Athletics Books

This book is an excellent resource for coaches involved in any sport. If you have already been a head coach for a while, most of the material is not going to be anything you have not dealt with already, but the author does a great job of putting the many tasks coaches have to deal with in perspective and offers a wide variety of ways to handle about every situation that can arise throughout a coaching career. I especially recomend this book for young coaches just getting into the profession. I wish I would have read this when I first broke into coaching. Coaching is often stereotyped as practice and game management alone, but as people who do it for a living know there is much more to it than that, and this book does an excellent job of generating some good ideas and philosophies about handling the job.

THis is a good guide to assist coaches in preparing for their level 2 coaching accreditation

Because of the title, I was expecting a more methodical treatment of coaching: job descriptions, basic expectations, evaluations, etc. But what it lacked in organization, the author made up for in his "homespun" wisdom. He obviously has a lot of insights into coaching from years of experience. Using broad brush strokes about strategy, motivation, relationships, and philosophy, I think the author captures the heart of coaching. Excellent book for coaches with various years of experience. I would've rated the book five stars if he was more methodical.

He is somewhat verbose in his writing, and the book would benefit from a dose a Reader's Digest type editing. He makes valid points about the rise of coaching as a model for encouraging change. There is a whole life coaching movement in progress, I guess in reaction to disenfranchisement with psychotherapy. If you want to wade through the many detailed illustrations it is worth the read.

Well illustrated introduction for coaches new to youth wrestling and its special requirements. Excellent selection of excercises again well illustrated. Must reading for annyone taking on the daunting task of building a winning youth club or team.

Murray Sperber shows the scandalous financial side to NCAA college sports in this well-crafted book. It's hardly news that college sports are corrupt - amateurism is and probably always was un-workable. What is news, however, is that most colleges lose money from their athletic programs. Readers see that while football and basketball might attract revenue, they seldom offset the losses from "non-revenue" sports like gymnastics, tennis, swimming, track, etc. Also, winning sports teams fail to increase academic donations to host colleges - alumni don't like their schools having "jock" reputations. The author shows how colleges abuse Pell and minority grants to benefit athletics, and how these institutions force students (or their parents) to pay hefty "activities fees" along with tuition to bail out the athletic department

Like most appeals to reform NCAA sports, this book fell on deaf ears - we simply like the games too much. Still, this book should be of interest to educators and to students forced to pay outrageous activity fees at tuition time.

Jerry Lynch does a very good job of describing how coaches in a variety of sports have used creative coaching to motivate either their teams or individuals. He provides practices ways for teams and individuals to succeed in their sport. It is not a difficult read as the reader can relate to the players, situations and the problems one may have in coaching. This book is good for the minor sports coach as well as the professional.

This book offers good solid advice in how to deal with adolescent women. I was very pleased that it exists at all, as very few resources are geared specifically for women.

Technically, it's a little on the general side, but I did find some things that I am adapting to my club's workouts.

All in all, an easy read.

This was a clear, easy to follow book on improving your child's alertness and ability in school through proper nutrition. As a practitioner, I found this full of sound advice and information. A diet plan was also included.

I purchased this book to become part of a group of supporting materials for a presentation at a conference on recovery in fitness. The book is written on a college level as a text. The information is practical and supported by research. The recovery questionaire can be broken down into simpler parts to be diaried and easily answered daily by clients/athletes you might work with or for yourself while following a training schedule, and especially in preparation for a specific event, to prevent overtraining issues. The fifth star is missing because of the presentation of information in such an advanced and scientific way. The format is not for everyone, but the information in it is extremely helpful in many venues. I am sure the authors hope that it is selected by many fitness and athletic professionals to educate and train everyone from a proathlete to the four day a week fitness enthusiast to keep them safe and keep training effective through proper recovery and recovery practices.