Athletics Books

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.

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.

My boyfriend bought me this book for Christmas and I loved it! I love my biographies chock full of details, and MARAVICH doesn't disappoint. For serious fans, it even has game stats. I especially loved that Pistol Pete's widow and sons collaborated with the authors, which gives the writing a personal touch. Better yet, the book has personal letters and diary entries from Pete. What more could you want?

The guy had an amazing life and died way too tragically, and I really enjoyed reading everything and more in MARAVICH.

I bought this book for my dad (at his request). He read it in only a few days. I have never seen my dad read anything that quickly. So, it must have been really good. If you know a basketball fan that was born in the 40s or the 50s - this is a great book for them.

I can summarize by saying that MARAVICH is a very
quick read. Each chapter's end makes you eager to
start the next. Once you pick it up, it is very hard to put it down.

"True" Pistol Pete fans and readers
who approach the book with some background
knowledge and genuine interest in Pete Maravich will
like this book. In MARAVICH,
readers get depth, meaty research and relevant
detail. I've read other accounts of Pete's life and compared to MARAVICH, they only scratch the surface. MARAVICH has all
the basic ingredients you'd expect....plus a lot more.

The highest compliment I could give MARAVICH (the book) is this....
I believe that Pete himself would have wholeheartedly endorsed it.
He would appreciate and be able to relate
to the extra-effort and attention-to-detail that was
over-and-above the basic minimum research that all
good authors must do. That's because Pete approached life
the same way. If he was committed to something
(basketball, Press, family, Christianity, fitness,
diet, etc.) he wasn't satisfied with cutting corners. Instead, Pistol Pete gave it his all,
dove into every aspect of it, got into the details,
and went the extra mile.

It only makes sense that an author who is writing about Pete's life would need to do the same. Wayne Federman did.

I give it an A+. Great subject, well-written book and a very smooth read. I highly recommend it.

Pete Maravich would have been my age had he lived. It was one of the worst days in my life when he died. The man could do things with a basketball and to his opponents that no other player could do during his time...and he did things that were not even imagined by those with whom he played with or against. Were there better shooters? Yes, but only one...Jerry West. Were there better ball-handlers? No! Was there anyone more fun to watch play this wonderful game of basketball? No! Think about it. He averaged 44 points per game in a 4-quarter college basketball game with no time clock and no 3 point line. This is the only significant sports record that will NEVER be broken...at least not during this century.

It is frankly boring to watch the NBA now since Bird, Jordan and Johnson have left the game. I don't care to see the countless tatoos with gang-related symbols on most every body. Maravich put out 100% every time he played. So did Jordan, West, Bird and Johnson. Now we have the prima-donnas demanding higher and higher salaries and then complain about earning only 14 million per year. The NBA is in trouble and will only make a "come-back" when someone like Maravich comes along again. So what is the new "new" thing that will bring the fans back to the NBA? My guess is that it will be someone who can inspire us again...just like Pete Maravich did. Read the book. If you know anything about basketball, you will thoroughly enjoy it.

This is the first Maravich biography that I have read, and I was impressed by the thoroughness of research. From the story of Pete's grandparents in Pennsylvania to his untimely death on a church basketball court to the current status of his wife and children, this book tells it all. Though he failed to achieve his ultimate dream--winning a championship--he ended up with something much better during the last five years of his life--inner peace as a gift from God. I witnessed Pete's final freshman game in Knoxville, Tennesse in 1967, and it was the most stunning sports event that I have ever seen. I had not seen such magic on the court before, and was immediately awed by his unforgettable performance. His freshman game-by-game statistics are not given in the book, and neither is the date of that game. I do know that he scored 741 points his freshman year, and those are not included in his college records. This is a wonderful book.

Rob Sleadmaker and Ray Browning deliver serious knowledge about athletic training.

The writers give you 21 spreadsheets for you to track your program (see appendix).

If you want to speed you through the book, follow this reading plan:

MUST Chapters (for Knowing, Insight)
-------------------------------------
1) [ch 11] Staying Motivated to Train
2) [ch 6] Fueling the Body for Training and Performance
3) [ch 2] Foundations of Systematic Training
4) [ch 7] Recovering Effectively from Training
5) [ch 4, to page 111] Doing SERIOUS Workouts

MUST Chapters (to Follow their System)
--------------------------------------
1) [ch 4, from page 111] Doing SERIOUS Workouts
2) [ch 3] Scheduling Your Training


OPTIONAL Chapters
-----------------
1) [ch 1] Determining Your Training and Competition Needs
2) [ch 8] Tracking Your Training
3) [ch 9] Managing Your Training Program
4) [ch 10] Optimizing Your Training for Racing

This is the first book a serious athlete should read on endurance and multisport training. It provides a great foundation for everything you will need to know to develop your own effective training program. The writing team of Sleamaker and Browning work well together. Sleamaker gives you the theory and the facts, and Browning puts them into practice.

It has a lot of good ideas on how to create a training schedule. This isn't the main book I use but I do revert to some of the ideas on occasion.

I use this book in order to build my training schedule and I enjoy any minute. The book explains the different components of the periodic training method and presents a practical way to develope a yearly log for different types of endurance events (road races up to the marathon distance, triathlons and duathlons up to ironman/ powerman distances, cross-country race, cross-country skiing). I use this books for over a year now, and I find it very helpul.



The fifth star is missing because I find that the books is lacking a more comprehansive view for the periodization within the training week.

This is a good book for people who have never done a sport at a high level, because it will show you how to do a good training and give you ideas for exercises, it is also for people who plan to do some sport for a special event (for example, training for a 1 week or more mountain hiking)

I would not really recommend this book to people who already do high level taining and who allready are in a training program, because they probably allready know most of the exercises and ideas of this book (or at least something equivalent)

It is a great book which can be very sad but it makes you want to keep reading the book. One thing I like in the book is how it teaches you a lot of life lessons. It makes you feel like you become a part of the main character's life(Bobby). He works as a teacher in a high school in Texas and coaches the baseball and football team. He has a wife (Ava) that he is very happy until there is a turn of events in his life. He is a great guy that goes threw some tough times in his life. In fact what he goes threw sounds so unreal but the book is based on a true story. I read this book because I wanted to learn more about his life after he was a guest speaker in my high school. He was a great speaker but he is also a great author. I recommend that everyone reads this book, especially if you like reading true stories. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.

Having met Mr. Petrocelli in april, when he came to our school before prom, i can truthfully say that i found this book extemely warm and heartfelt. He expressed so much in this one little book. When he came to our school he told his story. And it touched my heart. Hes a wonderful person with a very warm story to tell.

I have met Mr. Petrocelli, in 1995 at a Pride Conference. he had inspired many young kids with his story about the tragic loss of his wife. He is an amazing writer and I an amazing man to be able to share his story with the world is just wonderful.

If I could buy a million copies of this book and be able to teach a class on drunk driving, I would use is book as an example on how many lives are lost due to this unscrupulous act of irresponsibility.

I would love for you to buy this book, in hope you will feel compelled to read it, understand it and help others learn what it is like to lose a loved one like Mr. Petrocelli did.

Like the other reviewers, when I entered the autitoruim the morning Bobby came to speak, I was ready for an extra hour of sleep while another boring speaker told his story about how it's "wrong to drink" and "don't do drugs". Well, I along with everyone else in the room that morning, left uplifted and amazed. Bobby's story was so powerful and moving. I was truley amazed by his courage and strength to move on, and especially to stand up infront of hundreds of teenagers and tell his emotional story. I would recommend the book to anyone, but it would be even better if you could hear him speak for yourself.

Mr. Petrocelli came to my junior high school in 1993 and is the only guest speaker I have ever had effect me so much. After hearing his story, I read his book in a day, just to soak in the the added details. He is an inspirational speaker and a truly wonderful person. He gets his point across without being preachy, and doesn't use the same cliches. If you have the opportunity to see him, you definatly should.

This book is a very interesting one. The book describes how a young basketball star goes through his career from 8th grade to senior year in high school. The book shows Lebron's stuggles and accomplishments. It explains major deals with shoe companies. The book gives highlights from his most hyped high school games. The book shows all aspects of how Lebron made everyone believe the hype. Overall it was a good book and it is for anyone who loves reading about sports and athletes accomplishments.

Ryan Jones is a great basketball writer. In King James: The LeBron James Story he does a great job of trying to show the reader how amazingly good LeBron James is at basketball. Coach Bob Gibbons said about LeBron's performance in the Olympic trials, "I don't want to blow too much smoke and distort the kid's thinking, but I saw Kobe Bryant in tenth and eleventh grades, and I think this kid is more advanced than Kobe was." Like LeBron, Kobe Bryant was drafted out of high school and has led the Los Angeles Lakers to multiple NBA Championships.
Ryan Jones is editor-in-chief at SLAM, the monthly basketball magazine that combined the sport with hip hop culture at a time when the genre was becoming increasingly popular. The magazine carries advertising for basketball-related products, street-wear clothing and hip hop music, and it has been credited with helping to market hip hop culture and basketball as one. It is only fitting that Ryan Jones wrote his first national magazine feature on LeBron James. He thoroughly explains LeBron's involvement with SLAM magazine throughout the book. He lives in New York with his wife and son.
Although Jones seems a bit repetitive at times, his knowledge of basketball and great style shines though and creates an easy to read biography. In Chaper Four, he talks about the potential LeBron possessed in football as well as basketball: even though "there wasn't much national buzz on LeBron the football player, area football coaches knew better." Jones even compares him to the New England Patriots Pro-Bowl wideout, Randy Moss. While he mainly focuses on LeBron's basketball ability, his information about LeBron's high school football career is refreshing.
With all the hype about LeBron and his constant coverage on ESPN, this book reveals the truth about LeBron and his journey from moving in with his friend's family to his 90 million dollar sneaker deal with Nike. While the vocabulary can be a bit easy at times, the book a joy to read, especially if you are a total sports nut like myself. A stong strength of Jones is to tell the complete story of every little event in Lebron's life. His very descriptive writing explains aspects of basketball that makes this book a good pick for sports lovers and non sports lovers alike. I give this book an eight out of ten and recommend it highly.

This was quite an enjoyable read. I was fascinated by the rise and rise of this basketball prodigy due to all the hype surrounding him. There is no doubt that Lebron James is one hell of a talent after seeing many of his highlight plays on T.V, and on the net. This book details his performances in school for ST Vincent-ST Mary and other events, the frenzied interest from fans and media wanting to see him perform, sport commentators and coaches raving about him being the best thing in the sport of basketball, hummergate, speculation about his future career plans, and the fight for his feet between Adidas and Nike in which the latter won because the former could not offer huge amounts of money in the bidding war with its major rival. Great stuff.

King James: Believe the Hype, The LeBron James Story by Ryan Jones was a great book
to read it tells you about LeBron James early life and about his high school games and
when he goes into the NBA . He was born in Akron, Ohio on December 30, 1984.
He was mostly raised by his mother, LeBron went to school at St. Vincent-St. Mary
High School . He was the starting point guard . James averaged 18.2 points and 6
rebounds per game.Lebron James was also a star football player in addition to
basketball, LeBron was also First-Team All-Stateas a wide receiver for his high school
team. But, he didn't want to get hurt so he quit football and concentrated on playing
Basketball . In his junior year, he appeared on the cover of SLAM Magazine which
show everybody in the world who he was.In the NBA LeBron join the Cleveland
Cavaliers they made many changes to there lineup , adding Larry Hughes ,
Damon Jones and Donyell Marshall and many more . Now LeBrons James is Standing at
6 feet,8 inches and is 21 years old. That some information about what the book tells you
about. This was a great book and if you love basketball you should get this book.

This was a AWESOME book. It really looks into the real life of LEBRON JAMES and shows you his trip into stardom. This book is great if you like watching basketball careers grow because is probably the most popular young basketball players in the world today and this book did a really good job of showing how LEBRON is always improving his game. I have read a ton of sports autiobiographies and this one was probably the most inspiring because it took an indept look at the personal and also basketball part of LEBRON JAMES life.

I am trying to show this book to my son who is two years old. He gradually learnt to do the pose of the butterfly and the dog.

My 2 year old son loves this book. I am a yoga practitioner, so I thought it would be fun to get him this book. He loves it, and asks to "do Oga" as he calls it, and we do the poses together. He really likes it alot. It is a simple and fun book appropriate as an introduction to yoga for toddlers.

I got this book for my 2 year old boy and he loves the postures and has fun mentioning the names whilst doing them. It is a great introduction to yoga for young kids. No stories, no explanations that they don't understand, just the posture with a name of an animal and lots of color.

My daughter has had this book since she was 20 months old, and she is now almost 36 months. She still enjoys "making animals" and I anticipate she'll continue to enjoy it. One of the features of this book that I like is that there is an illustration of a child in the pose on one page and an illustration of the animal being mimicked on the facing page. There's also photos of real children doing the poses at the end. We enjoy the Sleepy Little Yoga book as well.

My daughter (14 months) really loves this book. I didn't know if she would and honestly purchased it because I practice, but she thoroughly enjoys the illustrations and the pictures of the toddlers in the poses. I am going to purchase for friends who have little ones.

Lincoln has written a very good book. He has interviewed many coaches, especially coaches at Dartmouth. For the record, John Lyons and Pat O'Leary have both been fired (the latter by the new returning coach Teevens, and later filed an age discrimination suit, which was thrown out). May be if Lyons had landed Slaughter, he may have saved his job, and Slaughter would not have ended his career as a backup secondary and kick returner at UCLA. Lincoln offers a valuable insight into elite schools and recruiting. This book should be read together with John T. Reed's 70+ page essay on his son's experiences with Ivy football recruiting (available on the internet, type in "John T. Reed Dan Reed Columbia" in google). Reed makes specific comments about the level of play in Ivy football (pretty good), and the down side to coaches pressuring players to commit during recruiting visits (Lincoln's book offers coaches' perspective).

Capsule summary:

Strengths: Clean crisp style, easy to read, good use of quotes from coaches, wide research, good forward by Fiedler. Do not be turned off by the name Nomad Press, which I had not heard of before.

Weaknesses: no index, organization could be tightened up here and there (but not too bad). Additional perspective of players would have offered a counterbalance to extensive interviews with coaches.

If you have a high school aged son or daughter who hopes to be an Ivy League athlete, this book is a must read.

My daughter, after reading Chris' book, learned what motivates the coaches and how to approach them in a straight-forward and ethical way. At the same time she was able to take control of the process and ultimately achieve her desired outcome, a scholarship offer from Stanford and a "Likely Letter" from her first choice, Dartmouth. She couldn't have done this without this resource.

I have a high school senior son who is looking to participate in college sports after graduation and I was looking for a book that would help provide some understanding of the whole Ivy recruiting process. This book provided great insight into the Ivy recruiting process from both the college coaches and administrators perspective. It provides the insight though true experiences of athletes, coaches and administrators. It also sheds light on the conflicts within the Ivy League about the process.

An excellent book for high school students and their parents interested in Ivy League and even NESCAC schools and how sports recruiting at those schools works. I learned about "likely letters", "supports" and other details that are otherwise difficult to learn, even from the coaches.

My only reservation is that with Harvard's recent decision to stop early admissions, and I assume others will follow, the book will need updating to reflect the changes in sports recruiting due to this.

A great learning tool for anyone connected with a high school athlete looking to play sports in college. Unfortunately, I read this too late to help. Just witnessed first hand a scenario whereby a "solid commitment" did not materialize at an Ivy - putting a student athlete in a very precarious spot. To the reviewer claiming that Lincoln was "creating a controversy and scandal that does not exist", I can personally tell you that Lincoln is right on the mark. I have already re-read the book and advocate that all who are ever thinking about entering the recruiting process should take detailed notes.

The information presented was very solid, and obviously based on a lot of knowledge and research. However, it seems to me that the target audience for this book should be coaches and professionals. The average person may feel overwhelmed by all the data presented. Even your average gym rat who works out regularly may have a hard time applying the principles in this book to his or her lifting program.

".....Science and Practice of Strength Training is an OUTSTANDING REFERENCE AND TEXT that not only presents the scientific principles behind strength training, but also provides practical recommendations for optimizing muscular strength and development....."
[from the book of the back cover]

I am very satisfied with this book.It's very interesting scientific strength book who attempts to join scientific strength approach with one side and practice on the other side.Book is very influenced from work dr.Zatsiorsky with weightlifters and throwers in former Soviet Union but I am also interested in non linear periodization from dr.Kraemer.
Many thanks to autors

As the name implies, this book is a scientific analysis of the practice of strength training. Rather than the typical myths advocated by publications such as Men's Health and other popular sources for training information, this book provides the scientific foundations for strength training. It helps cut through the many myths surrounding strength training and provides in depth scientific analysis by one of the world's leading biomechanists, kinesiologists, and strength training experts. Zatsiorsky has influenced the weightlifting, powerlifting, strong man, and sports training worlds as well as academia. He describes theories as well as methods. This book belongs on the shelf of any serious student, professor, coach, or athlete. I, myself, am a tennis player and have benefitted greatly from this book. Clearly one for the ages, this book is excellent. Worth at least 100$.

I read this book upon the recommendation of Louie Simmons from one of his
[...] articles. I can safely say that this is one of the best books out there. It contains legitimate research and case studies of ELITE world class athletes. You won't find a perfect program here, because no such thing exists... Rather, you will find principles that you can employ to your training and research results based on other world class athletes (most notably Olympic weightlifters).

Best part of all, the text isn't infested with bodybuilding magazine type advice that distorts many trainees philosophy. The bottom line is that 3 sets of 8-12, pre-exhaustion and pyramid sets among other techniques are flawed and ineffective for elite strength athletes and Olympic athletes.

I have looked a while for a great conditioning program for football players and when I found this book, I was amazed by the detail, quality, and effort obvoiusly put into it by the authors which made it a great conditioning book for High School football players and beyond. The authors incorporated not only the physical ways in which to get better but mental ways as well which are both important for conditioning as well as the successful winning of football games by not only being ready on the outside but also believing and knowing you can do it on the inside. The whole conditioning program is, when performed with the best potential and effort, a challenging one that will more than likely get you the preperation you need. These authors, coaches of the University of Nebraska football team which is famous for this strenghth and conditioning program, first introduce you to factors that build on one another to make a great football player and then give a very complete program of conditioning and training including a nutrition and shopping list for best atheletes to use for great energy. The structure of the book and organization is exceptional and it literaly gives you all the information you will ever need on how to prepare for football in any aspect. It contains specific exersises for speed, flexibility, strenghth, and more, and contains workout plans, inconclusive descripiton, and even helpful football tips in the process.
I would strongly recommend this book to any football athelete looking to prepare for football through conditioning at any level because of the very helpful information you will find in this book. I guarantee this book will never sit on your shelf too long if you get it because you will be refering to it constantly. I know I made the right choice by buying this book.

This is a great book because the program's strengths are based on what you want to do for football. If you want to get big and strong to play oline/dline then it has a stellar weight program. But if you are looking to develop speed and quickness it has a series of drills for that too. You just have to concentrate on the area that suits your needs the most. Excellent description of all the drills and excersies as well.

Gives a in-depth view on football specific training and is helpful in developing a custom program for yourself. All-in-all worth the read.

From the school that really started weight traininging in college football, Coach Arthur has done a great job of setting forward the principles that we should use in designing the programs that we use to build our athletes. You need this book.

The book "Complete Conditioning for Football" is a must for any football player. Inside includes performance needs; conditiong principles; testing, evluating, and goal setting; flexibility training; lifting techniques; speed drills; agility drills; nutrition and rest; and last but not least conditioning workouts and programs.

Performance Needs:

This chapter includes a performance pyramid which if followed can lead to "making the play", or success on the football field. It includes character, conditioning, ability, practice, game, and with the top brick, performance. Also it breaks down each of the components, exa. Character- belief, resolve, discipline, courage... and gives a descriptive explanation for each of them also.

Conditioning Principles:

This chapter guides you in developing and implementing a program to allow you to peak the four athletic indicators of speed, agility, power, and endurance. It breaks down and explains the principles of specificity, overload, and periodization.

Testing, Evaluating, and Goal Setting:

This chapter outlines step-by-step procedues on how to safely test and evaluate athletes' fitness and athletic abilities so ou can develop the objectives and specifics of your conditioning program. Here it gives some tests, such as vertical jump test, pro agility run test, 10- and 40- yard dash test, 300-yard shuttle run test, and even height, weight, and waist measurement tests. It also gives you percentile ranking charts of all the positions in high school and college. With your test results you can see where you rank among those in the 10-yard and 40-yard dashes, pro agility run, and the vertical jump. Percentile ranks are from 5-100.

Flexibility Training:

This chapter gives you the proper warm-up routine (high knees, heel ups, ect.), stretching routine (partner stretches), and mobility drills that should be done during the conditioning workouts (warm-ups and stretching before, mobility drills after the workout).

Lifting Techniques:

Provides valuable information on proper technique of all the lifts, to warming-up, spotters, breathing, and so on and so forth. Strength training exercises include: explosive, complementary, base strenght, and specialty. Not many weight rooms that I know of have the complementary, or "ground based jammer", so in the workouts in the back of the book give replacements for these lifts if the jammer is not available.

Speed Drills:

Included are 29 drills for speed (2), acceleration (9), plyometrics (9), and resisted speed (9). Also gives the proper sprint technique especially used for testing the 40.

Agility Drills:

Included are 58 drills for improving your agility. The drills include ropes (8), bags (15), backpedal drills (11), cones (12), line drills (6), and jump rope drills (6).

Nutrition and Rest:

Basically describes all the foods you should eat to make it short. This is a chapter you should allow as many people as possible to read, since without nutrition, athletic performance is low. Also gives a grocery shopping list with all the foods listed under the vitamins and minerals it has in them (example: almonds, corn oil, ect. are listed under vitamin e) and a section of drinking fluids and getting plenty of sleep.

Conditioning Workouts and Programs:

Guides you to building a successful conditioning program. Lists all the speed/agility drills and notes which drills are appropriate for which positions. Included are sample programs in development and peak phases for the positions. Also included in this chapter is the lifting programs for the beginner (base, development, in-season), intermediate (base, development, peak, in-season), and advanced (base, development, peak, in-season). This is an absolutely outstanding weight program in my opinion, with lifting days on monday, tuesday, thursday, and friday.

All in all, this is the complete book for any football player looking to get in great shape for the next season. It is mainly a year-round program by giving types of workouts (base, ect.) for each month of the year in which to apply the right workout to. I also recommend the book "52-Week Football Training" to combine the exercises in the books if you want a more varied program. I suggest taking the time to looking into "Jumping Into Plyometrics" for a plyometric program to add into your schedule and "Play Football the NFL Way" for techniques and tips to help you excell in the game of football.