GAINcast Episode 277: Books, travels, and Olympic preparations

On this week’s GAINcast Vern shares his top 6 books of 2023, key insights after recent travels to Europe and Australia, plus thoughts as we look ahead at preparing for the 2024 Olympics.

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The following links were referenced in the podcast or provide some additional reading material on the topic:

• The GAINcast is sponsored by GAIN and by HMMR Media. Join HMMR Media to get access to a vast library of online training resources, video, articles, podcasts, and more.
• Book recommendations mentioned in this episode:
  • The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
  • The Core. Better Life, Better Performance by Aki Hintsa and Oskari Saari
  • Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things by Adam Grant
  • Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results by Shane Parrish
  • 7 Rules of Power: Surprising–but True–Advice on How to Get Things Done and Advance Your Career by Jeffrey Pfeffer
  • Awaken Your Genius: Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, and Become Extraordinary by Ozan Varol
• Vern discussed his top books of 2022 and 2021 on GAINcast 259 and on GAINcast 231. You can also read his book lists from 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019.
• There’s more from Adam Gran recently: a good interview with David Epstein and recent opinion piece in the New York Times on teaching.
• Other individuals discussed on this podcast have perviously been guests, including Ellyse Perry on GAINcast 213, Nick Lumley on GAINcast 166 (more from Nick here), and John Pryor on GAINcast 135 and 136.
• Also discussed was the talent identification research of Arne Gullich.

Key quotes and topics

• 0:00 – Introduction.
• 4:00 – Books of the year: “All art is a work in progress. Our art is the athlete in the ring, in the pool, on the field.”
• 10:15 – Travels: lessons from IFAC: “In talent ID everybody’s looking for the star. Look for potential.”
• 16:30 – Travels: lessons from Australia, John Pryor, Nick Lumley, Eddie Jones, and Ellyse Perry.
• 27:00 – Looking towards Paris 2024: “So it demands the coach and the athlete doing a really in depth evaluation assessment of what got you to this point and what’s going to get you to the final or to the on the team or on the podium and double down on those things”
• 31:15 – Systems

Complete transcript

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