Athletics Books

This book is one of the best books on Track and Field athletics and World Record breakers that I have ever read and I must say that I have read quite a few books since I became a Track and Field statician in 1978. I myself have been very interested in Track since I was young and read about the amazing feats of Bob Hayes in the Tokyo olympics in 1964.I would have to say that this book is very well written compared to the other books that I have read. If you are mildy or very interested in Track and Field Record breakers I would have to suggest this book.

I bought this book a couple of months ago and I found it so interesting that I read it in 2 days. If you want to know all the world record improvements for each event buy this book. Each world record has been officially approved by the IAAF so you know it's genuine.

'World Record Breakers in Track & Field Athletics' is an excellent record of prominent athletes and their training routines. Gerald Lawson's text is confident and unadorned, and the athletes he cites are significant achievers. Colourful illustrations serve to enliven the prose. So, too, does the Introduction, tightly written by Anna Bolic, the coach of the Hungarian Women's Track Team. An excerpt is worth quoting;

'Gerald Lawson's book is inspiration to our womens of the field and truck. I use this words when I'm coaching the girls and they love Mr Lawson and his prominent testimonials. Mr Lawson warns about steroids and I say to my girls that they should listen as steroids are bad, especially when they promote facial hair and aggressive gesturings. I know they have followed because the team's razor bill is now down to only $800 a week. Mr Lawson also teaches that smoking before an event is harming to the lunks and chesticals, so now they only light up after a run. My girls want to be just like Mr Lawson, without having to wait months for the operation in a pubic hospital.'

'World Record Breakers in Track & Field Athletics' is essential reading for all athletes and coaches.

When I read this book three years ago I never heard of a Decathlon and I never thought I'd be one. When my mom got me this book for me for the first time I was interested, and wanted to find out what this book was about. I was in track but I only ran the mid-distants runs. I do like to play around with different events and when I did I would do better then the best on the track team. So I began to compete in some events durning track meets just to find out that I was doing well in them. But my track coach would disapprove of trying too many events and not concentrating on my mid-distant runs. Well, I read this book and was introduced to the decathlon and I wanted to do it, and I did. I have competed in the decathlon for two years and have increase my score by 1000 points over that time and plan on doing even better next time. I am now training very hard for it and this time I'm going to be more ready then ever. This has done great things for me and Dave Johnson's life is so similar to mine. I was also a rebal in my early years and then I got a sign from God and was instantly changed. I would appreciate it if Dave Johnson's would read this. I want to think him for changing my life. -Aaron M. Mills

This is a book that you can often compare to times in your own spiritual life. I am 12 years old and got this book last Christmas. I have read the whole way through it lots of times, and it has never been any less exciting.

This book is a must for all public and college libraries so that the thousands of young women in high schools and colleges who run every day have access to the history of their sport. It includes everything anyone would want to know about women's track and field history...louise mead tricard (author)

As a Physical Education teacher and former Chair of a SUNY Department of Health and Physical Education, I found this book to be an excellent resource. It is well researched, compulsively thorough, and presented clearly. The book is a boon for those looking for any information related to women's track and field from its inception in 1895 to 1980. It follows the significant setbacks and victories of women's track and field in an interesting narrative backed up by reams of statistics.

Jean William's edited text is a favorite of mine. I use it in our graduate program at Georgia Southern University. The authors have done an excellent job of presenting both the "whys" and "how tos" of the intervention techniques in sport psychology. Several leading sport psychologists have made significant, easy to understand, contributions to this text. This book has accomplished the rare feat of being able to be used as an academic text AND a "performance enhancement" book for the interested athlete, coach, exerciser, or other performers.

As a performance enhancement specialist, I am constantly looking for activities and exercies to do with my clients. This book helps to develop PST programs, including various activites to do with your athletes. This book was used as a text in a Sport Psychology class that I took. I have found it to be extremely helpful and fully recommend it.

This is probably the best book on athletic rehabilitation. It is extremely comprehensive. The content refers to numerous scientific articles related to the topics. In spite of it being printed in 1996, in many ways, it is still valid today. It is unfortunate that the authors stopped at first edition. A revised new edition would have included results and implications from the more recent studies. Should a latest edition come out, I would warmly and strongly recommend it to all professionals who are active in the field of athletic rehabilitation.

A wonderful work written by 85 contributors(67US), all experts in their field, that really helps me since 3 years i have this book to treat successfully all my patients,not only high-level athletes but also general population, as i'm working as a Physical Therapist, in the Physical Therapy Department of Social Security Institute (IKA) of Greece in the city of Thessaloniki.

After a year of computer/instrument tendonitis, I FINALLY found this book, which really gave a lot of good, CURRENT information. Better yet, I made the pilgrimage to see Dr. Paull in Stouffville, Ontario. It was worth the 10-hour drive. She gave me a lot of important information that contradicted a lot of misinformation given to me by well-intentioned doctors, chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists, pharmacists, etc. who seem to just perpetuate the status quo of repetitive strain injuries and rehabilitation without really researching new information about them. Read this book, consult Dr. Paull and start playing again. Christine Harrison, the musician who co-wrote the book, had a musician's horror story to tell and she is now playing professionally again after a FIVE YEAR UNNECESSARY hiatus. The book also has excellent information regarding stretches, posture, excercises and anatomy. READ THIS BOOK AND GET THE INFORMATION YOU NEED TO START PLAYING AGAIN! I did. I guarantee you can, too, if you follow Dr. Paull and Christine Harrison's advice. Good luck.

P.S. Doing hand strengthing excercises to get better? STOP NOW. You are probably hurting yourself. The only thing you should use to strengthen your hands is your instrument.

Every musician who wants to avoid a playing injury or is recovering from such an injury should own this book. This is not a read-once book but a book to use and refer to until one has it memorized. It gives easy-to-follow instructions for safe warming up, exercises and stretches to do at home and even some for doing on stage, ways to avoid injury and means to stay healthy when one has recovered. The psycological and social aspects which confront injured musicians are sensitively dealt with in "The Athletic Musician". The title already tells us that this is a relevant approach to treating the subject of musician's health. Read it, it could save your career!

I'm new to golf and this book has really helped me to feel more at ease with the game. I wish all how-to sports books were this informative and usful.

Thomas Fahey has done a remarkable job in his delivery of basic golf information. This book is extremely easy to read. Enough so, that I found it a delightfully enjoyable read from cover to cover. The photos, diagrams, and drawings aided greatly in helping to convey each topic clearly. At only 130 pages, this book is very concise and to the point. "Basic Golf" is at the top of my favorite list and should be considered a must read for any beginning golfer

This is one of the better sports books that I have encountered.

Shapiro was well positioned to write it, having covered the team extensively for many years as a newspaper reporter and editor and having known the coach personally, early in his career.

What stands out is the extensive detail. The author did his homework and provides a lot of information about Thompson's high school and college days, brief pro career, high school coaching career and finally, about his first two decades at Georgetown as the head basketball coach where he took a non descript team and raised it from obscurity. Shapiro interviewed players, opposing coaches and others to really flesh this book out, and it reads very smoothly.

He presents both sides of the issues and provides a lot of interesting information about the former coach and about the many different ways others reacted to, interacted with and perceived him.

Even though I am a huge John Thompson and Georgetown fan, this book looks at both the positive and negative sides of John Thompson. It goes into his childhood, his days at Providence, on to the Boston Celtics, with St. Anthony's High School, and ending with Georgetown. It covers the recruiting process, racial hurdles, and academic regulations John Thompson is know for. It talks about his days as the Olympic assistant and also the controversial head coach in 1988. Takes you on the ride through the early and mid-eighties with Patrick Ewing and ends with the signing of Alonzo Mourning and his first two seasons. This book provides you with information to let you decide if you like John Thompson or not.

As a life-long Rhode Islander and Brown grad, Gordon is able to really capture the true essence of Brown sports. Great pictures, great facts.. even Brown alums will learn something new about sports at their alma mater.

You definitely want this book for your collection!

This lively book covers many of Brown's memorable sports moments. Rhode Islander Gordon Morton III is a graduate of the college, he pays special attention to the many Rhode Island-raised Brown student athletes who have gone on to shape Rhode Island life through public service. Replete with lots of pictures, this fun, little book is a great addition to the library of any student, alum, or other fan.

I thought this was a great read! Here is an article I found about the book from the August Gannetteer:

"Indy staffer bares basketball player's 'sole'"

Probably the only thing you know about Chuck Taylor is that his name appears on a shoe. Abe Aamidor wants you to know why.

The Indianapolis Star reporter has penned "Chuck Taylor, All Star"(Indiana University Press), a biography of the man whose name became synonymous with the Converse basketball shoe that bears his signature.

"I learned that Chuck Taylor was the most famous name in sports no one knew anything about," Aamidor says. "There had been no biographies written about him, and some people thought the name was fake, like Betty Crocker or Juan Valdez. I felt there had to be a story to tell."

Aamidor was granted access to Converse's corporate archives and Taylor's stepson gave him permission to visit the Port Charlotte, Fla., home and estate of Taylor's second wife to collect materials. He discovered correspondence between Taylor and legendary University of North Carolina coach Dean Smith, as well as UCLA's John Wooden. Smith wrote the foreword for Aamidor's book and Wooden "was by far my best living source."

The three-year project also took Aamidor to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio - Taylor was coach of the Wright Field Army Air Force "Air-Tecs" basketball team during World War II - and the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

The book, Aamidor's third, has brought him national attention, with interviews on ESPN2's "Cold Pizza" and syndicated radio shows "Sports Byline USA" and "The Bob and Tom Show." Aamidor has also penned two college-level journalism texts, "Real Feature Writing" and "Real Sports Reporting."

by Ryan Corazza
Indiana Daily Student
Published Wednesday, March 22, 2006


His signature resides on the ankle patch of perhaps the most popular shoe in American history. He's a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and mingled with such basketball legends as John Wooden, Red Auerbach and Dean Smith. But up until now, nobody knew the true story of Chuck Taylor.

Enter Abe Aamidor.

The former IU adjunct professor and current feature writer at The Indianapolis Star spent three years digging up the facts and filtering out the myth of Chuck Taylor's life to write the first-ever biography on the Columbus, Ind., native.

"I was excited to learn there was never a book written about him," Aamidor said. "It was kind of like finding a gold coin in the street and nobody's around -- you just pick it up."

Because Taylor played in the pre-modern era of basketball that newspapers did not cover much and Converse misled the public about which pro teams Taylor played for, there was a lot for Aamidor to discover.

"Part of the mission was to debunk the mythology," Aamidor said. "There was a lot of junk in the standard brief stuff on Chuck's life, but there was also a lot that wasn't talked about."

Taylor was born in 1901 and spent most of his early years in Azalia, Ind., and Columbus, Ind.

He never played college basketball, which before World War II was the most watched and publicized level of the game. Instead, Taylor became involved with industrial league hoops, more prominent during the 1920s than professional basketball.

Taylor was also a great basketball coach -- a part of his life that is often overlooked, Aamidor said. He coached the Wright Field (Ohio) Army Air Force "Air-Tecs" of the U.S. Army's Special Service Division. The team toured the country playing college and other military teams and is regarded by some as the best service basketball team in history, winning more than 90 percent of its contests during the 1944-45 season.

"All the good players from colleges that were already playing pro ball were drafted (for military service)," Aamidor said. "In those days, you didn't get a deferment from the draft because you were a great ball player."

Instead of being well-known for his coaching abilities, Taylor became most famous for his relationship with Converse and its "All-Star" shoe. Although stories range on just how Chuck became involved with the company, he most likely became a salesman for Converse in 1921 and after proving to be a valuable asset to the company, his name was added to the All-Star patch in 1932.

One way Taylor marketed the shoe was through the "Fundamentals of Basketball" clinics he put on throughout the country. These clinics were put on at high schools and small colleges and on average drew about 300 to 400 guests.

"Before World War II, football and baseball were the big sports," Aamidor said. "So, in the clinics, he explained the game to a lot of people who weren't familiar with it."

Taylor promoted the shoe in a variety of other ways, ranging from traveling with the Converse All-Stars basketball squad to personally contacting and visiting owners of small-town sporting goods stores.

"In a way, his dealings were a bit shady, but he was ultimately honest and likeable," Aamidor said. "Nowadays, every photograph is airbrushed and any statement made is through a spokesman and interviews have to be granted. While Chuck's ways weren't perfect, they were much more honest."

Ryan Corazza
Published Wednesday, March 22, 2006