Athletics Books

I'm a big fan of this book, and I think it's excellent for a beginner. I've used lots of machine weights, but I'd never really used free weights before. The book has given me lots of confidence in working with free weights and pushing my workout boundaries. I like the variety in exercises provided, and I appreciate the 30 day plan that lays out a month of workouts that alternate between upper and lower body. The author makes sure every workout balances the weight exercises so that you're working a complete set of muscles.

The one downside to the book (and the reason for only four stars) is that the book does not have information for advancing further in the weight lifting. If you want to keep lifting dumbbells, it's fine, but I'd also like to move into bar weights. While I don't expect the book to cover these as well, I do wish the author had made some further recommendations for continued weight lifting.

I really thought this book pretty good for someone that was just looking to tone up and learn a few new excersises. It is noto for a workout buff that already has alot of knowledge though. It has alot of stuff in that most people would already know or do in the gym so you really wouldn't be learning anything. Overall, I did like it though becuase I was not very knowledgable on dumbell work outs and I really enjoy doing them.

I have many weight training books for women but this book is always in my gym bag and has gone with me to many gyms over the years. My copy is very loved and very used. The layout of this book is easy to follow. The first chapters concentrate on motivation and getting you prepared for weight training.

The stretching, ab and weight exercises have gray edges so you can reference them quickly and not fumble through the book. My favorite feature is her recipes. A workout recipe consists of your instructions for the day. It gives the number of the exercise and with that number you go to the gray pages to look up that exercise.

Each exercise has one to two pages dedicated to it to instruct you about how to do the exercises. The reader will be informed on form and technique. She also gives a chart of how many reps to do for beginner, intermediate and advanced.

The charts and other great features in the book are very easy to follow. Charts/features in the book include:

-Prices for different types of dumbbells (she tells you how to build your weight set for under $100)
-BMI chart
-Aerobic calorie burn
-body evaluation log (body measurements)
-daily dumbbell workout schedule
-exercise readiness questionnaire
-FAQ section.

I don't prefer machines when it comes to weight training. I want the resistance and the strength I get from the combination of me and the weights. The day by day plans are easy to follow and sometimes it doesn't even take me 30 minutes. I feel great and accomplished when I finish a recipe. I can do this at home or at the gym and don't need any fancy equipment.

I've fallen in love with the fantastic books (smart girls and muscle your way) and I've just discovered that judith has a health and fitness blog with a wealth of information. Not only that, but you can ask her questions about her books and fitness and she'll write you a personal response! Check it out at

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Get started weight training and keep at it with this great workout guide for women. Learn various exercises and be inspired to stick with it.

a solid read, but i was expecting a book that got more into the intricacies of sports psychology, but this book seems to focus more on your thinking off the court then on it.

Mind Gym is a great book! I highly reccomend picking one up. HOWEVER, Amazon sent me 2 books with damaged covers and ripped pages. Get the book, just not from Amazon.

Training tips and exercises are paired with the psychological aspect of sports. Put your game into perspective.

This is a great book. It helps you to put the minds involved in athletics in perspective.

I have read several books on the mental game in sports and this is by far the best. I work with collegiate and professional athletes and recommend this so often that Gary Mack should send me a commission!!!

This book provides an excellent insight into the life of Lou Holtz and his motivational attitude on life. His dry humor will make you laugh, his thoughts inspiring, and make you think W.I.N. for those tough decisions in life.

Lou listed some great stories.

In fact that is one reason why this is a great book, because Lou is an AWESOME story teller.
Listen to the audio book as you read, Lou narrates this book very well.

Lou has lived an amazing life.
He just got it done, no matter what he does.
Anyone can pick up some great tips about being more successful from this book.

Paul

This is an excellent read! You won't want to put it down and it will make you do some self examination.

An inspiring memoir full of famous personalities from sports and politics. Lou's humble beginnings and deep-rooted faith in family and religion took him to the top of the college football world and into the circles of many of America's most famous leaders. This is quite a guy.

Lou lived the American Dream and did it with God as his mentor. Every coach has something to learn from Coach Holtz reading this autobiography. Every player can relate to the lessons in life and apply them improving their quality life, making them a better athlete.

A thoroughly enjoyable and motivating read. This is a remarkable collection of exclusive interviews with the best American sports coaches of the last 40 years. The author has packed a voluminous amount of wisdom, inspiration and facts into what amounts to a road map to a good life. "How to Succeed in the Game of Life" is a brilliant compilation of advice that offers inspiration at every turn.

Game of Life is an insightful book on the thoughts of many of the world's best known coaches. It provides a biography on each of the 34 coaches (which I recommend reading first to gain a better appreciation of the field and achievements of each coach) and asks them a number of questions that can relate to both on the field and life in general. I have gathered a number of relavant quotes that I will use both personally and professionally. A highly recommended read for sporting buffs and managers.

After buying a copy of this book for both myself and my father I was thoroughly impressed. The book was both an easy read yet very informative. I gave a copy of the book to my father, who is not one to read a book, and he was so taken back by how interesting he felt the content was. He picked up the book in the morning and had it finished by mid afternoon. He must have called me 15 times to tell me how inspiring he felt it was and how he was amazed at "all the tricks it taught an old dog"...He thought he had heard all there was to hear about inspirational quotes. We were both pleasantly surprised with how well written the book was. Both my dad and I would highly recommend this book with two thumbs up.

Having read only excerpts, I was shocked to read that Tony Dungy was hired as head coach by the Indianapolis Colts in 2002 by owner Robert Irsay. Irsay had been dead for five years (longer than that mentally). Hopefully the rest of the book does not contain such shoddy information.

This book went through various questions about succeeding in life and listed all the responses from each coach. It was interesting but somewhat repetitive in that many said basically the same thing. I enjoyed reading this book because it had a lot of good advice from a lot of successful coaches. The advice I remember most is to work harder than anyone else, never quit, always be honest, do your best, failure is opportunity for a comeback, and be passionate about what you do. All of them agreed that making a lot of money does not mean you are successful, but money can be a by-product of being successful. The last chapter included short summaries about each coach. My favorite chapter was the one of their favorite quotes.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in philosophy, or who is looking for some advice or inspiration about success.

Karen Arelttaz Zemek, author of "My Funny Dad, Harry"

This book is great for getting you off the couch and out into the running world! The author includes her own personal stories of her running adventures and makes you feel like you can do anything. And best of all, it's written by a woman for women: young and old, fat and skinny, runners and non-runners alike. I started with the beginning running program and I can already run 5 minutes at a time! That might not sound like a lot to most people, but I have asthma and I never thought it would be possible. I'm hoping to try my first 5k next year!

I was so looking forward to getting this book. And I was disappointed. It is ok but not quite "a complete book of running" I had taken about 9 months off of running due to pregnancy and was hoping to get motivated again. This book just kind of fell short. I think a "complete book of running" should include some routines, that could help all levels of runners (not just the marathoners that are mentioned) and more specific diet advice. More advice on building endurance etc etc. I think this caters to marathoners and just the novice beginners. I have seen better articles written in fitness magazines!

I am presently training for a half marathon and was looking for a book to hone my skills and improve my technique. A fellow runner pointed out that I was not holding my arms properly and suggested reading this book to prevent further injury. I like the use of photos instead of drawings. I like the motivational writing.

This book has gotten me motivated to think about running in another marathon. I ran in one about 6 years ago and trained with a team. I love to run but have never been too serious about it. This book has good information for people who are getting back into it. I bought the book because I wanted the marathon training plan in it, but found it to be so much more than that. I wasn't planning on reading the book cover to cover at first, but overall it has kept me interested to do just that.

I am by no means an advanced runner. I run a couple half marathons a year and I average a 9 min/mile pace. This book would have been great years ago when I first started running and training for 5K races. It covers the basics and has some nice pieces on clothing, gear and injuries. I found this book to be comprehensive, but lacking on depth on certain topics, expecially injuries. I think this is a great book for those who are just starting to run or considering their first 5K, 10K and half marathon. However, for those of us who already have miles under our belt and the blisters to prove it, this book may not provide any additional insight that we don't already know.

I am so glad that Kingsbury decided to continue the saga of the Reynolds family. Although I didn't enjoy this as much as A Time to Dance, I thought it was a great book. The one negative that I will say is that it was predictable. Overall it is another great by Kingsbury.

A Time to Embrace was a wonderful sequel to A Time to Dance. In this book Kingsbury shows us the importance of trusting in God through all of the seasons of life. A Time to Embrace stresses the concept that God's ways are not our ways. We need to trust Him no matter how devastating our situations are.

I found this book very real to life and inspiring. Although the average person doesn't often find themselves in such extreme circumstances as John and Abby in this book, individuals can relate to such situations in their own ways. I would recommend A Time to Embrace to anyone who might be doubting their faith in God or having difficulty understanding uncertain circumstances in their life. It will help uplift and refresh your spirits.

While I thought this was a good book, I felt that it was just another Kingsbury predictable story. There's always some grand tragedy in all of her books (I've read 90% of them), things always resolve themselves in a good way. A character is given a 1% chance of living and always does. I'm a huge believer in trusting in God and following his plan, but most things in her novels are wrapped up in pretty little packages.

I was also bothered by the times where she practically rewrites A Time to Dance since I already read it. I skipped over those parts (and there were too many of them to count). The plot lines are typical, someone is struck by tragedy, someone loses their faith, someone reconciles with someone else, and faith is gained again. It has happened in all of her novels that I've read so far. I, like most others, thought the Kade story line was irrelevant. No need to cram in every moral lesson in one story.

My husband said, "If it's so predictable, why read them? Haven't all of her stories been this way?" I'm the type that just can't stop reading a book and will push myself to get through it. I just read these because my mom bought them for me, and I didn't want to look ungrateful. I'm taking a break now!

The book is ok, but definetly not the best. Try the first couple of books on the Redemption series. No need to finish the series, though. It's just like all of the other books.

This book is a classic Karen Kingsbury. It is a tale of life today and how God can overcome anything. It is very faith inspiring.

I am a huge fan of Karen Kingsbury. As with all of her books, I found this one a real heart warming story, strong on faith. I have read many, many of her books and loved them all.

I guess I would be a bit bias, but this amazingly discriptive narrative really pulls you in to the book. My older Brother Thom DeZenzo was one the the captains of the Methuen Hockey team in 2000 and I recall the author very vividly. It was at my house that the team died their hair bleach blonde. The author truly captured all aspects of a team that I knew personaly.

This is a terrific memoir connecting three threads: the author's youth playing hockey, his work as a volunteer coach for his old high school hockey team, and his efforts to introduce his young son to hockey. The focus rarely leaves these three threads, making this one of the most well-structured memoirs I've read in years. In addition, the prose is lyrical and poetic, often in sharp contrast to the rough-and-tumble sport and the gritty neighborhood settings. (The reviewer who gave this book one star totally misses the point that a memoir *must* include the author as a major character. This is memoir, not journalism.) Highly recommended for everyone, not just hockey enthusiast, because of the great writing, sharp descriptions, connections between past/present/future, and wise reflections.

I don't really know what the Conn Smythe Trophy is- only hear them mention it during hockey highlights on TV. I never played hockey and I'm not a huge fan of the sport. But I am big fan of this book.

What 40-ish guy hasn't thought that he could go out and still compete with high school athletes? One could say Ice Time is a nostalgic look at the past (Atkinson's HS memories), or a hopeful look into the future (his son's), but I say it is about being present. That is appreciating who and where you are at the moment. Slowing life down an focusing on the present. There's lots of references to memories and how things come back to us, how much happens that seems significant at the time, but we never get the satisfaction of remembering it because it gets wiped from our brains.

Chapter 25 where J.A. describes a Xmas eve jog around his childhood neighborhood is a great example. This whole chapter is masterful writing. Most of the book is. He slips into vain self-indulgence as he describes all the goals he scores and cheerleaders he dates but the good parts make it well worth it. In many of the hockey game descriptions, I had to skip ahead because I couldn't wait to see if the Rangers won or lost the game. 4 3/4 stars.

When I first learned about this book, I was more than excited that someone had finally written book about high school hockey. I had already read the great accounts of high school sports in Friday Night Lights, and In These Girls, Hope Is A Muscle. Thirty pages into the book, I was more than impressed with the author's beautiful descriptions of Methuen, hockey, and his growing up in this area of New England.

Suddenly, things began to change, as I was now embedded in the author's autobiography of his past hockey and athletic exploits! He makes a very clear statement in the beginning that he doesn't want to be back in his high school years, but simply remember them. Oh, he does remember everthing and anything, and certainly lets the reader know of his dauntless exploits. Who really cares how many goals he scored on a frozen pond playing against a bunch of kids, or popping in nine goals in a pickup game with a senior group pretty much out of shape, or being one of the three stars in the annual JV intersquad scrimmage! Give me a break.

Atkinson managed to work his way into his old high school with the pretense of collecting background for his book. What he did was to live vicariously through this new Ranger team and maybe better his own team record of 5-15-1. He committed the inexcusable error of a writer; allowing your own life to intermingle and become part of what you were trying to write about.

As for the team, too bad Atkinson created an almost Neanderthal mentality and impression of these boys. The naive reader might think this is what hockey is all about, but what a terrible injustice to a group of athletes. As for the coaches, between the locker room expletives, bench outbursts during games, and the pre-game talks about "mating sperm whales" with your female goalie standing in the doorway, I feel this is a reasonable estimate of inappropiate juvenile behavior and thinking with some of the Methuen coaching staff.

At the end, as I struggled to finish his "memoirs," I had to laugh at his mention that he didn't feel quite the same and welcomed going back to Methuen High School after his year. They were probably happy he was finally gone. Typical of "volunteer" coaches or staff, their impression of what they are doing and accomplishing is usually far from reality. The author may have felt he was imparting "words of wisdom," and valuable pieces of experience to members of the team, but Mr. Bobb you really missed the target here. A sixteen, seventeen year-old boy barely hears the words of his parents, much less his teachers, and certainly nothing from a 42 year-old "want-to-be."

If you know anything about high school sports, and/or hockey, save yourself from this self-indulging book. Oh, by the way, why can I be so critical? I have just finished my 34th season coaching high school hockey, ninety-percent of it as a head varsity coach. Along with this, twenty-five years as a head varsity coach in two female sports, and thirty-six years as a high school classroom teacher have all allowed me to see just about everything. In my career, the players and teams of the past are in the books. Next season, all the pages start to be written again.

The author is constantly searching for emotional resonance and relevance, using events and information from the players', coaches and parents' lives, without ever really revealing much about his own life except in relation to his hockey playing. Yes, the absence of mention of Liam's mother is a very big gap and a weakness of the book, because the question is always there for the reader.

Coach Krzyzewski and his Daughter write a wonderfully inspiring book that is so true. Write-on Krzyzewski's!

Coach K scores a 3 pointer with this book. Words indeed have power to lift up or to tear down. The coach lifts us up to new levels with his short chapters on important words to anyone who aspires to greatness. This is a well written and inspirational book that encourages us all to look at the words that shape a well lived life.

Coach K is a great leader and coach, he thinks beyond the apparent and tries to reach to the need, which many leaders do not ever seek to see. His insight is valuable.

Learn great leadership skills that apply in the business world, sports world, or anywhere else in life. This book makes a great gift.

Coach K is an awesome coach but an even better person. I encourage everyone to read his books.

Do you like books about football, family problems, or steroids? If you answered yes to this question then Crackback is the perfect book for you. Miles Manning plays football for his highschool team. He appears to be just a regular guy. He doesn't live a regular life though. His parents are always fighting and have kept an important secret from him. To make matters worse his best friend is using steroids and they are not as close as they have been, and the girl that he likes disappoints him. Mile's gets a new football coach who dislikes him and disapproves of his play. His dad, who is supposed to be supportive only makes him feel worse. Found out how Miles overcomes all of theses obstacles and finds out the secret that his parents have been keeping from him. This book was a good one because it kept my attention, was the perfect highschool football player story and it had a good lesson. John Coy hooked me with his cliffhanger chapter endings. There is a surprise around every corner. This book will keep all highschool sports players and fans wanting more. I would say that this is a guy's book but girls will also enjoy it. In conclusion Crackback was a very hard book to put down and is the perfect story about Miles and his not so perfect life.

Josh Wenger

As a debut YA effort, I can't fault John Coy's CRACKBACK for trying. In fact, it shows hints of bigger things to come, but ultimately I think this novel will please most its niche audience only -- middle school-aged boys who love football. I plan to offer it to my students who claim they don't read because reading's too boring because I think this will be of interest to them if they love playing football.

Many other young readers will be disappointed or ambivalent about this book, however, as I was. Most notable to me was the overabundance of short, simple sentences in rather large font. They actually slowed me down because I wasn't able to get into any reading rhythm due to the "staccato-like" diction. My advice to Coy would be to mix it up with some longer sentences and paragraphs now and then.

I also thought the characterizations of both the protagonist's (Miles Manning's) father and one of his coaches (Coach Stahl) were too similar and too much like cardboard cutouts of creeps. There was an attempt at the end to salvage the father, but it just didn't go over so well. The good coach (Coach Sepolski), good teacher (Mr. Halloran), good little sister (Martha) and good mother (Mom) all had small roles here, so they didn't help to distract me from the Tweedledee and Tweedledum aspects of Dad and Stahl.

The same is true for the other football players on the team -- minor roles, overall. A field goal for Coy on his knowledge of football, however. It does come across as realistic because he knows his sport. One plot development -- the issue of steroid use -- kind of fizzled after showing promise early on. Ditto the plot points surrounding evil Coach Stahl. The end on that count is as unrewarding as a tie game after overtime.

What I liked best was Miles' point of view. I enjoyed some of his "quirky" thoughts about girls, adult hypocrisy, school, gays, and the importance (or nonimportance) of winning. Miles is not a stereotype like Dad or Coach Stahl, and readers will appreciate him as a real person with genuine thoughts and problems.

Coy, already famous as a picture book author for young children, is entering the YA field for the first time with this novel. I think he shows promise and, if I were a scout at the game, I'd put a check near his name to keep an eye on future works. If you have a kid who loves football (or if you ARE a kid who loves football), buy it and enjoy it. Otherwise it might be like paying a lot of money to watch the Arizona Cardinals play "NFL" football -- a tad disappointing.

Coy, John, Crackback, New York NY: Scholastic Inc., ©2005.
Pages 204


How does pressure from the coaches, news, parents, and fans affect a high school student who plays sports?

This book is about a kid name Miles Manning who is a starter at Wide Receiver for his varsity football team at 5'11'' and 155 pounds. He doesn't lift weights over the summer like rest of the guys, so he is weaker. The coaches are pushing him to work harder and listen to the coaches, but they still say that he catches the ball wrong. His friend offered him 2 pills that help him have an edge over everyone else and his friend says they're like a jolt of caffeine. Then later on his friends offered him some other pills to take. Miles does some research and finds out they are steroids.

His friends keep pushing him to take the pills so he can be bigger and stronger. His friends are getting bigger and bigger everyday, but the coach doesn't know they are taking steroids. The coach wants him to be big and strong like his teammates. He has a big choice to make taking the drugs and getting bigger plus hurting his body slowly or take the long way and keep his career.

My favorite part of the book is his final game because it's so intense and there's tons of action going on really fast. It feels like you are there watching them play out on the field and sometimes you feel like one of the players.

Overall I liked this book. The author, John Coy writes this book so you can't put it down. When you read it it's like watching a movie and sometimes you feel like you are there. Everyone should read this book. You get to see high school life, sports, girls, drugs, parties, and tons of other things in a high school student's life. This book is realistic fiction.

By Kyle Struiksma

Stunning, thrilling, fascinating, phenomenal, sports, one book you don't want to put down. Crackback. What does this mean. What kind of title is this? Think about football for one moment. Plays. Tackling. Running routes. Well the title of this book means/One play so well designed that it will crush your football dreams forever.

If you are in high school and play football then you will enjoy reading this book. As an18-year-old senior in high school, Miles Manning overcomes hell. He goes through peer pressure, overcomes fights, and still manages to do good in school. Have you ever played football? Have you ever been burned in football on a play that the other team scores on every time? If the whole team was counting on you and you were so nervous that you have no time to respond, and then BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM you are the first person to stop that play. What would you feel? What would you do?

Now one screw up and back at the bottom you are. This is a book that goes up to the climax and down to the bottom of boredom. There are lots of off your seat times in this book that will surprise you. This is a great book for those football players out there. This book is a great source to good football and to having fun doing it.

The book crackback has a realistic genre. It was written by John Coy. Also it was illustated by Marijka Kostiw. You got to give them both credit for this book. Because this book is an exciting novel that keeps you focused throughout the time you read. It's a high school and sports book. So if you like sports you will love this book. The sport they are playing in this book is football. High school football is one of the best times for football. The story is revolved around a young tennager fighting for a spot on the varsity fooball team for his school. The coach got sick and a new coach came in and made his life and tough one. The coach did not like the player, and it was a hard ride thoughout the year for the player. If I was looking at this book and I was deciding if i was going to read it or not. Since I have read it I would choose to read it again. I would recomened this book to anyone that love sports and who is addicted to it and remembers high school to read this book.

Going Long: Training for Ironman-Distance Triathlons (Ultrafit Multisport Training Series)
is a superb book for any athlete (beginner or pro)! Specially I liked the chapter about the mental training for the Ironman competition. I only can recommend it! Happy training!

The problem when you start training for a long endurance event like the Ironman is that every second athlete has his or her own opinion and way of training. This confused me a lot.

I decided to seek some professional help and use this book to train for my first Ironman and I can honestly say this book is remarkable. The level of detail is intense, so you have to be patient and read some sections several times to really grasp and remember all the advice given in the chapters, i.e. nutrition, discipline-specific training techniques, etc.

You also need to apply the knowledge with some common sense, because it has been written with advice for every athlete from novice to elite. So make sure you know where you fall on the scale and what you want to achieve and use the advice that is applicable to you.

But, in general, I found the training principles in this book to be accurate and now that I have completed an Ironman I can say that they work. Lately I have discovered that many of the Ironman athletes I meet also used this book to train from.

So you can buy and use it with confidence. Good luck!

Is agood book to reed and ,you can extract many positive advise,good review on diet.

Anyone training for an Ironman competition should check out these training tips. Triathletes will also find this to be an invaluable resource.

I have a few books for Tri and i found this very good source for those who would like to try IM or any races that equivalent to it. For beginners, start with other Tri books and when you're planning to prep-up for 50+ miles tri races, use this book as a guide.
I'm no expert but i did a few tri-races and this is my ultimate guide...i even sleep with it.