Josh Waitzkin

“One thing I have learned as a competitor is that there is a clear distinction between what it takes to be decent, what it takes to be good, what it takes to be great and what it takes to be among the best…”

These days Josh lives at the top of the jungle canopy in Costa Rica, foiling every day in the biggest and best waves he can find… and writing. Chess, the martial arts, coaching, and now the ocean: the arts change, but the thread running through them all is training, which has become a way of life.

The Art of Training is where he passes on what the practice has taught him.

Watercolour of a surfer riding inside the barrel of a wave at sunset, the cover of The Art of Training, Book One: Mind
The Art of Training, Book One: Mind, by Josh Waitzkin

Available for pre-order

The Art of Training

Book One: Mind is the first in Josh Waitzkin’s new series. Drawing on a lifetime of learning, from chess and martial arts to foiling and coaching elite performers, it explores the inner work behind excellence: how we learn, compete and create, and how to build a training life that lets us express who we truly are.

“Foiling is where all my previous arts merge thematically… I feel the Chess, Tai Chi, and BJJ principles I have spent a lifetime cultivating moving through me on the waves.”

Book One: Mind
My Evolution of Mindset

Journey

Chess, the martial arts, coaching, the ocean: Josh’s life has been a series of arts, each begun again as a beginner, each teaching him how to learn the next.

The sun setting over the ocean, the waves blurred into long strokes

From the archive

Conversations and Talks

Two decades of interviews, podcasts and talks with Josh, on learning, performance, chess, martial arts and the inner game.

Explore the archive

Resources

Books that have shaped Josh’s thinking, from Pirsig and the Tao Te Ching to leadership and the psychology of performance.

Browse resources