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Keeping Your Head in the Game
Keeping Your Head in the Game
Oct 10, 2024 7:36 PM

Author:Gary Bloom

Keeping Your Head in the Game

Drawing on his work with elite athletes, the world's first sports psychotherapist on what to do when life throws you a curveball

'Cracking tales, a great read' Nigel Owens MBE, rugby union referee

'Absolutely fascinating . . . a genuine must-read for anyone interested in the human side of sport' Peter Drury, football commentator

Elite athletes play out their lives in the most public of arenas. Everything they do is analysed in real time and then picked apart in the pub and in the press afterwards. 'Why did they miss that penalty?', 'What made them fall at the first jump?', 'That press conference was a bit weird.' We can all speculate, but what's really going on?

In Keeping Your Head in the Game we peer into this highly confidential world. We follow the journeys of ten athletes in their therapy sessions with sports psychotherapist Gary Bloom, from a rugby player arrested for a drunken brawl, through a homesick cricketer on tour, to a snooker player struggling with his feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem.

Structured around the emotions we all experience on a daily basis - shame, anger, fear, jealousy and envy, love - chapter by chapter, the book reveals, explains and attempts to resolve the inner traumas that have an impact on the performance of these sports personalities. Seeing how they overcome their demons is a powerful way of tackling our own and, as Gary says, happier players play better - in sport and in life.

'For anyone interested in competitive sport, what people have to do to get to the top and what that can do to the human psyche' Catherine Jackson, journalist and former editor of Therapy Today

'It's amazing how clubs invest in repairing the bodies of their players whilst largely ignoring their minds. Elite athletes are just as fragile as the rest of us. Happily change is on the way and this must-read book will only accelerate that' Jon Champion, football commentator

Reviews

Love this book. It's about time someone wrote about the emotional life of athletes and Gary really does this justice. These are some cracking tales and it's a great read

—— Nigel Owens MBE, rugby union referee

The only psychotherapist to work within a professional football club . . . It is not just extremes of behaviour that trouble him. The more he peers inside sport - with up to 40 footballers, plus leading rugby players, cricketers and jockeys among his clients - he sees forbidding cultures . . . This is beyond patching up athletes with an encouraging word to get through a Saturday afternoon, or the odd team talk from a sports psychologist . . . He is selling the best of all worlds; a balanced athlete who is more self-aware and, therefore, more productive . . . "Happier players play better . . ." he concludes. He will find no argument here

—— Matt Dickinson , The Times

the first book of its kind, which peers into the confidential world of athletes' therapy sessions - and offers insights into boosting or treating mental health

—— Etan Smallman , inews.co.uk

This is a book for anyone interested in competitive sport, what people have to do to get to the top and what that can do to the human psyche

—— Catherine Jackson, journalist and former editor of Therapy Today

Absolutely fascinating . . . a genuine MUST for anyone interested in the human side of sport . . . very readable and accessible . . . It is comforting to realise that everyone - from global superstar to young aspirant - suffers from profound uncertainty of one sort or another . . . This book will promote greater kindness and understanding . . . Heartily recommended for any 'thinking' sports-lover

—— Peter Drury, football commentator

It's amazing how football clubs invest in repairing the bodies of their players whilst largely ignoring their minds. Elite athletes are just as fragile as the rest of us. Happily change is on the way and this must-read book will only accelerate that

—— Jon Champion, football commentator

Sainsbury's have worked in partnership with Fred over many years, to develop the 'Strategic Mindset' of our brightest talent. His content is always hugely popular. Don't miss an opportunity to turn your teams into budding entrepreneurs

—— Stuart Comer, Group Head of Learning & Development, Sainsbury’s

Fred's concise and disruptive ideas have the power to align teams, change minds and speed up innovation

—— Richard Davidson-Houston, Head of All 4, Channel 4

This is a glorious book, with an insight on every page. Above all it taught me that while our individual bodies and brains might reward comparison with our primate relatives, in understanding our social relations we would be much better off comparing the meerkat. And the naked mole-rat. And the bower bird. And the cleaner-fish.

—— Rory Sutherland, author of Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas that Don’t Make Sense

If you've ever wondered why people aren't as cooperative as they ought to be, you'll find the answer right here - mapped out in detail that is full of surprises at every page-turn.

—— Robin Dunbar, Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology, University of Oxford

A fascinating exploration of the ties that bind us from our smallest cell to our grandest society. Raihani reveals the deep evolutionary roots of cooperation, drawing on her own extensive scholarship in an entertaining and insightful new look at the risks and rewards of collaborating.

—— Gaia Vince, author of Transcendence and Adventures in the Anthropocene

A well informed, pithy, provocative overview of the evidence that cooperation is the key to success - for microbes and animals as well as for humans.

—— Tim Clutton-Brock, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Cambridge

Raihani weaves a captivating tale through the tree of life, to show how our own societies are shaped by the same evolutionary games as other animals. A beautiful, compelling and unstoppable read... This book will change the way you view your own behaviour.

—— Seirian Sumner, Professor of Behavioural Ecology, University College London

A fascinating deep dive into what makes us powerfully social creatures. Raihani takes us on a gripping journey from the Kalahari desert to modern city living. From economics to colonies of reef fish, cooperation is one of nature's marvels and Raihani is a compelling guide.

—— Vaughan Bell, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology

With colourful examples from ants to meerkats and cleaner fish to chimps, Raihani expertly explores the biology and dynamics of social interactions that underpin human cooperation and competition... Essential reading for everyone from ecologists to economists. Kept setting off idea fireworks in my brain!

—— Kevin Mitchell, author of Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are

The Social Instinct is filled with curious intellectual adventures at every turn [and] achieves the difficult task of being accessible to evolutionary novices and experts alike.... A must-read account for anyone with an interest in how cooperation has shaped the world around us.

—— Nicole Barbaro

From cells to cities, cooperation is one of the deepest trends in the living world - and one of real keys to our success as a species. Raihani does a great job of explaining where it came from and why it matters. An insightful, entertaining, and extremely informative book.

—— Steve Stewart-Williams, author of The Ape That Understood the Universe

Nichola Raihani['s]... rewarding analysis ranges from genetics to politics, and from the individual to the international, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

—— Andrew Robinson , Nature

The Social Instinct fascinatingly combines vivid descriptions of the rich varieties of cooperation that exist in the natural world with thoughtful insights into how cooperation between humans is in some ways surprisingly similar and in others very different. A great read.

—— Matthew Taylor

In her energetic analysis, psychologist Nichola Raihani recontextualizes cooperation within the framework of evolution and reveals the competition for survival that still bubbles below its surface... Raihani offers insight into how our hardwired drive to cooperate could help us meet the challenges rushing at us, from pandemics to climate change.

—— Scientific American

[A] bravely exposing deep dive into the emotional murk of her [Havey’s] restless mind….[it] reveals…the irresistible writerly impulse to pin experience to the page.

—— Anthony Cummins , i

[The Shapeless Unease] reads like a dream sequence… Even reading this made me feel dizzy… [Harvey is] a vigorous, eloquent writer… she conveys the way sleeplessness takes you into the death zone of life.

—— Ysenda Maxtone Graham , Tablet

Mesmerising…at times, bitingly funny… [The Shapeless Unease is] an engrossing portrait of the fragility of identity and coherency in the grip of insomnia. I hadn’t read Harvey before this, but her facility with language here captivated me and I’ll be seeking out her novels next.

—— Valerie O’Riordan , Bookmunch

Urgent and full of arresting images and insights.

—— Stephanie Cross , Lady

[The Shapeless Unease] is littered with sharp insights expressed in exquisitely lucid prose but is as amorphous as its title suggests.

—— Keiron Pim , Spectator

It’s a claustrophobic, enlightening, moving, existential treatise on sleep, insomnia and death. And it’s funny, too.

—— Sadie Jones , Guardian

I wish I had saved The Shapeless Unease to read in isolation but Samantha Harvey’s book about insomnia, time, death and so many unknowable things is a blessing to have in lonely times. It is a profound and stunning book but funny, too.

—— Fatima Bhutto , Evening Standard

A beautiful, jagged little book about insomnia and so many unknowable things: life and death, Buddhism, and how language alters our thinking. But I was most struck by its form and structure.

—— Fatima Bhutto , New Statesman

[Samantha Harvey's] cerebral, startlingly clear account of somehow pulling through [from insomnia] carries an electric charge and meditates on not only the mystery of sleep but also writing, swimming and dreams.

—— Net-a-Porter

[The Shapeless Unease] is beautifully crafted and its achievement makes itself more apparent on a second reading.

—— Richard Gwyn , Wales Art Review

A masterpiece, so good I can hardly breathe. I'm completely floored by it.

—— Helen Macdonald

This book seems appropriately messy-haired and wild-eyed... Anyone who has lain awake the night before a big test will recognize such manic flourishes. Harvey captures the 4 a.m. bloom of magical thinking; stories proliferate within stories... To read Harvey is to grow spoiled on gorgeous phrases.

—— Katy Waldman , New Yorker
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