Athletics Books

We all knew kids like Morgan Brenner back in school: you'd say, "Hey, let's make a skateboard!" and a year later a fully-restored '56 Chevy was sitting in the driveway.

The genesis of College Basketball's National Championships must have been something like that: Maybe the original goal was a compilation of NCAA title tournaments or somesuch. Four years and a thousand pages later, however, what Brenner ended up putting together was a definitive compendium of every tournament ever conducted by the eight national athletic associations, with every non-association tournament thrown in for good measure.

This volume is a college b-ball lover's dream. You can do your own color commentary if you have it at your elbow, as every sportscaster is sure to. Its thoroughness is dazzling: Brenner even took pains to resolve confusion involving school names - changes, mergers, common usages - and provided a cross-reference in an appendix ("If you're looking for School [a], try School [b]..."). You can also test your knowledge with "Tournament Trivia:" Which school was the first women's collegiate national champion? Which tournament participant had the fewest wins in a season?

It's a pricey tome at $98.50 (Amazon.com) but look at it this way: it effectively replaces a whole shelf of lesser reference works costing many times that. If you're a true lover of the game and its history, this is the one book you want to have.

By the way, the first women's collegiate national champion was West Chester in 1969, in the invitational IAIW (page 1,027). Fewest wins in a season? Bay Ridge Christian in 1997, with zip.

The book is very informative, well organized data, and makes for a great reference guide to College Football.

"The College Hockey Guide is a "must have" for high school coaches and players interested in going to college and playing hockey. It is filled with up-to-date and useful information regarding all of the college hockey programs in our country. The book offers information on the who, what, where, when and why of recruiting and being noticed. This book is as good as it gets."

Ever wondered why in the world a college calls their athletes their particular nickname? With this book you will never wonder again! In this well-reasearched guide, Lessiter "left no stone unturned" and spoke with the Sports Information folks at every single Division I school to find out about the orign of each school's nickname(s). Small school or large, perpetual top 25 ranked team or cellar-dweller, they are all here for your reference and enlightenment. Several enjoyable drawings are sprinkled throughout the text.

I discovered this book while in college. I was a non-dairy vegetarian stuck in the mid west in a time when being concerned with ones health seemed kooky! To make matters worse I was a walk on the track and field team and an 800m runner. When I got the book I had hit a wall in my performance. The book was comprehensive, easy to read (I read it front to back) and everything seemed to make good sense. I tried the suggestions and found an almost immediate improvement in my energy levels mood and performance. My last 2 years of collage post reading this book I was placed on athletic scholarship and doing very well. The recipes in the book aside from juicing and protein shakes are very bland and I would suggest getting a cookbook or checking the web. Especially useful is the section on vitamins and minerals their uses and suggested amounts and forms for athletes. Workout planning is also quite compressive. The book is also good for those not involved in any sports.

Well...to read Bacchylides (in Robert Fagles'
translation) after having read Pindar (in C.M. Bowra's
translation--Penguin Classics) is to read (for me)
shorter, fresher, clearer poetry.
Yet, strangely, in his "Introduction" Fagles finds
it necessary to defend Bacchylides against the greater
fame and tradition of admiration for Pindar -- but
Fagles does a very good job of making his case for
Bacchylides (and, of course, the poetry speaks
in translation in favor of Bacchylides as well).
Interestingly, Bowra has written the "Foreword" for
Fagles' edition of Bacchylides. Bowra says that
Bacchylides is hard to translate -- but the advantage
for Fagles is that Bacchylides has had few translations,
since the remains of his poetry were not known to
modern times until 1896. Bowra says that since Fagles
is not hampered by so many previous earlier versions
of translations, he makes almost a fresh start, and
with unusual courage, judgment, and creative insight

has produced a work which is both a faithful translation
of Bacchylides as well as a work of art in its own right.
That is high praise indeed, from one classical translator
to another.
In his "Introduction," Fagles admits early on that
the usual perception of Bacchylides has been that he
was considered "a dull and slight, or, a sweet and
sometimes charming practitioner of the kind of poetry
which Pindar created with profundity and magnificence."
But Fagles won't let that unfair judgment go...so
Pindar is by far the greater poet, is he? --well,
Bacchylides handles the genre differently, with his
own distinct virtues, and he is interested in different
things from Pindar. Fagles says that Bacchylides does
not consider himself to be a prophet as Pindar did.
Bacchylides stands back from his work and "prefers to
consider himself a craftsman." The element of
narrative (as in Homer) is more important to Bacchylides
than in Pindar. Fagles says, "Bacchylides lacks the
inwardness of Pindar...He is cooler, brighter, more
objective." Fagles says that in narrative grace and
crisp elegance, Bacchylides is the superior to Pindar.
This volume is divided into sections of different
types of poems: Epinician Odes [14] (to honor victorious
athletes in the various games held in ancient Greece--
Isthmian Odes, Olympian Odes, Pythian Odes, Nemean Odes);
Dithyrambs [15-27] (concerning various mythic figures--
The Sons of Antenor, Heracles, Theseus [2 poems], Io,
Idas, Cassandra, Pasiphae, Chiron) -- Fragments, Fragments
of Uncertain Genre, and Doubtful Pieces.
There is also a section of "Notes" in the back to
explain some aspects of the poems.
Though Bacchyides' sentences tend to be a bit more
complete, to me personally, I get the same freshness
from reading Fagles' renderings of these poems in
their short, clear impact after reading the rather
turgid Pindar (in translation), as I get when
I read Emily Dickinson after having had enough
of a dose of bombastic, droning, tedious
Walt Whitman in his longer, "prophetic"
pieces. Walt can be glorious, mystic, intimate,
delicate -- but he can also be tiresome.
Try Bacchylides for a refreshing easement.
_______________
Men can maneuver no hold
Over wealth or stubborn war
Or the feuds that rock a state --
But raking her clouds from land to land,
Destiny -- that Pandora -- ranges.
-- Bacchylides.
* * * * * * * * *

This book offers the Athletic Training and other Sports Medicine Professionals good advice when working with athletes who need guidance. It is not easy to educate and counsel athletes. Too often athletes hear only what they want and not what they need to hear. Since athletes are highly motivated to achieve success in competition, they tend to focus on their problems and how it affect them, not others.

Athletes have multiple problems, just like the rest of the population, the difference is, that most will try to work on their issues if they are identified and given strategies that work. Ray and Wiese-Bjornstal do a good job of presenting problems and solutions. They have identified the sound techniques and theories that work in the counseling arena.

The authors are quick to point out the dangers of uneducated counseling and the warning signs of potential serious disorders. It is fair to assume that the reader should have some understanding of basic psychology, and human behavior.

The reader should also understand sport and the different circumstances it presents to daily living.

I have been a professional in Athletic Training for over 30 years and found the text to be very helpful. It is succint and to the point but also in detail and complete on the topics discussed. I highly reccomend the text for the Sports Medicine Professional.

After having my fair share of running injuries, it was great to read this book. It explains what the causes and solutions of running injuries are, simply put. There are places in which it gets a bit technical, but only because it is necessary.

It also contains most of the major injuries and stories of common runners and their injuries.

Highly recommended.

I had a chance to meet the doctor who wrote this book (by coincidence!) and he was absolutely amazing with his diagnoses.

E.F.Benson's Daily Training (published in 1903) contains a series of physical exercises, along with solid advice concerning one's health. Though written so long ago, everything in this book is still vitally pertinent today. I bought the book because I collect (and read) Benson volumes: this one contains invaluable guidance.

The shoes are great. I love Dansko, they are the most supportive and comfortable shoes that I have ever worn. I have 9 pair & will buy more. The retailer was great. I received my shoes within 5 days & I would shop there again.