When talking about inspirational athletes, one of the names that gets mentioned most often is basketball legend Michael Jordan. I recently came across some good reviews of his latest book Driven from Within and was curious to learn more about the man and what made him tick.

Well, first of all it is a great looking book. There are pretty much pictures on every page, making it a cool coffee table book to have around when friends are visiting. It is also a quick read, as it is mostly short commentaries from himself and nine of the people closest to him, including his mother, Delores, his agent, David Falk, the designer of 14 of his 20 sneakers, Tinker Hatfield, his college coach, Dean Smith, and Howard White, his first friend at Nike.

It is as much a book about Jordan´s driving forces as it is about how he built the Jordan brand together with Nike. If you have zero interest in brand building half of the book will be lost on you as it is filled with pictures, commentaries and sketches on his famous athletic shoes, the Air Jordans.

That said, I got a lot out of it for the short time it took me to read the book. I got lots of great tidbits out of the book.

The book is all about committing to something and sticking to it.

“Players who practice hard when no one is paying attention generally play well when everyone is watching”, and, “There are no short cuts. I have always believed in leading with action, not words”.

At the same time he lets us in on a little secret about his work ethic.

”People talk about my work ethic as a player, but they don´t understand. What appeared to be hard work to others was simply playing for me. We were playing a game. Why not play as hard as you can? There´s no pressure in taking that approach. Play to win. Why else would you play?”

And about starting out: ”My expectations were very low. I wanted to be the best player at the park in Wilmington. I wanted to be better than my brothers, or the other guys in the neighborhood. These were my expectations: make the varsity team, impress the coach, get a four-year scholarship to a major college. With each progression I gained confidence.”

Talking about authenticity:

“Authenticity is about being true to who you are, even when everyone else wants you to be someone else.”

He also talks about how he motivated himself for every game, the importance of his strong family background, about goalsetting and his love of the game.

One thing I thought was really interesting was Michael talking about the pressure of taking a crucial shot.

He says that as long as he’s done all his preparation on a day to day basis, he knows that there’s nothing MORE he can do other than to trust the instincts, and that he’s EARNED the right to be in the position he’s in to potentially miss that important shot.

And translating this to everyday life:

”Whether it´s running a corporation, taking a test in second grade or taking a shot to win a game, at that moment you are the sum total of all the work you have put in, nothing more and nothing less. If you are confident you have done everything possible to prepare yourself, then there is nothing to fear.”

All in all a cool book about a very inspirational guy!

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Demonstrating the techniques is Leo Negão in the white gi. Me, Fredrik Wiberg, am assisting him in the blue gi.

Enjoy!

Bend your legs and step outside your opponent´s lead leg. Grab behind his knees and put the side of your head against his stomach.

Push with your head, pull with your arms and lift with your legs.

Land with your weight on your left shoulder and take cross body.

Recently came across some pretty disturbing material about the exploding obesity trend in the U.S. between 1985 and 2005. While I am not a big fan of the BMI, I believe the trend still would be the same if we used different ways of measuring obesity.

Now Sweden, where I live, isn´t anywhere close to as bad. But we are quickly catching up. I work as a business controller at a major Swedish hospital. Given this overwhelming trend we just won´t be able to finance public health care just through taxes in a couple of years if this trend can´t be stopped.

To get an understanding of just how bad the situation is, check out this quick Powerpoint slide show.

Well, the law of attraction isn´t the complete answer to getting what you want out of life. Now there is a great new movie coming out that talks about the law of action and the value of mentorship.

Pass It On features former heavyweight world champion boxers Evander Holyfield and Ken Norton, as well as some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and personal development gurus. People like Ruben Gonzalez, Brian Tracy, John Assaraf, Chris Weidner, Howard Putnam, Ona Brown, David Corbin, David Dean, Ed Foreman, Les Brown, Niurka, Michelle Humphrey, Steve “Stealth” Miller, John Abdo, Bill Walsh, Kimberly Mac, David Weisman, Dennis Prager, Jim Bunch, Artimus Limpert, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, Dr. Zonnya, Elaine Hendrix and Dennis Waitley. Now that is an all-star line-up!

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Movie is set to be released in April 2007…

Overall the swedish Brasa guys placed as the second best team in the adult division, and as the best team in the master & senior division. Congrats to all the guys that went.

Special shoutouts to new blackbelt Waldo Zapata who won the blackbelt master meio pesado division. Also to Mikael Kretz for taking the bronze in the blackbelt master medio division. Mikael and me have been training together for 21 years, passing through jujitsu to JKD/Kali/Muay Thai to BJJ.

Other standouts were brazilian Alan Nascimento, who is teaching at one of the Brasa schools in Sweden. Alan won the black belt medio division.

Results here

Also planning on adding a bunch of techniques regularly. Mostly by me, but maybe also by some of my teachers and friends.

Stay tuned!

/Fredrik