Coaching Books

This book was very complete. It went from basics to advanced information. The 25 plays at the end were very interesting!! I would recommend this book to young and old coaches!!!

I am a young coach, who doesn't have much experience with the offensive line. I bought this book hoping to gain some insight into pass pro. This book did just that and much more.

I've used this book both as a manager, working with individuals and my work team, and also as a consultant and facilitator working with client groups. It is a fantastic resource for the following reasons: 1. it has a very sound foundational model that is built on trust, organisational learning principles and action research; 2. it has an excellent blend of theory and practice, with heaps of case studies, anecdotes and wisdom acquired through experience; 3. it has a lot of really useful tools, reasources, survey instruments and so on - excellent stuff that helps you apply the ideas easily and straight away; 4. it has a lot of humanity, compassion and profound thought about what it means to be an individual working in a complex, dynamic organisation of today; 5. the ideas in it are built on values and ethics, an unusual, but welcome, approach to me; 6. what it advocates is practical, achieveable and realistic - it's not touchy-feely waffle, it is sound advice and tested approaches. Good on you cobbers!

As a Brit living in the US who had played soccer for many years, I became involved in coaching youth soccer (U10) a couple of years ago. I purchased numerous books for ideas on drills and approaches to teaching soccer. I consider this book to be one of the best! It includes 5 different levels of development models to take kids from 'basic abilities and capacities' through mini-soccer, 7 v 7, 8 v 8 and 11 v 11.

All of the drills are well illustrated and explained. I have personally used most of the drills in the book. The narrative explain the characteristics of children at various stages of development and how best to develop their play from basic concepts to team play. If you are serious about 'teaching soccer' and not just running drills, I recommend this book!

We are using this as a wonderful tool... the book has been a positive support for our training. Thanks, KC

On organization: While pitched for professionals, the book is no academic triathlon to read - while factual, it is highly accessible, and is an easy read (assuming you are the right audience for the material). As such, "Disordered Eating Among Athletes" would make a perfect textbook: each chapter begins with clear learning objectives that focus the reader's attention on the key points of the chapter; each chapter begins with a bird's eye view intro and zooms in on the specifics; each chapter ends with an integrating summary. The book is well illustrated and logical in its thematic presentation.

On content: Beals goes way beyond the regurgitations of the obvious - well beyond such all-too-familiar eating-disorder-among-athletes truism as that athletes-bulimics prefer to exercise to excess rather than to purge (since excessive exercise is a socially-sanctioned, role-congruent compensatory strategy for athletes). Beals - to repeat - goes well beyond that. Case in point: on page 24 she offers a 10 page table that summarizes studies on prevalence of eating disorders amongh athletes. This wealth of data works to set up a discussion of "thin-build sports" and reviews sport-specific factors that foster preoccupation pathogenic weight management.

In addition to covering such diagnostic eating disorder "staples" as anorexia and bulimia, Beals goes an extra narrative mile to do a nice job of diagnostic differentation of eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS) and offers a helpful discussion of subclinical eating disorder syndromes, such as Anorexia Athletica providing Sundgot-Borgen diagnostic criteria for this syndrome. In a similar vein, Beals offers coverage of Muscle Dysmporphia ("the 'new' male eating disorder?" she asks herself on p. 64) and differentiates it from Body Dysmorphia (see table on p. 65).

The book is exhaustive but not exhausting, authoritative but not dogmatic, it is both academic and practical (as the book offers both a scholarly discussion and numerous case studies); the book is multi-disciplinary as it offers a broad range of perspective (psychiatric, psychological, nutritional,sociological). The book is a practical resource as it offers more than a token discussion of treatment options and actually profiles successful eating disorder treatment programs. Beals offers a compendium of useful forms (e.g. contracts and release of confidential information that can be used by athletic departments for making referrals for treatment).

In sum, Beals' book is good for coaches and parents looking to get better at screening for disordered eating, it is useful for clinicians for looking to get better at assessing and intervention and case management, it is useful for health administrators to inform policy; the book is a ready-made textbook for healthcare professionals and sports administrators; and it is a good read for atheletes themselves as it offers a better understanding of the challenges of the modern-day athletics culture that tries to squeeze out the last bit of performance out of the "human machine." The book serves to remind us not to lose our mind in the pursuit of the bodily-athletic perfection. In short, this is a humanizing, normalizing, informative book on the subject.

Mike Ditka didn't always have good times, or good luck. What Mike has is drive, hope, goals, believe in himself and some great experiences with family, friends & team mates.

It wasn't always easy playing hurt, but Mike endured tremendous odds and kept coming back time after time.

Mike had the best of his athletic and human abilities surface time after time. He is a legend and then some. Play with him, enjoy the game. Play against him and feel the pain.

This is unlike the other self help books you've probably read before. It requires you to be an active participant in making the necessary changes to where you want to be. There is a plan and purpose for your life, take the first steps to find out what you were really built to do

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: "Every institution is the lengthened shadow of one man." Whenever I visit the University of Georgia campus-six times a year for the home football games-and enter the mammoth stadium (fifth largest on-campus stadium in the nation), I translate Emerson's statement this way: "The highly successful athletic program at Georgia is the lengthened shadow of Vince Dooley."

Really, the analogy could extend further, because the development of the athletic program paralleled the expansion of the University in enrollment, campus improvements, academic directions, and prestige, as well as the emergence of Athens, Georgia into the Classic City it claims to be. Vince Dooley's influence and direct involvement made these advances possible, too.

Because he advocates team accomplishments more than individual heroism, Dooley-Georgia's Head Football Coach for twenty-five years, who retained his Director of Athletics title until June 30, 2004-might refute this claim. Still, those who have followed Georgia's progress during his four decades of leadership will agree that these achievements would not have happened without him.

Co-author Loran Smith once captained UGA's track team, then became the longtime Executive Secretary of the Georgia Bulldog Club. In many ways, Smith serves as the Bulldogs' scribe, because Dooley's Dawgs is one of several books he has produced to chronicle "The Bulldog Nation." On game days, he's the radio host for the Bulldogs' Tailgate Show, and fans hear his post-game interviews. Additionally, his newspaper and magazine articles appeal to sports fans nationwide.

I recommend Dooley's Dawgs as the finest sports book I have ever read. Bombarded as we are by news reports about college athletic scandals, you will be uplifted by the story of how discipline, fairness, integrity, respect for academics, and hard work turned Georgia football from an also-ran into national champions-and produced principled young men who became lifelong leaders.

To Dooley and Smith's credit, the book does not gloss over the tough times. You'll read about criticisms of Dooley's conservative offense ("Georgia kicked off, then let the air out of the ball," an Athens sports writer charged), the frustration of mediocre seasons, and the highly controversial non-extension of Dooley's contract in 2003. I applaud the book's candor.

Even readers who are unfamiliar with Georgia's tradition will enjoy Dooley's Dawgs. I give this book my highest recommendation.

"Doubles Tennis Tactics" is the most authoritative book written on this subject. Doubles requires specific shot selection, court positioning and movement patterns for each player: the server, server's partner, receiver, and receiver's partner. Louis Cayer, a distinguished coach, analyzes all that in depth. The chapter on playing styles analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the five major playing styles, and that alone is reason enough for tournament players to buy this book. But the timeless question is: how can teams maximize teamwork to accentuate their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
"Doubles Tennis Tactics" answers that brilliantly with expert tactics as well as more than 100 drills that will improve the skills and increase confidence so that those tactics work during competition. How do you become better at poaching? What is the I Formation, and why can it be highly effective? What are the best options for the receiving team to neutralize the serving team. Read "Doubles Tennis Tactics" and find the answers to these and many other important questions. You'll be glad you did -- whether you're a tournament player, recreational player or a fan.