Recreation Books

Emmett Hines' book has been very helpful to me. I am a former college runner who had to switch to swimming after my legs went bad, so I was a complete novice, but one with mild competitive ambitions. After doing his drills, I am able to swim faster with less effort, allowing me to go further and faster. I can really notice the difference between the way I used to plow through the water versus the way I glide through it now.

When you first try these drills, they may seem awkward and frustrating, because they are different from your normal (and probably bad) swimming motions. Don't give up - after several workouts (maybe even several weeks' worth) I promise that eventually the light bulb will go on over your head and you'll say "Oh, now I get it!" This has happened to me numerous times doing Hines' drills. Your body will, seemingly magically, figure out what he's trying to show you.

We have a 1-mile swimming race every August here in Austin called the Deep Eddy Mile. My first year (2006) I completed the swim in 36 minutes, 13 seconds. After a year of using Hines' lessons, I knocked my time down to 34:20, and I can already tell that I'll probably knock off another minute or two this year.

Obviously, the best way to improve your swim technique is with a personal coach, but if (like me) you do not have the time or money for personal lessons, this book is an excellent alternative.

After years of non-swimming, I took a stroke technique class at my local pool last fall. When I began the class, I could not complete one length of a 25 yard pool. I never was a good swimmer even after lessons as a child. The class got me started, but I had a long way to go. When the class ended, I went looking for a book to help me continue. I found this book on Amazon, and the many positive reviews convinced me to give it a try. Three months and two practices a week later, I had a lesson with the teacher of my class from the fall. When I finished two lengths of the pool to show him my stroke, his response was, "Did you get a new body? Are you the same person who swam in my class last fall? I am amazed!" Except for a couple of minor suggestions, he felt my stroke was perfect. I knew I had made progress, but this confirmed it for me. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The drills really do make a huge difference. The workouts are fun and varied. I never get bored. If you are like me and just getting back into swimming after many years away from it or someone who wants to improve their stroke, don't spend your money or time on any other book. This is all you need. You will be amazed by the results you get and you will have fun in the process.

Very instructional book. More suitable for competitive swimmer, I think. Contains sets of practise drills for beginner (green zone) to competition (red zone). I only followed up until green zone and have not progressed further. You need to copy down the drill sets on a slate and record your heart beat, time and stroke count. I did that until some misunderstood kid took my instruction slate on the pool edge, thinking somebody left it. I got it back with scribbles all over and I just gave up after that. A bit troublesome, definitely not for leisure swimming.

I learned quite a bit, but I think it's too focused on workouts rather than teaching. Not bad though, just not the greatest.

These drills will make you a faster, more efficient swimmer. The tips will especially help you improve your freestyle.

If you are a fan of figure skating, this book is a definate must read. It opened my eyes to things about skating and competition that I did not know as a former figure skater. It is a wonderful tribute to the skaters of the 1961 U.S. Team.

In 1961, the greatest tragedy in U.S. figure skating history - and possibly world figure skating history - took place when a Sabena-Belgian Airlines Boeing 707 developed problems trying to land at Brussels airport. The plane nosedived into a farmer's field, killing everyone aboard. Among those on board were 18 members of the 1961 U.S. Figure Skating team, who were heading to the World Championships in Prague. This is the story of those skaters.
This book focuses largely on Laurence & Maribel Vinson Owen, as well as Stephanie Westerfield, who were the most well-known members, but also mentions skaters such as Laurie Jean Hickox and Doug Ramsay. It talks in-depth about the training & competitions they went through to become U.S. Figure Skating team members, as well as the terrible accident itself & how it affected U.S. Figure Skating at large - especially the rush to produce new skaters to replace those so tragically lost.
Journalist (and adult competitive figure skater) Nikki Nichols has done an excellent job in telling the very real stories of these people who were the Americans' best hopes for 1964, and never got to perform. Most of today's figure skaters have never heard the sad story of the 1961 US team, and this book is an excellent telling of their story. Highly recommended.

.......the Vinson-Owen legacy in its fifth generation.......?

This is the story of the 1961 American figure skating team whose plane crashed, outside Brussels, en route to the world championships in Prague, killing all aboard and changing the face of American figure skating forever. Previous reviewers criticize the author for relying so heavily on speculation, but for an event that happened nearly five decades ago and many of the people who could tell the story are deceased as well, I think she did an excellent job.

To me, the biggest scandal in the book was not the Laurence Owen/Stephanie Westerfeld rivalry, but rather the dissolution of Stephanie's family shortly before the crash. Her parents have both been dead for over 20 years and therefore cannot tell their stories, but to have a child who was a champion figure skater AND a budding concert pianist.....are there enough hours in the day?

Maribel Vinson-Owen didn't seem to be the most likable person (a vast understatement) but she blazed trails without realizing it. A Radcliffe graduate, the first woman sportswriter at the New York Times, AND she nearly destroyed her coaching career by allowing a black skater to practice at her rink? That took some guts. This skater, Mabel Ferguson, continues to promote skating to the black community.

This book is a quick read, and I ordered it at the library the day before seeing "We Are Marshall", about a plane crash that also killed 75 people. The Sabena crash officially had 73 casualties, but one of the passengers was pregnant and a farmer was killed on the ground by falling debris. It doesn't look like things have changed much regarding the treatment of crash survivors' families, but that's another book altogether.

Most of the 1961 performances can be viewed on You Tube.

I have known about the accident that clamed the us skating team lives and have written about it in class writing projects. I have to this the best and only book on this sad footnote in skating history that I feel has been been buried by the figure skating community for years I only wish this book came out earler. I highly recommend this book as a start in any research in this sad day in us figure history I only wish more would come out on this subject

I truly enjoyed this book. One of my best childhood friends died in the 1961 plane crash, her name was Laurence Owen. This book brought back many memories of a wonderful young girl taken far to soon. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Figure Skating. It gives insight to many of the wonderful people who died on that February day.

If you like to curl up with volume of beautiful, rambling prose, then this is the book for you.

If you grow impatient with an author who takes 9 pages to discuss an idea that could comfortably fit into 2 - 3 paragraphs, then you should look for a different book. The writing style reminded me of Charles Dickens, who reportedly was paid by the word.

Yes, the book is beautifully written, but I simply lost patience with it. I also found it to be a bit preachy, as if the author believes herself to be the only one who knows the joy of simply being in a garden, observing all of its wonders, and must teach it to the rest of us morons. (I'm a bit sensitive to preachiness, however, and the average reader might disagree!)
It all depends on your personality.

I just finished reading this lovely book over a two day period while sitting in my garden. Joyce McGreevy's advice about living in the moment and appreciating even the smallest living thing should become words to live by for all of us hurtling through the beginning of this new century. She encourages her readers to establish and maintain contact with nature, even if it is just being aware of the new sprouts on our pepperomia. She offers receipes, practical advice and unique ideas about how to engage even a recalcitrant child or a grumpy crumudgeon in the wonders of the natural world.
This is a MUST read for all gardeners no matter what your experience!

This book is a jewel, a profound pleasure to read. From the first page, one enters a world of flowers and tendriled plants, Earth with its seasons and cycles, touching memories, wisdom, and wit. The book uses this material to present a rich philosophy for living life.

The author not only recounts delightful anecdotes, but also offers abstract ideas with precision clarity, utilizing graceful and wonderfully chosen vocabulary. Her metaphors and similes sometimes make you gasp, they are so fresh and original. They are also beautifully couched within the overall garden theme.

This book puts the reader in touch with the richness, depth, and beauty of life. It is true writing by a gifted writer.

Dear Sister,
We have a new best friend.

Joy! Today is Book Club day, and Joyce McGreevy, the author of "Gardening by Heart" is coming to talk to/with our group. We just finished her book and I loved it. It isn't a novel. It is not a self-help book. It isn't a gardening book. It isn't a poetry book. It is a poetic story about nurturing our hearts, our gardens. Hmm, is it a story? No, actually. There is no story-story, just a string of anecdotes and remembrances involving the author's mother and siblings and friends and jobs.

Her writing is the thing.

She writes like a poet, but it isn't poetry per se. Well, I'll go upstairs and get the book and excerpt it for you...hold on...

Without looking, I just opened the book to this page:

Strawberries at Dawn

"The first pale amber rays of sun have backlit the somber mountains. A coastal live oak rustles. The birds are stirring. In my garden, the poppies are rolled up tightly like saffron scrolls. I'm on my knees, coffee within easy reach, as I set a blue salvia into the ground the way a parent might ease a sleepy child back into bed."

Dawn is the best time of day to do almost anything. The phone holds its tongue and there are no appointments. One's mind is fertile with dreams whose meanings flower best in a hushed world."

[Isn't that wonderful?] more...

"In the garden, time itself seems to expand. Later in the day I may fret about getting to this appointment or achieving that task "on time", but early in the morning I seem to have all the time in the world. The killing frost of anxiety is held at bay, letting ideas and insights establish strong roots."

She starts each chapter with a quote from another author or poet.

"Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace."--May Sarton, Journals

She advocates keeping a nature journal...at the office.

"...it consisted of a burgeoning collection of index cards, each of which bore a hastily penciled sentence or two about something I had observed, whether on the way to work, from my window, or during a lunch break....The French say of good gardeners not that they have a green thumb but that they have un main vert, a green hand. With every entry I penciled in I was keeping my hand green and subsequently nurturing the heart, even in the midst of computers, stark white partitions, and fluorescent lighting."

Don't you just love her? I can't wait to meet our new best friend.

Love,
Your sister

I'm free, free, at last! Emancipated from a gardener's work ethic--weeding, deadheading, fertilizing etc. Joyce McGreevy goes literally to the heart of gardening and nourishes the soul with her grace and wit and exquisite writing. McGreevy's descriptions of her mother's gardens as a place for relating to people, for celebrating the spirit of the day or season, help the gardener to not only grow the roses, but wake up and smell them and share all that with others. Just BE in the garden. Of course, there won't be a garden without some routine work, but this inspirational little book shows us how to use our gardens or other people's gardens to renew our connection to the earth, to all creation, and to heal from modern day busy sickness. I hope to hear more from this talented writer.

Collins gets it. Baseball people have a certain way about them, and Collins obviously is one of them; he also knows how to write about them. This book--an in-depth and endearing look at the 2002 Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League--shines with the polish of good baseball writing about a great baseball subject. The players and team staff come to life, as does the ebb and flow of a summer on the cape. The poignancy of this moment in time, in these specific lives and in this specific baseball season, got me a little misty-eyed at the end. These are the kinds of dreams everyone should have, at least once in awhile, even when they have to come to an end.

This is such a big part of why I love baseball.

This is a terrific book for any fan of baseball. The book discusses three main characters in how they came to baseball how they played growing up and in college and then how the fare in the Cape League. I've passed the book on to several others who have loved it as well. A must for any baseball fan.

This book offers excellent insight into what collegiate players will do to make it to the big leagues. The glimpses of small town fans are also interesting. The reader is exposed to a part of baseball few know much about. Informative and fun to read.

Simply a fantastic book. Well-researched, intriguing, personal, etc. Shows why baseball is unique as compared to all other sports. There are so many nuances always to explore. The Central Illinois League, another amateur summer league, is a good example of a smaller version of the Cape Cod League as well. Either way, this book was an easy read on a long plane ride. No other sport could have produced a book's topic/story like this. Well done, Mr. Collins. Well done, baseball, as always.

If you like decent writing and/or, you are a baseball fan, just read it. I thought about the book long after I had finished reading it.

There is not much that is new here in the field of Mental Preparation and Approach to your chosen sport or occupation but its great beauty lies in the way it is presented. The message is clear, simple and easy to follow. One can relate to many of the scenarios painted and the steps outlined for preparing and implementing plans are simple, straightforward and very practical.

The book is technical and practical without being overly academic.
It has an easy reading style with numerous practical examples.

Steps easy to use and understand.
After reading you will feel why you have failed yourself and
how to make a change but you must put an effort into it or
nothing will change unless you do something.
small book and easy to bring around which was what i was looking for, reading in the car while waiting for somebody
doing their errants.
but i have not compared it with other books yet as
i am still reading other books of the same type.
So i should change this review after i read other books
to let readers know which book have better advice.
enjoy.

A great, concise read . I thought this book really helped my tennis game and I'd recommend it in a heartbeat.

I read the book the week before entering a pool tournament. This tournament I have played in for several years, and I never came close to cashing. After reading the book and trying what it suggested I finished 8th out of 98 players and cashing for over $300. What I'm proud of the most is not the 8th place finish or the cashing, it is the level I performed at during the tournament. It works it is just a matter of time to practice what the book shows you.

I bought this large print edition as a Christmas present for my father. He is 90 years old, and remembers these events vividly. He felt that the Jackie Robinson Bio from 2007 was supplemented with this study of Jackie Robinson's 1st year in the majors. It was a good, quick read, which he really enjoyed.

This is the first book I have read about Robinson. I had gleaned what I knew about him from the media, especially Ken Burns' "Baseball." The author combines a macrocosmic overview of 1947 American society and microcosmic vignettes to give readers a stunning portrait of a single year with far-reaching effects. Especially enlightening for me was learning details about Branch Rickey's personal motives in integrating major league baseball, Robinson's competitive nature, and his effect on Black Americans at that time. The epilogue illustrates how profoundly our views of events alter with the passage of time, and the poignancy of change. I look forward to watching Burns' footage about Robinson again soon, with a more informed grasp of the significance of the man and his first season.

I found Mr. Eig's book very well written and felt it was well researched, though not until I read the `Acknowledgments' section did I realize how much leg work he put into "Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season." He interviewed Rachel Robinson three times and that background is readily apparent throughout the book. She tells how Jack felt about certain situations, which sometimes were in complete contrast to published reports that historians rely on when writing these types of books. (Interesting also that Mr. Eig's research uncovered the fact that Mr. Robinson did not like to go by the name `Jackie' but preferred `Jack.' And my recollection is that every time I've heard Rachel Robinson talk about her husband, she always referred to him as `Jack.') Mr. Eig also interviewed some of the principals written about in the book like Ralph Branca, Carl Erskine, and Joe Garagiola, as well as the Robinson children and Branch Rickey III.

The book did a fine job of painting a picture of the United States circa 1947 and with that perspective, made the reality of Jack Robinson's first major league season much more believable. I'm in my 40s and what I learned about Jack Robinson's first season - from watching baseball games first on Saturdays on NBC and then later on cable, was much more passive than what was presented in this book. However, as much as I would have wanted to stay comfortable with my pastel-colored memories, I do believe this presentation in part because of my own life experience, but also because of the copious research Mr. Eig invested in the writing.

I would recommend this book for any baseball fan, as well as for people interested in the history of civil rights and the long, not-so-steady growth and improvement of equal rights for African Americans in the United States.

Eig's extensive research and thoughtful treatment of Jackie Robinson does not vary or question the general truth of his legend: Robinson played the game well under tremendous pressure with little or no support and demonstrated in the process the skill and courage that entitled blacks to equal opportunity. But Eig does add some new perspectives that make the legend far more interesting.

First is the general unpleasantness of Robinson. He's like Pete Rose in his burning desire to win at all costs and would rub some people the wrong way regardless of his color.

Second and perhaps most important is Eig's ability to introduce more subtlety into the story. Eig destroys the legend of Pee Wee Reese publicly encouraging Robinson on the field in the face of racial abuse. That did not happen, at least not in 1947. Robinson is utterly alone in 1947 and has to prove himself to his teammates. Branca is the only guy to make a point of shaking his hand when he first appears, which adds to Branca's own legend as a man of character, but even Branca essentially ignores him for much of the season. Some of this is racial, of course. But some of it is the culture of baseball: a rookie must prove himself.

Robinson's ability to peform in these circumstances, under the most tremendous pressure possible, adds to his legend and makes his 1947 season perhaps the most admirable of all seasons. Eig is also good at introducing subtlety into the legends surrounding Robinson's oppressors. There is some rumbling on the team, but that quickly dissipates. Most interesting is the role of star player Dixie Walker. Walker felt compelled by his southern roots, and by his desire not to have his business punished in the south, to make a point of objecting and asking for a trade. But thereafter, he drops the protest. The problem for Robinson was not simply the obvious bigotry, but his freeze-out by the rest of his team until he could prove himself under the most trying of circumstances. Walker may have given Robinson a few batting tips and may have dropped his trade demands, but neither he nor anyone else took Robinson under his wing. Even in baseball's demanding culture of ritualized abuse of rookies, a rookie will eventually be taken under someone's wing. Robinson did not have that benefit.

The protests of other teams has also been exaggerated. It appears that there were some murmuring on the Cardinals to try to boycott Dodger games, but that fizzled before it started. The Phillies were grossly racist in their bench jockeying, but backed off early in the season. The Yankees in the 1947 World Series had a few nasty bench jockeys.

What emerges from all this is the pain of the gross racism aggravated by the agonizing loneliness of Robinson as he has to endure everything and prove himself. Eig convincingly shows that by the end of 1947, Robinson succeeded in proving himself and was the MVP of this team. Only then was he accepted by Pee Wee Reese, the team's captain.

All of which demonstrates Branch Rickey's wisdom in choosing Robinson as the man to break the color barrier. Robinson had mental toughness and competitive fire. The rap on black athletes was that they were not mentally tough, and Robinson was exactly the right guy to disprove that myth. Choosing a more passive personality would not have made the point, and choosing a less disciplined soul who would have got into physical fights in 1947 would not have worked either. But it is interesting to learn how Robinson sometimes crossed the line (such as spiking Rizzuto in the 1947 Series) and how close Robinson came to losing it.

Robinson emerges as a complex and truly great man in this narrative. This is an excellent book that I highly recommend.

On April 15, 1947, a young Holocaust survivor who had arrived in New York just 14 weeks before, attended his first baseball game at Ebbets Field. That young man was my Dad. Just having arrived in the United States and unfamiliar with the country's social ferment, he was unaware at the time that he was present at an historic moment---Jackie Robinson's Major League debut.

In OPENING DAY, Jonathan Eig presents us not only with an account of April 15, 1947, but of the months both preceding and following it. Eig wisely and honestly paints us a portrait of Jackie Robinson not as the infinitely patient hero of the film THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY (in which he played himself), but as a mercurial and talented young man who restrained his natural impulses toward bellicosity in order to bring down the walls of the segregationist citadel of white America.

In a world which had not yet experienced Brown v. Board of Ed., Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., CORE, Little Rock, or the Voting Rights Act, Robinson crossed the white sky like a dark comet. Promoted to the Majors by Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman, Robinson not only broke the color barrier, but excelled at his craft, leading the National League in hitting that year.

Eig examines (but does not utterly explode) some of the urban legends surrounding Robinson, in particular his supposed Christlike passivity in the face of discrimination. Robinson was a warrior by nature, and if he couldn't fight back directly due to his circumstances, he fought back indirectly by being an aggressive and accomplished player on the field.

An intelligent, articulate, gifted and deservedly angry young black man, Robinson had faced down a Court Martial while in the Army for arguing with a segregationist officer who called him "boy." To turn the other cheek was not in his character, and he did not suffer fools gladly, nor did he suffer in silence. Nonetheless, he kept his promise to Branch Rickey not to respond to the inevitable racial provocation that greeted his appearance on the field.

For the first several months of that baseball season, Robinson was the only black player, not only on the Brooklyn Dodgers squad, but in Major League Baseball. As such, he was a magnet for abuse both from fans and many fellow players. Shouts of "N****r!," "Shoeshine!," "Sambo!," "Rastus!," "Watermelon!" and other such bon mots flowed freely; beanballs were a common occurrence. Hate mail was received by the bucketload. Petitions were circulated (even within the Dodger organization) to exclude Robinson from baseball. A general strike was threatened.

Fortunately, Major League Baseball had more farseeing men than bigots at the helm. Diamond-in-the-rough Dodger Manager Leo Durocher uttered his immortal words about a zebra one day in the clubhouse, and stopped the griping. His successor, Burt Shotton, a quieter man, treated Robinson unexceptionally.

Dodger Captain Pee Wee Reese, a Kentuckian born to segregation, and the most influential man on the team, refused to sign any petitions, and the revolt in the ranks collapsed as a result. Eig cannot find any 1947 documentation of Pee Wee's physical embrace of Robinson on the field in the face of a catcalling audience, an incident now immortalized in bronze at the Brooklyn Cyclones' Keyspan Park in Brooklyn, but more important than the arm over the shoulder was the popular Reese's treatment of Robinson as just "any other player," which encouraged his acceptance by teammates, fans, and other players.

Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick announced that any team refusing to play with Robinson would be suspended en masse. Robinson did use his position as a bully pulpit by speaking honestly but not with hostility about his rightful place in the game. And Brooklyn---an inherently tolerant blue-collar hodgepodge palimpsest of races, nationalities, ethnicities, and languages---embraced Robinson unreservedly just as soon he demonstrated he could play the game. Fans of all colors in other cities supported Robinson, and his legitimate fan mail was enormous.

Given the later volatility of opposition to the Civil Rights Movement, Robinson's acceptance as an everyday teammate seems remarkably free of incident. In fact, the relative calm of Robinson's admission to the ranks, and the quick signing of black players by several other teams as well as the Brooklyn Dodgers, probably did much to energize the nascent Civil Rights movement to take on Jim Crow everywhere. By so being, Jackie Robinson was the belleweather of a new age, an age whose Opening Day was April 15, 1947.

I really like this book. It's hundreds of color pics. break down each move 1/2 step by 1/2 step and from multiple angles. You don't even need to know how to read. Just follow the pics & arrows highlighting the important grips and positioning. I use volume 2 ("the guard") a little more, but both are really great.

This is a great book. Sequence of pictures are taken from two different angles to capture all the details. Tim Cartmell does a great job describing each step of the technique in simple words.
It covers most of the situations encounter when passing the guard. Will definitely boost you BJJ game.

I'm a blue belt, and this book can definitely improve your top game a lot. No other book cover the subject with so much depth. Sometimes the pictures aren't as crystal clear as Kid Peligro's ones, and you have to get used to the unusual layout. Aside from that the book is awesome and I think intermediate bjj practitioners will get the most out of it.

Too many books try to cover too much in their text. This often results in poor details, a small snapshot of someone's game, or unconnected techniques that don't integrate well. It is a fantastic idea to spend an entire volume on one aspect of the game.

I'd read Cartmell's good work in "Effortless Combat Throws" and liked it a lot. I'd never heard of Beneville, though, as per most of the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community.

However, the most important qualification is whther your information is accurate and effective. This book is exactly that.

The book opens up with imporatant details on posture and position. What it is, why you need to get there and - of course - how. This is golden information to the beginner and early intermediate, but more advanced practitioners will even find some useful info here.

Then, onto the guard passes. The passes shown are the same ones you're taught in every class. The details, though, are intricate and accurate. There are a number of options for each pass and photos aplenty, along with concise, accurate text descriptions.

The book covers more than passing and is THE text for the whole game from inside the guard. It covers posture and position, passes from the knees, passes from standing, submission attacks from inside the guard, defenses and counters to attacks and even a great section on a ttacking the turtle position.

More still, the book ends with some great drills that will help you develop the skills described in the book.

This book pioneered the contrasting coloured uniforms on the models and the blue vs white is still a great idea. The photography is great and has views from multiple angles. As said earlier, the text is concise, clear and descriptive.

It's clear that the authors know their subject and have planned this book well. Kudos to them.

I'll start off by mentioning the only negative I can think of or noticed:

There are quite a few typos and grammatical errors in the technique descriptions/instructions. However, they only cause a minor distraction, and not enough to warrant giving this book anything less than 5 stars. The reason for this is because all you have to do is look at the accompanying picture and the problem is solved. For example, the instructions will say, "Grab with the right hand or swing to the right" and then you look at the picture and the guy is grabbing with his left hand and swinging to the left. I'm assuming those who buy this book already practice BJJ and are only purchasing the book for reference, so it should be easy to "understand" what the typos meant to say. This, however, leads to the best part of the book.

Everything else about the book is great. The only negative I mentioned above may actually go unnoticed by some. The reason for this is that the pictures are awesome. One may be able to learn a technique just by looking at the pictures. They're that good. The flow and clarity of the pictures makes the detailed instructions seem as an optional supplement.

Another thing that this book does well is it's order. The book starts from the ground up, literally: breaking the guard on your knees, passing the guard on your knees, standing up, breaking the guard standing up, etc, etc... More importantly, whenever the opportunity is given, the authors split the techniques into alternative "finishes" depending on whether or not the opponent reacts.

If you're looking for a well written book with plenty of details for BJJ as a reference, I cannot recommend this more. It's really great to look through and see a technique and think to yourself (or scream out loud), "That's what I should have done in that last fight/roll/etc!"

I will be buying volume 2 for sure.

This book is great and chock full of beautiful, rich, and colorful photos; Secretariat almost looks real in some of them. It has just as much accurate information as Bill Nack's "The Making of a Champion," but doesn't go into the tedious detail of related bloodlines and the syndicate deal made for Secretariat. I found this book to be better than Nack's because of that, the pacing, and the gorgeous photos.

This book is a beautiful book, with great photos to supplement the text. It will be of interest to all.

I bought this book as a Secretariat and general thoroughbred racing fan. I discovered it in a book store in St. Petersburg, FL a couple of years ago, and just recently purchased it for my very own through Amazon. At that time, I remember seeing it on the shelf and with wide-eyes, removing it to sit on the floor cross-legged and look at the beautiful array of photographs. I couldn't believe that a coffee table book had been put together about my favorite champion.

And that's still how I feel. If one is looking for photos and photos and more photos of this red legend, this book is the one to own. I am just now getting around to the text, as I have read two Secretariat biographies already, but that is also well written and captures major and interesting details about this horse's life.

Thank you Raymond G. Woolfe Jr. for composing a book that is worthy of our 1973 hero.

On Oct. 4, 1989 the evening news shows carried the story that Secretariat had been euthanized. I cried my heart out. Called in sick to work the next day. My personal hero had left us. The current generation of Barbaro-worshippers can't understand what it was like to watch The Red run. You knew you were watching history unfold, as much as when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon. Secretariat lifted up an entire nation, kissed it and put it back down. We were sick of Vietnam, sick of Watergate, sick of being the trashcan the world kicks down the street. Secretariat, the most magnificent assemblage of bone, muscle, brain and heart walked out in front of us and said, "watch me." Simple and to the point. Bred in America. Homegrown and hardworking. And setting the gold standard for perfection. This book simply reminds everyone how he was and how he made us feel. Nearly 20 years later I still cry my heart out on October 4th. But I look at his photos and read the stories about him and I am grateful to have been a witness to something that defies description.

This is an absolutely beautiful book about the greatest racehorse of all-time. Exquisitely done, this is a perfect book for you to just happen to leave laying on the coffee table.

Like many of the reviewers before me, I've grown tired of the NFL and NCAA Division I football, and now prefer small college and high school football. This is a great way to be introduced to the game at that level, although you never really get to know John Gagliardi as well as you'd like (a fact that frustrates Murphy). Murphy will at times give away how a particular game ends early in the chapter dealing with it, but it's never a great distraction because the story is so well told.

The only shortcomings to me are the lack of photos or stats, plus I detect an occasional bit of smugness on the part of both Murphy and his wife in their dealings with the locals (News flash: Minnesota is NOT the Bay Area), but he IS a very funny and perceptive writer and this is a worthwhile read.

I really enjoyed this book that is about a football season, but also about so much more, including marriage, raising children, coaching and the personalities at this small school in Minnesota. While we often think of Lombardi and Bear Bryant school of hard-driving coaching, it turns out the softer style of coach Gags can also be successful. This book reminded a lot of First and Last Seasons: A Father, A Son, and Sunday Afternoon Football, another book about football but also a lot more.

I read this book after reading Mr. Murphy's "How Tough Could It B?" and loving it. Although I'm not much for football I thought I'd give this book a try because I enjoyed his writing. It was terrific - a great commentary on St. John's and its coach as well as another look at Mr. Murphy's refreshingly real family (well, perhaps they are not real but they sure are like my husband and children). I'm waiting for another book please!

Lack of pictures and statistics of Gagliardi's 50 years in coaching cause this book to come up just short of 5 stars. Also, I expected the author to provide a few more "game details". I actually found the epilogue, where St. Johns makes it to the Divison III championship game the following season, more exciting than the body of the book.

If you're as tired as I am of the NFL schlock, of having to take the time to remind the high school kids you coach every season that taunting and trash talking are not a part of the game, then you will absolutely love this book. Mr. Murphy is funny-- so funny, in fact, that several times I laughed so hard I couldn't even read the passage in question out loud to my wife and had to hand her the book. Mr. Murphy is also jaded, tired of spending his life on the road dealing with the overlarge head of professional and big college Div-1A athletes.

You won't find jerks like Randy Moss or Brian Bosworth in the pages of this book, unless they are mentions solely as a stark contrast to the genuinely respectful and worthy athletes of St. Johns. Reading this book reminded me of the potential of all athletics to reap great good from the hearts and minds of youth, and also reminded me that, as a coach, it's my responsibility to sow those seeds.

The book can be enjoyed on several levels-- as humor, as a description of a sporting season, and above all, as a triumph of what football is supposed to be-- fun for everyone involved, ESPECIALLY the players.

I hope you enjoy it.