Sports performers logically set challenging, specific goals to stretch them towards success. The research to date argues in their favour (Kremer et al., 2019). But what if setting teeny tiny goals helps along the way too? We can all learn a wonderful lesson from one of the most famous examples of a systematic goal-setting procedure, taking off in Munich in 1972 and landing in Olympic gold in 1976 at Montreal. One man, Joh Naber, sat at home on his living room floor watching M

If you don’t try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody’s back yard. Jesse Owens, American Olympic gold medallist for track and field (1913–1980) When you think about the greatest rivalries in any sport, whether it is team or individual sport, the epic battles for dominance fascinate us all. It might be Liverpool and Manchester United in football, Europe and the United States in the Ryder Cup, or Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal in tennis. Whatever your choice of