATING PARTNERSHIPS Corporations have profited from strong business development strategies for years. So it's no surprise that of the half-million new businesses created each year, the most successful ones are driven by business development. Now, savvy professionals on the business side of a startup have a reliable guide to perfecting the partnership strategies that will quickly add value to any company. Pitching & Closing gives you concrete action steps for mastering the specific skill set today's business-development professionals need to define their roles and meet revenue expectations. Written in practical terms by playmakers at Twitter and SocialRank, this A-to-Z guide walks you through forging relationships, pitching a company's product, building a network, sourcing deals, making rejection positive, and staying cool while closing large deals. Firsthand accounts from business development executives across many industries, from tech to television to finance, bring to life such topics as: How to consistently identify and land the best strategic alliances for your business Why people say "yes" and why they say "no" Etiquette for making introductions and reaching out to people in ways that elicit responses Monitoring core metrics to know where to invest your time In addition to implementable advice and techniques from the top minds in the industry, this complete resource features an entire section of best practices for every step of the partnering process. Make your moves with the confidence of having a team of experts at your back. The road from startup to IPO starts with Pitching & Closing. PRAISE FOR PITCHING & CLOSING "This book is a must-read for anyone in the business of transforming professional relationships into powerful strategic partnerships." -- Adam Bain, President of Global Revenue at Twitter "Pitching & Closing does a phenomenal job of giving you a seat in the room during some of the biggest business development deals of late. Anyone who reads this book will come away with a deep understanding of business development in the world of startups." -- Dylan Smith, CFO of Box "Pitching & Closing is the definitive guide to partnerships for the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders." -- Adam Braun, Founder and CEO of Pencils of Promise "An honest and insightful look at the delicate and complex handling of business development [that] guides readers on how to turn good ideas into great partnerships." -- Kyle Kelly, Business Development & Analysis at Zappos.com "Alex Taub and Ellen DaSilva have written the bible for business development in startup land--a well-researched, easily accessible accounting of best practices and tips of the trade from the people who are leaders in opening and closing deals that define some of the most exciting new companies on the landscape." -- Laurie Racine, Board Member, Creative Commons "I never thought I'd read a book that not only explains how nuanced business development can be, but also actually gives you what you need to take teams big and small to grow their business through partnerships. Impressive and fun to read." -- Paul Murphy, CEO of Dots and Partner at Betaworks

Their lives every day -- both on and off the field. Book jacket.

Uncover the true story behind the Netflix documentary Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul. “The book the NBA doesn’t want you to read.” —Deadspin.com Tim Donaghy loved basketball. In many ways, his zest for the game came from his father, who officiated high school and college games for over 30 years. After graduating from Villanova, Donaghy was unsatisfied with his career until he followed his heart and became a basketball referee, first in the CBA and then the NBA, where he officiated for 13 seasons: 772 regular-season games and 20 playoff games. He loved his job, his family, his life. He felt like he had everything. And then, suddenly, he had nothing. He succumbed to a gambling addiction and to intimidation from well-connected criminals—and began using inside information to win bets for them. Following an FBI investigation, Donaghy pled guilty to two federal charges, and on August 15, 2007, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison. He was released on November 4, 2009, after serving his sentence. This is his story, which provides a stunningly candid admission of his mistakes, as well as his insider’s account of the world of professional basketball. With a foreword by Phil Scala, the FBI special agent who worked the Gambino case, Personal Foul reveals how the fast life of professional sports can tempt and trap the unwary and unwise. Donaghy has written an unforgettable page-turner, one of the most controversial sports books ever published. It will confirm your suspicions about the influence of the front offices of major league sports, while examining the corrosive power of money and fame. From the Introduction: I’m guilty. For 13 years I was a referee in the National Basketball Association, living a glamorous life on and off the court, rubbing elbows with superstar players and celebrity A-listers. I suppose many would say that I had it all—a great job, money, a wonderful family—but it was all an illusion. You see, during my last four years in the NBA, I led a secret life that would ultimately cost me everything: my integrity, my reputation, my career, my livelihood, my marriage, my family, and my freedom.

Nobel Prize winner Peter Handke's first full-length drama, hailed in Europe as "the play of the decade" and compared in importance to Waiting for Godot Kaspar is the story of an autistic adolescent who finds himself at a complete existential loss on the stage, with but a single sentence to call his own. Drilled by prompters who use terrifyingly funny logical and alogical language-sequences, Kaspar learns to speak "normally" and eventually becomes creative--"doing his own thing" with words; for this he is destroyed. In Offending the Audience and Self-Accusation, one-character "speak-ins," Handke further explores the relationship between public performance and personal identity, forcing us to reconsider our sense of who we are and what we know.