Athletics Books

"Why We Win" provides coaches with interviews on winning with some of the biggest names in coaching. The book goes way beyond the X's and O's and focuses on the leadership skills used by coaches to get the most out of their athletes and teams.

Overall the book is great because Billy Packer taps into the minds of many of the most successful coaches. The only minor drawback is that the interview questions Packer used were too rigid and didn't allow the coaches to go more in depth in their answers.

This book is a must for any coach who wants to develop winners both on and off the court/field.

I am going to college right now, trying to learn about what I am going to be doing for the rest of my life. I don't have time to learn a whole new subject, and that's what I like about this book. It tells me what I need to eat and I eat it. Simple.

James

Lately, there haven't been many instructional guides published about gymnastics, so when I saw this at the bookstore, I got really excited and bought myself a copy right away. And I've got to say that it's money well spent! This is a great book for gymnastics, especially beginning ones, and will definitely help spark a love and dedication to gymnastics.

The book starts off with a brief introduction and a history of gymnastics. Then, there's a chapter on starting gymnastics with helpful hints on what to look for in a gymnastics club, choosing the right club, what to wear, the type of equipment in a typical club, and much more. An advantage is that this book also offers a chapter on safety, with tips on spotting, landing, and falling, along with helping to prevent yourself from injury.

The instructional portion of this book covers a very nice chapter on conditioning, along with basic skills on tumbling, floor excercise, balance beam, vault, and uneven bars. Black and white instructional photographs are included for most skills, but I wish that they were a bit more detailed and that there was more of them.

Plus, the book also has sections on competing in gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, cheerleading, parent and tot programs, a glossary, gymnastics resources, and further reading. It would be a very helpful book for beginners who want to get far and have fun in gymnastics, along with intermediate and advanced gymnastics too.

This is a must for all coaches. This book describes the four basic different types of personalities with which a coach of any sport must deal, and how to handle each personality differently. The only problem with the book is that it is used in conjunction with a presentation, and some of the material that is used in the presentation is not in the book; but overall, the book is outstanding in helping a coach realize that there are different ways to deal with different personality types. Many good examples of excellent coaches and how they dealt with different personalities are used.

This book would probably be better titled "Qigong". It contains all 4 sets of Baduanjin, 3 sets of Yijinjing, the 5 animal frolics, Yang Taiji Short form (24 movements), Taiji Sword, Taiji Pushhands, and assorted other exercises.

It's a pity that this book is out of print.

My wife and myself have found this book very helpful. We are both teachers and we like the lesson plan approach to practice. We have read about 12 books on coaching soccer and this one was the best for the following reasons: Teaching a soccer concept and the drills to renforce the concept. Showing you how to teach the drills. Pictures, and the matter of way the book explains the how to perfoam a kick, save, etc. What I would the book to do different is talk about how to manage teaching the attack during a game.

I bought this book to help my oldest son with weight training when he was about 13 years old. I found it to be an excellent source of information on warmup, stretching and of course the resistance exercises for young people. I like the concise format. The focus of the book is for all young athletes to increase strength and condition themselves; it's not just a weightlifting book. Increasing strength and conditioning should help the youth be a better athlete, and hopefully help reduce injuries. Even so, it may be used as a weight training text for the one whose preferred sport is weight lifting. There are detailed descriptions and photographs of the stretches and exercises. Explanations are given for free weights and cable exercises where both apply. The photographs include both boys and girls performing exercises. Both sexes can benefit. Sample routines are provided, as well as explanations of how to plan a training program. Be sure to read the questions and answers section. It is very informative, also. The book cover indicates it is for parents and players, but it could even be useful for a coach.

This was really fun to read. It's been passed along about 4 times...great beach reading

A very bitter man indeed. I guess these books are what you do when you have been disgraced to no end. Your career written off, you're a joke to everyone, your ex is in a men's mag telling how you're basically a eunuch due to your juicing... What's left to do? Throw unsubstantiated accusations at everyone and try to take as many with you as possible. This guy was on ESPN the other day promoting the new book and accusing A-Rod while exonerating Clemens in the same breath. Need I say more? Buy it if you need something to level off that uneven table in the dining room...

If youre looking for book about someone complaining about being accused of taking steroids in a book where he admits to taking steroids and implements others with no proof, this is the book for you. Not once does he submit proof of any of his claims.. Multiple times he complains that he was accuse of steroids even though he says the results were obvious. Also he is so cocky. He repeatedly calls himself the best player ever. NOT EVEN CLOSE. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK OR HIS NEW ONE!!

Boy am I glad I checked this out of the library, instead of purchasing it! It shows the steroids not only super-inflated Canseco's body, but his ego as well. I wouldn't know, so I wonder if he was always this cocky and arrogant? Aren't there any humble jocks out there?

I read this book when it first came out and I am glad I did not review it then. Like many others I was skeptical about what Canseco was saying. I just couldn't believe that all the famous athletes that he named took steriods or HGH. The idea that he personal injected many of them seemed ludicrous. The media put it down as a bunch of lies to sell books. Canseco also had his ups and downs and did not have a great reputation in baseball. After the hearings things looked even worse. But what came out in the long run was that everything he said became highly plausible or confirmed by drug testing or further investigation. This book is now a landmark book in the history of major league baseball. The only thing I disagree with Canseco on in this book is the idea that taking steroids was good for the game of baseball even though it led to more home runs and excitement for the fans. At least in his new book based on the accumulated medical evidence he has changed his tune. No one can deny that this was one of the major books to blow the lid on the use of steriods in baseball.

I believe that Canseco wrote this book for the noteriety and the money and that his selective choice of names to name was deliberate to sensationalize the book and sell copies. He now freely admits to naming people to make the book marketable in his new book vindicated. Also I think the book was intended to provide a rationalization for his own use of steroid and for turning so many others onto it. But hte Mitchell report and other investigations has confirmed that those named were really users!

I really enjoyed "The Last Amateurs." I've been a sports fan since grade school and as I write this, I'm closer to 50 than I'd care to be, so it's been a while. The past several years, I've tended to seek books about sports at the more grass-roots level because the games are (usually) purer than where all the money can be found. This is such a book.

If you're a fan of quick and snappy books about major league sports, stay away from this one. It is not a fast read, and there's not a protagonist in it who played in the NBA (okay, maybe Adonal Foyle or David Robinson, but they're abstract figures). That's the point. The Patriot League is all about colleges who expect their athletes to attend class and graduate, and these are good SCHOOLS just below Ivy League status.

I've seen a number of reviewers downgrade "The Last Amateurs" because he spends so much time on so many people. Well, YEAH...who is this book about? As tired as I've become of NBA players with college backgrounds who somehow made it through up to five years of classes without being able to string a coherent sentence together with any sense of intellect, it's kind of nice to get to know D1 players who can actually tell you who the president and is and would likely be able to find Iraq on a map if you asked. When I think of college athletes, these guys are closer to what I'd like to see than the imposters we too often get who would never set foot on a college campus if they couldn't play sports.

If you're a skeptic like me who doesn't buy into the notion that the Final Four is the pinnacle of college basketball, you'll enjoy this one. If you're still held in the thrall of major college sports programs and could care less about schools outside the big conferences like the ACC or Big 10, you SHOULD read it because you've been missing something.

I moved to Indiana roughly 18 months ago, and thus, re-read this book that I had first read a few years back. It was better and more telling the second time, obviously. It's nice to see kids who play for love of the game. You can see that here in the Hoosier State at any Butler University or high school game. I enjoy those tilts/atmospheres far more that IU, Purdue or the NBA's Pacers.

Feinstein has particularly good insight herein, thanks to his fastidious documentation and "all access" passes to the seasons of these teams. I actually follow the Patriot League more now because of this book.
John Feinstein writes a new book each year, and some are better than others. This was perhaps his best.

Remember Feinstein's book when you watch Carolina and Duke and think that's what college hoops is about.

I bought this book since I went to Lehigh and thought it would be extra interesting because of my background and because I played soccer and ice hockey at college. What a let-down!
I found the game by game annayasis drawn out and boring. About the only thing I can recommend to you from the book is the "amaterism" ( if there is such a word) of college sports at Lehigh and the great majority of other colleges in the US that we do not read or hear about on a daily basis.

I see you can purchase a used copy on Amazon for $0.99 - so what the hell - for a buck it's worth it I guess.

I agree with other reviewers who said that Feinstein would've been better off following one team instead of all of them. This could also chop the length down to a more reasonable amount. There's just too much going on to remember everything. I didn't even finish the book because it just took too long to get to the end and it didn't seem like the end would ever come. Feinstein could've told this story in about 250 pages instead of almost twice that. Not terrible, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get it.

I generally enjoy Feinstein's writings and his commentary. 'The Last Amateurs' is Feinstein's best work. Following his standard procedure, Feinstein gets inside access to the teams of the Patriot League, an east coast league of mostly small private colleges. At the time the schools did not offer athletic scholarships. The players played because they wanted to keep playing competitive hoops and they were all required to be real students.

These games are played in small arenas far way from the glare of the big time spotlight. Nonetheless, these players and coaches passionately want to win. The big dream is to make the NCAA post-season tournament. The conference torunament championship that determines which team goes to the the Big Dance is one of the great sporting events on the modern scene.

With very few exceptions, none of these players have the slightest chance of making the NBA. For the coaches, things are a little different because coaching college hoops is their career and they are looking to move up.

Feinstein does a great job of taking the reader behind the scenes. In a way, these players and games are the ideal of amateur competition that has a deep emotional resonance for many fans - and therein lies a danger that too much exposure will ruin the very thing that makes the league attractive.

Highly recommended for college sports fans.

I LOVE this book!! Hiss Boo Sucks to all those who whine about it not including the woman's upper body. When I discovered this, after having already been totally impressed by the quality and thoroughness of the medical knowledge, anatomical detail, terminology and artwork in this book, I immediately ordered Delavier's STRENGTH TRAINING ANATOMY, the original volume, which does include both men and women, and which gives a full description of the arms, neck, shoulders and chest. The first volume of course also deals with the back, legs, buttocks and abs (as the Women's volume does), but the Women's Strength Training Anatomy covers these areas in much more detail.
Reason: because women have such different physical characteristics from men, particularly in their lower skeleton. This requires a somewhat different approach to weight training, as the muscles are attached at different angles in women than in men. I can only applaud M. Delavier for pointing this out, and for filling the gap by writing this EXTRA volume particularly for the use of women.
I was so impressed that I happily paid 3 times the price for each volume, here in Australia, as you pay in America. I bought both volumes - and then purchased more for my son and his wife.
I'm a radiographer by profession, so I see through people on a daily basis - unfortunately only the bones, however. The realistic anatomical illustrations in this volume are exactly what is required to depict the muscles used in each exercise, and to pinpoint the optimum exercises to build up whichever body part requires work. Thanks to the use of these books for just 6 weeks, I can now see and feel hard, shapely muscle developing all over my 52-year-old body. When I see an area that needs building up, I can flip right to the appropriate pages for the most effective exercises for that part. I work out my whole body every 3 or 4 days, and can feel a marked difference in muscle strength and shape by the time each training session comes due.
I have a barbell, selection of plates, adjustable dumbbells, a fit ball, and a very inexpensive weight bench with quad extension attachment. I pack this up and take it in the car with me on my mobile job assignments. I can do almost every exercise in these books with this simple equipment, and could not be happier with this book.
Women's Strength Training Anatomy is not the whole deal in itself - it is the companion book to Strength Training Anatomy; an EXTRA volume with much more detailed info written especially for women. I'm always delighted to buy 2 excellent books instead of just one!
As for the complaints that the illustrations are "sexual" and should include more clothes - well, to the pure, all things are pure. I don't see anything remotely sexy in the human body being drawn, pared down to layers of skin, fascia, muscle, tendon and bone. But it is very helpful for educational purposes.

I love this book, but, it is missing the arms (biceps, triceps, and shoulders) and chest! So, therefore, I give it only 4 stars for that reason...otherwise, excellent reference book.

As is 'Strength Training Anatomy' this is one if not the best book of its kind. It is brilliantly illustrated and packed with great tips and extensive easy to understand information.

I adore this book and have bought it for several friends! The explanation it provides for different exercises is excellent and easy to follow. My only complaint is that it doesn't include shoulder exercises! Guess women aren't supposed to have shoulders????

Like many other reviewers, I found this to be a beautifully illustrated exercise guide that provides step-by-step instructions for proper execution, variations to emphasize different muscle groups, and safety tips to avoid injury. I, too, feel that the book is incomplete, not just because there is nothing for the upper body, but also because the back section is inadequate. The upper back musculature, which is so important for maintaining good posture and stabilizing the shoulder blades, is not addressed at all. So, you won't find any kind of rowing or pulldown motions.

However, my biggest complaint with this book is in how it is being advertised. Amazon's editorial review and the book's own back cover promote this as a manual that focuses on women's unique anatomy and "exclusively caters to the mechanics and musculature of the female form." I took this to mean that the book would recommend certain exercises and variations based on structural features such as our wider pelvises, which tend to set us up for more patellofemoral problems than men. So I was immensely disappoionted to find that the exercises and variations are all uni-sex. Every movement applies equally to women and men. These are not exercises that are especially designed for or "better" for women; they are simply exercises that women tend to favor, such as the floor work and movements that target the legs, buttocks, hips, and abs.

For what it offers, this book is an excellent resource for women who want to know more about how to target certain muscles and work them effectively. Just be aware that the exercises are not female versions of what men do.