Alexander Technique Books

Whether you swim for exercise, relaxation or pleasure, this book is sure to help. While a good proportion of the text is devoted to explaining and justifying the principles behind the ideas it promotes (and I did tend to skip much of that, although I am sure it is interesting in itself), it does contain some really good advice.

I swim for an hour or more on an almost daily basis. Being a swimmer who at one time swam competitively I was finding it hard to do anything other than swim all out in the pool, but the suggestions here really helped me gain a new perspective, and derive much greater pleasure from my swimming.

Some sections are devoted to specific advice on individual strokes, highlighting both good and bad practices. Interestingly many of the suggestions contained in the book do not contradict typically taught methods, but rather they compliment or enhance them. However it does also warm against some practices which it considers physically harmful, especially some practices adopted by competitive swimmers. Overall its message is to encourage swimming techniques that are both relaxing and that make swimming a pleasure.

I found this a most useful book, every bit as beneficial for the experienced swimmer as much as the novice.

I've been a regualr swimmer for about 30 years - 4 to 5 times a week, an hour or so each time. About 2 years ago, a friend gave me a book about the Alexander Technique to read, saying it might be of interest to me and my swimming. I was quite interested and managed to attend a workshop where I got some hands-on experience with the work. One evening, a group of us went to the pool with one of the teachers and she showed us how to apply some of the ideas to swimming.

I couldn't believe how much of difference that little bit of information made! I realized that I had been using too much, and the wrong kind of effort, particularly with my back stroke. I'd always loved to swim, and the feel of the water, but now swimming became a whole new experience for me. Much more fluid and with less effort, and yet just as invigorating. Several friends have commented on the change.

The Art of Swimming is, as far as I know, the only book devoted specifically to swimming and the Alexander Technique. I found it very readable and I think it would make a good introduction to the ideas of the Technique for swimmers. I'd also recommend the book that got me started by Rickover, called "Fitness Without Stress - A Guide to the Alexander Technique". Also a book called "The Authorised Summaries of the Four Books of F.M. Alexander". END

If you love cherub art, you have to have this book! It is absolutely heavenly! (Pun intended!)

This book is filled with not only great art,but gives the reader a great deal of background references to these precious creatures. Wonderful for anyone interested in angels.

It is amazing what lengths people will go to to avoid paying their bills.
According to this funny, well written book, some people will even go as far as proclaiming their own death in order to try to avoid paying for services they have received. You would hope that people in certain professions would be "above" that sort of thing, but obviously they're not. If you have ever been owed money that you have had trouble collecting, this book is for you!

Collections! is a fast, funny and sometimes frustrating look at how to get what is owed you! Dr. Alexander and his partner/wife, Sandy are professionals dealing with professionals. Unfortunately in some instances, those who care for the education of your children are sometimes not inclined to pay their bills. Dr. Alexander's little tome gives you a taste of how to pursue your goal...collecting your due! I highly recommend this book for entrepreneurs who are at the last straw in collecting what is due them and for those of us who are interested in that pursuit.

The text, "Futuring Tools for Strategic Quality Planning in Education" was designed to help educators envision the future. I believe the tools offered provide a systematic approach to futuring using practical tools which can be applied to the strategic planning process. The authors have been educators for many years and the techniques offered can be used in many situations.

I plan to utilize these tools in preparation of the Strategic Plan for my office. The Office of Sponsored Programs (Grants Administration) is new office to support grant writing and funding activities at my university. Therefore, I plan to use the Delphi Technique, Trend Extrapolations, and Scenario Planning to solicit input from the various colleges thought the campus. It is necessary to determine the trends, interest, experience, goals and objectives which relate to grant funding needs to build.

I believe the strengths of the futuring process are in the systemic manner in which an organization can analyze trends to determine the potential impact to the organization. Once the trends are recognized and the futuring analysis completed, organizations are better able to position themselves to take advantage of future trends or to avoid others. If we do not consider the future, then we are at the mercy of events and may not have the ability to respond in a timely manner. When we reflect upon the future, we are better prepared to envision and control the outcome of the future.

I believe that the weaknesses are accepting trends or the predictions as factual. We can react to those who are authorities on particular subjects as if what they have predicted is a certainly. Sometimes acting upon the predictions of those who have placed themselves as authorities may in fact bring to bear the prediction, rather than the prediction being the impetus for our actions.

The book gives good and very detailed information. Every chapter is organized similary so it is very easy to read. It is definetely a superb source for both organizational and individual future planning.

As a longtime ceramic art instructor working with children of all ages, this is a fun book to refer to and I've added it to my list of books to tell the parents about with many students wanting to continue to work at home on projects. It's also a good book for adult beginning ceramic crafters. You just need an electric kiln or access to one. I really enjoyed the book!

I love this book and highly recommend it. It could help craft or school teachers, studio owners or adults who want to work in clay. There are great step by step photographs allowing you to make delightful projects in minutes. Handmade Clay Crafts is written for the person who likes to make crafts not the serious potter unless they want to have fun with clay. I've make most of the projects in the book and I am planning to sell them craft fairs. The author's second book is a soft cover version of the first book with almost the exact information in both so buy one or the other, not both.

Any in-depth collection strong in martial arts history needs The Martial Arts of Ancient Greece: a survey of early hand-to-hand combat and a comparison to how they are practiced today. Artifacts depict these scenes in a step-by-step series of motifs capturing position and method: step-by-step photos of modern practitioners accompany these early depictions allowing for a rare cross-comparison of methods and history.

In a single word, this book is outstanding. It is well worth its price, being both more interesting and more comprehensive than similar volumes, while also being cheaper. Although I know the author and have read his previous works, this book was an unexpected surprise as I only realized that it was him as I was standing in the store and leafing through the book's pages, suddenly recognizing the author in the various photos. Thus, I had no preconceived expectations or bias towards the book.

Although my entire review can be summed up in the first sentence, below are the detailed strengths and weaknesses that I have found in this publication:

Strengths:

1. Literary Style: The book is written in an easy to understand writing style that is accessible to both amateurs and professional martial artists regardless of their age (teens and above), which makes it a great introductory book for younger adults that should get a well-rounded understanding of the combat arts before committing themselves to any one style or skill type.

2. Illustrations: The photos and illustrations are clear and easy to follow. In addition, the photos of historical images are also very clear and the tying in of historical images (i.e. - ancient paintings/sculptures of Greek warriors engaged in martial techniques) with photos depicting the technique's modern equivalent are one of the books greatest strengths.

3. Historical Detail: Tying into the above comment, the historical facts, figures and examples that the book brings forth are excellent. They give a real understanding of the background of ancient Greek martial sports and martial arts and how this is linked to the martial arts of the present day.

4. Technical Relevance: The publication contains numerous martial techniques that are clearly depicted, easily reproducible by any reader with a base level of skill and are relevant for both those interested in martial sports and/or actual personal combat, of which the book makes a clear and explained distinction. This is yet another one of its strengths, the fact that it easily shows the reader that those techniques that are effective in martial sports (i.e. - MMA) are not necessarily applicable to actual combat and can be quite dangerous if applied to a life-and-death situation, thus helping to weaken the modern illusion that current Mixed Martial Art competitions are somehow the equivalent of actual combat.

5. Factual: Quite simply, the book uses various footnotes and academic backing to support its claims. This provides more credibility to the authors' statements and deductions.

6. Unique: Although not the only book in existence that pertains to the martial arts of Ancient Greece and its surrounding Mediterranean neighbours, the way this book synthesizes historical facts with modern techniques provides it with a unique flavour that is a welcome change to the many martial art books that are focused on only one specific aspect of their art.

Weaknesses:

1. Length: I found the book to be slightly too short and certain sections could have used further detail, but there are two factors that mitigate this as a weakness. The first is that for individuals that are only interested in certain areas of knowledge, be it martial techniques or martial history or religious-martial links, the condensed aspect of each section helps to ensure that the entire book does not get bogged down by any specific section. The second mitigating factor is that the authors already stated that a second book is in the works, so anyone craving more should keep their eyes out for that volume and will be able to get more details from there.

Covering historical facts, spiritual ideas and ethical theories that link to the martial arts, while also being filled with highly effective and applicable techniques, this is a book that sets a standard for other modern martial arts publications to follow. I highly recommend it for anyone from the amateur martial artist to the professional to those simply interested in the historical and non-technical aspects of personal combat.

If you have any questions before purchasing it that have not been answered above, please let me know and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Rados D. Miksa
Kingston, Ontario
Canada
miksard@hotmail.com

If your just starting out in racing, I highly recommend this book. The sections that are most interest for me were the chapters on driving lines and the chapter on how to read tire temperatures after coming off track. From my view-point since I am the set-up guy, reading tire temps is invaluable. Other than the driver input, this is the only other input you have at the track that tells you what the car is actually doing. Great info in my opinion with this book.

I love racing, watching and participating. I like to know about all the technical stuff that other fans might not care about, and this book does a good job explaning all of the thing a racecar driver must know to be successful. Being involved in local racing, and hoping to someday be a professional, I found this book informative and helpful. Aspiring young racecar drivers must read Stock Car Driving Techneques, by Don Alexander. However, the common race fan might not finde the book very interesting. Talk of traction circles and spotter communication might bore some readers. In short, good for racecar drivers, borring for fans.

If you are looking for an illustrative step-by-step atlas for the most common spinal approaches, this is absolutely one of the right choices.

Very high quality text and illustrations on minimally and standard invasive procedures of the spine. Good glossy pictures accompanying the text.

You're not the only one that wonders whether the government that is supposed to guarantee your private property rights seems more interested in making sure your vinyl siding runs the same way as your neighbor's. This is the way of things in America today, where municipal governments segregate business from housing, then wonder why everyone thinks he has to own a car.

Enter the Voluntary City, a cogent and realistic analysis of how we got here, and whether we have actually improved things in doing it. There used to be sufficient housing (try to find the word "homeless" before the Carter presidency), and police that actually had to catch the bad guys (read about one police force that had a catch rate of over 90%), and the reasonable expectation that if you wanted to alter your property you could do so without groveling to the city fathers. We gave these things up in the hope that what we would get back would be better. But is it? Really?

You aren't the only one that wonders. This excellent book provides some answers to the question, and the impetus to take those answers out into the political world. We're doing it where I am.

Back in the mid to late 90's I had the pleasure of reading a new version of a book written by David Friedman called "The Machinery of Freedom" which was originally published in the 1970's. Friedman's book introduced me to anarcho-capitalist ideas and now, years later, thanks to David T. Beito and the Independent Institute "The Voluntary City" is published that confirms many of the thoughts and ideas Friedman wrote about in his treatsie. This book is a collection of policy pieces done by different authors that detail specific, real-life examples of free market alternatives to things like court systems and litigation, education, police, housing and welfare. Most of whom were provided by insurance plans people paid for on their own via insurance companies or by private, charitable organizations people belonged to while governments, by and large, stayed out of the way. One aspect of the book that was not pointed out was private fire departments. Prior to being run by governments, many fire departments were also privately run in which their funding came from insurance plans they particpated in that provided fire protection for their customers. It wasn't until after the civil war that municipalities started acquiring and operating them. Even today, governments are beginning to privatize or not provide many essentials since they are too costly to run. For example, in Arizona, Rural Metro Corporation has contracts to provide fire and ambulatory service for cities (like mine) and even counties that do not or cannot afford to provide it. Despite this one subject left out, I felt this book was very well done and I heartily recommend it to people who have doubts about anarcho-capitalist ideas or people who are looking for new, radical ideas to replace the monopolies governments have on services they presently provide.

Mornum Time Press has once again brought out a new selection ofWalter Carrington's talks to teachers and trainees. As in the earlierbook, Thinking Aloud (1994), we are given a look at the AlexanderTechnique as a process of growth and development, with a past, a present, and, hopefully, a future. Mr. Carrington, of course, has participated in and witnessed a good deal of the first two time periods, and gives us all a fine example of the attitude and effort necessary to take us most fruitfully into the third. I have had only one personal encounter with Walter Carrington. It occurred nearly twenty-five years ago, when I was first having lessons in the Technique in Boston. The teacher with whom I was working arranged for Walter, who was visiting, to give a lecture/demonstration. There were probably less than twelve people present. Walter gave one of his judiciously rambling talks on the Technique at the same time as he gave individual turns to each of us. While he was working with me, I realized partway through that while continuing to talk to the group in general, he was also speaking to me about the very specific hands on work he and I were doing. The integration of skill and understanding involved impressed me deeply. I wondered how one could develop this level of practical wisdom and integrity. These continuing talks give us clues. It is clear in them that Mr. Carrington, after six decades as a teacher of F. M. Alexander's work, gets up every day ready to explore and reflect on whatever life presents to him that day. In his teaching, reading, speaking, and other "acts of living", he patiently and good-naturedly observes what goes on with himself and with those with whom he works, and considers what it means in light of his previous experience and knowledge. Any new connections he makes are then applied to his next experiments in teaching and living. The primary beneficiary of all this work is Walter himself, as it should be, since, as he points out, each person's primary responsibility is to his/her own self. But the rest of us, in reading and pondering Walter's musings, can find not only example but good, solid practical means to inform our own ongoing process of exploration of the inextricably fused principles and procedures of the Alexander Technique.