Athletics Books

It's a thoughtful collection that goes from Socrates to Vince Lombardi to Charles Barkley. My first copy was gift and I went out and bought two more. One for a friend who coaches JV football and one for my son's x-country coach. Who said this? "Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parent, gobble their food..." Surprise! Socrates 400B.C. Need a quick quote for a dinner... you are sure to find one. My high rating is because I wouldn't loan this book for fear of not getting it back and I want it around for my grandchildren.

I got goose bumps as I read Dick Collins' book. Collins' is right on target as to how to build the heart and soul of a High School track program. If you're a track coach; BUY THIS BOOK - get to work and start changing lives. Winning will be a by-product.

This book takes the reader/novice coach through all the basic skills to teach the young player. In addition it has 8 one hour pre planned practice sessions with drills. There are practice plans for different age groups from 8 through 14 year olds. If the coach follows the practice plans they will take the players through all the basic baseball skills. An excellent coaches manual. I have used for 6 years.

Every one that, being in sport, coaches children and wants to do this job having always in mind the interests and the needs of children and youth that is near him, must read this book because it provides him with different kind of informations, from physiology to pedagogy, but mainly because the book will give him the fundamentals to built a philosophy for his work with young people.

This book covers quite a bit and isn't too technical. Many of the suggestions are doable with any level of sport.

Table of Contents

Part 1 The Concept of the Coaching Process

1 The Coaching process: an overview
2 Coaching philosophy and coaching behavior
3 Coaching effectiveness

Part 2 The Application of Sports Science in Coaching

4 Psychological considerations of effective coaching
5 Applied Physiology in sports coaching
6 Skill learning principles: implications for coaching practice
7 Biomechanics and its application to coaching practice

Part 3 Applying the Coaching Process in Specific Contexts

8 Coaching Children
9 Individualization of training programmes
10 Overtraining and the coaching process
11 Coaches' decision making
12 Coaching and the management of performance systems
Index


From the back cover:

The coaching process in sport - Whhat is it? Who is Involved? How does it work in Practice?
The Coaching process is both eclectic and multi-discilplinary. It is the coach's role to manage the various parts of the process to form an effective strategy for improving sports performance in the athlete or team.

The reader will:
-Learn about the principles of coaching
-Find examples of how these are translated into practice
-Appreciate how sports science is effectively applied to coaching
-Understands what constitutes a successful coaching strategy
-Acquire the knowledge necessary to enahnce sporting performance

Not only will this book be of interest to practising coaches, but it is also essential reading for those studying sport and exercise science, coaching or coaching science at all levels. The athlete, and those who contribute to the coaching process (sport scientists, team managers, doctors and physiotherapists), will also benefit from reading how the coaching process is best applied to enahnce performance and avoid complications of overtraining, injury and burn-out.

Great book for any track coach, new or old! This book explains more than just the basics!

Very good youth coaching book. Well worth the purchase price. After reading this book you will be able to coach children well.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Developing A Coaching Philosophy

Chapter 1 Your Coaching Objectives
Chapter 2 Your Coaching Style

Part 2 Sport Psychology

Chapter 3 Evaluating Your Communication Skills
Chapter 4 Developing Your Communication Skills
Chapter 5 Principles of Reinforcement
Chapter 6 Understanding Motivation

Part 3 Sport Pedagogy

Chapter 7 Preseason Planning
Chapter 8 Preparing Your Instructional Outline for the Season
Chapter 9 Preparing for a Practice
Chapter 10 Teaching Sports Skills

Part 4 Sport Physiology

Chapter 11 Principles of Training
Chapter 12 Developing Your training Program
Chapter 13 Nutrition for Young Athletes

Part 5 Sports Medicine

Chapter 14 Injury Prevention
chapter 15 First Aid for Athletic Injuries
Chapter 16 rehabilitation of Sports Injuries

Part 6 Other Useful information

Chapter 17 You and the Law
Chapter 18 A Parent Orientation Program

FOREWARD from the book
An estimated 12 to 15 millions young athletes participate in organized youth sports in the United States. As a group these young people represent one of our country's most important resources. as individuals they are their parents' most valued possessions.

Yet all too often we as sport adminisatrors and parents casually entrust our sons and daughters to men and women who, as research has shown, have tremendous impact on our children's lives. the ramifications of this practice have come to haunt youth sports programs over the last decade. Now, as never before, there is an outcry for trained, competent coaches of youth sports.

Filling the void of meaningful educational materials for coaches, parents, and sport administrators is Coaching Young Athlete. This book written by four of the country's leading experts in sport psychology, sport physiology, sport pedagogy, sports medicine, and sport administration, ivites your reading. Coaching Young Athletes is a must for all concerned about young people and sport in our country today.

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.