Winning Habits: Techniques for Excellence in Sports ... - Lou Marinoff

599PHILOSOPHICAL PRACTICEJournal of the APPAVolume 5 Number 1 March 2010EditorLou MarinoffReviews EditorNancy MatchettManaging EditorKate MehuronTechnical ConsultantGreg GoodeLegal ConsultantThomas GriffithLetterOn the 20 th Anniversary of the VFPPeter HartelohArticlesThe Meaning of “Counsellor”Sam BrownPhilosophy of Thought and Its Relationship to CBTJames BinnieSocratic Wonder and Philosophical CounselingDavid BollertConsistency versus MediationLeopoldo La RubiaReviewsA Manual of Experimental PhilosophyNancy MatchettThe Philosophic ConsultantLeodis ScottThe Pleasures and Sorrows of WorkLauren TillinghastWinning HabitsLou Marinoffwww.appa.eduISSN 1742-8181Nemo Veritatem RegitNobody Governs Truth

Philosophical Practice, March 2010, 5.1: 600-2600Book ReviewB.P. Bam, Winning Habits: Techniques for Excellence in Sports, Pearson Education, Delhi, India,2008. ISBN 978-81-317-1028-9REVIEWED BY LOU MARINOFFTHE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORKIn recent decades, sports science, sports medicine, and sports psychology have taken manyquantum leaps forward. Stakes continue to rise for champions and contenders alike, both in termsof their investment of time and effort required for competitiveness at the highest levels, and interms of the escalating payoffs and perks awarded to celebrity athletes world-wide. Small wonder,then, that the industry of “coaching” has crossed athletic borders, and migrated into the lives ofCEOs and competitors of many other stripes. Everyone, it seems, is looking for an “edge.”Enter the unassuming Bhishmaraj Purushottam (“B.P.”) Bam, whose remarkable and very readablebook has given many an Indian athlete exactly the kind of “edge” required to win in the talentladenand ferociously competitive international sporting arena. The salient feature of Mr. Bam’sbook is that it utilizes nothing other than Indian philosophy as a basis for eliciting optimal athleticperformance. It is central to Vedic lore that one’s realization of the Godhead (atman = Brahman) isdependent on salutary habits of respiration, posture, ideation, mentation, verbalization, conduct,and so forth. In Winning Habits, Mr. Bam has forged a brilliant linkage between time-honoredpractices conducive to spiritual development and daily exercises conducive to championship playin competitive sports.While devotees of Indian philosophy will recognize the sources of Mr. Bam’s yogic expertise,and the rich traditions in which they are steeped, athletes among other competitors can greatlybenefit from the clear and comprehensive ways in which Mr. Bam connects these precepts andpractices to the attainment of optimal performance, and to the inculcation of virtues that lead tovictory.The book is organized in three sections: basic concepts and general applications; specific techniquesand exercises; applications to particular sports. Each and every chapter is flush with examplesof how athletes have utilized Mr. Bam’s teachings to win championships, and in a vastvariety of sports including tennis, badminton, table-tennis, squash, judo, wrestling, boxing, shooting,archery, billiards, snooker, golf, soccer, hockey, basketball, cricket and volleyball. The mainlessons of each chapter, called “action points,” are also summarized at each chapter’s end. Thisgreatly facilitates selection and implementation of exactly those points that a given athlete needs toaddress most urgently, in order to compete at his or her best.Mr. Bam has successfully coached Indian men and women alike, and at world-championshiplevels, enabling them to surmount self-imposed obstacles, overcome circumstantial adversities,jettison counter-productive vices, reinforce productive routines, and acquire exactly what the bookdelivers: winning habits.ISSN 17428181 online © 2010 APPA

Lou Marinoff601I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Bam in 2008, in Mumbai, and of conversing with him atlength. Thanks to him I also met some of the athletes he successfully coached, including Ms. SumaShirura, a rifle champion who managed a perfect score (400/400), and Mr. Kamelsh Mehta, a tabletennis champion, who managed to defeat one of his long-standing Chinese nemeses. Even in asocial setting, these athletes radiated positive energy, exuded confidence, and glowed with vitality.They among many champions have expressed deep gratitude to Mr. Bam for eliciting their innergreatness.The book’s disclaimer is also clear: It cannot be utilized to transform an unskilled player into askilled one, nor can it create aptitude where none exists. It can, however, be utilized to refine one’stalents (at any level) and to optimize one’s performance (at any sport).During the past two years, I have personally put Mr. Bam’s teachings to a stern empirical test, ina sport which he has never seen; namely table-hockey, a miniaturized version of ice hockey. As apartial Platonist, I am entirely comfortable with the notion that ice hockey, table hockey, field hockey,air hockey, ball hockey, ring hockey and lacrosse are all (better or worse) copies of the “Pure Form”of hockey. Table hockey is a particularly good copy, replicating many definitive features of icehockey—passing,shooting, checking, goaltending—albeit on a far smaller physical scale. Make nomistake: the velocity, dexterity and intensity of high-level table hockey are truly formidable. Thirtyyears ago, I won my third consecutive Canadian Open table hockey championship, and my third ofsix consecutive league championships in Montreal. I retired from competitive table-hockey in 1984,only to be lured back in 2006 as a kind of player-ambassador for the sport. Now 58 years of age, Iam competing against top-flight players in their athletic primes of life—20s, 30s, 40s. Needless tosay, I need all the “edge” I can get.Enter Mr. Bam’s book. Among many lessons I have taken to heart are aphorisms such as “Thebest player doesn’t win; the player who plays best wins.” I have striven to implement Mr. Bam’ssage advice on many matters, ranging from sustaining focus during play to emptying the mindduring recovery phases; from leveraging transition points to feeling at home in foreign venues;from sustaining self-belief to utilizing opponents’ excellence to elevate one’s game; from tuning into spontaneity while tuning out distractions and competitors’ gamesmanship. Thanks in no smallmeasure to Winning Habits, I am current New York City league champion (’07, ’08, ‘09), 2-timeLas Vegas Open Champion (’08, ’09), and (on a good day!) am still competitive among the topplayers in Quebec.In 2009, at the Third Festival of Thinkers in Abu Dhabi, I was privileged to hear a panel ofOlympic gold medalists and professional athletes disclosing their personal triumphs over adversityof many kinds, en route to attaining victory in their respective sports—football, baseball, basketball,swimming, mountaineering. Each and every one of these champions had re-invented key preceptsand practices elaborated in Mr. Bam’s book—and could have spared themselves considerablegrief in the process, had they only been aware of his teachings at critical junctures in their careers.Given the increasing emphasis on competitive sports in the US, on ever-more demanding regimesof practice and performance, and beginning at ever-younger ages, I am convinced that Mr.Bam’s book would be a boon to athletes in America and the West. On the whole, the West’s methodsof mental training for athletes lag far behind its expertise in physical domains. Moreover, giventhe additional challenges and unlimited opportunities foisted on rising young sports stars—celeb-

Winning Habits602rity, money, endorsements, privileges—it is not surprising that so many of them self-destruct. Havingovercome adversity, they succumb to success. The National Football League (NFL), for example,is sardonically called the “National Felons League,” because so many of its supremely talentedand well-rewarded players manage to commit a host of crimes away from the playing field.They are clearly bereft of a guiding philosophy in their lives—and there seems to be no consciousnessof this dearth among the power-brokers, culture-makers and commentators who idolize themone day and demonize them the next. Winning Habits might help them decisively, not only tosustain their high caliber of play, but also (and in the long run, more importantly) to practice virtuesconducive to constructive and contributive lifestyles off the field.Mr. Bam is to be commended for his insightful book. It can do a power of good to anyone whoreads it and applies its lessons, whether in their chosen sport or in the greater game of life.correspondence: lmarinoff@ccny.cuny.edu

603PHILOSOPHICAL PRACTICEJournal of the APPAVolume 5 Number 1 March 2010Aims and ScopeEditorLou MarinoffReviews EditorNancy MatchettManaging EditorKate MehuronTechnical ConsultantGreg GoodeLegal ConsultantThomas GriffithPhilosophical Practice is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the growingfield of applied philosophy. The journal covers substantive issues in the areasof client counseling, group facilitation, and organizational consulting. It providesa forum for discussing professional, ethical, legal, sociological, and political aspectsof philosophical practice, as well as juxtapositions of philosophical practicewith other professions. Articles may address theories or methodologies ofphilosophical practice; present or critique case-studies; assess developmental frameworksor research programs; and offer commentary on previous publications. Thejournal also has an active book review and correspondence section.APPA MissionThe American Philosophical Practitioners Association is a non-profit educationalcorporation that encourages philosophical awareness and advocates leading theexamined life. Philosophy can be practiced through client counseling, group facilitation,organizational consulting or educational programs. APPA membersapply philosophical systems, insights and methods to the management of humanproblems and the amelioration of human estates. The APPA is a 501(c)(3) taxexemptorganization.APPA MembershipThe American Philosophical Practitioners Association is a not-for-profit educationalcorporation. It admits Certified, Affiliate and Adjunct Members solely onthe basis of their respective qualifications. It admits Auxiliary Members solelyon the basis of their interest in and support of philosophical practice. The APPAdoes not discriminate with respect to members or clients on the basis of nationality,race, ethnicity, sex, gender, age, religious belief, political persuasion, or otherprofessionally or philosophically irrelevant criteria.Subscriptions, Advertisements, Submissions, Back Issueswww.appa.eduISSN 1742-8181For information on subscriptions, advertisements and submissions, please seethe front pages of this document. For information on back issues, APPA Membershipsand Programs, please visit www.appa.edu.Nemo Veritatem RegitNobody Governs Truth