Athletics Books

Whether you are a multi-sport enthusiast or not, this book is for you. Everyday so many people do "multi-sport" activities in their daily lives. If you juggle work and kids, if you juggle being a stay at home mom with kids, if you juggle career and volunteer activities, or if you are an amateur or elite triathlete, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU!
Dan Madsen has a way of making you look at yourself through his trials and tribulations of becoming an Ironman and laugh out loud because whether you're racing in your car to pick up the kids or racing in a triathlon, we all think the same basic things. "How dumb do I look right now?", "How do I know if this headache isn't a disease?" "People just don't understand why I do the things I do." "I am my own entertainment for others laughing greed!" Regardless, you won't be able to put this book down. I read it on a business trip while flying up the east coast. I was trying so hard to contain my laughter that I actually snorted out loud!! The guy sitting next to me begged me to share what I was reading. By the end of the flight we were laughing so hard the flight attendant (jokingly) threatened to take my book (probably for her own entertainment).
If someone read this book and didn't laugh then he is either dead, illiterate, or a total drip that needs to buy a sense of humor and go make some friends.
Outside of owning a home and a car (2 very important needs), you need this book (your 3rd need). Then your life will be complete.
Get ready to laugh out loud.

Funny!! I don't believe that I turned a single page prior to burst-out-loud cacklings.

This book MUST UNSHACKLE ITSELF from the confines of only those interested in the sport of triathlon. In fact, I highly doubt that any one-dimensional triathlete would find it all that funny. But for the husbands and fathers of the world, this should be required reading - even if you have no interest in this sport whatsoever.

Yes, the predominant theme is the sport, but creatively woven throughout are hilarious portraits of family, marriage, parenthood, and friendship. This guys natural knack for good, clean storytelling is evident, and just about perfectly skewed.

For those who would never consider doing something so "silly" as swimming 2.5 miles, biking 112 miles, and finishing the day by running a marathon; don't be tempted to believe this book is not for you. If you already struggle with too many commitments and not enough time, then you'll find common ground with this author.... Where you might not find common ground is that he augmented his life's schedules with that little bitty goal of finishing one of the most grueling endurance races that this world has ever known - and this makes for the comical magic of this read.

Great Job, Dan.

I think the other reviewers must be related to the author. I bought this book on a whim and haven't so much as chuckled once. Save your money - or better yet, write your own book based on your personal triathlon experiences... that's all this is.

If you are looking for what runs in the soul of an Ironman to be...you have the right book. I read this book on my way back from finishing the San Diego 1/2 marathon and could immediately feel the training pains of the author. The training, explaining to my wife the increasing cost of harware I "must have," and the time invested to support my next phase of the triathlon building block - the duathlon hit home. I am where Dave was on "do I swim or drown thoughts". Turning the switch to become a Triathlete let alone a Ironman is a mighty switch to pull. Dave-good for you! Keep it up and one day you may see me - probably at the second transition when you are finishing. Just smile and urge me on; I know it was from the heart.
PS: I hope my laughing did not keep the other passengers awake!

Looking at the title I expected amusing anecdotes and maybe even a tri joke or two. I was disappointed and not amused. I barely broke a smile throughout the entire book.

This was an inferior version of "Becoming an Ironman : First Encounters with the Ultimate Endurance Event", which is an excellent read.

I was expecting something that allows you to go through practical exercises from infants to toddlers to do but there was what seems like endless articles on safety (which is not a bad thing), psychology etc but it just wasn't what I was expecting, the other book by Austswim was much better..

I am a swim instructor and I think this book does a great job covering everything that should be taught to infants and preschoolers. It also is the best priced swim instruction book that I have come accross for the intended age group. I recomend it to any parents that want to start teaching their kids the basics of swimming.

This book is a very thorough introduction to teaching swimming to young children and is great for new swimming instructors. It covers the basics how a child's developmental stage intersects with the kinds of swimming skills and water safety children are ready to take on. However, I found it does not provide teachers with concrete ways to actually operationalize these skills through water play and songs. A few pages at the end of the book list out sample lesson plans, but if you aren't familiar with the songs listed you are out of luck (many of them appear to be australian children's songs). To be ready to teach a class you would also need to find a book of water songs and games for kids of different developmental stages.

Informative and logical. Every Swim Instructor and baby aquatics teacher should have one on hand for quick reference. I recommend strongly for all parents of babies attending aquatics programs.

I bought this book hoping to find some specific exercises I could practice with my child in our pool. It was not very useful for that purpose. The book seems more of a way for existing swimming teachers to learn about this organization's philosophies on child development as it pertains to aquatics. It was nice to read a detailed accounting of why a 1-year-old resists back-floating but I wanted more of an idea of how to teach my child to blow bubbles and other beginning skills. It really doesn't go into actually showing you how to teach skills. This is a pitfall of buying a book based only on the title. Were I able to flip through it first, I would've realized this was probably not the book I was looking for.

If you want to learn about strength training for baseball, go to school and learn. All this book will go over is are very basic "meathead" routines with very little reasoning behind it. Not enough information for me. I found this book to be a waste of my money, dont make the same mistake.

This book goes in depth with all areas of your game to help you reach your maximum ability and beyond in total body conditioning. I was pleased with each chapter and learned many new techniques and drills. There are many drills to chose from so you don't adapt to one training. I didn't know about this before and now I'm excited to set my futre in the right direction of conditioning. The book gives the games most effective secrets I didn't know about before and I now incorporate these secrets in preparing for the upcoming year. The book teaches the need to not just train hard, but smart. I can't tell you enough about how well thought out and written this book is. I believe this book goes beyond 5 star!

Complete training for baseball is a great book. It can change any persons life for the better if that person follows this book. Which is difficult. It almost expects that you have a full gym right in your basement. However if you do have a reachable full free-weight gym near to you this book can deeply help you. Also I would have liked the book more if it had a goal of how much weight should be lifted and how fast you should be. If those two things were added this would be the perfect book for anyone from 7-12 grades.

I bought this book even though I do not play baseball. The descriptions of basic weight training exercises are excellent. Also, there are a number of agility drills and medicine ball exercises for the upper body which would benefit athletes from other sports.

This book is very scientific> If you are after some serious knowledge about the how and why of traing this is a must have book. If however you are just seeking some traing advice skip it. It goes pretty deep.
I had this sitting on my coffee table for a few months and it got a few people so hooked they had to buy it. Others just set it back down after a minute because it isn't a fast easy read.

I would not recomend this book for people using it as an extra study resource I found it completely useless.

This book is full of the scientific explainations as to why and how muscle grows. It is presented in an easy-to-read manner. Charles Poliquin has recommended this book, and for good reason. Based on East German research, the science of weight training is a far cry from what Mentzer proposes! Set, rep, tempo and rest selection are all included. Probably the biggest faults are the diet and exercise chapters. Some of the exercises recommended have to be seen to be believed! All in all, a good addition to your home library.

Outstanding book!! I have been looking a long time for a book that explains in detail the old soviet sports training techniques. Not only is this book detailed, it is written so that a novice can understand. This book explains Michael Yessis books in more detail. This is a must buy for anyone that wants to get in shape for a sport in the quickest and most efficient way.

This may look odd but I was trying to post someone else's review of my book that they e-mailed to me. I mean, why would I review my own book? I didn't even read it.

NBA players have no respect for the art of tattooing or the history of it-- they simply get tattoos to look tough and/or get attention. This book is about as superficial as the tattoos it portrays.

I was'nt that impressed with this book.I thought it was going to go into alot more detail and show better array of pictures.Most of the pictures you can see on the internet already.The pictures that new were very few and far in between.It is a nice book to add to a collection,if you like tattoos or sports.Not a hreat book to learn about the players tattoos and meanings or even to see pctures of them.Some pictures shown didnt even get explained in the book.

This book is more than just a bunch of pictures of NBA guys with tatoos -- though it has some great pictures. It is wittily written (the jacket says the author is comedy writer) without being condescending to the athletes. It's informative and fun and thorough. The players come off as everything from funny and strange to thoughtful and deep. My only complaint is that the colors in the photography could be a little more vivid. I'd reccommend this book to any NBA, skin art, or self expression.

This book is for hardcore scenario teams ... ONLY. The book claims it will teach both the "novice" and the "maestro," but the novices need not apply. The book is written by a military trainer, and the only adaption he makes from true military tactics is to add the phrase "...keeping in mind the maximum range for most paintball and airsoft systems is sixty meters" four or five times throughout the book. There is not even a single picture of someone using paintball equipment in the book - and there are a lot of pictures, all of people armed with what looks to be true weapons or very good facsimiles.

If you are new to paintball, this book will go WAY over your head with acronyms you will not understand without flipping to the glossary every few sentences and information you don't need.

If you are a regular player like me, the hand signals and basic attack patterns will come in handy, but the book takes itself way too seriously for your tastes. Unless you have a dedicated scenario or woodsball team, 90 percent of the pages in this book will be useless to you (as well as pretty boring).

If you are, however, that rare class of scenario player who lives for this stuff, it's a good book to pick up. It covers tactics thoroughly at the squad level, with appropriate nods to the next two or three levels up, with plenty of descriptive pictures, diagrams and walkthroughs.

let me make this clear for anyone that doesn't know this already,ITS MILSIM TO THE MAX. Now don't get me wrong milsim is great and if you like milsim GET THIS BOOK NOW, but if you don't like milsim or don't play milsim (like me) find another book. now if you think you will get into milsim, GET THIS BOOK NOW, but if you wont you pretty much won't get anything out of this book ( maybe a little but nothing you can't get off the Internet). it's a great book for any milsimer but if your not, please don't get this book. it goes over hand signals and thats about it for regular airsoft/paintball play. to leave on a happy note this book is very informative and well organized ( for the right person that is ) it also has a glossary/ army dictionary in the back that I thought was very cool. thanks for reading!!

After reading the book I knew I'd found what I'd been longing to
see someone take the time to put out. This book transforms those
need to know concepts and tactics which have taken the military
hundreds of years to perfect into terms just about any dedicated
MIL-SIMer can relate to. Topics like how to create your own SOI,
to what to do when things don't work as planned add up to a book
that's sure to have a very positive impact on your performance at
that next scenario or FTX.

I received this book 1 months ago. When I knew this book is written by Christopher Larsen, I know that this indeed would be the definitive guide to any airsoft or paintball player. If you don't understand what I mean, Chris Larsen is also the author of the book "Light Infantry Tactics: Small Teams", which already is a reference book for many airsoft players (..and quite possible, for real soldiers too).

Many materials in "Paintball and Airsoft Battle Tactics" are derived from "Light Infantry Tactics...", but adjusted with airsoft & paintball players in mind. Nevertheless, the tactics and the battle-drills are the same regardless of whether you are fighting a real battle or just a wargame. The only difference are: the range of the weapons (and "weapons") and the lethality (and "lethality") involved are of course incomparable.

Some of the materials in the book include: why and how to camouflage, handsignals techniques, leadership skills, infantry movement techniques, and battledrills for offensive, defensive and special operations. The methods explained typically apply to unit size from fireteam to platoon level. What this book differs from "Light Infantry Tactics" is on the emphasis to airsoft & paintball, taking into account the characteristics of both games. It also has a lot more schemes and color photographs which is very helpful in understanding the concepts.

One of the many things I like very much from this book, is that it's written in an easily understood language to explain technical military concepts (if you ever read military references such as US Army Field Manuals etc, they usually tends to be heavily conceptual or technical AND voluminious- which can be quite intimidating to some). However there is some areas in this book that needs an improvement: a discussion about "human factor". I wish it had another chapter which discusses the human factor such as: morale, overcoming hesitation and fear, how to motivate teammates - a very critical element to mission success.

Nonetheless, this book surely enhances our understanding on how to fight and how to fight as a team. Discuss and practice the materials with your teammates, and your team will benefit in battle.

Verdict: an excellent addition to your library.

I also bought the book, Light Infantry Tactics: For Small Teams, by the same author. I found his Infantry book to be very good, but I found that this book leaves something to be desired. It's all about the promise and delivery.

The book is supposed to be for paintball and airsoft, yet it seems to do little more than re-package military tactics with a different cover.

No don't get me wrong. It's good information, and can be VERY well used, with some adaptation. But the pictures show regular LCE/LBE harnesses, not paintball vests. No pictures show airsoft or paintball safety masks in use, and a great deal of tactics are not applicable in most scenario paintball or airsoft games. They're simply too complicated for players who don't train week after week. For the players who DO, however, this information can go a LOOOONG way.

If the book had discussed the tactical differences between the military doctrine and paintball/airsoft, I think the book's value could have been tripled, if not more.

For the team leader who can adapt such things without much outside direction, this book goes miles. For those who cannot, this book may not do much without outside help.

If you are looking for a comprehensive book that covers everything you wanted to know about running, this one stands out. This books relies quite a bit of past articles in Runner's World but if you have not read this magazine recently, almost everything in this book would seemed new to you. My only wish is that Katie shared more of her running experience. That would make the book more personal and not read like another Runner's World compilation.

Everything you need to get started or improve your running skills in one place. Includes helpful instructions, motivation, nutrition advice and beneficial cross training tips. Enjoyable read, especially for the beginner runner.

Easily the most disappointing running book I have owned. The title and publisher would lead one to believe this is a real guide to running faster and competing; what this book actually feels like is an attempt to recycle miscellaneous Runners World articles in a somewhat organized format. Less than half the book is devoted to road racing; most of it is devoted to pictures of someone stretching and doing strengthening exercises, miscellaneous recipes, and the like. For anyone who really wants advice on racing, try Pfitzinger, Higdon or Glover.

I just wanted to let you know that your book is awesome. It has so much information in it, in one place. Usually I have to one thing here and go to another website for something else. But this book has tons of information all in one place, so it is great and a time saver! Also some of the stuff I notice while browsing through the book I don't remember seeing in books before. I have ran other races (5K, 10K, and 5 milers), but this spring I am training for my first half marathon (LV Half Marathon & helping to put it together with the LVRR) this book will be a great resource for me and other races to come. Thank you so much!

Handy book and quite universal in that the pages are undated, but most of the measurements are in US measurements. Quite annoying for the rest of the word - the pace charts would be wonderful if they were in km and not in miles.

It doesn't have everything I want in it. The log is really basic. It has three lines, one for running, one for swimming (in yards-I count in meters), and one for biking...for each day. I really would like more space to write, more guiding questions about the day (e.g. Weather, temp., time of day), a space for cross-training (e.g. elliptical, weights), space for calories in and out, weight, and space for split times. If I ran or biked twice in one day, there is only one small space for miles/time. But again, I guess since it's my first tri, it's better than writing on pieces of scratch paper as I was doing before.

I like it better than the online site I was using, because there is more space for notes. Wish there were lines for general notes not pertaining to a specific workout, but there's space to write in the margins. Very easy to use & flexible. No wasted space. Good tips.

I'm in my 4th season of triathlon (go SeaTri!) about to do my first marathon. I've tried other logs with more boxes to fill in but they're too customized to someone else, I like that this is a pretty unstructured format. I tried making my own but I made it 8.5x11 and it was too unweildy, so I've come back to this log again and I actually use it. I like the week totals, it's very satisfying to see my marathon training milage ramp up. In the review section I put reminders like gear I need to replace or drinks that did or didn't work for me. I follow their recommendation of drawing a diagonal line across days I didn't work out and it gives a good quick sense of whether or not I'm slacking. My biggest drawback is I have messy handwriting (keyboard junkie ;-) so I have trouble staying between the small lines. I could go digital, but I like that this can kick around in my closet by my gear.

Interesting book for any 'Bama fan. The excellence, glorious moments, Bear Bryant legacy, rivalries... The history of Crimson Tide Football is inside this book. Each chapter is written in a quick way and with a lot of curious articles... A total must-read.

To the best of my knowledge Fireside Publishing has issued three similar type "history of" books about specific college football teams within the last two years. This is one of them; the other two being about Arkansas and Texas. If you are strictly an Alabama fan then you'll probably like it and be happy that it has been added to your collection. However, if you are like me, a sports/college football book collector with no particular attachment to any one team, you'll want to bypass this one and obtain the one about Arkansas. I'm always looking out for publications that offer a large and varied collections of pictures that I've never seen before. (This is definitely hard to do!!!) ALWAYS ALABAMA is disappointing in this regard, particularly given the great winning history of the Crimson Tide. There are too many pictures that appear in other books, the quality of some color pictures are sub-standard, and there are hardly any pics of the non-stars. Whereas the book about the Razorbooks is outstanding. It's a shame that the same effort and attention to detail, at least concerning pictures, was not put into this book. I haven't finished reading it yet, but there does seem to be some interesting little stories and remembrances.

I open all Alabama football books with a skeptical eye. There have been too many poorly done books on the subject. But "Always Alabama" is well done and the best combination of storytelling and pictures I've seen. I was shocked by how many interviews the author did and the fresh perspectives -- even talking to players from the losing Sugar Bowl Penn State team. He added a nice twist by talking to long-time Alabama sports writers. These guys weren't afraid to say what they think. The Bryant pictures in this book were outstanding. It's a fun book, but has actual substance to it, too.

Bill's a pretty funny guy and I well remember his stand-up routines during those long cold nights at the Albany Times Union where he was a young sportswriter, but it doesn't come across very well here. He's at his best doing stand-up. His SI column has never worked either.

Bill Sheft is the best. This book is so great! I very much enjoyed reading this book and his weekly articles in SI.

In this collection, Scheft has gathered some of his best material, along with adding some new jokes, to create a collection that has some ups to go along with too many downs. Too many of the jokes just fall flat (you can almost hear the little drum kick after some of them), and some of them already feel dated. There are some great lines, but they're unfortunately too few.

Scheft, a former writer for David Letterman, now writes what I consider to be one of the weaker elements of SI - a humor column that isn't often funny. I don't doubt that Scheft is funny, especially given the fact that Larry David sings his praises. However, that humor just doesn't come through in this book, and much of it can seem monotonous.

I think this may have worked better if the book was shorter, given that they could have been more selective about choosing material. Or perhaps they should have waited longer, until Scheft had enough quality jokes to justify the length of the book.

This is a fun book to flip through for a few minutes, but certainly not an essential read.