Athletics Books

Steve Ilg is an interesting character and an incredibly fit man. I have been working out for 15 years, but when I tried some of the programs in this book--they tested my will! Its a terrific book to give an athlete new training ideas. The concept of changing your training routine it really useful. How many of us fall into the routine of doing the same thing over and over again? Of course, Ilg's merging of the spiritual, intellectual and physical is also awesome.

I never dreamed that working out could be such a spiritual journey.This work is TRULY innovative.There is NOTHING like it in the world. I have studied this work for over 7 yrs.It has taken me taken me on a journey that to this day continues to inspire me.We are blessed to have this book!

this book is one of the best bargains about outdoor sport on the market today. it's 450+ pages are jam packed with tips on equipment and technique, other books to read, phone numbers . .on and on and on.

nearly one third of the book is devoted to sport specific training programs-complete with illustrations-distilled from a lifetime devoted to outdoor sport both competitive and non competitive.

besides nordic and alpine skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, ice climbing and mountaineering, the winter athlete covers a lot of ground that's not snow covered as well. there are chapters on cycling (road & mtb), skating, rock climbing, trail running, kayaking . .

there is something in this book for everyone. everytime i pick it up i learn something new.

along with sport specific training advice, ilg also covers general strength and endurance training, nutrition, flexibility and mental preparation.

ilg's training philosophy is not without it's critics. he believes that everything an athlete does can be considered training. how you live your life is how you perform your sport. ilg is apt to tell a weight lifter to free his mind and his body will follow or a runner to "run with the earth not upon it." ilg's writing style is informative and fun. he loves the natural world and it shows.

you can accept his philosophy or not. for the humble sum of twenty bucks you get a stunning buffet of information that you can partake of or leave alone.

what more can i say. winter athlete rocks.

This book is a must read for all people who venture outdoors in pursuit of sport. While the emphasis is on the winter sports, the lessons transfer easily to all seasons. What is refreshing & unique about Steve's approach is his refusal to compartmentalize sport and exercise into another item to be checked off a to do list. His approach teaches that the lessons of effort and grace and persistence learned on the slopes & trails & tracks can and should transfer to the daily activities of life. A more unique book you will not find. Buy this to increase your enjoyment & skill of your chosen winter sport and you will get that benefit & much more.

"The books arrived today. I have informed Messr. Albert Camus that, despite his having won a Nobel prize in literature, he would have to share my mind, bedstand, and reading focus with The Winter Athlete." - George Watson, Boulder, CO

Listen. This book is it. Drop any program you are on and follow this book. It involves everything from weight training to proper conditioning and even adds plyometrics for the complete combination of power, strenght, speed, agility, and stamina. I've never gained more mass and strength in one year in my entire life. This tells you exactly what to do and when to do it. This is so intense I recommend finding a mentor or a lifting partner to follow this with you to keep motivated. If football is your life like it is mine, buy this and you will become a better athlete. Period.

This book provides a great training plan for players aged 16 to 45. Very comprehensive, easy to use and well illustrated. Noticed results within 6 weeks. Includes not only weight and conditioning training, but also drills to improve agility, foot speed and balance. This reference can serve as the basis for designing a team or individual training program for any level of play.

I have only been doing this program for a little while, and it is as great as everyone says it is. Someone earlier said it is great for 16-45 year olds, but Im about to turn 15 and it works great for me. It would also work great for someone over 45, as their are at leat 10 different exercises for each body part to choose from. I suggest you stop whatever program you may be doing right now and try this one, I have looked into numerous other programs and attended camps and this is by far the best program I've found do far.

I'm a woman in training for the IWFL (yes, there is women's football; check out californiaquakefootball.com.) This book has helped my training immensely. It covers just about everything. All lifts are expressed as a percentage of your maximum single-repetition weight (e.g., 8 x 60%)--which means I can use it as easily as the big boys. Bring a calculator to the gym, or else sit down and figure out the numbers beforehand, unless you are one of those people that can instantly calculate 60% of 130 to the nearest 5... well, you get the idea...

Buy this book & be bigger, stronger, faster. What else do you want?

Man, I can tell you, if you what a complete workout plan, this one's all that and more. Especially the first two weeks of the off-season, resistance training workouts, if you go maximally through those workouts like Ben Cook describes, you are going to be left at the end having to have some one else take your shirt off. I mean you are all messed up, but in a good way. This book was exactly what I needed. I'm on week 7 right now, (I started at the end of my high school football season) and I already feel bigger and stronger. Mr. Cook says that consistency is the key, and so far I havn't missed a workout. It seems to really be paying off I think. It'll pay off for you too I'll bet. GET THIS BOOK!

This book is the best I've ever read on the subject of young female athletes; Silby and Smith have a complete understanding of the challenges faced by girls who are involved in athletics, and the book gives example after example of how a young female athlete can cope with various critical issues. As the step-father of a female high-school athlete whose team won the Maryland soccer championship, I can attest to how valuable the book has been to her.

Silby knows her stuff, and Smith's prose is clear, concise, and always on the mark. Interestingly, Smith is also the co-author of the book, "Just Give me the Damn Ball," written with football-star Keyshawn Johnson.

If you've got a daughter involved in athletics, this is the book for her (and you'll find it useful, too). I can't recommend the book more highly--it's great.

What an incredable book! As a skaters mom, I found it insightful,informative, and amazingly DEAD ON! My 12 year old daughter has gone through all the doubts and anxiety that comes with the sport of Figure Skating. This book has been a wonderful guide to handling all the situations that arise. Even if your skater is an amazing talent and you never come across the problems of self-esteem, performance anxiety, or "bad skate days", you must, MUST BY THIS BOOK ANYWAY...JUST IN CASE!

I have coached club volleyball for six years and have been a club director for three years, a lot of the lessons that Dr. Silby presents are pretty lessons that I have learned over the years through sheer hard lessons. I wish that I had this book to reference when I first started to coach young women.

Dr. Silby's book has been less a revelation but a reinforcement of what I had learned these last few years. This is not to say that I learned nothing from the book, on the contrary, I feel like I have gained important nuanceson communicating with young women and allowing them to tell me how I can help them get better and stronger both physically and mentally. An invaluable book indeed.

The only slight problem is that the book is geared toward the coaches of both individual sports and team sports, so not all the lessons are applicable completely.

I would recommend this book for anyone who coach, or are looking to coach. The lessons embodied in the book will make the road to success in coaching much smoother.

As a father of 10-year-old and 6-year-old multi-sport female athletes (and their 4-year-old sister fast on their heels), and a coach of my girls' soccer and softball teams, I feel relieved that someone with the personal experience of having been an athlete and now working with athletes took the time to share their experiences and advice. Since my daughters also all figure skate, the personal experiences of the author's skating career are particularly insightful. Dr. Silby does an excellent job covering a wide range of topics and providing poignant positive examples for parents and coaches to use to better enjoy and improve their athlete's trying, joyous, frustrating, and fulfilling young lives. Thanks, Dr. Silby!!

Be aware, this book is more like Sports Psychology 101 than it is understanding and guiding female athletes. If you are a coach working with female athletes and you are looking at better ways to coach, read some of the UNC Womens National Team Soccer books. If you are looking for an intermediate book on Sports Psychology with examples using female athletes, this is what you get. It deals with individual issues for specific athletes with little applications to team sports. Parents who are looking to help their daughters with some psychology issues will find this book helpful. However, the remedy is usually seek professional help. This is an unique and rare sports psychology book geared towards female athletes.

This was a gift for my husband. He loves it! It is about more than just football. It has heart.

"Hurricane Season" is a true story about triumph through hardship for a private Christian school's football team in New Orleans overcoming the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and Rita. This book takes a personal look at the devastation that Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita caused within six weeks. It's about a High School football coach's and his players' commitment to their school and team in midst of chaos and turmoil. It's about how football can pull a community together. I particularly liked reading how the coach motivated his players and how he taught them to be men. It was heartwarming to see how much the coach loved his players and cared about their personal lives and not just how they played football.

Another aspect that really touched me was J.T.'s close relationship and admiration for his father. His father built the school and was a big part of the football team. After the father died, J.T. still thinks of him often and wishes he could still run things past him. He feels a real sense of responsibility to make his dad proud and run the school well.

The ending of the book is very moving and emotional when the team finally gets to play football after it looked like they wouldn't even have a season. As I read about the games, it felt like I was right there in the stands watching and cheering for them. This book started out slow and was pretty sad, but is definitely worth reading to get an inside look at what the people of New Orleans went through during Katrina and how a football team really jelled. It certainly made my few problems look totally insignificant in comparison.

Karen Zemek, author of My Funny Dad, Harry

I can't say enough good things about this book!! This book is remarkable!! It tells the story about how people dealt with Hurrican Katrina and the aftermath and a remarkable man, J. T. Curtis, Head football coach and principal of the John Curtis Christian School. How he and his family brought together a school and the football team is an unbelievable story. Their story will make you cry, laugh and cheer!! I really enjoyed this book A LOT!!!

Gerard Zemek
Husband of author of "My Funny Dad, Harry"

Hurricane season is an excellent complement to Douglas Brinkley's " The Great Deluge." While Brinkley provides an excellent analytical and scholarly account of Hurricane Katrina that should set the standard for many years; Hurricane Season captures the powerful emotional dimensions. Though grounded in the story of a high school football team, it transcends normal sportswriting by speaking to the bigger panorama of life, suffering, loss, and inspiring tales of recovery and fortitude.
With so many aspirations and dreams hanging in the balance, the J.T. Curtis School and football team regroup after enduring catastrophe and devastation and become a beacon of hope and solace for many of the victims.
Replete with an abundance of anecdotes and personal accounts, Thompson weaves their stories into a gripping narrative that will find appeal among readers of all genres. This is a stirring and fast paced treatment of those perilous days that is both wrenching and redeeming.

Lest we forgot the terrible tragedy that hurricane Katrina wrought, the two years of its aftermath magnifies still, the will to prevail. This is evident as thousands attempt to put their lives back together. Against all odds despite the hand of fate dealing a devastating blow to status quo, a group of courageous kids purposed not to allow angst to color the proverbial agony of defeat. Their story is typically told in author Neal Thompson's poignant book, HURRICANE SEASON. What a remarkable tale told amid the idea of overcoming the sheer force of a natural disaster. The author captures a truly extraordinary picture of boys and men doing what needs to be done with a sense of purpose that give new meaning to hope. This is the story of coach J.T. Curtis and a team that wouldn't quit when most would have simply thrown in the towel. John Curtis Christian School -- the Patriots, were a team of destiny that won you over once you read how they managed to allow rays of hope to illuminate sunshine on cloudy days eradicating the pervasive feeling of sadness...Let me tell you how they did it!

They did it with moxie, determination and an unbelievable test of faith. The book is a story that tugs at your heart and compels you to want to read it hoping for an ending that is akin to a `happily ever after' effect. Neal Thompson wrote with a clear mission to bring clarity to a group of kids that had reason to play with reckless abandon. The book is based on a majority of interviews conducted with Coach J.T., faculty members, students of John Curtis, many of the 2005 school year Patriots and their families, et al. The amazing thing about the book, the storm, and aftermath is the fact that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita gave us a chance to witness their fury on television with countless newspaper stories, and survivor accounts in magazines and online blogs...but the sheer affect it had on the people who suffered, the places they destroyed, and the things that will forever be associated with them, nothing can top this outstanding book for significant meaning in a reflective way.

The backdrop has a legendary football coach, albeit winning and charismatic looking at a rebuilding year in 2005. Despite losing his star quarterback to a rival school with a better chance at winning and the philosophy of team discipline, nothing could stop his drive for perfection - accept a lady on a mission! Katrina struck with impunity forcing players to abandon the city along with the multitude that called New Orleans home. However, John Curtis School survived with limited damage, allowing it to become one of the first schools to reopen. The book does a credible job of telling in graphic detail how Coach Curtis struggled to find games to resume the new season. His players battered and mentally beaten, were amazingly anxious to try to return to a sense of normality, and a ring of hope for their futures. All of this was based on a coaches' determination to spur his team to greater heights restoring self-esteem. I loved this book, especially the fact that it gives a good account of a proud school with an intrinsic view at Hurricane Katrina and how it affected the community-at-large. The author gave you a sense of concern for the families, how the government fumbled, and in the end, how a team scored the winning touchdown!

Sports fan or not, I have no doubt that Neal Thompson told a story worth reading, replete with facts, figures, and detail that takes nothing away from its 308 pages. This is a `feel good' story where it merits a chance for all readers to experience chaos written in a way to dispel notions of despair, yet give credence to overcoming odds for the thrill of victory. Thank you Neal Thompson for this book. I have no problems rating it 5 stars out of 5, and will encourage others to buy it where books are sold.

The Magic Soccer Ball has become a must read in our home, both my 15-year old daughter & 3 year-old son love it. It is my son's favorite book. After reading the book, he decided he wants to be a goalkeeper so he can use his hands to stop the ball from going into the goal. The book is wonderfully illustrated and very informative. When my son attends his sisters soccer games he will often point out things that he learned from the book. Not only did my son learn a lot from reading The Magic Soccer Ball, so did I. We look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series.

The magic Soccer Ball: The Soccer Field" is a charming, informative and educational book for young children that not only teaches the rudiments of the game but incorporates math (shapes of and in the field), vocabulary (Cleats, out of bounds)and geography (Brazilian main caracter). It is a delightful narrative told by Rone, a famous soccer ball. The field is described in easy to understand terms and the illustrations are appealingly large and colorful. I highly recommend this book for any young child soccer buff or not.
Jean Doctor-Elementary Teacher in New York State

The magic Soccer Ball: The Soccer Field" is a charming, informative and educational book for young children that not only teaches the rudiments of the game but incorporates math (shapes of and in the field), vocabulary (Cleats, out of bounds)and geography (Brazilian main caracter). It is a delightful narrative told by Rone, a famous soccer ball. The field is described in easy to understand terms and the illustrations are appealingly large and colorful. I highly recommend this book for any young child soccer buff or not.
Jean Doctor-Elementary Teacher in New York State

I love this book because helps me and my friends play better and follow all the game rules. I play soccer for 3 years with my team in Michigan and is a lot of fun. I ask everyone that loves soccer as much as I do to read it. It will help you play better.

Valerie O. ( 8 years old)

The Magic Soccer Ball is a great resource to introduce key concepts of the game of soccer to children in a fun and simple way. The illustrations are colorful and engaging. I look forward to purchasing new titles from this series as they become available.

Although I have coached Football before this was my first attempt at ruining kids Baseball experience. :) I really wish that I had read something like this prior to doing any kind of coaching. The chapters on choosing your team and dealing with parents are excellent.

The drills are also helpful but other baseball coaching books are equally good in this aspect.

So far all of the books I've found are designed for coaching 9-12 year olds, this one included. I'm currently working with 6-8 year olds in a pitching machine league. This is the only drawback to this book I can see.

If you are only buying one book to help with coaching a youth Baseball team, this one delivers all the tools needed. Most are simply drill books (which have their purpose). Managing Little League Baseball will help a beginner coach understand everything he needs to get started.

Thought this was a great tool for me (coach) and the kids on our team.

This book is outstanding and obviously written by someone who knows what he is talking about. My only comment is that it is not only for Little League baseball but any baseball program for youth such as Pony/Colt, Dixie league and others. Other than the rules that are unique to the Little League organization, the rest of the book is applicable to nearly any program. His recent update is even better. As a former Umpire in these programs I was particularly impressed in his comments about that part of the program. Strongly recommend this book to both coaches, parents and players.

I found this book reinforced some of the more successful things I'd been doing as a coach and gave me many other tips I intend to put into use this season. The author is methodical in his approach and it is easy to see why he never had a losing season in 15 years of coaching Little League. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to do a good job coaching youth baseball.

This is a necessary and inspiring addition to any coaches library. It made me want to send a fan letter to the author.

After battling with a school physical education project on training principles, I found this book in our library and WOW, the assignment was easy! This book really made good practical sense and turned my essay from boring science to cool information. I now find myself wanting to read all the sports magazines to find out more about how world class athletes train and what they eat. Sounds to me like some of them need to buy a copy of this book to read!

Peak Performance is a fantastic resource and a great read. It demystifies scientific concepts and provides plenty of practical tips. The quotes make the book truely enjoyable to read. Anyone with a question about sports science and sports nutrition will find the answer in this book.

Finally a book that actually uses the peer reviewed literature. It was a pleasure to read this book knowing that you were getting factual and scientifically valid information. If you want to know what works in training and nutrition this is the book. Now I dont have to buy all those supplements - and have I saved a heap of $'s.

Peak Performance is the perfect companion for the athlete or coach looking for every ounce of accurate practical information available from sports scientists. John Hawley and Louise Burke (world leaders in sport related science) have teamed up to produce the "lay-persons" guide to improved athletic performance. Peak performance introduces us to the founding fathers of modern athletic training. Our authors then explore the facts that have been uncovered by exercise scientists attempting to discover proof of what produces optimal performance. An excellent blend of theory and practice!

There are so many good points about this book I hardly know where to start. What impresses me most is that the authors have maintained a balanced and rational view on the many diverse and sometimes conflicting inputs - lab. tests, experience in the sport, folklore, practicalities - all of these impinge on the attitudes of athlete and coach, and can result in a lot of confusion and uncertainty. The book does an excellent job in unravelling these tangled strands of knowledge and half-knowledge to present the a clear and accurate picture to the reader. Uncertain points are made clearer, several myths are debunked (some of my own misconceptions were cleared up). Yet where the truth remains hidden or is unclear this is commented upon. Concerning scientific studies the source material is extensive and up to date.

The layout and language are so clear and reader-friendly, and the material so interesting that I found it hard to put the book down. However, I'd have to advise readers not to try to take in too much at a time.

The few inaccuracies in some of the details didn't detract from the message or the overall quality. There is one slightly surprising omission, namely the absence of any discussion of the Conconi test for aerobic performance. Nevertheless, the sections on training are excellent; the ones on nutrition are even better.

This is a great book. I started running again at 49 years of age and thought that I should just be able to go out and run, when it wasn't working well I was discouraged. After reading this book I have a whole new routine and feel great. Even have the right size and type of shoes. I have recommended it to several other people.

As a former late 40's, near-obese person I have been having a great deal of success with this program, since starting in mid-November. Each week I see better results and have been able to do more running. My suggestion for anybody purchasing this book is to follow the program as written and not to try to do too much too soon. As a "want it now" society, we tend to neglect the importance of time with things such as weight loss. Be patient--it will happen! Happy running!

As the title of this book says, this is the perfect book for you if you have been bitten by the running bug and you want to start properly.

I had been trying to become a runner on my own but was unsuccessful. After reading this book, I discovered I was doing a lot of things wrong. Jeff Galloway's direct approach and positive writing inspired me to become consistent with my running program.

I thought that running was the most boring sport on the planet. I was more of a sprinter short term running sport person. For some reason I picked up this book and became enthralled by it. It made me understand the mechnaics of running and why Mr. Galloway loves it. To the point now where I run every other day, I look in the book to determine what I need to do before race day, what to eat etc. In essence love the book and I was not a runner until I read this book.

I bought this book after I learned that I have all the signs of the triad and was struggling to understand both how I developed my health problems and how I can recover. This book answered all of my questions. It also helped me realize that I am definitely not alone.

The book is written in an engaging and easy-to-read style, which makes the medical information easy to comprehend. The book also includes profiles of various female athletes and athletic women. It seems likely that every reader will identify with at least one of the profiles. In addition, Dr. Otis uses great phrases that one can recall when she needs to remind herself of the goals. My favorites are "too fit to quit" and "too thin to win."

Whether you're an athletic woman or someone who cares for an athletic woman, I highly recommend this book. It will be a steep climb to health, but this book leaves me confident that I can be fit and healthy again.

I am a male coach of female soccer players. I would go so far as to say that the depth of knowledge contained in this book is beyond that which many coaches of team sports would search for. However, coaches who are interested in getting the best from their athletes, rather than having athletes fit their own personal coaching agendas, will find in these pages essential truths that will illuminate their coaching. There has been a strong social tendency for women's understanding of ability and success to be measured by male standards (the sense of athletic body image in connection with performance, which is dealt with in detail, is only one of them driven by this perspective), and this book is thankfully one which reminds us that women are not only entitled to be judged as women, but need and deserve to be so. As coaches, and certainly as male coaches, we cannot help our female athletes realise their potential until we understand them better and give them credit for being who they are, and encourage them to be who they are. This book helps us do just that.

Books which honestly deal with the pressures and concerns of female athletes are rare, and this one should be required reading for every active woman from twelve to sixty. There is lots of information out there on how to be thin but far less on how to be fit. Otis and Goldingay are among the very few to acknowledge that they are not one and the same. This is not a book about eating disorders - though they are intelligently discussed. Nor is it a book about how to get in shape. It's much more. The authors honestly address medical issues such as amenorrhea and osteoporosis, provide information on nutrition, injuries and maintaining optimal energy for performance. Most important of all, they are medical professionals finally urging athletic women to be as strong as they can be. For anyone who's ever struggled between the twin camps of thin and fit, this book MUST go to the top of the pile.

The Athletic Woman's Survival Guide covers a gamut of issues concerning women athletes including eating disorders, amenorrhea, osteoporosis, body image. One of the most important chapters is on getting and giving help, forming a support team, getting referrals, the journey to recovery while continuing training, and communicating effectively with family, friends, teammates, and coaches. The Athletic Woman's Survival Guide concludes with an excellent chapter on "Peak Performance: Preventing the Triad" and sites specifically what the woman athlete can do, what her friends can do, what her family can do, what schools and organizations can do, what their men can do, and what coaches and athletic departments can do to assist the woman athlete to thrive, prosper, and perform in the competitive world of athletic competition. Highly recommended for personal, professional, and athletic department reference libraries, The Athletic Woman's Survival Guide is enhanced with references, resource lists, and a comprehensive index.

This book is a must for all active women. This book has everything! I especially enjoyed the comprehensive case studies of accomplished women athletes and how they took control of their health issues. This book covers, in depth, eating disorders and how to overcome them. It also covers all women's health issues from menstruation to injuries to everyday aches and pains. Extremely valuable information and sound and compassionate medical expertise are key elements of this book. I highly recommend this book for ALL women, young or old. It is a valuable resource.

I really enjoyed this book. Other people may go for the swagger of Pre or the domination of a Salazar or Rodgers. But, of all the the runners I've read about, Edelen is the one I identify with most. I suppose it's because he's more of an unsung hero of American running.

The book is fairly well written, and unlike many biographies, it does not drag on with boring uneeded details. It documents the man that Edelen was and shows excerpts from his training to give insight, to those of us who run ourselves, the kind of grueling training he did.

One of my top five running books.

As a runner in Alamosa, where Buddy lived for many years, I was shocked to learn one day that a friend of mine was the son of this former world record holder. Having of course never read the book, much less heard of the man himself, I found myself buying this biography of Buddy Edelen. What I discovered was awe-inspiring: a man who worked himself past the brink only to run into oblivion. Even had I not known some of the particulars of Buddy's life, "A Cold, Clear Day" impressed me with a great sense of respect for Buddy as an athlete. Beyond tough, he deserves to be remembered in the annals of running lore.

When I picked up this book I did not know who Buddy Edelen was. This is right up there with the best running biographies I have read. If you love a good sports biography, whether you are a runner or not, pick this up. GREAT READ!

What I found so amazing in Frank Murphy's work is his lyrical skill that makes this non-fiction book read like a wonderful tale.

Historical accuracy and insightful exploration of personal determination give a clear psychological landscape of the kind of athlete that put long distance running on the map of today's sports.

A must read not only for long distance runners, but for poets as well.

Reading this book was a delight. What got was that Buddy was nobody special at first - just another guy in the American collegiate system. Nonetheless, he took a risk, went to England to train with and compete against the best, and it paid off with a marathon world record.
The glimpses into Buddy's mind are great, especially the narrative portion about the Olympic trials at Yonkers. You can't read this book and not love Buddy Edelen.