The Quality of Effort: Integrity in Sport and Life for Student-Athletes, Parents and Coaches

Praise for the 2013 Edition:"As a former college athlete and longtime leader of high-performance military units, I recommend Reggie Marra's work with unbridled enthusiasm.... Following this comprehensive approach to training will not only produce better athletes, but also happier and healthier citizens as our youth grow and take their place in the world." - Fred Krawchuk, Retired U.S. Special Forces Colonel and RAND Consultant"The Quality of Effort has helped me reinterpret my career as a professional athlete - providing both relief and direction....Reggie Marra offers a map to tomorrow's competitive edge, a map that requires effort - not necessarily in doing more drills or pushups, but in taking responsibility for all aspects of your approach to life."- Ryan Leech, Professional Mountain Biker (Retired) and Professional Integral Coach™ http://ryanleech.com "The Quality of Effort inspires coaches and parents to divert their eyes from the scoreboard and focus on nurturing the heart, mind and body of today's young athlete. Reggie Marra offers a blueprint that encourages our children to become not only better athletes but better people. He delivers a powerful message filled with humanity and honest answers to questions that we sometimes think but may not want to ask...." - Anthony Perrone, VP, Challenger Division, Cortland American Little League"....Reggie Marra has, with a master's touch and rapier wit, illustrated that the essential value of effort is in the quality of the lesson we have learned - and not in the victory or defeat on the field of battle. The book is an incredibly personal gift from Reggie to the reader, written through and with his bountiful, open heart."- Tom Rubens, Founder, http://theaccountabilityfactor.com"Mr. Marra takes a truly integrated approach to the role of sport in life and along the way lays out what is necessary to get the most out of being an athlete - at any level. An added bonus here is that he is a brilliant and witty storyteller who clearly speaks from the heart."-Michael Sallustio, Parent, Nutritional Consultant and Personal Trainer, http://annapolis-nutrition-fitness.com/"....narrating [The Quality of Effort] through an integral lens adds a holistic, relevant complexity and robustness to how we think about sport, which is such a vital element of our cultural lifestyle, and in much need of an integral assessment of its impact on student-athletes, parents and coaches....a grand opportunity from which we can chart a significantly improved learning and developmental pathway for generations of student-athletes to come.""- Cherie Beck, Cultural Technologist, http://about.me/CherlynnGraceFrom the Publisher:The 2013 edition of The Quality of Effort and the companion Quality of Effort Workbook marry literature and sport, story and effort, the thrill of experience and the "dignities and disasters" of our interpretations. Reggie Marra speaks to us through the soul of a poet-athlete-teacher-caregiver and kid who got cut from the team he later went on to coach. He invites us into the worlds of Mary Catherine Bateson and Ken Wilber; Bob Knight and Boethius; Joan Benoit Samuelson and Don Beck; and Sacred Heart High School's 1979-1980 boys' junior varsity basketball team. If you've been waiting for a perspective on sport that embraces physiology, philosophy, and ongoing development, and yet at its core is all about your favorite topic - you, your wait is over. Marra takes us by the hand and challenges us to inquire into our own values, behaviors, and relationships within the complexity of the 21st-Century environments in which we live, learn, work and play. "Preaching" only what he practices, the author authentically engages each of us to become increasingly more aware of our stories - the interpretations we choose, and how they affect, and even effect, what we do next as parents, coaches, student-athletes and human beings.