Soft skills have long been part of conversations around success, but what if the lessons that help elite athletes thrive under pressure could also help students, professionals and anyone navigating everyday challenges? That question lies at the heart of The Glyder Advantage, a new book by authors Gopinathan CP, Ritu Vinaya Vinayak and sports psychologist Dr Sandy Gordon, launched at Taj Krishna in Banjara Hills. In conversation with CE, authors discuss the inspiration, research and lessons behind The Glyder Advantage.
The book explores how the mental skills used in competitive sports can be adapted to everyday life, offering practical ways to deal with pressure, build resilience and improve performance. Speaking about how the idea first came to life, Gopinathan said the inspiration came from looking beyond conventional approaches to personal development. “We were trying to work at a different angle. One fine day, while discussing, we thought this is something sportsmen undergo every single day, so why couldn’t we approach it from that perspective? That was the spark, and we went to sports because they are the best at performing under pressure and can help enable students and corporate workers,” he shared.
The authors also believe the conversation around managing pressure is long overdue. Reflecting on why they chose to publish the book now, Gopinathan said, “We are actually late. But the timing is perfect now because you obviously know the kind of pressure children are going through with examinations and everything.” Ritu agreed, adding, “The pressure today is very different from when we were younger. Social media, expectations and constant comparison have created new challenges. This is really a book on self-management, and ideally children should learn these skills from a very young age.”
Since the two authors are husband and wife, business partners and former college classmates, writing together came naturally. But they wanted another voice to strengthen the project. Explaining why they brought in Dr Sandy Gordon, Gopinathan reflected, “We thought we should get somebody who is very well known in sports psychology.” Their collaboration began in 2024 with visits to Australia to study his research and workshops before they spent months shaping the material into a book.
When asked what they hope readers take away, Gopinathan highlighted, “The mental skills to deal with pressure are trainable, learnable and practicable, much like any other skill. Second, you’re not alone, because many people have gone through it and cracked it.” Ritu added that the mental skills are interconnected. She reflected, “If you work on one, several others begin to develop too.”
Looking back at the writing process, Gopinathan shared, “There were many challenges because when we started, we had such an ocean of information and experiences that we literally had to pull out our best analysis game to understand the whole thing. The biggest challenge was making meaning of all the information and distilling it into 300 to 400 pages, while also ensuring it sounded relevant, easy to understand and easy to read.” Ritu agreed, saying that simplifying complex ideas without losing their meaning was perhaps the hardest part.
The stories in The Glyder Advantage are not about extraordinary people living extraordinary lives. They are about everyday moments that test us all. Perhaps that is what makes the book relatable, reminding readers that even the smallest shift in mindset can change the way they move forward.
