Athletics Books

Table of Contents

Part 1 The Concept of the Coaching Process

1 The Coaching process: an overview
2 Coaching philosophy and coaching behavior
3 Coaching effectiveness

Part 2 The Application of Sports Science in Coaching

4 Psychological considerations of effective coaching
5 Applied Physiology in sports coaching
6 Skill learning principles: implications for coaching practice
7 Biomechanics and its application to coaching practice

Part 3 Applying the Coaching Process in Specific Contexts

8 Coaching Children
9 Individualization of training programmes
10 Overtraining and the coaching process
11 Coaches' decision making
12 Coaching and the management of performance systems
Index


From the back cover:

The coaching process in sport - Whhat is it? Who is Involved? How does it work in Practice?
The Coaching process is both eclectic and multi-discilplinary. It is the coach's role to manage the various parts of the process to form an effective strategy for improving sports performance in the athlete or team.

The reader will:
-Learn about the principles of coaching
-Find examples of how these are translated into practice
-Appreciate how sports science is effectively applied to coaching
-Understands what constitutes a successful coaching strategy
-Acquire the knowledge necessary to enahnce sporting performance

Not only will this book be of interest to practising coaches, but it is also essential reading for those studying sport and exercise science, coaching or coaching science at all levels. The athlete, and those who contribute to the coaching process (sport scientists, team managers, doctors and physiotherapists), will also benefit from reading how the coaching process is best applied to enahnce performance and avoid complications of overtraining, injury and burn-out.

Great book for any track coach, new or old! This book explains more than just the basics!

Very good youth coaching book. Well worth the purchase price. After reading this book you will be able to coach children well.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Developing A Coaching Philosophy

Chapter 1 Your Coaching Objectives
Chapter 2 Your Coaching Style

Part 2 Sport Psychology

Chapter 3 Evaluating Your Communication Skills
Chapter 4 Developing Your Communication Skills
Chapter 5 Principles of Reinforcement
Chapter 6 Understanding Motivation

Part 3 Sport Pedagogy

Chapter 7 Preseason Planning
Chapter 8 Preparing Your Instructional Outline for the Season
Chapter 9 Preparing for a Practice
Chapter 10 Teaching Sports Skills

Part 4 Sport Physiology

Chapter 11 Principles of Training
Chapter 12 Developing Your training Program
Chapter 13 Nutrition for Young Athletes

Part 5 Sports Medicine

Chapter 14 Injury Prevention
chapter 15 First Aid for Athletic Injuries
Chapter 16 rehabilitation of Sports Injuries

Part 6 Other Useful information

Chapter 17 You and the Law
Chapter 18 A Parent Orientation Program

FOREWARD from the book
An estimated 12 to 15 millions young athletes participate in organized youth sports in the United States. As a group these young people represent one of our country's most important resources. as individuals they are their parents' most valued possessions.

Yet all too often we as sport adminisatrors and parents casually entrust our sons and daughters to men and women who, as research has shown, have tremendous impact on our children's lives. the ramifications of this practice have come to haunt youth sports programs over the last decade. Now, as never before, there is an outcry for trained, competent coaches of youth sports.

Filling the void of meaningful educational materials for coaches, parents, and sport administrators is Coaching Young Athlete. This book written by four of the country's leading experts in sport psychology, sport physiology, sport pedagogy, sports medicine, and sport administration, ivites your reading. Coaching Young Athletes is a must for all concerned about young people and sport in our country today.

We all knew kids like Morgan Brenner back in school: you'd say, "Hey, let's make a skateboard!" and a year later a fully-restored '56 Chevy was sitting in the driveway.

The genesis of College Basketball's National Championships must have been something like that: Maybe the original goal was a compilation of NCAA title tournaments or somesuch. Four years and a thousand pages later, however, what Brenner ended up putting together was a definitive compendium of every tournament ever conducted by the eight national athletic associations, with every non-association tournament thrown in for good measure.

This volume is a college b-ball lover's dream. You can do your own color commentary if you have it at your elbow, as every sportscaster is sure to. Its thoroughness is dazzling: Brenner even took pains to resolve confusion involving school names - changes, mergers, common usages - and provided a cross-reference in an appendix ("If you're looking for School [a], try School [b]..."). You can also test your knowledge with "Tournament Trivia:" Which school was the first women's collegiate national champion? Which tournament participant had the fewest wins in a season?

It's a pricey tome at $98.50 (Amazon.com) but look at it this way: it effectively replaces a whole shelf of lesser reference works costing many times that. If you're a true lover of the game and its history, this is the one book you want to have.

By the way, the first women's collegiate national champion was West Chester in 1969, in the invitational IAIW (page 1,027). Fewest wins in a season? Bay Ridge Christian in 1997, with zip.

The book is very informative, well organized data, and makes for a great reference guide to College Football.

"The College Hockey Guide is a "must have" for high school coaches and players interested in going to college and playing hockey. It is filled with up-to-date and useful information regarding all of the college hockey programs in our country. The book offers information on the who, what, where, when and why of recruiting and being noticed. This book is as good as it gets."

Ever wondered why in the world a college calls their athletes their particular nickname? With this book you will never wonder again! In this well-reasearched guide, Lessiter "left no stone unturned" and spoke with the Sports Information folks at every single Division I school to find out about the orign of each school's nickname(s). Small school or large, perpetual top 25 ranked team or cellar-dweller, they are all here for your reference and enlightenment. Several enjoyable drawings are sprinkled throughout the text.

Well...to read Bacchylides (in Robert Fagles'
translation) after having read Pindar (in C.M. Bowra's
translation--Penguin Classics) is to read (for me)
shorter, fresher, clearer poetry.
Yet, strangely, in his "Introduction" Fagles finds
it necessary to defend Bacchylides against the greater
fame and tradition of admiration for Pindar -- but
Fagles does a very good job of making his case for
Bacchylides (and, of course, the poetry speaks
in translation in favor of Bacchylides as well).
Interestingly, Bowra has written the "Foreword" for
Fagles' edition of Bacchylides. Bowra says that
Bacchylides is hard to translate -- but the advantage
for Fagles is that Bacchylides has had few translations,
since the remains of his poetry were not known to
modern times until 1896. Bowra says that since Fagles
is not hampered by so many previous earlier versions
of translations, he makes almost a fresh start, and
with unusual courage, judgment, and creative insight

has produced a work which is both a faithful translation
of Bacchylides as well as a work of art in its own right.
That is high praise indeed, from one classical translator
to another.
In his "Introduction," Fagles admits early on that
the usual perception of Bacchylides has been that he
was considered "a dull and slight, or, a sweet and
sometimes charming practitioner of the kind of poetry
which Pindar created with profundity and magnificence."
But Fagles won't let that unfair judgment go...so
Pindar is by far the greater poet, is he? --well,
Bacchylides handles the genre differently, with his
own distinct virtues, and he is interested in different
things from Pindar. Fagles says that Bacchylides does
not consider himself to be a prophet as Pindar did.
Bacchylides stands back from his work and "prefers to
consider himself a craftsman." The element of
narrative (as in Homer) is more important to Bacchylides
than in Pindar. Fagles says, "Bacchylides lacks the
inwardness of Pindar...He is cooler, brighter, more
objective." Fagles says that in narrative grace and
crisp elegance, Bacchylides is the superior to Pindar.
This volume is divided into sections of different
types of poems: Epinician Odes [14] (to honor victorious
athletes in the various games held in ancient Greece--
Isthmian Odes, Olympian Odes, Pythian Odes, Nemean Odes);
Dithyrambs [15-27] (concerning various mythic figures--
The Sons of Antenor, Heracles, Theseus [2 poems], Io,
Idas, Cassandra, Pasiphae, Chiron) -- Fragments, Fragments
of Uncertain Genre, and Doubtful Pieces.
There is also a section of "Notes" in the back to
explain some aspects of the poems.
Though Bacchyides' sentences tend to be a bit more
complete, to me personally, I get the same freshness
from reading Fagles' renderings of these poems in
their short, clear impact after reading the rather
turgid Pindar (in translation), as I get when
I read Emily Dickinson after having had enough
of a dose of bombastic, droning, tedious
Walt Whitman in his longer, "prophetic"
pieces. Walt can be glorious, mystic, intimate,
delicate -- but he can also be tiresome.
Try Bacchylides for a refreshing easement.
_______________
Men can maneuver no hold
Over wealth or stubborn war
Or the feuds that rock a state --
But raking her clouds from land to land,
Destiny -- that Pandora -- ranges.
-- Bacchylides.
* * * * * * * * *

I am a 24 year old former collegiate golfer, and this book is probably one of the best I have read for golf specific training. The exercises are described well and the workouts are easy to follow. There is also a nutrition section which talks about how to be healthier day to day as well as what to eat pre / during a round. For anyone looking to increase flexibility, strength, power, eat better, prevent injury, this book is a must.

Just a side note, but the movement prep sequence for the workouts / pre round are worth the price of this book itself. I will never workout or play golf again without completing the Movement Prep beforehand, it is the best stretching / warm up routine I have seen.

I highly recommend this book.

This book offers the Athletic Training and other Sports Medicine Professionals good advice when working with athletes who need guidance. It is not easy to educate and counsel athletes. Too often athletes hear only what they want and not what they need to hear. Since athletes are highly motivated to achieve success in competition, they tend to focus on their problems and how it affect them, not others.

Athletes have multiple problems, just like the rest of the population, the difference is, that most will try to work on their issues if they are identified and given strategies that work. Ray and Wiese-Bjornstal do a good job of presenting problems and solutions. They have identified the sound techniques and theories that work in the counseling arena.

The authors are quick to point out the dangers of uneducated counseling and the warning signs of potential serious disorders. It is fair to assume that the reader should have some understanding of basic psychology, and human behavior.

The reader should also understand sport and the different circumstances it presents to daily living.

I have been a professional in Athletic Training for over 30 years and found the text to be very helpful. It is succint and to the point but also in detail and complete on the topics discussed. I highly reccomend the text for the Sports Medicine Professional.