Consistent winning in any sport requires relentless desire for rapid improvements in individuals and teams. Catholic theology, and especially Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body, powers this Handbook of Winning. With it, Catholic athletes discover inner practices of prayer, thirsting desire and self-sacrifice so powerful they create a clear competitive advantage. Focusing desire, relentlessly improving performance, investing 100% in faith, and refining purity of heart are just a few of the many keys that unlock that pure power within. These key practices lead any Catholic athlete through three simple stages of self-mastery toward perfectly spontaneous performance. At that stage, an athlete finds precisely the right response to every challenge an opponent brings. The Handbook of Winning challenges coaches and athletes to pursue inner perfection to outer victory. For those who accept the challenge, these year-round practices promise life-changing athletic experiences.
About the Author: Thomas DeAngelis played football at a Lebanon Catholic High School and at Bucknell University where he majored in religion and philosophy. Around that time, Tom experienced a deep connection between his athletic experiences and religious experiences that stayed with him. Blessed with a keen interest in philosophy, theology and world religions, Tom wanted to learn all he could about other people's religious experiences. He wanted to know how other people's religious and faith experiences compared to his own deepening experience of Catholic faith. Tom retired from college football after an injury his junior year. But his curiosity in these special athletic experiences continued growing. He took up karate after playing football because, like football, it was a sport where one could hit other people for sport without getting arrested. After college, he taught religion and coached football in Catholic high schools for five years. And continued to read, study and learn everything he could about the relationship between intense inner, spiritual experience and outstanding outward athletic performance. Based on his own athletic experience, Tom realized that the more pure the inner experience - pure in the traditional Catholic sense of the word, as "in a state of grace" - the higher the level of outward athletic performance. He also realized that such experiences only seem to happen when he's in a state of grace as defined by his Catholic faith. And they seem to have a quality in the experience remarkably similar to intensely focused prayer. Tom studied several styles of martial arts over the years, and continues studying, performing and teaching today as a 5th degree black belt in Moo Duk Kwan karate. His fascination with the experience of God (Love) in competitive and combative sports continues. The point, as Tom says, where praying and playing intersect. He's even more fascinated today with figuring out how best to share those experiences with others who are also in love with Love and find that experience in competitive and combative sports.