Product Description

Jonny Wilkinson's impact on global sport has been extraordinary. Yet Jonny has faced a battle all his life to achieve success and, crucially, happiness. A crippling fear of failure, the targets he set himself and a string of injuries have caused Jonny to question his attitude to life. In this startling new book, writing with Steve Black, Jonny opens up for the very first time, revealing his darkest moments and explaining in a practical way the steps and techniques he has taken to ensure success in all aspects of his life. He still wants to be the best, but he now enjoys the journey.



With never-before-told stories from his life and rugby career, this book will act as a powerful inspiration for anyone wanting to bring to the field of play - be it business, personal or sport - the very best they have to offer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26008 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Jonny Wilkinson has won 70 caps for his country, winning the Rugby World Cup with England with a drop goal in 2003, and is the leading points-scorer in Test rugby. He has also won five British Lions caps. He was awarded the MBE in January 2003, and the OBE a year later.

Customer Reviews

Coming down the mountain
Boy, would I hate to be Jonny Wilkinson. I spent half of Tackling Life wincing at the horrible injuries Wilkinson's suffered and the other half cringing at the anguish he puts himself through. Never be a perfectionist - that seems to be the take home message. It hurts.

I read the book mainly to see what Wilkinson says about Buddhism. As far as I can tell, his interest is genuine but trivialised and sensationalised by the media.

Wilkinson doesn't actually discuss Buddhism that much - the noun occurs only 2 times - but apparently that was deliberate. But I did wonder whether you can be a Buddhist and have such an unparalleled, single-minded devotion to winning?

That said, I found Tackling Life an intense, enjoyable read. The flat prose style might have begun to pall after a while, but the copy editor has done a fine job of breaking the copy up and scattering pullquotes around.

The inspirational advice from Steve Black 'Blackie' is useful, if a little repetitive.

And as he does on the pitch, Wilkinson never ducks a tackle. He's honest to the point of obsession about the demons that drive him.

This is a man who felt [page 79] that being lucky was worse than losing because he felt it meant he didn't deserve to win!

Wilkinson has had a tough time of it since the famous Rugby World Cup win of 2003.

Not only with injuries. One of the biggest problems he faced was the disappointment of reaching the top of game and then having to come down the mountain. Where do you go when you've won the top accolades your profession has to offer? What do you do when you've won?

In many respects this book is an attempt to answer that question, which is perhaps why it has such a ring of the self help about it.

That's not a bad thing, by the way.

Johnny's advice
This purchase was for my grandson who is not the world's most avid reader. He devoured it in a few days and found it absorbing reading and well worthwhile. The experience galvanised him into a book a month all to do with sports science and training. His full time job is Golf asst Professional and he finds that this sort of book is an ideal adjunct to his work.

Well worth reading.
Bought this for my 23 yr old son for Christmas as he is a big Jonny fan. He absolutely loved it and could not put it down. Constantly refers to philosophy parts in his own part time job as a sports coach. Brilliant read.