Athletics Books

Along with John Kuc's "Kuc Speaks" this is one book on powerlifting that you must read. Written in the early 80's it has remained one of the most informative books on the subject of powerlifting ever written. Eastern bloc lifters who now dominate the sport consider this their Bible. Dr. Squat has talked of updating it, but when taken together with his powerlifting manual on his website at [...], you have a complete system for putting up champion caliber totals.

I am not a powerlifter, but i weight train for fitness. I found this book to be very helpful in giving straightforward explanations of the importance of building a good strength base, and what exercises and approaches to use to achieve that. The different workout systems were clearly explained and the pictures and explanations of the exercises were clear. The diet information was also helpful and non technical. A nice addition to my fitness library (...).

I found this book extermely interesting and explanatory. Dr.Fred Hatfield (professionally known as Dr. Squat) presented the sport of powerlifting and bodybuilding in a way that even the "weekend warriors" can understand. And I have had this book for about 10 years now.

I bought these books because of my job as a relief teacher and these books are great because they are very comprehensive. They wil help to put lessons together quickly.

I used this book in my current teacher education program and it is absolutely a must!! It is easy to use and the students loved the activities. If you are going to teach P.E., you must have this book (the whole series is great!!)

This book is great for all P.E. teachers who are interested in giving their students age-appropriate activities. I have used it in my student teaching at the University of Arizona and will use it in my teaching. It is full of intro-activities, fitness, game and closing activities. Just what every elementary school P.E. teachers need to do a complete lesson.

Author John Feinstein's college basketball narratives are interesting, exciting, and informative. He covers the game with a broad approach, letting readers see many personalities, the pressures, and the often intense practices in this ultra-competitive sport. This book does not focus on any one conference or team, but presents a very interesting and broad national view of college hoops in the late 1980's. Yes, many of us fans realize that this multi-billion dollar industry unfairly gives players scholarships while coaches (and others) get rich, but hey, this is still a very entertaining sport. This is a very readable and entertaining look at the college game.

An exremely entertaining book which takes you on a trip across the United States to examine the great venues and stories of college basketball. From the awesome early-season tournaments in Hawaii to the meccas of college basketball like the Palestra and Madison Square Garden to March Madness, from the Lute Olsen-Steve Kerr Arizona Wildcats to the Admiral to Danny Manning, Feinstein's book is a must for any fan of college basketball.

What Feinstein did for Knight in his Season On The Brink, he now does for one entire season in the world of college hoops. This book is an inside look at everything from the grueling (and often gruesome) practice sessions that go on behind closed doors to the intimate personal lives of some of college basketballs biggest stars, from the tough lives of teams and players going nowhere to an astonishingly close up view of the winners who go all the way to ultimate glory. A Season Inside goes from coast to coast, from top to bottom, from glory to defeat.

I liked it, but it was a bit repetitive (each season was documented in the same style which made them blur into each other at times).

It read much more like historical documentation than a novel. The 20% or so that did read like a novel - I really enjoyed.

The author's point of view was a little defensive - especially when it came to Ross Perot. She definetely didn't hide what side she was on, though. Nothing was said negative about the team or city. But, its not like Friday Night Lights didn't make you wonder about objectivity - so I enjoyed both - they were just really different.

Finally, this one stops in the mid 80s - not long before Friday Night Lights picks up.

This is a great book for anyone who likes high school football. This would be a great book to read before anyone reads "Friday Night Lights". This book looks at High School Football in Texas from the 1960's to the 1980's right before "Friday Night Lights"
This is an indepth look at High School Football from all the angles and all the perspectives. A must ready for any football fan out there.

I bought "Friday Night Lights", a good book on Odessa Permian football. It only temporarily whetted my appetite."Mojo" is the real deal on Odessa Permian, a top ranked Texas team for years. It has the stats, the players, the pictures, the beginning, the middle and the end. It's the ultimate HS football fan's book. My copy from Amazon even came signed by the author. Read "Friday Night Lights", to get you started. Then get "Mojo" for the real deal.

Very detailed, I found "serious cycling" easy and enjoyable to read. Ideal for the self - coached athlete, it helps personalize your cycling program depending on your present abilities. While reading you find that there is much more to training and becoming a better rider then you first thought, but it puts the "why" into training in addition to the "how" giving a better understanding and appreciation with what changes your body must undergo to be a better cyclist.

Periodization, training modes, keeping diaries and more... The nutrition section I found to be a little "old school" but, nevertheless, interesting and backed by studies. This information is aimed at the "serious cyclist" and may be too much for someone not willing to put forth the 15+ hours a week.

Burke, a well known name among cyclists, gives very detailed and sometimes complicated advice about how to train, how to create a training schedule for various goals, how and why to make a training diary, etc. Readers should be aware that his advice is aimed at the very serious cyclist, and his training schedules range from those for serious collegiate cyclists (~15hrs/week) to professionals (~25+ hrs/week). His advice is sound, but it may be more than most people really need. His peak mileage (feb) is 2000miles--that's 500 miles per week!

A big question for me when buying my first book on training for racing, was "Who provides the most reliable and important information?" I have seen Dr. Burke quoted in a variety of sources including Bicycling magazine, Velo magazine, and Chris Carmichael's web site. So I had the impression he is respected in the sport. Further, when reading his writings in other sources, he has gone into the underlying physiological processes that contribute to one's performance on a bike. As such, I decided to purchase his book based on his apparent credibility and the depth of information he provides. Strengths of his book include its excellent coverage of what goes into training for competitive cycling. From beginning "base training" to sprint training, periodization, and planning one's training for the entire year. He also speaks at length on nutrition, equipment/rider aerodynamics, body positioning on the bike, and adjunct training methods. Again, there is an emphasis on underlying physiological processes including some discussion of relevant research. I would say the book's weaknesses lie with it's failure to address racing tactics. Certainly, you learn about what is happening with the body at race pace, but this book will not tell you about positioning for a sprint or pacing one's self for a time trial.
In short, buy this book if you are serious about racing and want to enhance your knowledge of what goes into training for competition. Don't buy this book if you want to learn about tactics.

Even though I know drug use runs rampant in track and field today, this book presents a side of the sport that dearly needed to be said. Most people have been too scared to publicly talk about it which I applaud him for. This book also brought to my attention the new style training methods on speed which I found extremely helpful. I would recommend this book to anyone who thinks Maurice Green or Donavan Bailey aren't on Steriods or any other form of banned ergogenic aids.

A well-written book. I highly recommend this to anyone involved in developing sprinters, as it sheds the light on the techniques of one of the sport's greatest coaches of all time. I applaud his courage to step forward on an issue that is commonplace these days. Both men's and women's elite sprinters are on performance-enhancing substances, and will remain as long as GH and such substances cannot be detected (forever). The fact remains that Ben Johnson performed at the level that he did in a time when all other sprinters were unable to do so. The current sprinters are breaking his record, and are doing so through the same means. Again, an exciting read for coaches interested in following the development of some of the world's fastest men and women in the way that it should be and is done.

This book was written after the Seoul Olympics and after Ben Johnson's 1st place finish. However, the logic and the motivation for using synthetic performance enhancements amongst world class athletes is clearly outlined and is applicable to all professional athletics, not just Olympic level track and field, where the financial stakes are huge for both participants and sponsors, and media attention is unrelenting. Recent revelations by MLB stars like Jose Canseco and Ken Caminiti confirm the logic and motivation so clearly, honestly and cogently outlined by Francis in Speed Trap.

Most disturbing is that there doesn't seem to be any turning back on this path of drug use among elite athletes as long as athletics continues to be the potent economic engine that it is, and continues to hold out the promise of lottery-type earnings to hopeful young athletes all over the world.

Chris Dortch is a terrific basketball writer who regularly covers the SEC and helps put together the Blue Ribbon Basketball guide each year. He has written an excellent book that covers all 12 SEC programs, discusses their histories, and focuses on a 10 year period during the early 1990's until the early 2000's, a period when the SEC was at the top of the college basketball world.

The book features detailed accounts of each program's successes, terrific recruiting stories, insights into the various coaching personalities, and helps put a lot of the wins and losses into context. A terrific read for any SEC basketball fan.

This is the book for the hard-to-buy-for-Dad- an easy to read, interesting look at SEC basketball- I will make two Dads happy with this one!

While the writing tends to be more of a reporter's style and doesn't deviate much from a recitation of the facts and events, it is still a very interesting read about the development and trials of the basketball programs around the SEC. Dortch knows this topic as well as anyone and does great job of covering the league.

Highly recommend this book for any fan of the SEC

This appears to be the only publication, apart from Mike Plant's wonderful book Iron Will, that records the early years and development of triathlon. Both the text and the multitude of pictures (with very amusing captions) bring to life the events and colorful characters that shaped the sport. There are many personal (often very entertaining) anecdotes, some scraps of personal philosophy, and references to athletes and others whose names will likely be known to few people outside the sport. There is no attempt at a careful chronology, or thorough analysis of the development of the sport over time, and there is an inevitable emphasis on the Hawaii Ironman race. There is also little narrative thread; instead it is the kind of book one can haphazardly dip into for inspiration and entertainment. This book provides a highly idiosyncatic historical perspective on triathlon, which will certainly be enjoyed by experienced triathletes who have done or are contemplating doing an Ironman race. A thorough history of triathlon remains to be written, but it will likely be a lot less entertaining than this book is.

I picked this book up this weekend at the Columbia triathlon. Tinley was there, and was signing the book. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but so far it looks like a great history of this somewhat unusual passtime.

Tinley has been there pretty much from the start, and his collection of anecdotes and photographs from many sources (Mike Plant especially) tells the story very well. Tinley's writing has improved since his early days (some of the articles in "Finding the Wheel's Hub" are pretty tough to read), and, hey, he's Scott Tinley! If you're a triathlete, you should have this book on your shelf next to your training log.

This is an excellent book with one really annoying problem. The proofreading is some of the worst I have ever seen. Lots of misspellings and typos as well as poor grammar. I would love to give this book five stars but it is so difficult to read that I cannot. Great pictures and Tinley is simply an awesome guy. If you are at all into triathlon you must have this book. Just be prepared for major typos.

Rarely does a book title tell you everything that's going to be inside the covers, but The Ultimate Guide to Trail Running sure does. No topic is left uncovered, or better still, in trail parlance, no rock unturned in covering every possible question about making way on those earthen paths.
I first read this book before I began the adventures enjoyed running, training, and racing on trails. It supported my thirst for knowledge and, incidentally, how to quench the real thirst in the woods.
With a few years of ultradistance runs and races in the ultra bank, I find referring to the book is like asking a trail friend a question . . . except in this case Nancy Hobbs and Adam Chase are true ultimate ultrathoners themselves.
You can't call yourself a trail runner or ultra racer without your own copy underlined, pages turned down, carried with you like one's favorite gear.
Phillip Gary Smith

Very comprehensive book, very thoroughly covers all aspects of trail running, racing, gear, nutrition, training, etc. Most appropriate for someone with little/no experience, but a good read even if you have been around a bit !

At the end of the day you just have to get out and run. Have a good one !

Just as you wouldn't start running a road race without the correct shoes, shorts, shirts and gear; you wouldn't want to start running on the trail without first reading this book from the people who have the most experience and have run the greatest variety of courses. This is a great book for the novice to intermediate trail runner who wants to understand how to acquire an intimate and healthy relationship with running off-road. It covers nutrition, techniques, terrain, gear, climate, and much more. If also covers those nasty little surprises like snakes, mountain lions, bears, boars and insects. This guide gives you important abstracts and introductions to heighten your trail running experience; required reading for any beginner.

This product arrived in a very quickly after ordering. It was well packaged and in perfect condition. I was very happy with the quality of the fabric and stitching and it was well-worth the price! It was a gift for a relative who lives in Utah and he was delighted with it.

This transaction was satisfactory in every way. The hoodie is wonderful!! My son is delighting in it!!

Prompt delivery. Plan to order another at a later time.
very please with product