Athletics Books

I was very impressed with this book as soon as I thumbed through it. The first section has diagrams and definitions of the shoulder. The anatomy and physiology are explained in grade school terms. (this is very helpful to people that are in so much pain that they can't think straight)

I have just had rotator cuff surgery and have been through physical therapy several times for rotator cuff problems. The exercises are identical to some of the exercises that the physical therapists teach us.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with rotator cuff problems, however, if your symptoms are not improving you will need to get an MRI to determine if you have tears or bone spurs.

Just the information needed to help you and not more! That's "Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff." Johnson writes clearly for the non-medical-professional, so you'll understand his message easily and get started right away (today).

About six months ago, I fell. A perfect four-point landing, I thought at the time, but it turned out to be more, much more. Within a month I began having trouble pulling a shirt on over my head. Then shoulder and arm pain settled in full time.

I decided to forego conventional medical treatment (for example, shots and surgery), and the pain continued. In fact, it not only continued, but grew so much worse that I considered revising my decision about the shots. However, finding this book and reading the glowing recommendations for it, I decided giving managing the problem on my own one last try.

Of course, getting the book did not solve the problem by itself. I had to use the information to stretch and exercise. So I did, and, sure enough, after a couple of weeks I saw both improved range of motion and less pain.

The stretches and exercises are not necessarily pleasant, but the results make it worth the effort.

If you have rotator cuff pain, get this book. Regardless of whether you decide on conventional solutions to the problem, you'll need the stretches and exercises to regain full range of motion. Stick with the program. It works!

Highly recommended.

Having suffered with three broken shoulders with arthritus in them, I highly recommend this book for people with shoulder problems. The book gives you an understanding of the shoulder area and some really good exercises to help you stretch and strengthen your shoulder muscles. The exercises are easy to do and don't require a lot of expensive equipment to perform them. As my chirpractor and I agree, if you don't use it, you loose it.

Another book to consider purchasing along with this one is "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook" by Clair and Amber Davies, which is a tremendous resource for people in pain. Stretchening and strengthening your muscles, without first dealing with the knots (trigger points) in them can cause more pain. After having tried many natural remedies for my shoulder pain, I've found this trigger point program coupled with the shoulder exercises works best for dealing with pain. Glucosamine while it helped, did not totally alleviate the pain. Magnet therapy helped for awhile, but eventually made the pain worse. Chiropractic treatments, which used trigger point therapy worked for a time, but then my knots would return and cause pain. I didn't know the importance of at least six times a day massaging your central trigger points until the knots are gone.

"The Trigger Point Therapy Wookbook" has excellent information on the muscles. It also has excellent charts which help you locate specific trigger point (knots in your muscles) which cause pain. It tells you how to message those painful areas to get rid of the knots in your muscles. While the information is thorough, it is written for the lay person in an understandable way.

I also highly recommend a Thera Cane, which is like having very long, totally mobile arms, which enable you to message hard to reach trigger points. These three excellent products work together for effectice pain relief. While these two books and Thera Cane may seem expensive, they are much cheaper than repeated Chiropractic visits.

After two weeks of following the exercises in this book, I made more progress than six weeks of PT. I like this book because not only does the author explain what to do, he also explains WHY.

I found Jim Johnson's book to contain an amazing amount of information in a relatively short read. There are several very good reviews that detail what he covers in this book so I'll stick to points not covered by the other reviews.

First, yes, it is a small book. This is actually a bonus because he covers the pertinant material thoroughly but keeps the book to a size easily read in one sitting. This is important when you are looking for answers and not a lengthy read. I found illustrations and the text were all useful - there is no filler or fluff in this book.

Second - the stretches and exercises are explained in detail so you can be comfortable with the knowledge you are doing it right. So, as you follow one of the 3 programs laid out, you can refer back to the detailed descriptions and illustration as needed. If you are a picture person and not a verbal person, this is priceless to have on hand.

Third - the information on how to distinguish the different types of injuries and how to approach rehabilitation gave me insight to what was going on with my own injury that no professional I had taken this problem to have ever bothered to explain. Again, illustrations were to the point and provided clarity that words can't always deliver.

Last, I have sought medical advice with my shoulder problems off and on for years yet this book gave me more information in a 30 minute read than I had gotten in any consultation. This book is priced around $30 retail and that is far less than a doctor or physio visit.

Note that I am *NOT* saying to skip seeking medical advice, I am saying that this book gives you a ready reference to supplement your knowledge and to keep on hand while treating your injury. If you are like me, the shoulder problems you have will quite possibly reoccur as time goes by and you either quit doing the exercises and revert to bad habits or if you find a new way to injure yourself. So, having this book handy for reference is far more economical the returning to the doctor over and over again.

The author, a junior college professoress, is a good writer, but her knowledge of basketball, and the absence of a proof reader, makes this otherwise neat book sometimes excruciating. The faux pas range from some gratuitious editorializing to innocent, perhaps, but nevertheless excruciating misobservations, e.g., e., she thinks that a basketball backboard, sometimes bankboard, or the area of the net, basket, or goal, is properly described as "goalposts." Her efforts to be adjectivially writerish are sometimes downright absurd, i.e., Doodle Floyd's shooting "lighting" up the scoreboard with "windmill" hookshots from all parts of the floor. Nonsense, he may have shot them from all around what used to be shaped as a key, but not all over the floor, for crying out loud ! Sheeeeeeeeeeeeesh -- betcha none of them were from behind the ten second line! In numerous little ways the authoress gnashes a minimally knowledable person of era basketball. e.g., at the time the ball could be taken out rather than a freeshot taken when a foul was committed, at least in, I think it was the last two minutes of a game or half. In a game in which Cuba was behind, the author seems surprised that the opponents took the ball out of bounds rather than shoot free throws when fouled. Of course they did ! The reason they were fouled was to obtain a turnover. If the team fouled missed a free throw there was a chance for a turnover. A team ahead likely would be interested in freezing the ball. Of course, for crying out loud, they would take the ball out of bounds rather than shoot a free shot. Several times the authoress comments on players shooting a "jump shot". No, not likely. They may not have shoved it up two handed from the waist or chest, and they may have shot running one hand shots, or one hand set shots, maybe be from the waist, and maybe with a pumping motion, but if she thinks they were shooting "jump" shots in the form of modern jump shots, that notion is almost as erroneous as that of players posting themselves under the "goalposts". Describing the Cuba gym, she mentions a "box" office adjoining the coach's office. A what ? Was this an office for boxes ? It would hardly have been a press box one wouldn't think. And then there was a player who drove for lay up and missed although he "tossed" it up. And, a shot is a shot, not a throw, unless someone throws it instead of shooting it. I wonder if there are some films somewhere which show these boys of the mid-century as they were. playing as they did ? Or if the authoress has any idea of how the game looked then ? Aside from not knowing what game must have appeared like, the authoress has produced a neat book in which one can grasp the tenor of life as experienced by its participants. Yet, I hungered for more of the very genre of insights she provided, such as pictures, verbally and actual pictures, of the participants away from the court. I would like to have seen more of this, the front of Harper's, a picture of the ball court there, the community as it was. And I searched the pictures that were vainly trying to grasp the Cuba gym. And I wonder if they dressed in a dressing room with showers, or in a class room ? Did they have JV preliminary games ? Or junior high games ? They gym was suggested by the authoress to be under regulation dimensions. Personally, the smallest gym I ever seen (not saw) was a junior high gym at Flint in Morgan County Alabama, the ceiling was in play and was just a few feet higher than the top of the wooden backboard, the end boundaries were painted half on the court and half on the wall at one end and on the stage at the other, and at the stage end the out of bounds line actually went up the steps on one side. Basketball courts vary in width and length, but the foul line is always ten feet from the goal (not the "goalpost"). Courts vary in length and width. I don't think there was any such animal as an unoffical court. Nevertheless, the authoress has provided a good story and an absorbing read about a happy collection, a synchronicity of capable youths and a coach who both taught and allowed the ablity of these boys of the mid-century to flow out of them. A remarkable story.

This is an excellent, easy to read, true heart warming story that is a real inspiration. It is a classic, a book that every parent, teacher, coach and team player will enjoy and learn from.

Basketball was a passion in Kentucky & every highschool, no matter its size, organized a team to play game after game, traveling miles in all sorts of vehicles & weather. In Cuba, Kentucky, an isolated rural town around which three rivers poured & flooded, a group of rambunctious 8th grade boys became inspired by Coach Jack Story's dream of winning the 1952 state basketball championship & the American Dream.

To a lesser degree yet with as much passion, the girls in the school fought & conspired to form a cheer leading troupe. In their long skirts & neck high Peter Pan blouses, they added their energy to the fever pitch.

Marianne Walker has told their stories with enthusiasm including insights from a time before over-the-counter medicines; when most everyone raised their own food; many were share-croppers & there were no funded school programs; school bussing & television. In a time when radio was king, not everyone had telephones & sports writers were the revered messengers of the marathon games for which just about every person would turn out. Fascinating read! Do check out my full review.

As a radio newsman for the past 35 years I have had many interesting interview guests... including the legendary Adolph Rupp. No interview has been more interesting than the one I conducted in the summer of '99 with Marianne Walker and Howie Crittenden about the Cuba Cubs of 1951-52. Cuba defeated my hometown school (Corbin) in the '52 tournament, so I have no reason to feel warmly about that Graves county school. But I do. And it's because of the wonderful way Marianne made their story come alive. It's much more than a David and Goliath story. It's a story about shared dreams, hard work, and rural pride in dreams realized. If you're sick of high-salaried, big business basketball, return to the days of sport for sports sake....WHEN CUBA CONQURED KENTUCKY.

A well told story about the resilience of the human spirit. The author passionately narrates a Kentucky styled version of David and Goliath. It is an inspiring and entertaining read about the magnificient efforts of a high school team from the tiny town of Cuba, Kentucky. The book would appeal to any basketball fan who is a native of the Bluegrass state. However, the book is much more than a story about a small town basketball team. It is a story that reminded me of everything my parents described about growing up in Western Kentucky during the 40's and 50's. Perhaps the best part of the book is the author's observations on the influence the community had on the players and their coach. The writer provides a compelling narrative about the challenges faced by the families who struggled to earn a living as sharecroppers. The reader gets to share in the glory of the team's commitment to an enormous task and the accomplishment of that goal. It is an enjoyable story about a visionary coach and a group of boys who dared to dream and strive for the unfathomable. I thoroughly enjoyed the contents of the book, and I would rate that portion of the book a five star. I appreciated the research on the Jackson Purchase region of the state, and how the demographics of that area impacted the characters of the story. The author does a nice job of piecing together research with oral history, and she writes with a compassion for the central figures of the book. However I thought the narrative style of the book was a bit awkward at times, and that is why I give the book a four star rating.

This book allows you to see flaws in basic movement patterns and shows you how to correct them. It might not seem important but it could be the difference in being injuried or not.

Funny how a book needs a DVD to help demonstrate. So get the DVD too. Not much to say other than a good reference, the value is in the whole book.

This book changed the way I look at fitness and is appropriate for the weekend warrior or professional athlete. The author's expertise is expressed in such a manner that comprehension and practical application is easily reached.

Push your body to its limits and get the most out of it with these training drills. As a physical therapist, the author shows you the safe way to workout.

This is an OUTSTANDING complement to the DVD. I hoped that the DVD and book would not merely be redundant...and they aren't! The overlap to some extent so that you can get results with only one or the other, but I am VERY glad to have both. They fill in some gaps that each has.

JUST QUICKLY SKIMMED THROUGH YOUR BOOK.
THIS IS GOOD FOR THE BEGINER, BUT I CAN NAME AT LEAST A DOZEN HIGH ENERGY TOP OF THE LINE PLACES TO WORK-OUT WHILE TRAVELING.
I CAN DO THAT IN ABOUT THREE MORE CITIES.
I THINK THIS IS GOOD FOR TRAVELERS IN THEIR OWN HOTEL.
PERIOD.
MY WIFE COMPETES IN TRI'S ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND I AM THE VACATION PLANNER.
WE BOTH LIKE TO HAVE UPDATED EQUIPMENT WHEN WE TRAVEL, SO I MAKE IT A POINT TO INVESTIGATE THE AREAS.
NICE ATTEMPT, BUT THEY MISSED MANY GREAT PLACES.

AL

Jim Kaese and Paul Huddle have given us a reference work, not a discussion of what it means to be an athletic-minded traveler nor how to become athletic minded if you are a traveler doubling as a couch potato.

Mind the subtitle: 'Where to work out and stay when fitness is a priority.'

If a reference book for your or your travel agent is what you need, this is your book.

If you want to figure out how to maintain some level of fitness in an ever-changing travel environment that seems to mock the very thought of it, this is not your book. Those books do exist (see my other reviews) and you'd be wise to buy one of them.

The book under review here is organized by major U.S. metropolitan areas. Since airport fitness facilities are still not widely available, the writers have to presume you're willing to part company with two taxi fares for many of the venues. Things get a little better on the hotel side, where noticable improvement in most major hotel chains now makes it possible to get a workout without falling down the steps, where you are fortunate to be found within the week.

Bottom line: the book delivers what the subtitle promises.

I received the Athletic Minded Traveler for Christmas. I was skeptical at first since I thought it was just another travel guide. Once I started looking at the book, however, I realized that it was extrememly helpful and the pithy writing made it a pleasure to read. Morover, the easy to use summary for the hotels allowed me to quickly and easily choose a hotel on my first business trip of 2006. (The guide was right on the money about the hotel.) This is an invaluable tool for anyone who travels, whether for business or pleasure--it even covers smaller cities like Cleveland and Madison, WI). Today, whilst surfing the web I found the author's website, which expands on the book. The site has even more information such as running routes and thorough restaurants recommendations for healthy eating on the road. From now on, I'm going to consult the book and the web site before I travel.

I gave several of these as xmas gifts to friends who travel for business
and all of them can't stop raving about how useful it is--the authors
obviously did their homework. I even got an email from one of my friends
while he was on a business trip to tell me that he just got back from a
health club recommended in the book where he ended up running next to a
woman who asked him out for a date! Bet the authors never thought they
would be making love matches!

I've actually used this book in a number of the cities and it saved me time and energy trying to find someplace to workout.

Real information the hotels won't give you. How many times have we called hotels and been told they have something only to get there and its not the case?

This book will make working out on the road extremely simple whether you are a casual athlete or an Ironman Triathlete!!!!

THIS BOOK IS A REAL "SLEEPER". BRETON TAKES THE EVENTFUL LIFE OF ONE LATIN BALLPLAYER AND INTERTWINES THIS WITH THE HISTORY OF THE STRUGGLE OF ALL LATIN BALLPLAYERS. THE STORY OF SOME OF THE LATIN PIONEERS IS AN UNEXPLORED TERRITORY IN BASEBALL HISTORY. BRETON BRINGS THESE STORIES OF PREJUDICE, TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY TO THE SURFACE. I LEARNED ALOT FROM THIS BOOK, AND WAS WELL ENTERTAINED IN THE PROCESS.

This book is awesome, one of my favorites. I have read it more than once it is so good. What makes it so great is it tells the story of the latin baseball player that happens so often these days. From step to step, the book shows the reader how Miguel Tejada got from the barrios to America, to MLB star. What makes this bok so special is what a great story Miguel Tejada is. In his town, he was not regarded as a great player. But as soon as he was in a league there, he was great and never stopped. Now he has an MVP. A great job by Marcos Breton for the book and Jose Luis Villegas for the great pictures.

I was a fan of shortstop Miguel Tejada before I read this book and was overjoyed when he won the AL MVP honors this past year. The book opened my eyes to the incredible struggle and long odds that Dominican players - or any Latin players - face to make it in the major leagues. It makes Tejada's accomplishment seem that much more amazing and important to me. His story is interwoven with a lot of baseball history that I would not have otherwise known, and it is one that kids my age and up (8th grade) would enjoy because it makes you think.

Being a baseball fan since Orlando Cepeda led the Cardinals over Yaz's 1967 Red Sox, I thought I was well versed about the history of minorities in major league baseball. (The Jackie Robinson story became gospel in my house.) After reading "Away Games," I had to eat some humble pie. The sports pages, which I read cover-to-cover as a youth, never made mention on how the Clementes, Tiants, and Marchials made it to the majors. Authors Marcos Breton and Jose Luis Villegas provide that missing story. "Away Games" is about how major baseball exploits young Latino men in the same way that the film "Hoop Dreams" documented basketball's exploitation of inner city black youth. Breton and Villegas elaborate on how the baseball establishment entices Dominicans into their camps and then uses them like throw away parts. I only wish the authors would have kept their focus on Miguel Tejada- "the star" of the book- rather than flip-flopping between his "life and times" with the history of Latino baseball players. (Actually, there are two books in one here- Tejada's baseball journey and the history of major league baseball in the Caribbean.) Far from being an enjoyable book, "Away Games" is often painful to read especially for gung-ho baseball fans; however, it should be included right next to the censored sports page as we're implored to "root, root for the home team."

Breton and Villegas make the case that Latin ballplayers are exploited and then, in the overwhelming majority of cases, tossed away by major league teams. Miguel Tejada was one of those who, it turned out, wasn't just cheap filler for an organization's minor league chain, but instead broke through to the majors. This surprised the A's organization which originally ranked him below other Dominicans who have since faded and returned to island obscurity or the life of an undocumented alien in New York City. Unfortunately, the author's case is buried by some truly stilted prose in a narrative that wanders all over the map without giving Tejada himself much more life in the book than as a paradigm for the author's argument. I happen to know already a fair amount about Latin ballplayers so this book brought me neither increased insight into them as a group or to Tejada as an individual.

This is an excellent book for tennis conditioning. Most readers would have to pick and choose which things to employ as only the most dedicated athlete would find the time for everything. Excellent as a comprehensive survey.

What a book! According to me, it is the best book to help an independant player to progress by himself. The explanations are very clear, simple. And the CD is fabulous: fabulous to watch the exercices, fabulous to avoid wrong positions, wrong movements,...Thank you very much for this conditionning Bible.

Like the title states, this is a very complete and thorough conditioning book designed for the needs of the tennis player. With chapters on condition assesment, flexibility, strength, agility and others, a complete routine can be established that players of all skill levels will enjoy. I strongly recommened this book for players, or parents of, looking to compete at the highest levels. Being a 1-2 times a week player, some parts don't apply to me but will the most serious. The majority of this book can be used by players of every skill and dedication level.

Son broke a bone in his foot and was going to be off the court for about 8 weeks. We decided to utilize the time improving strength, reflex reaction time, etc. We took this book to a personal trainer who used many of the ideas during the hiatus. Results - he went back to the court with a stronger serve, stronger strokes and better endurance than he went out with. So good in fact, that he continues to work with his personal trainer in addition to his on court time.

All books on conditioning will get you into shape, but THIS book was the best for tennis I have ever come across. As a 4.0 level player, I was looking for a book that gave me step-by-step instructions to beef up my conditioning - while focusing on the tennis side in a big way. I leafed through this one in the bookstore, and liked what I saw. Upon reading it cover-to-cover, it was EXACTLY what I wanted, and got me excited to play again! I've never seen the in-depth, attention to detail, and one-step-at-a-time coverage this book has.

I purchased this book on Al McGuire as a gift for my father's 71st birthday. As a former basketball coach, he had been a strong admirerer of one of the most unique individuals in sports. Both me and my father highly recommend this for lovers of college basketball, especially for those who tend to march to the beat of a different drummer. I'm sure that even though Al McGuire is no longer with us he will be remembered whenever some young person is making the sign of the cross on his/her forehead before shooting a critical freethrow with his immortal statement that the "Nuns are Working the Beads."
Sergio S. Guerrero Jr.
El Paso, Texas

Al McGuire has been truly captured through this book. The photos and quotes truly capture the man, the charachter, and the coach that was AL. Anyone who grew up around the legend, understood what he meant to the game, but I don't believe anyone has a true grasp until they have turned the pages of this book.

Tom Kertscher has done an excellent job in introducing me to Al McGuire. I've never followed college basketball so I wasn't familiar with coach McGuire. However after reading the book I can see why so many people thought so highly of him. I very much enjoyed getting to know the coach from his many quotes and photos over the course of his career. He's one of those colorful figures in life that adds that missing ingredient making the ordinary, something rich and flavorful.

I don't know basketball, and I'm sure that my elevator doesn't go to the top, but I know a wonderful remembrance when I see one. Kertscher illustrates the humanity of McGuire - humorous and touching. The phrases from the glossary have become a shared language between myself and my son.

This is a strange coffee table-type book. Author Kertscher apparently did not know Al McGuire personally, and this book is the product of a posthumous project of collecting McGuire-related photographs and quotes. Yet despite the lack of direct personal connection, the book does a good job of communicating the odd combination of street-level wisdom, humanity, and whimsy that made McGuire such an intriguing and compelling character to a generation of basketball fans and non-basketball fans alike.

Do you dare to dream? The Uconn Huskies basketball team goes on a big dream ride during the 1999 season. Jim Calhoun is the coach of the Huskies. He has worked them hard for their chance into the Final FOur. Most people didn't think Uconn was a big factor in the tournament. So Uconn was out to prove to the world that they could play with the big dogs. They might have never been to the Final Four before, but this year feels like they've been there before.
I like this book because I love sports and it gives you an idea of good teamwork. I think this book is good because if you work hard it might pay off. I watched the team come together right before my eyes. I felt like I was helping them along to win or I was in the story.
I would recommend this book to people who like sports or who enjoy a good book. I also think that anyone who likes to get lost in a book would love this! The book is exciting and suspenseful. I think people who don't mind getting trapped in the best sports book in the world should read this book!!!!

The other readers must have read this right after the Huskies won the championship--the fact that it was such an intoxicating moment for UCONN lovers must have hurt their judgement. I for one *LOVE* UCONN, yet this book reads like a rough draft. Calhoun also reveals little about the season that a devote UCONN fan wouldn't already know. I reccomend "Huskie-Mania" by Jim Shea for Huskie fans out there.

...for the Connecticut Huskies you must read this book. I am a 1995 Graduate of UConn. I was at the school for a chunk of this miraculous decade. And I have never felt more proud of that school or that amazing basketball team than I do after reading this book. Jim Calhoun is funny, strong, tender and candid in this book. A man whom we don't often get an insight to (other than reading a few four letter words on his lips from the sidelines) opens his heart and soul to us in this book. He shares the moments that tore him down, and the moments that made him realize he has the best job in the world. He is an inspiration. A leader. A great coach. And, a champion.

As a UCONN grad (class of 88) this book was a wonderful retrospective of Jim Calhoun's work ethic, love, tragedies, perseverence and humor that led to a storybook finish at the NCAA Final Four. I couldn't put this book down as it took me down memory lane. I really enjoyed Jim's wit and honesty and understand why he has built such a great program. It shows how success is created; with a lttle luck but alot of hard work, perseverence, discipline and making the best of what you have. I think this is a great read for any sports fan but is a must read if you have been caught up in the magic of Connecticut basketball.

Calhoun and Montville have crafted a masterpiece!

Calhoun writes like he talks, quick and witty (yes, it's funny!). It is an effective, fast-break style that has readers feeling like they are participating in one of Calhoun's practices. It is never boring, always moving. If you love UConn hoops, you will love this book -- guaranteed.

Calhoun is never chest-thumping. His tone is honest, warm, and humble. He is even a little self-effacing (hey, not even The Coach is above reproach).

Calhoun takes us from his days at Northeastern and prior, through the Dream Season, and into the X's and O's of the Championship Season. You will want read this slowly because you won't want it to end! There are a plethora of tid-bits and stories about the Calhoun era that even the most avid fans will respond with frequent shouts of "Wow!" and pumps of the fist.

Thanks Coach, and thanks, Leigh -- two guys who bleed Husky blue just like the rest of us in Husky Nation!

Chapter after chapter we hear about how "winning at all cost," over-competitiveness and how kids specialize in a sport way too soon (before high school varsity level), the author goes against every piece of advice she's given. She admits that when her young sons were faced with a soccer league that was competitive and *gasp* co-ed, instead of allowing them to play, she started her own league! What? It took away the credibility of the entire book. I just can't listen to "do as I say, not as I do."

(Note: this review was based on an uncorrected publishers' proof.)

I heard author De Lench talking on NPR national radio last week about this book and all of the work she has done (is doing) with preventing catastrophic injuries and death of kids in youth sports. I had no idea what I was in store for when I read the book. In fact her advice may just save my kids lives. And, the chapter on Preventing Child Abuse in youth sports is another must read. Again, I now know that the hollering that one coach does to my 6 year old and his team mates is downright abuse. Better yet, I know (from her lessons) how to advocate for my kids to keep them emotionally safe and physically sound. I found her chapter on how to start a new team to be FABULOUS! Bravo-De Lench-You go girl! Kids were being excluded so she rallied her parent pals and started their own all-inclusive group with rules that we all would die for--no bad mouthing eachother, open dialog with the coaches, all kids play the same amount of time (coaches kids included), etc.

The chapter on Politics is a must read! And, the one on parenting/coaching girls and theother on how to parent boy athletes is very interesting.

The only folks who won't love this book are the bad coaches who are nervous that we all will become so well educated that they may lose their coaching jobs.

This book is a "must read" for any parent whose child is involved in youth sports at any level. It is really like a survival guide and was full of some great advice and ideas that made alot of sense. It makes life easier too when you know that you are not alone in a particular situation, as there obviously needs to be some serious reform in high school sports in my opinion. Ms. de Lench deserves alot of praise for tackling this difficult issue head on and gives many of us parents out there a much needed voice!!

I am raising five sports active kids and was intrigued enough to suggest and select Home Team Advantage as my book clubs (five fellow female attorneys) November read. Between us we have 21 children ages 6-19, who have been or for the most part are, in sports programs. We are each litigators practicing outside of Philly.

I speak for the group: If you are a mother or a father and you have children in sports you really ought to read this book. It may help save a kid's physical and emotional life if you do. We each agreed that the author is incredibly forward thinking in the way she synthesized her first hand in-the-trenches information, data and research to provide us with the big picture, especially with the chapters on politics, abuse, injury prevention and how to improve the culture of youth sports. Her depth of information and breadth of knowledge quite frankly is pretty brilliant and damn gutsy. We could not put the book down. Well written and ample interesting first hand stories. As a collective group we could relate to just about everything she wrote about. We talked for hours on each of her chapter topics. de Lench has the answers for all of our questions and concerns.

One negative; we each agreed that the phrase "hardwiring" (the new Politically Correct term for hormones) was used in place of hormones too often and gets a bit old. It did, however, inform us to the empirical data out there on the fact that boys in sports are very different than girls. Something we knew but could not confirm until reading this book.

Very enlightening read for anyone raising athletic children.

We all hear about the sports moms who spend most of their time chasing after and picking up their kids. But what IS the role of all those mothers of kids in youth sports?

In HOME TEAM ADVANTAGE: THE CRITICAL ROLE OF MOTHERS IN YOUTH SPORTS, Brooke de Lench looks beyond the minivan-chauffeuring, frazzled women behind children's athletics. In this culmination of experience and research, de Lench examines everything from when to register kids for sports to how to handle bad coaching situations.

This wonderful resource is divided into three major sections: "Part I: The Role of Sports Mothers in the Family"; "Part II: Sports Mothers, Coaches, and Other Parents"; and "Part III: What Mothers Can Do to Reform Youth Sports."

Part I steps mothers through the process of getting children started in sports. Knowing what sport(s) to register your child in is just as important as determining a good age to begin. Also discussed are differences between boys and girls, the need for balancing family schedules, preventing abuse, and dealing with injuries and injury prevention.

Part II addresses the ever-growing concerns over abusive coaches and parents, as well as ways to handle such situations.

Part III gives great tips for mothers (and fathers) to advocate for their kids. Mothers can and should take active roles in their kids' sports. Besides driving and providing snacks, there are many more ways to contribute, even if a mom is a busy professional.

The material in this book is concise and well written. Some themes are repeated throughout the book, but these are important ideas that cannot be expressed enough (such as whether the kids are having fun, safety, and so on).

While this book is directed at mothers, this is a valuable resource that all parents of youth athletes should have, and it should be required reading for coaches and staff. Do not miss out on Brooke de Lench's wonderful contribution to the world of youth sports.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
9/26/2006

Good book, style is a bit uneven, but it is Jim Dent's style. Football in the early days, no money, riots on the field, in the stands, gambling, and the greatest football player of the era. If Red Grange brought professional football respectability and to the nations attention, Bronko kept it interested.

Good job of reporting on the era surrounding the story. 20's through the 40's in America.

This is a highly entertaining biography of one of the most celebrated football players in Chicago Bear history, Bronko Nagurski, who starred for the Minnesota Golden Gophers as a college athlete before turning professional. Jim Dent's welcome book may well serve to introduce Nagurski to a new generation of football fans.

Nagurski, the son of immigrants from Central Europe (from the Polish Ukraine), was born in Ontario, Canada, but his family relocated across the border to International Falls, Minnesota, where Nagurski would continue to live for the remainder of his life. He compiled an outstanding athletic record while at the University of Minnesota that earned him national acclaim. Later, he would be elected to the National Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio for his many accomplishments as a professional player.

For most Americans of Nagurski's era, football was secondary to baseball and the sport was viewed by many as simply a means to pass the time during the Fall and Winter months while waiting for the next baseball season to begin. In fact, many celebrated college football players turned to the baseball diamond after graduation because it offered better paychecks and the prospect of greater job security. "Papa Bear" George Halas, himself, had played a handful of baseball games for the New York Yankees. Jim Thorpe, Ernie Nevers, Paddy Driscoll and so many others did the same, but many great football players were only mediocre baseball players. In other instances, however, pro football lost talented players to pro baseball.

The pioneers in the National Football League operated under circumstances that would seem incredible to the spoiled millionaire athletes playing today: player salaries were minimal in most cases (oftentimes, as little as $2,000.00 per season for ordinary players). Sometimes, the ticket sales receipts from the box office had to be collected in order to pay immediate expenses and wages. NFL franchises frequently folded due to insolvency.

In one telling example that addresses both the hard times of the Great Depression and the legendary penury of Bears' owner George Halas , author Jim Dent describes how players who required athletic tape, bandages and liniments from the team trainer, Andy "Doc" Lotshaw, earning some extra dollars after his summer baseball employment with the Cubs concluded, were subjected to wage deductions imposed by the thrifty Halas to recover the nominal costs of the trainer's supplies.

Another obstacle to the prosperity of professional football was the fact that an overwhelming majority of fans viewed college football as the legitimate brand of the game. Nagurski's own college coach actually tried to discourage him from turning professional. The upstart professional league was considered too undignified by many fans of the college game.

When George Halas relocated the Decatur Staleys, a factory sponsored team, to Chicago, he appropriated the orange and blue team colors from the University of Illinois, his alma mater, and named his football team "The Bears" as a derivative of the Chicago Cubs baseball team which also played at Wrigley Field. In another bid to gain further respect for the fledging professional league, Halas signed well known college stars such as Harold "Red" Grange and Nagurski to the team roster.

I found this book to be enjoyable for a number of reasons. The Halas family once lived in the same Catholic parish as did my family; the Vanisi family, which produced two sons who went on to become football general managers, once lived one block down our street. My grandfather worked with Red Grange when "the Galloping Ghost" began selling insurance after his injured legs no longer permitted him to make the "cuts" that made him such an exceptional gridiron runner. Dent provides an accurate description of Grange bandaged and taped like a mummy as he played his final season of football.

Notorious gangsters like Al Capone and his constant bodyguard and companion, "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, were frequently in the grandstand at Wrigley Field, where the Bears played their home games for nearly fifty years. Capone would generously tip the Bears players if the team had played an especially exciting game. Players and fans frequently mingled in the same speakeasies after the contests concluded.

Nagurski continually had quarrels with Halas concerning his salary and eventually retired after one such dispute in 1937. He took up professional wrestling as a new moneymaking venture and became a champion. He reinvested his big city earnings into a gas station that he operated for many years in his hometown of International Falls.

During World War Two, when the National Football League struggled to operate with depleted rosters, Halas requested that Nagurski come out of retirement and return to the Bears. After a six year absence, Nagurski helped lead the team to another title in 1943. This unique and unprecedented comeback season is the central episode in Dent's book.

After reading "Monster of the Midway," I corresponded with the author, Jim Dent, a football enthusiast best known for writing "The Junction Boys" an earlier book which described the beginning of the career of coaching legend Paul "Bear" Bryant. "The Junction Boys" was eventually adapted for a cable television movie.

Dent, who is a Texan, sent me a gracious handwritten letter which acknowledged the receipt of a list of corrections and suggested revisions that I had sent to him. His book, like many written by authors who are not natives to the localities that they are describing, contained a number of minor errors and misdescriptions. Some authors have delicate egos when it comes to readers pointing out any research errors and omissions that they may have made, but Dent politely admitted that my suggested corrections were largely accurate and that he added that he intended to incorporate several of the changes to the text when the book was reprinted. Like many authors, Dent had almost all of the essentials in place, but missed a few secondary details about Chicago and its sports teams.

I was interested to learn that Nagurski's son played college football at Notre Dame and joined the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League afterwards. Before his death, Nagurski accepted an invitation to attend a Super Bowl game as the guest of NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle.

Someday, I hope that a movie adaptation of "The Monster of the Midway" can be produced. Jim Dent alluded to this prospect. In the meanwhile, seek out this book if you like old time football or are curious about the origins of the game, you will probably be pleased with this title. It is fun to read and not too heavy in its approach to the subject. By all accounts, Nagurski was an honest, hardworking and unassuming man and Dent captures his spirit in this way.

Jim Dent's Monster of the Midway is less a biography of Bronko Nagurski, and more of a historical look at the era in which Nagurski dominated the National Football League.

If you are a sports fan, you may enjoy this book; if you are an NFL fan you will love learning about the story of one of the league's most endearing names and a charter member of the pro football hall of fame. If you are a sports history afficianado like myself, you will enjoy the stories Dent has to tell and appreciate the way he makes this book read like a novel at times. In some ways I even feel this book will translate well to a television movie -- like the Junction Boys.

It took me about two weeks to finish this book which is my average pace of about one chapter per night. Where Jim Dent fails to deliver to the reader is an inside look at the life of Bronko Nagurski. After completing this book, I did not feel as if I had spent those two weeks with Bronko himself, rather, I felt I had just spent the entire time watching old films of the Bears against the Packers and reading old newspaper clips from the Chicago Tribune.

Jim Dent is a good writer, but I would not put his Monster of the Midway in the same league as Jane Leavy's biography of Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy -- one of my favorite sports books. Leavy's work made me feel as if I had spent a September evening at Dodger Stadium sitting next to Sandy Koufax reliving his glory days. I did not get that type of feeling when I read Monster of the Midway.

Perhaps this is an unfair comparison. Part of the problem that Dent may have faced, primarily is that Nagurski is no longer with us, but also, there probably was not a whole lot said or heard about Nagurski for him to work with. The National Football League at the time was in it's infancy and nowhere near the media monster that it is today, or what Baseball was in the 1960's for that matter.

Regardless, I added this book to my collection because it is a good book. As a football fan, and a Bears fan in particular, I enjoyed this book and will cherish what I learned.

The name Bronko Nagurski. You know this man was not a ballet dancer. This is more than a book about "The Nag" and the Chicago Bears. It is also a book about a number of other old football names I have heard of, but knew nothing about. Sid Luckman, Hunk Anderson, Don Hutson, Johnny "Blood" McNally, Clyde "Bulldog" Turner, Beattie Feathers, George Preston Marshall, Curly Lambeau, Slingin' Sammy Baugh, and, of course, the Papa Bear himself, George Halas. This was a period of players playing both on offense and defense, no hash marks, the fat ball, the quarterback being fair game until a play is blown dead by an official, and other rules that had not been placed into the game. George Preston Marshall, owner of the then Boston Redskins who played in Fenway Park, spoke to the conservative owners about the need to change some rules to jazz up the game to make it more exciting to the public. He was lucky to have a sympathetic listener in George Halas as support for his ideas. The demise of the fat ball made it possible to throw more passes, and put an end to the endless amount of running plays. One of Marshall's best ideas was to split the league into two conferences, and setting up a championship game each year. For all his good ideas, he stated he wanted Negroes out of the game. Black players had been part of the game since 1920, but Marshall's appeal banned black players from further play. Bronko Nagurski played for the Bears throughout the 1937 season, and left the team over a difference of $500 that The Nag and Halas differed over. Nagurski made money wrestling, and eventually came back to play for the Bears during the 1943 season. What surprised me was the number of college coaches such as Amos Alonzo Stagg and Knute Rockne who discouraged college players from entering the professional ranks. In 1990 Nagurski traveled to the Mayo Clinic to fuse bones in his ankles. A doctor asked for an autograph for his son, and The Nag wrote, "To Jeremy--Do Not Play Football. Bronko Nagurski." This is a book filled with colorful anecdotes, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Jim Dent tells the story of Bronko Nagurski's football career. "Monster of the Midway: Bronko Nagurski, the 1943 Chicago Bears, and the Greatest Comeback Ever" is not a biography. It is about a football player and why he became among the greatest players ever, with special emphasis on one season (1943). Dent, however, can't help but to provide the background of Nagurski's early life.

Bronko Nagurski was the Babe Ruth of football. No one was greater, more dominant, more powerful at their sport than Nagurski. Others have played well: We all know about Michael Jordan, Mickey Mantle, and Lance Armstrong, but few have embodied the essence of their sport with such successful excellence. I should mention Muhammad Ali. He often bragged he was the greatest, and he was.

Someone needs to make a movie of this story. Bronko began the Hollywood/Horatio Alger as a hardworking, not too complicated future football hero. He had heart and the physical strength size to back it up. Good true football movies are sparse. There's "Rudy" and "Brian's Song," but that's it. A Bronko Nagurski story could add to this short list.

Most of the book reads like a docudrama, utilizing storytelling techniques rarely found in sports books.

If I were a high school football coach, I would have my players read this book. Bronko Nagurski played the game before the lights shone brightly on the pocketbooks, when the swagger and dance of endzone celebrations were still years away, and the game was still played by big, tough men not pretty enough for white-toothed smiling products endorsements. Nagurski was the kind of player the NFL needs today.

I fully recommend "Monster of the Midway: Bronko Nagurski, the 1943 Chicago Bears, and the Greatest Comeback Ever" by Jim Dent.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com