Athletics Books

I bought a few copies as early Christmas gifts because I know my dad and brothers are big fans. After flipping through just the first few pages of photos and text, I knew I made the right choice. The author really covered his tracks. The photos are fantastic! There's no better time in the midwest than fall -- and this book seems to bring out the best of that season.

Touchdown! This book drives the length of the field to take the reader on a journey through small towns and big cities who live and die for football. The tradition of Ohio High School Football is second to none and Butler's brilliant narration mixed in with interviews from coaches, players, parents and fans captures what Friday night in the fall is all about - a social gathering of sorts where football is the main focus. Rothchild's photography allows the reader to experience every facet of Friday night football from the star quarterback to the mom selling programs to raise money for the band.

Across Many Fields is a must for anyone who loves high school football.

I hesitated to buy this book because I had read some negative things about it on some Ohio high school internet sites. Then I browsed a copy in a local bookstore and realized how foolish I was to wait. This is one of the finest books on high school football I've ever seen (and I own many).

Across Many Fields is about football with capital "F". Having read it now (which I suspect some critics have not), I realize the authors were looking for the whole picture and that people unhappy with it were upset because their team wasn't represented. Well, this book isn't about one team or another. It's about all the teams in Ohio that strap on the helmets each season and all the people who support these young men (and a few women).

The pictures are tremendous, glorious and the writing is smooth and creative. For any football fan, for anyone who has relished the crisp autumn air on a Friday night in a local football stadium, this book is a can't miss. You'll be transported!

This book took me back to my high school years. I was a 320 pound offensive lineman. The 4 years I played high school football were the best of my life. I can never get them back, but with this book I was able to bring back all my memories. Chris and Jen have provided ex-jocks like me something to hold on to. I reccomend this book to anyone who wants some way to recall those glory years of high schoo.
Giles Powell.

While Across Many Fields chronicles the 2001 Ohio high school football season, this book is to be enjoyed by all -- regardless of the reader's geographic location. Across Many Fields goes well beyond statistics and X's and O's to explore the very essence of high school football; whereas a Friday Night Lights exposes the darker side of a big-time high school program, AMF is a celebration of the sights, sounds, athletes, and communities that make autumn evenings special for so many. From big-time rivalries to small town tradition, this book explores high school football with a depth and passion that make it a captivating read.

Handsomely photographed and insightfully written, Across Many Fields is a timeless tribute to a uniquely American institution.

It has been a long time since I had classes on athletic taping. This is a good book to remind you of the different wraps.

Great pictures and illustrations not only of techniques but of anatomy as well. Overall a really good book.

With photographs of actual tapings, this book is very easy follow the step needed to tape almost any body part. Also included in the book where recommendations on strengthing tips for injured joints/muscles.

I am an Athletic Training Student and this book is amazing. It was not required for the class that I bought it for, but It helped me so much. The pictures are very good and the step by step instructions make taping a breeze!

With so many books on How TO it's really great to find one that shows you just how without making you feel like you'll never understand the basics. If you are seriously thinking about doing a lot of sports related taping and handling of those injuries this is the book you want to add to your library.After doing sports med for 2 years now with college teams and marines i feel a lot safer knowing this book is out there for others to go by.

I found the book easy to read and understand. I have applied some of the things I read in the book and found them useful and I feel over time the new approach to bowling will improve to my good.

I purchased this book to help with my bowling, since as a novice bowler,
I was dismayed by my embarrassing performance when bowling with friends.
I would bowl a strike and then have a string of gutter balls.

I found this book really helpful, not just for bowling, but for achieving excellence
in other sports. I was able to apply the lessons to other challanging areas in my life.

The book gives a comphrehensive overview of this incredibly popular sport. The writers have laid out a step by step mental
plan of action that accounts for most contigencies and can used when someone has to psychologically prepare
onself to perform at a high level.

The use of acronyms such as RALLY ( react, accept, learn, lean, yes )and the examples
of positive self talk particularly useful.

I think this is one of the most up to date and detailed bowling books to date. It dives into the mental game aspect of the game and just helps you with the skills that most bowlers will need to take their game to the next level.

Very in depth book on all facets of bowling not just the psychologoical aspects. Has good drills and if the drills are performed, your average will go up.

When ever you buy a book containing psychology, you think to say "I knew that!", but this book pinpoints the essens of bowling psychology. I've focused on several things that for sure will make me a better bowler.

For most businesses or coaches, simple actionable tools and ideas are what you need. Most people who read a book will never have the chance to make a massive, organization changing process.

Championship Team-Building is easy to read and filled with basic ideas and concepts that are useful when teaching. The ideas in this book are beneficial to anyone from middle school teachers and coaches on up to business departments and groups.

Championship team building is an excellent source of information for coaches, business leaders or anyone who is a team leader. If you are a coach who is looking for that one item to help your team go to the next level in 1999, I would suggest purchasing this book! As a coach, I have always believed that positive team chemistry is the number one reason for the success of my teams. If you are like me, the question was always, "How do you get positive team chemistry?" This book will show you how! I highly recommend Jeff's book!

This is one of the most beneficial books I have ever read. it is easy to follow, it is fun to read and I was eagerly awaiting the next page. If you are serious about coaching, this is a must have book.

I can assure you that team chemistry is an important part of a team success and this book really addresses the issues around this.

I am both an experienced girls basketball coach as well as a psychiatrist. I HIGHLY recommend this book to coaches of any team. The strategies are effective and important. It can be easy to overlook importance of the mental aspect of athletic performance. Mr. Janssen does an excellent job of clarifying the role coaches have in this aspect of the game and gives practical advice on how to acheive better team performance.

This book is awesome. It gives you a virtual roadmap that is easy to follow. I am now in the process of using it with my son's team. The evaluation forms are informative and the exercises are easy to do. I would recommend this book to all coaches and players who want to take their teams to the next level. It is also very good for parents to help them understand the role and the need for the role that their child plays on the team. It will be interesting to see how this affects the play of our team that traditionally plays well against really good teams, but then reduces the level of its play to not so great teams.

For amateur "weekend warrior" coaches such as myself this is a topic that is far to often barely touched on if talked about at all. Telling kids to concentrate, focus and be mentally tough without teaching it like any other skill is like giving them a bat with no instruction and telling them to hit. Some will pick it up better than others due to their own make-up but all can get much better with a coach teaching them. The mental game can be taught as a skill the same as any physical skill we teach them.

This book is one that has the authentic "been-there-done-that" feel to it. It's well organized with great real world examples and has multiple lists at the end of each topic on how to make our athletes aware of the mental game and how to practice getting better at it.

This is a book you will read and re-read if you're truly interested in being the best coach you can be. It's one of those books where you can just open to any page and pick up a great idea or tip.

This is the 4th time I bought this book. I have given three away and the last one is worn out. Trying to make the most out of a player's ability is not complete until the mental aspect is addressed and this book helps with that approach. If you coach baseball, you need to have a copy.

The most useful book you will find on the mental game, and was very easy to ready. Great organization. A must read for any coach.

Harvey Dorfman is a no-BS kind of coach and his latest book is a great tool for coaches, teachers, managers, or anyone who wishes to get the edge. As a former basketball coach at various levels, I wish this book was available 15 years ago because it would have saved me a lot of trouble and mistakes!

Coach Dorfman covers three vital areas in the book: The Coach as Leader, Communicator, and Teacher; Impact Terms for Coaches, and Impact Terms for Athletes. He provides real life examples from professional, college, and high school coaches and athletes that are easy to relate to.

361 Pages Hardcover

ExerptPage 70 Coaching is teaching. The best coaches have something else. They have the good sense to instruct, then get out of the way. They are pedagogues not demagogues.

Table of contents
Section 1 The Coach as leader, Communicator, Teacher
Chapters:
1. Leadership & Power(s)
2. Leadership style
3. You, the leader-the coach
4. The substance of leadership
5. The coach communicates, one way or another
6. Communication: Considering the process Itself
7. Communication: The when, where, how, why-and who!
8. Coaching is teaching.
9. Learners: the Coach and athlete
Section 2 The mental game alphabet: Impact terms for the coach.
Section 3 The mental Game, A to Z: Athletes' impact terms.
Appendix A Leaders list
Appendix B "The guy in the glass"
Appendix C we learn what we've lived
Appendix D A winning way
Appendix E The final word on the mental game

Buck Willis has written an excellent text on orthopedics, one which should occupy the library of every general practitioner and pediatrician. Do yourself a favor and make space for this tremendously useful textbook."

Reading this book was very refreshing because Mr. Willis has also woven his empathetic experience into the book. It is nice to see a person write both from his experience and from his academic learning. I appreciated his dedication page too, and I think that this book would benefit most orthopedic patients.

Most MD's won't take the time, or they don't comprehend how to explain what Willis does, as to why certain exercises or cardiovascular training programs are so good for Preventing and Healing people's injuries!

Willis' writing style made it an interesting, enjoyable read and because of that, this book is a winner!

This method of providing information, clearly reflects the knowledge gained from injuries (Dr Willis) has personally sustained and helps the reader identify, recognize and make decisions about how to recover from a variety of joint traumas. The specific nature of these injuries is presented clearly and briefly.

*** 'Effective Orthopedic Rehab' is a solid introduction for the layperson, a young professional working with injured athletes or a freshman undergraduate at college studying athletic training or kinesiology.

When I learned of this book, I was skeptical and thought it might just be an ordinary "home-grown" rehab book, but IT WAS MUCH MORE! This book and the author's references promote the same components that I learned in my Master's program in Physical Therapy.

This book grew from the author's experience and his doctoral education, and THIS BOOK has SOLID ROOTS in clinically proven rehabilitative protocols. I'll recommend that many of my patients read this book which will help them understand that recovery is not a switch that they can quickly turn on. GOOD BOOK!

The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is because I thought it contained full stories (like the ones in the Chicken Soup series)and not simply quotes, which by the way are sometimes moving. I liked to read how famous people remembered their teachers, we don't usually get to know that information.

A former student of mine sent me this book with an inscription that made my day -- make that, my year! After reading the personalized inscription a dozen times, I started reading Mr. Shribman's book. What a delight. The book made me remember why I became a teacher.

I picked up I REMEMBER MY TEACHER because I liked the cover. I bought two copies because once I started reading it, I had to send copies to the college professor and the high school coach who inspired me. This book was the perfect opportunity to thank them after more than 15 years for the support and advice that still means so much to me.

Perfect book to make teachers feel good--and to make students remember why they loved their best teachers. There is something here for everyone--from the A student to the less successful, from college mentors to grade school inspirers. The famous and the more common former students share their reminisces with humor, with pride, but mostly with thanks. A great gift and a great read.

Part anecdote, part declaration, "I Remember My Teacher: 365 Reminiscences of the Teachers Who Changed Our Lives" will bring back the memory of your own teachers: what they said, what they did and who they are.

It caused me to remember back to my own fifth grade teacher, who, upon completing the year, wrote me a quick note which encourages me to this day. You, too, will think about your kindergarten teachers and learning your letters, or the guy who taught you the software used in your job.

Shribman uses examples from celebs galore, but the important part is learning about the teachers who helped mold the leaders of today. Tomorrow's leaders are sitting in a third grade classroom across the world, and a great teacher is guiding him or her.

Teachers can read this and be encouraged and excited that what they do does matters. Students will read this and see that their teacher's unorthodox ways and persistence in teaching makes a difference.

I fully recommend "I Remember My Teacher: 365 Reminiscences of the Teachers Who Changed Our Lives" by David M. Shribman.

Anthony Trendl

This was one of the most life changing books I have ever read.
Highly recommend it.

Dan Millman pulls valuable concepts from a variety of disciplines. This book does not delve into specific training methods, but rather expounds a philosophy of training. The author integrates concepts from sports psychology, physiology, and the martial arts. The Inner Athlete contains several enlightening perspectives on different aspects of athletic training. I have been following his suggested modifications for stretching exercises for about two weeks, with excellent results. This book will be valuable for any athlete, regardless of level of attainment.

What a great book...I am interested in all kinds of sports and have always believed that sport should be more than just physical training and with this book I found someone who shares my thoughts....

From the book: Dedicate your training to your life and not your life to your training...

When you read this book you will realize that the truth has always been in you, you just did not see it. Learn to see and let your heart lead the way. I love this book.

I finished the book and instantly wanted to start reading it again. Dan has helped me with my own nemisis by reminding me that being stuck on a skill is a result of not having developed the requisite skills and strengths. But the concept that I love the most and has been that of building strength by relaxing the opposing muscles so you spend less time fighting yourself. As we all learn about life through sport (well, many of us anyway) I have discovered that it is not just in athletics that I tense all the wrong muscles. I have begun seeing how in my life I fight myself and by just relaxing the right areas of my life I have been able to handle much greater degrees of stress with a peace and equanimity this book helped me to realize.

This is one of those books I'll read over and over again and gain something new from each and every time. And my poor friends are all sick to death of having me quote it to them as they come to me with their struggles.

This book is an easy read, as are all of Dan Millman's books. I read the first edition of The Inner Athlete 6 years ago at the age of 20. It inspired me to enrol in a beginner's gymnastics class for adults, probably because I wanted to be just like Dan. It proved to be a life-changing decision. I had retained some of Dan's advice, such as the Law of Accommodation - how our body more readily produces results when we don't place demands or set goals. I stuck to practicing the fundamentals, and was satisfied with doing handstands and simple drills that I understood were the foundations of talent. Those who had started the class at the same time as I had began practicing handsprings after only a few weeks.

After a year, my classmates were still struggling with their handsprings. It didn't look like much fun, as they were sprawling on their butts half the time. Those who felt discouraged moved on to working on back-flips. In the meantime, I was getting better at handstands and my muscles were growing more supple. I would watch my classmates intently during practice. I paid close attention to the instructors who tried to help them, but I stayed on the sidelines and flirted with girls. When I wasn't doing that I stuck to my drills, stretching, and handstands, which I also incorporated into my morning exercise routine at home.

Then one day a guest instructor from Russia who was impressed with my ability to do handstands insisted that I do a handspring. I declined at first, but he insisted. Not wanting to be rude, I went through the motions for about 10 minutes with him. Finally, he sent me flying in a handspring that had me airborne for what seemed like an eternity. I was astonished and after a few tries I managed to do it without help. Within a week I was turning handsprings as well as the instructors. I was utterly amazed. My classmates were less enthused. Two of them quit shortly afterward. I bumped into one of them a few months later. She said she was "too busy" to come to practice. She had worked really hard, and I felt bad because I think my sudden improvement had discouraged her. Little did she know that my new-found ability was a natural result to having applied Dan's advice on Developing Talent.

I think anyone who applies the wisdom in Dan's book will develop wonderful results over time. Some people attribute such success to patience and persistence. That may be true, but that is to oversimplify. You need knowledge of how the process of skill-learning works and you need a good teacher. The Inner Athlete provides you with helpful keys that you can apply to almost any endeavour that involves skill training.

Thanks to the simple logic in this book, I have unlocked a world that had been closed to me for so long. I cherish the memories of the times when I moved like a total spaz. If only you had seen me at my first piano-lesson, my introduction to jazz-ballet or on my first day at swim school. I now enjoy a high level of skill in these areas, and to me the process seemed effortless.

With a back injury I incurred in an accident 2 years ago I am now confined to swimming, but that is no obstacle. The Inner Athlete deals beautifully with how to cope with setbacks. I work on the areas that I can, and have recently become a valued member of a swim team. So far, no medals, but the coach doesn't have to drag me out of the pool anymore.

I'm a drummer and have always had some glitches in my performances when I thought the pressure was on. I've read this book once thru and am already thinking differently on the stage. I've read tons of music books on the subject of letting go of the chatter in your head, but this blows them all away with concrete exercises and evaluations to gauge your mental toughness.

if you've decided to open up that can of worms that is sports psych, then you really should read this gem. it is vastly superior to all his other books.

This book was given to me a few years ago by one of my coaches. This book is possibly the most helpful book that I have ever read. I am a goalie in ice hockey (15 years old) and have always been regarded as the hardest worker that people have ever seen. But when it came to big games, I clearly wasn't always my sharpest. Many coaches say that sports is 90% mental, but how can you improve your mental skills? Improving mental skills is not very physically demanding, but it does take commitment. Read this book and take this seriously! It could turn around your sports journey, or journey through life. It has for me and it is less than 200 pages! I highly recommend this book for any serious athletes of any age.

suggested to me by a world cup winning athlete who owns and old out of print copy covered in tape to hold it together, this book is brilliant. my career as an elite athlete jumped a number of levels whilst reading it. his more recent book is nothing compared to this. go to your library and photocopy it, no one will sell it to you. it is the best.

James Loehr's book deserves 10 stars!

After reading many books on sports psychology and not getting anywhere, Mental Toughness Training for Sports guided me down the road to sporting success.

James Loehr explains what happens mentally to athletes during both great and terrible performances. You are then guided along analysing your own performances and gradually you gain more and more control over your mental and ultimately your physical performances.

This book is for the serious athelete, who has the patience to take the necessary steps required for success.

If you feel you are not producing your best in play due to mental obstacles, then this is the book for. It will change your life and give you control you thought only your opponents possessed.

I've been running for a few years to keep the fat off my hips and was pleased to stumble across this great running guide. I must say that i had been doing quite a bit wrong. Now that i've read this book, I've lost even more weight and am just lucky that the writer didn't charge by the pound.

I've been running for only a year, but have really improved since adopting the advice contained in this book. It is also reasonably priced. I recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their running experience.

This book was my first running book. For $10 it is a great buy. It is full of information, especially training tips for a marathon. It doesn't have much on injuries or nutrition but it is only a small book. I recommend it...

This book helped me train for my first marathon in 1997... and several after. It provides three suggested-training schedules, depending on goals and training level, for 10K & marathons. Easy to follow, easy to read. Excellent starting point for new runners. Have read other books by "more famous" authors, but none of their suggested training schedules gave me the confidence I obtained by using this book. (Qualified for Boston every time!!) Future editions could be improved by adding a chapter on recovery following the marathon.

I picked up this book on a whim, and have found it to be the most helpful, inspirational book on running ever. I am 3 months pregnant and the information for pregnant women was unparalleled. I highly recommend this book for anyone though. The information is useful, the book is concise and the tone is enjoyable. Two thumbs up!