Athletics Books

As a coach, it's very important to know what to do in the event an athlete gets hurt. Since there aren't enough Trainers to go around, I decided to learn as much as I could about acute athletic care. Several Physical Therapists and Athletic Trainers recommended this book to me, and I must say, it's every bit as helpful as they said it would be. It gives step-by-step instructions, excellent diagrams, and great prevention tips since it is, technically, a textbook. The only thing more helpful than this book on the sidelines or in the dugouts is MAYBE an ice-pack. Every coach should read this book, study this book, and keep this book close by during practice and game-time. I highly recommend it.

This book really opened my eyes to the damage that over training can produce on the body. Also learned lots about rest, recovery, and using speed work. I, like a lot of other runners, always heard that long slow runs are great for burning fat and getting in great shape- WRONG! The only thing the long slow run did for me was make my legs sore and I actually started gaining fat. Read this book to find out more about this. The book is written from a South African Point of view, however the concepts and principles are universal and apply to all runners across the world. I learned so much from this book. I'm a climber of some of the world's biggest mountains and I've always used running as a base training method. This is why I never took running seriously, but as soon as I started competing in some of the tougher mountain runs, I realized that I was not too far from being an elite runner. I was on the path to injury as I upped the mileage and elevation gain with little rest. I also had no idea about how to eat for distance running. This book has a great section on sports nutrition. The information in this book may have saved me from getting injured from over-training and eating the wrong proportions of Carbos to Protein to Fat. A also ate at the wrong times. This book covers everything about distance running that you'll need to know- very complete.

If you are a runner, adventure racer, ultrarunner, or interested in extreme events, Extreme Running is for you. I love this book. Extreme Running features sections on races on the seven continents. Twenty-four events are profiled in the chapters. Each event is shown with plenty of photos, race information, distance, time of year, field size, ascent and decent data, contact and Web information, and maps or an altitude profile. As you read the chapters, you get a feel for the event and its difficulty. The Marathon des Sables is featured in 16 pages, Badwater in 10, while others are covered in several pages. The photos are fantastic - making you feel in the race. While not inclusive of all extreme events on the seven continents, the book does a great job of showing you popular events and enough information to help you decide if you could do any one of them. This is a book that some might call a "coffee table" book - it is that beautiful. It appeals to me because I love the draw and challenge of these extreme events. As the author of Fixing Your Feet, I patch the feet of these athletes, and have been to several of them and can attest to the descriptions as accurate.

I highly recommend this book and LSU grad Chris Warner's "A Tailgater's Guide to SEC Football"

Both are must-haves for the die-hard LSU fan.

Roger Bannister competed only eight years in the sport of track and field, but what a legacy he left. Bannister builds up to his historic sub-4:00 minute mile run, the first man to break such a barrier. It's more than just a running book. Bannister writes poetically of his childhood and in great detail of his Oxford years.

Truly a renaisance man, Bannister is one who never puts running ahead of his medical studies and he maintains a balanced life, something most athletes today do not do.

It's really the fantastic writing that moves this book. One would think Bannister is a professional author, not a then-med student/runner. But he eloquently describes the build up to the Olympics and later the sub-4:00 minute mile, concluding with a marvelous recap of his showdown with Landy at the Empire Games in Vancouver.

It's been dubbed by some as the finest running book out there and I'd have to agree with that.

* Apparently the book's name has been changed to The Four-Minute Mile. I think this name is better, but it's still great writing.

Drop the latest "fad" diet. Stop stressing because you didn't get to the gym enough this week & get your money's worth of use. Come back down to earth and discover a common sense approach to your health and fitness. This author takes readers step by step through a realistic, uncomplicated program of balance in all areas of a person's well-being -- all the while addressing the myths, explaining the benefits of each activity, de-mystifying concepts such as yoga and meditation and making it all easy for the reader to understand. Intelligible and comprehensible, this concise little book makes "fad" books such as "The Zone" and "Protein Power" look like 3rd year medical student manuals. It's what I've been trying to tell friends and co-workers for some time. After 26 plus years of following the numerous money-grubbing instigators of the 'fitness revolution' (who can never seem to come to agreement) I sought to simplify, return to the basics and "de-stress" my health and fitness regimen. I believe this book accomplishes that and can help anyone establish a sensible program.

This book is real good for anyone who like to know how to stretching your body and develop yours muscles. All the exercises are well explained and you can make your own streching program for needs to all kind of sports.

A lot of research must have been completed to create such a comprehensive work about the topic. Keith Fossey has provided the highschool athlete with a concise work that answers many questions they might have in the scholarship process. A book that can truly pay for itself many, many times over

Football's Stars of Summer, by Raymond Schmidt, provides a long overdue historical examination of the College All-Star football games series that lasted from 1934 to 1976. For those who may be unfamiliar with or have only hazy recollections of this series, the College All-Star game was played each August at Soldier Field in Chicago, and pitted a team made up of the senior All-Stars from the colleges and universities against the previous year's National Football League champion. Chicago Tribune Charities sponsored the game, and for many decades it was one of the most eagerly anticipated sporting events of the summer.

The author provides a year-by-year history of each of the All Star games, giving the reader a run-down on the hoopla surrounding the event, the important players participating in the game, the politics and disputes surrounding the game, a discussion of the game itself, and a wrap-up that gives the reader what the contemporary views of the game were and comments on what some of the All-Stars achieved later in their careers. The author makes considerable use of sportswriters' comments, before and after the game, to enliven his narration.

Schmidt wisely understood that his history had to be more than a mere chronicle of the games, and both in the introduction and throughout his text shows how the All-Star Game was used by the National Football League to first lend legitimacy to the professional game and to help foster its growth. For sport historians this is the author's more valuable contribution. Librarians will find that Football's Stars of Summer fills an important gap in their coverage of football in their sport history collections.

Football fans, on the other hand, will enjoy reliving the exploits and exciting games of this annual event, which the author brings to life with his sparkling prose and astute insights. There is a small 20-photo section that illustrates some of the most famous teams, coaches, and All-Stars; a note on sources; an index; and appendices that provide a all-time game results, the most valuable player awards, All-Star captains, and most valuable of all, the All-Star team rosters.

This book has a great illustrated free weight routine for women, one that is easily done at home. Just turn the page & do the next exercise!! I love the simplicity of the layout of the book. Out of 5 weight training books that I got THIS is the one I want to keep!