Athletics Books

ALL-AROUND MEN is a wonderful work of sports history and American history. I grew up idolizing Bob Mathias, Jim Thorpe, and Rafer Johnson. Now I can add Martin Sheridan, Fred Thomson, and Charlie Stevenson to my list of track heroes. Frank Zarnowski has long been recognized as the foremost authority on the decathlon. He has a gift for detail and story-telling that made this book a treat to read.

This collection of excerpts from ancient sources concerning
athletes, athletic contests, skills, prizes, and the
athletic "mystique" is excellent. For it gives a
generous overview from different sources, from different
ancient venues, and from different time periods. The
reader gains a growing sense of the awe and reverence
in which skilled as well as beautiful athletes were
held, both by spectators at the events as well as
through the fame which they gained that was passed
down in inscriptions, statues, poetry, and the
memories of those who heard of their skills and
victories even in distant places.
The excerpts are not excessively long, but they are
highy interesting and instructive. The topics covered
by chapters are: the Earliest Days of Greek Athletics/
Nudity and Equipment/ The Events at a Competition
(Running, Wrestling, Boxing, Pankration, Pentathlon,
Equestrian, Music, Poetry and Prose Composition, Acting,
Painting)/ Organization of a Panhellenic Festival/ Local
Festivals/ Role of the Games in Society/ Women in
Athletics/ Athletes and Heroes/ Ball Playing/ Gymnasion,
Athletics, and Education/ Spread of Greek Athletics in
the Hellenistic Period/ Greek Athletics in the Roman
Period/ Amateurism and Professionalism/ Nationalism
and Internationalism/ Our Ideal and the Reality.
As the author, Stephen Miller, explains in the
"Introduction": "A definition of -arete- would
include virtue, skill, prowess, pride, excellence,
valor, and nobility, but these words, whether taken
individually or collectively, do not [completely]
fulfill the meaning of -arete-." *** "...the word
-arete- still carries with it a notion of ephemeral
excellence and of transient triumph that make its
translation an exceedingly risky business."
In any particular chapter, the sources cited
may include: Pausanias (author of the famous Guide
Book to Greece), statue inscriptions, Athenaeus
(author of the multi-volume -Deipnosophists-,
Scholars at Dinner), Diodorus Siculus, poetic
excerpts from the -Greek Anthology-, Plutarch,
the ancient poet Pindar, Plato's dialogues, Aristotle's
treatises, as well as many other Greek and Roman
sources.
The title which I chose for this review comes from
the chapter titled "The Events at a Competition"
and shows both the striving for excellence,
and the transience of the accomplishment (if
not the fame). The 3 excerpts concern the
athlete Phayllos of Kroton, who was a pentahlete.
Some of the ancient writers thought the pentathlete
was the physically most perfect and beautiful
of the athletic competitors. The excerpts come
from "The Suda", "a lexicon compiled toward the end
of the 10th century after Christ and based upon a
variety of earlier material" [Miller]. As "The
Suda" says: "Beyond the dug-up area": beyond
measure. A metaphor from the pentathlon [jumping
pit]. It is said to come from the pentathlete Phayllos
of Kroton who, when the skammata used to be 50 feet,
first exceeded them with his jumps, as the epigram
on his statue says: 'Five and fifty feet flew Phayllos'."
The transience and the agony of ancient competitions,
for they were even more brutal in some physical
aspects than any modern events, come in the 3rd
excerpt: "'To jump beyond the dug-up area': with
reference to doing something hyperbolically, because
Phayllos jumped more than 50 feet and tore up his
leg."
-- Robert Kilgore.

This was the first book on coaching track and field that I ever found. I think it's great.

Coach Brauman gets down to the nitty-gritty and is very technical.

I still use his information, fifteen years after getting the book. Which is, happily, falling apart.

This book is a great way to get started. He does not take it too seriously and just has fun. There is lots of great basic running info.

It's a good book to review for the NATABOC or Texas Licensure....goes over all eval, parts of the body, etc

If you're anything like I am, you know you should exercise but find it nearly impossible to drag yourself to the gym after a long day's work. On the weekend you arise with the intention of going, but soon get caught up in the hundred little chores that you put off during the week. Before you know it, you're watching Saturday Night Live with a bowl of chips and your planned workout is a vague, yet annoyingly persistent, memory.

Enter Chris Bergland with his great book, The Athlete's Way, which comes just in time to help you ride the wave of Olympic fever to your own fitness regime. Bergland, who is a world-class endurance athlete with a neurosurgeon father, offers a practical, 8-week plan to help regular people like us to use exercise to enhance brain function. And that, ultimately, leads to a better, happier life.

Don't mistake this for one of those flash-in-the-pan celebrity diet programs. While Bergland does talk about food and sleep and other components of health, his real focus is physical fitness - how you can get it and how you can keep yourself motivated to maintain it. The Athlete's Way is really about finding your inner athlete and then using exercise as a way to balance your brain chemicals to help you become happy, healthy and productive. It works.

Or at least it worked for me. I find myself enjoying my workouts now in a way that I never have before. I'm a convert and suggest that Bergland's program might work for you too. It sure beats feeling guilty every Satuday night.

This was the best book I have ever read. I read it twice in one night and I wrote a book report on it. The main characters were very interesting and the action parts were alot of fun.I have read alot of sports books and this was the best.

As a new athletic Director. I was in the gray area on various topics. The book provided explanations and forms that are essential for the position. It's a must have.

I feel that the book Athletic Fitness for kids provides a collective amount of information that is beneficial to me personally as a person hoping to create a youth athletic development program. I feel that this book will be a foundation for the movement to helping youth build confidence and skills through athletic development programs.

An excellent book for students of degree level. Not suitable for the novice. During my studies I have found this to be an outstanding reference book and an indispensible aid to writing assignments. The book is detailed scientifically but is easy to follow and has plenty of studies done to back up the information given. A top class book.