Athletics Books

I ordered a couple of his books and while one may be interesting they are kind of redundant. If ordering just try one first.

Get in shape for ski season with this guide to stretching. These easy exercises work well as a morning wake-up call.

This is a good book - a relatively inexpensive book to help know how to get in shape for skiing season. I also purchased Fitskiing (hardback) which is more exhaustive (and was more what I was looking for), but this book is worth the cost.

I'm a personal trainer working in a New York City gym and when a client of mine wanted some exercises for his favorite sport, I did a search and found this book. It has been excellent. All I needed to tailor a program for him, and even exercises he can do on the mountain in full gear. Clear, honest and effective. I highly recommend it.

It is well established that stretching improves agility and quickness of skiers. Resistance exercises strengthen the muscles, but they also shorten them. Stretching makes muscles longer again. This leads to flexibility (greater range of motion in the joints) which allows to get the most out of your training program and helps to ski longer, in better control, with less fatigue. Many books in the past emphasized primarily physical training during off-season period. In the last few years, flexibility and stretches got increasingly large attention. This book is entirely focused on stretches. It contains a well-illustrated 10-20 minute warm-up and stretching routine, and several additional excersises to improve balance. The exercises are very easy, and can be done, e.g., in the morning before work. They help to wake up and to feel better. Additionally, there is a section on warm-up and stretches recommended for the slopes before skiing (partly with the skis on), and a few exercises on skis to improve balance.

The authors emphasize that it is important to do these stretches every day since the result will be nil if you do them irregularly. However, it is not quite clear what kind of progress you can expect if you do them every day. While I appreciate the importance of stretches, I strongly suspect that the result may be rather insignificant if you do these routines every day, but nothing besides them. Stretches obviously work best when they are combined with more vigorous exercise program, such as strength training or aerobics. It is a pity that this book includes very few of those - if it did, it could be an indispensable source for pre-season conditioning. The good part, however, that practically all suggested exercises can be done at home on the floor or standing against the wall, with the equipment which can be purchased at a local harware store, or with no equipment at all.

The subtitle of the book (see the bottom of the book cover) is misleading as it says "flexibility, fitness, and conditioning for better skiing". Flexibility is definitely there, and is very well written; fitness and conditioning - sorry, guys, I did not see much of it in the book. Four stars.

I purchased this book thinking it would help me with my adult learn-to-swim classes. It did in a round about way. I would purchase this book only if your into drill swimming and need help with the basics.

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK TO ASSIST THE BEGINNER TO ADVANCED SWIMMER. FANTASTIC FOR THE SWIM TEAM STUDENT TRYING TO IMPROVE STROKE PERFORMANCE.

The Swimming Drill Book
This book is well written and illustrated. There are easy to practise drills wich state 1) the purpose of the drill, 2) the procedure to follow and 3) the focus points to concentrate on to achieve body position. The author has covered the four swimming strokes, the starts, turns and finishes in an easy to cognitively assimulate style of writing. Overall if you wish to improve your swimming strokes the practise drills in this book will aid your endevours, all you need is to practise, practise and then practise.

it's really useful and well designed, with very clear images...
you need it to improve your swimming technique...

This book is quite good for a review of the majority of strokes - great help to coaches and swimmers. It cover's about 90% of all the drills I have ever seen in my swimming lifetime.

This is the second best training book for runners i have read ( Daniels running formula is number 1)it is stillgood value for money and covers most things..there are so many crappy garbage filled running books out there it makes me sick..so when a good one comes along you know it...i coach young athletes and found this book about 80% usefull...good value

Great book, for coaches who are training young distance runners. Lots of ideas for the coach to build on as he navigates the pubescence years of both male and female athletes.

I liked how this booked emphasized how important mental training should be integrated into a good, solid training prog. The scientific aspect is easy to understand though not nearly as thorough or complex as Martin and Coe's book. The training is very conservative, but the strength training advice was very helpful.

I am a Cross Country Coach for Lakeshore Middle School in Stevensville, MI and am building a program. I found the "Training for Young Distance Runners" book to be very helpful. I have found the section on Psychology right on target. I have a son that runs High School Cross Country who runs year around and after a successful summer road racing season started the Cross Country Season doing very poorly. Using the Psychology section helped me get him back on track. The Nutrition section has also been helpful for some of my runners. I give the book a two thumbs up.

kandssteve@qtm.net Steve Nielsen

I've been running for 35 years and coaching for many so I expected to pick up a book that would give some insight into a young runner's mind or some biomechanical needs of a young runner. The book is a cursory view of coaching and training. It's fine if you are just starting out with no background. But where's the meat and potatoes?

Digger tells an interesting story of his rise in coaching but there is no real life changing leadership or self improvement tips that have not been written about already. Based on a brief appointment by Bush 1 he thinks about running for Pres. God Luck. But I will give him kudos for being the only coach I know of that has the ballz to speak of UCLA legend Coach Wooden with anything but praise. He really calls him more of a poor sport. No wonder he never coached after Notre Dame again.

The is a wonderful book - part memoir and part practical advice on living - from a sports icon! And you don't even have to be a Notre Dame basketball fan to enoy it.

This is not a basketball book although there are many entertaining stories of Digger's two decades at ND...It's about a man who has a passion for makeing this planet a better place when it's his time to leave...He believes in "giving back" had has donated much of his time as well as money to make "life" for others better....all proceeds go to Katernia victims...

If this were a basketball book I wouldn't have bothered to buy it. It was exactly as promised, life lessons from an American icon. Digger Phelps is so much more than a basketball coach. He's worked for the first President Bush, he served as an election monitor in Cambodia, he's building homes for people still sufering from the effects of Katrina. He learned as an undertaker's son that it's best to do what you have to today, because tommorrow might not come. The book is full of great advice for anyone, not just basketball fans. I read it in one sitting.

early pr release on this book indicated that Digger would have provided lots of inofrmation about basketball: teams, players, recruiting, why he resigned, etc. There is very little about basketball, while it is his life's perspective and he's entitled to say so, to an outsider, the book is a major disappointment. if you are looking for basketball insight, do not buy it. if you want life lessons, you'll enjoy it. Frankly, I'd like my money back.

I have always heard (and observed) that runners have better endurance and overall fitness. I had tried jogging, mostly after dark, to try and get "up to speed" with other people in my biking club, but gave up after feeling faint. After reading this book, running doesn't seem as intimidating; I am gradually improving my cardiovascular fitness, so I can excel at the sports I love. The discussion about breathing, form, and stretching were especially helpful. The book was inspiring to me.

This is a superb book for beginners. Anyone who questions its "slow and easy" approach has never watched friends take on fitness programs with great enthusiasm, only to get hurt or lose interest a couple of months later. This book's number one goal is to keep that from happening by setting goals that Salazar describes as "so easy that you'll always be wanting more." It gains credibility coming from Salazar, who was renowned for his grueling training schedules. My guess is that a lot higher fraction of people who listen to him will be running a year from now than of those who risk an accelerated program not suitable for untrained beginners. The book is also loaded with answers to questions that beginners ask all the time, including many that will apply to beginning racers. If you've been running for a year or two, you may already know most of the answers, but in those first few months it's all new, and this book covers the ground nicely, in a pleasant, easy-to-read style. It's also loaded with entertaining a necdotes. Did you know that Salazar once ran several miles of a marathon with a side stitch so bad it hurt for weeks afterward? No wonder he had what it took to win! Also fun is the fact that Salazar shares the stage with his co-author, giving the book a mix of world-class and "average runner" perspectives. It's an unusual approach that works nicely, because the co-author can write from experience about issues that front-running Salazar never had to face. Bottom line: if you've been sedentary for a few years and are wanting to do something about it, this is your book. If you've been running for a few years (as I have), it's a great gift for that friend who's thinking about starting an exercise program.

Running always appealed to me but everytime I considered taking it up I had second thoughts because of all the injured friends I know who are runners. This didn't seem healthy, so I thought "Why run?".

I ran across this book in a book review in a local paper and was intrigued because it said you could run with a much reduced possiblity of injury by following the plan outlined in the book. Reading it made a lot of sense and I could see many places where my running friends had made mistakes that probably lead to their injuries. I've read other books that back up what the author says so he isn't advocating some "out there" method but rather a method that will allow you to run to improve your health, which is what most of us are probably looking for.

It's sad that one of the greatest distance runners of his generation has lent his name to a book that purports to require a couple of hundred pages to transform people into 12-15 mile per week fitness joggers.

Here's how to do it in 150 words, instead of 50,000:

(1) Buy appropriate running shoes from a running store (they'll tell you what's appropriate for you).

(2) Go outside and walk/jog for 15 minutes, or until you are really tired, whichever comes first.

(3) Repeat step (2) three to five times per week, increasing both the percentage of time you are jogging rather than walking, and the total time spent moving briskly, until you reach a point where you are jogging for at least 30 minutes without walking or stopping. Reaching this stage will take some people a few days and others several weeks. (Salazar recommends taking 52 weeks to reach this level, which is absurd).

That's all there is to it -- really. You don't need to pay a former world class marathoner for this information.

My book called Arther and the Best Coach Ever. It is for boys and girls.I will give this book five stars.If you like sports,you can read this book. It is a fun book! Elise

Are you a cell-phone toting, work-a-holic parent? Busy cutting business deals on the soccer field? Then this book will leave you feeling a little sheepish. I know of quite a few sports parents who could stand to read this book for the lesson it teaches. As for the kids, maybe what they learn is that they should keep trying their best no matter how miserable their coach is!

I have watched the episode based on the book. It was a great episode and I'm sure that the book would be just as good.

"Arthur and the Best Coach Ever" is the fourth of six books in the 2001 Arthur Good Sports series. This is a great series that teaches kids about sportsmanship in an interesting as well as humorous way. However, this book, "Arthur and the Best Coach Ever," shows are startling lack of coordination between those working on the television show and those were developing the book series.

Both the television story and the book share a couple basic plot points. The soccer coach for Lakewood Elementary is no longer able to coach the team and Ed Crosswire is brought in as a replacement. In both versions, none of the kids are very happy, as they liked the old coach and Ed's coaching abilities are rather questionable.

The similarities stop about right there. In the book, Ed is presented as an inept coach who knows nothing about soccer and is always ignoring the team while he tries to run his automotive business from the sidelines. The team members begin to feel like they don't care about them, although really he's just caught in a pickle because he has no understanding of basic soccer concepts, or how to coach a team.

The exact opposite happens in the television episode. In the TV version, Ed seems to be quite knowledgable of soccer, even having played in the past, and tries to run the team like a machine, putting them through overly demanding drills.

Overall, "Arthur and the Best Coach Ever" is an okay story and in my opinion, somewhat better than the television version. Still, the lack of synergy between the TV show and the book causes confusion among followers of the seires and I'm not entirely certain what exactly this particular book teaches kids about good sportsmanship. Also, some of the humor found in the other "Arthur" books is missing. Pass on this one, and try one of the other, better, "Arthur" books instead.

Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook: 2002-2003 by Chris Dortch breaks down all the NCAA top level basketball teams for the coming season, and looks at the year before. It gives information on positions for players, likely minutes, depth, possible performance and a lot of other information you wouldn't find anywhere else in one source. An excellent book.

This book covers every single college in the country. On one hand that is great because it can be an excllent source of information. But on the other hand, it's too much to get a real review on the upcoming season.

There is not one person who can go out and syudy all of the teams, so what this author has to do is surf the internet, cut 7 paste and put together a patch work of basketball reviews for each team.

The bottom line is that you get a book that gives you data (teams, coaches, roster, previous records, etc.) But when it comes to acurately projecting the field, this book is worthless. Just look at who they predicted to "win-it-all". It's like predicting the weather. The sad part is that this book is really authored by people who really know nothing about the teams.

I began buying Blue Ribbon before the 1999-2000 season (when Michigan State won it all), and it is, without a doubt, a must have for any serious college basketball fan. The 2002-03 edition features some changes, though none of them dramatic. First, the traditional Top 40 section was trimmed to a Top 25 to be on a pair with the rest of the major polls, and to have some more space for the new schools that join the Division I this year. Also, the recruiting info is back, with rankings of the top 25 classes for 2002-03, top 200 high school players in the country and top freshmen entering college. The only major blow this year is the lack of the 2001-02 Division I individual statistics, which is, at least for me, a big omission. Overall, it's a great book to buy; it's amazing all the information that contains. It takes me almost half a year to completely read it all.

This annual tome is THE source for college basketball fans. This book has been published annually for 22 years by Chris Dortch. It covers ever division one team. In particular if you root for a mid or low major team then you cannot be without this book. It is the only comprehensive review of division one. It is written by regional experts that cover these teams for a living. It is well organized and absolutely full of useful and unique information on every division one team.

College President Dolores Cross takes marathoning to a different level with her candid autobiography of "breaking through the wall," both personally and professionally. This story is a must read for everyone, particularly young people and those who feel that the odds are often against them. Dolores Cross shows how the art of marathoning for her has served as a figurative and literal victory for her success. We can all gain a great deal from this woman's provocative, sometimes painful, journey through life.

Reaching a successful goal in higher education is not easy but can be accomplished. This fantastac story outlines the challenges and obstacles one face in overcoming life's problems, attending and graduation from college, and securing a higher degree beyond undergraduate.

I found this book to be very inspirational and motivating to anyone who has obstacles in life to overcome. Self determination, hard work and confidence break through walls that present challenges in life. As a result of reading Breaking Through The Wall: A Marathoner's Story, I made significant changes in my life.

I am a runner and a advid reader. I purchased this book hoping it would give me some insight as to how she completed and trained for a marathon. This was not the book's goal. It turns out to be her life's story.

This book was truly cool. Everything that happened in it happened for a reason. Some of the players on that team are now in the National Football League like Terry Glenn, Eddie George, Bobby Hoying, Orlando Pace, and Shawn Springs. John Cooper was coach who had his job up in the air. This is a great book if you like football.

Day to day, week to week review of events during the season becomes a bit monotonous in this account of a great year for buckeye faithful. But, what does come out, is the real personality of John Cooper in a way that up to this point in time, is rarely appreciated by football fans. Hardline buckeye fans, home grown Ohio boys who did not take to well to the southern accent in Woody Hayes's office, soften to the reality that this is the 1990's and this man, John Cooper, is a credit to himself, his program, and the university. Behind the scenes accounts of how he deals with players, life challenges are excellent. Inner workings of how the week goes to prepare for Saturdays game give a good flavor of college football life. Dealing with the heart- break of another Michigan loss, putting in perspective is attempted....but not dealt with very well. Overall, good book, if you still think John Cooper belongs in Tennessee, read it.

Coming off a second top-two finish in three years, Ohio State fans have begun to take for granted that our team will contend for the national title year-in and year-out.

How quickly we forget that John Cooper's early years at Ohio State were filled with mediocrity and losses to schools of the Little Eight! As recently as 1994, OSU lost four games and was even beaten by lowly Illinois.

Jeff Snook's book gives us a glimpse into the beginnings of the maturation of John Cooper's program-- the 1995 season.

While the 1993 team spent several weeks ranked among the Top 5, it was the 1995 team that truly signified that Cooper's program was at last capable of producing an absolute powerhouse.

1995 featured all of the hallmarks of Cooper's best teams: flashy NFL-caliber talent, clutch wins over big-name opponents, and a heart-breaking loss to an inferior Michigan team.

Not a great book, but certainly worth the money Amazon is asking.

Jeff Snook's chronicle of the 1995 Ohio State University Buckeyes' football season reads as a veritable "who's who" of the NFL: QB Bobby Hoying (Oakland), RB Eddie George (Tennessee), WR Terry Glenn (New England), CB Shawn Springs (Seattle), and others all feature in the Buckeye team pushing for an unbeaten season and a chance at the national championship. Coach John Cooper's players are a hard-working, clean-living bunch - admirable qualities, but ones that unwittingly conspire with other elements to drain the book of any real drama: there are no mercurial young players who clash with the coaching staff or have profound emotional issues to overcome: the pressure upon Cooper to deliver success is obvious, but not overwhelming. Neither are there desperate, against-the-odds struggles to upset stronger opposition - those match-ups that do test the team, including a season-finale clash with hated nemesis Michigan, suffer from Snook's failure with his spiritless prose to capture any of the on-field atmosphere and emotion. His reluctance as well to print bad language deprives the book of gritty realism and further negates his intention to tell "the inside story" of the team. Followers of Ohio State will enjoy the book as a means to reminisce over past glories, while Eddie George fans will savor the Herculean efforts that by season's end had made him a frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy. The more casual reader, however, will be disappointed by an uninspired and very ordinary book that, although occasionally diverting, ultimately fails to engage in any meaningful way.

I was very excited in the last fall when I heard that a book about "Chucks" was being published. I raced to get my copy quickly, and had it within the first month. It was a very fast read and had some great information and cool pictures. However, I would have liked to see more "vintage" photos from the "Chucks as basketball shoes" era. Also, I thought there was perhaps too much focus on the classic black chucks (although admittingly they are by far the most popular style. There was also a huge error in the book. The author claims that "Optical white" was the second Chuck Taylor model to be released. Actually, unbleached is clearly the older of the two. Optical weren't invented until at least the 1960s and were still pretty rare into the 1990s, although they are much more common than the unbleached now (which are still a "core color"). It was clearly the unbleached and NOT the Optical that Mr. Taylor liked the best. I suppose Peterson was confused because advertisements before the 1960s were never taken from photographs and what was drawn looked like optical white.
Peterson's comments about "nothing saying 1950s like Chuck Taylors" are also off-base. Although they existed at the time, it is quite difficult to find any TV or movie clips prior to the 1970s that feature them (oddly one of the most famous examples-Opie Taylor on the extremely popular Andy Griffith Show, was not mentioned in the book). A better way to phrase it would have been "nothing says "pretending to be the 1950s like Chuck Taylors." Chances are if a movie or TV show made in the last 35 years is set in the 1950s or 1960s, you will probably see some guy wearing Chucks. If he isn't a basketball player, it's probably not realistic. It would be interesting to explore exactly why so many people in charge of wardrobe for these retro movies/TV shows seem to think all the guys wore Chucks in those days. Overall, a pretty good book and I've ordered many pairs of shoelaces from the website.

actually i'm expecting catalogue for All Star product ,
can't find too many items here

Converse made and continues to make the best and coolest sneakers ever. This book tells the story of Chucks in words and lots of color pictures. A must have for every Converse fan.

Chucks are an American staple, and Chucks is a great guide to the world of Chucks. Why are people so loyal to their Chucks? What are some special Chuck designs? This is a book for anyone who has every owned a pair.