The Greatest: What Sport Teaches Us About Achieving Success

Matthew Syed reaches greater heights with his writing than he ever did as a sportsman. His ability to paint the pictures of genius, usually flawed, sets him apart as a sports writer. Flaws and triumphs are celebrated in equal measure. This book should be essential reading for all aspiring professional sportsmen and women.

After Syed's previous books "Bounce" (fantastic) and "Black Box Thinking" (very useful), this book is an excellently helpful book for people involved in sport. The book shows how to achieve excellence. By illustrating different personality and character traits necessary for achieving excellence, and detailing the specific methods used by the iconically great sportspeople, it is possible to create a blueprint of what National Governing Bodies should be doing to help their sporting young talent fulfil their potential. The government is focussing on getting couch-potatoes to exercise, rather than pursuing excellence. Maybe Matthew Syed can tackle that next?

This book by Mathew Syed is ok, but not the (or his) greatest. It is a collection of his published news articles. His first book bounce was absolutely brilliant (5+) stars - an excellent read for anyone interested in sport or performance more generally in life. Black Box Thinking was also a good book (4 stars) - provocative, if not the easiest to read as someone in healthcare (some of his thinking and arguments were flawed in my opinion). This book is very disjointed (not surprising given it is a collection). However, I do enjoy his writing style (hence 3 stars) and the collective nature does make it easy to pick up / put down whenever. I just never really got into it and I don't think it offers what the title suggests - an insight or overview of the greatest.

I like books that make you think, this one certainly does. This book gives you an incite into some of the most famous sporting men and women. Stories from their past and snap shots of what makes them tick and why we should care. A well thought out book linking sport to society, giving you a broad context on how these people have been shaped, what drove them and why they acted the way they did.

I like this style of book, with a collection of short articles. As these have been published before, I had already read some of them, though great to have them all in one place. Easy to pick up and read a short inspirational article.

Great read

Matthew Syed writes with clarity and impact. While this is a collection of his articles from the Times, I feel that they have been curated in a manner that helps the reader follow a cohesive narrative. As a coach in high performance sport, I found great practical insights through his accessible and relatable storylines.

Thoroughly enjoying the book - Matthew Syed is an iconoclast and logically and precisely takes apart conventional thinking. Would have given 5 stars, but only 4 to differentiate from his other two books - Bounce and Black Box Thinking, which are even better.

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