Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The Washington Post sportswriter and New York Times bestselling author of the "fascinating" ( The Wall Street Journal ) The Real All Americans presents a love letter to the extraordinary coaches and athletes she has covered over the years and the actionable principles of excellence they embody.

Sportswriter Sally Jenkins has spent her entire adult life observing and writing about great coaches and athletes. With her engaging and expert prose, she has helped shape the way we view these talented sports icons. But somewhere along the line, she realized, they had begun to shape her.

Now, she presents the astonishing inner qualities in these same people that pushed them to overcome pressure, elevate their performances, and discover champion identities. Based on years of observing, interviewing, and analyzing elite coaches and playmakers, such as Bill Belichick, Peyton Manning, Michael Phelps, and more, Jenkins reveals the seven principles behind success:

-Conditioning
-Practice
-Discipline
-Candor
-Culture
-Resilience
-Intention

Discover how you can apply these same principles to your life and become your own champion. Colorful, inspirational, and accessible, The Right Call is the one stop shop for anyone wanting to learn how to effectively elevate themselves to greatness.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Prologue: Getting Serious about Greatness (ix)
• 1 The "Right" Call: Decisions under Pressure (1)
• 2 Conditioning: The Body (17)
• 3 Practice: The Mind (41)
• 4 Discipline: The Framework (69)
• 5 Candor: The Language (91)
• 6 Culture: The Environment (119)
• 7 Failure: The Teacher (147)
• 8 Intention: The Motive (167)
• Epilogue: The Heart of Greatness (197)
• Acknowledgements (203)
• Endnotes (207)
• Index (237)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

Wide-ranging psychological inspiration from a veteran Washington Post sportswriter and columnist. "Champions are essentially the product of their own work," writes Jenkins, author of The Real All Americans. This may seem self-evident, but on closer examination, it has depth: We can train and be coached, but striving in the right spirit comes from within. In conversation with Charles Barkley, for instance, Jenkins pulls out the observation, "I don't want mistakes to be part of my life." That's all well and good, though it would seem to contradict, at least somewhat, the author's assertion that failure is part of the process, without which nothing can be learned. At heart, this book is about applying the lessons of professional athletics to everyday life--e.g., the idea that whether we want to or not, we sometimes have to make difficult decisions, just as a quarterback caught in a make-or-break play has to decide what to do. How does that happen? As Jenkins, who seems at home in every sport, writes, we should consider NFL Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh's advice: "The less thinking people have to do under adverse circumstances, the better." The best professional athletes game out just about every possible permutation beforehand to know what to do without thinking about it moment by moment. Along the way, Jenkins draws useful lessons in leadership, self-discipline ("it's a form of self-rule"), the aspiration to win, and, perhaps most important, the way in which the love of a game is transformational--especially "when circumstances seem overwhelming," as they so often do. Though confined to running, John Jerome's long-forgotten book The Elements of Effort is superior in many respects, but Jenkins' book is more than serviceable. A pleasure for self-help aficionados and buffs with an interest in the mental aspects of a variety of sports. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Sally Jenkins was born on October 22, 1960. She is a sports columnist and feature writer for The Washington Post. She has also worked for Sports Illustrated and acted as a correspondent on CNBC as well as on NPR's All Things Considered. She is a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in English Literature. Jenkins is also known for some of her famous interviews such as Joe Paterno, Head football coach of Pennsylvania State University and Lance Armstrong. In 1986, Jenkins was part of the team nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for stories about the cocaine-related death of University of Maryland All-American Len Bias. It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award in 2000. It was also number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. This book was also awarded the Christopher Award for Adult Books in 2001. It also appeared in the Texas Tayshas Reading List from 2001 to 2002. In 2002 she won the Associated Press¿s Columnist of the Year Award. Her title Sum It Up: 1,098 Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective made The New York Times best seller list for 2013. Her titles include: No Finish Line, Funny Cide: How a Horse, a Trainer, a Jockey, and a Bunch of High School Buddies Took on the Sheiks and Blue Bloods¿and Won, The Real All Americans: The Team That Changed a Game, a People, a Nation and The State of Jones.

(Bowker Author Biography)