Sports Books

Top notch reference on knots.
This book has no peer.
Nothing else even comes close.

Hands down, if you're into knots, rope work, sailing, etc...this is definitely a book to add to your shelf. Over 600 pages, it's got pretty much references to every knot you could think of, as well as a good history on rope and knots, and a great index to quickly find what you need. I've even found most other books or online resources I look at reference the "Ashley Book of Knots" number (ABOK#) when they're describing what to do. All in all a good investment.

This is the reference that seems to be used by all other knot books and web sites.

Although the book can be hard to understand when trying to tie knots, no colors, videos or animated gifs, it is quite useful when trying to identify a knot that I want to tie.

I knew what I was getting as I had read the libraries copy before making the decision to purchase so I am not at all disappointed with my book.
This is also an excellent book for reading if you enjoy tying knots.

If you have more than a passing interest in knots then you will want to consider buying this book.

I recently bought the Ashely book of knots because I thought it would tell me how to tie every knot on the planet. I found it a bit confusing because it did not use colors to illustrate the knot ties. It was hard to follow most of the knot patterns. Also it did not have climbing knots used by most rescue people. I found a great site that does animation and colors: http://www.animatedknots.com/doublefishermansrescue/index.php . Perhaps if the book came with a DVD it would be better. I know it is an old book...but come on...we have new technology now!

If you need to learn knots, or just enjoy knot tying as a hobby, this book is essential for everyone.

For how closely golf is followed by the golf media and avid fans, not many details are known about the burgeoning golf academies. Thanks to access granted by David Leadbetter and several families, author Kevin Cook is able to shed light on the nearly invisible world of high-powered, test tube, uberphenom golf.

The book offers more insight into the lives of Ty Tryon, Michelle Wie, Sean O'Hair, and the next wave of top juniors moving on to professional golf like the Lendl sisters or Peter Uihlein. You will also be treated to Cook's theory on the path all tournament golfers should take in order to eliminate the mistakes that could derail their promising careers. To do this, "Driven" not only looks at junior golf, but also the careers of Eldrick Woods, Nick Faldo, and Nick Price.

Well researched, well organized, and well written, I think you'll enjoy "Driven".

this is an excellent resource for our family medicine department.
We refer to it for patient information, which is easy to for patients to understand

The Sports Medicine Patient Advisor is one of the nicest patient friendly guides I have ever seen, while not talking down, they explain things so nicely, making it easy to understand WHY it happens and HOW to make it better. Not just for sports injuries, can be used in Occupational Health, and really just everyday life's strains, sprains and pains. Nice clear exercises recommendations to help strengthen the areas involved, and get people moving again asap. Marvelous!

Excellent for patient education. It allows them to be active members in their treatment and have responsibilities as well. It explains what muscular injury they have, treatment options, and home exercises.

The Sports Medicine Patient Advisor is a great resource for those of us who are not trained specifically in sports medcicine.

This book arrived in excellent condition and in the time promised. I am very pleased with the service I received. This is an excellent book for helping patients with exercises to return them to better functioning. Thank you J.R.

Este libro es muy técnico pero dirigido al público en general, se entiende todo muy bien, explica de manera agradable la conformación del aparato músculo esquelético incluyendo gráficos explicativos. De manera muy amena se conocen los músculos a trabajar su ubicación y brinda orientación sobre cómo ejecutar en forma correcta algunas rutinas; es un libro muy bello con sus dibujos y su lenguaje muy asequible. Lo recomiendo altamente.

I was never very good at science/anatomy and don't understand too much about the inner workings of the body but I LOVE to work out so this book is perfect for when I just need to know which specific muscles I'm working when I do specific exercises. I highly recommend it!

I find this book useful on two levels. On one level, I have used it to deepen my own knowledge and make sure that I am targeting where I wish. On another level, it has allowed me to show my teenage son exactly which muscles are being worked by which exercises. I like the author's emphasis on functional strength.

It's a great resource for me. I am a woman who goes to the gym for fitness and strength training. Even though the gym provides a trainer, who has explained these things to me, the great illustrations in this book really help me to visualize how the muscles work and I now understand and can work them even better.

A bit pricey for what it offers but as a quick guide (for those who would rather exercise muscle groups rather than tear muscles)it does the trick.

I wanted the 7th edition, i thought it was but whatever, it was shipped fast, but wrong book

Brad Gilbert fue uno de los jugadores más tácticos del ATP. Se mantuvo como "Top 10" por casi 1 decada. Este libro es una obra infaltable para el tenista, sea profesional o amateur. Entrega consejos fáciles de entender y sin rodeos ni teorizaciones.
IMPERDIBLE, por algo lo recomiendan Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi y Jim Courier. Si los más grandes lo promueven, es porque realmente es una pieza infaltable en tu biblioteca.

Brad Gilbert is truly a master when it comes to winning ugly! This book is helpful for beginners and advanced players, alike. Anyone looking to make the most of their skills by taking their mental game and tennis strategy to the next level should give this book a read. Just look what Brad's approach did for Andre Agassi! Enough said.

This book, like Gilbert's game, will not knock your socks off at first glance. The writing style is plain, and there is not much in the way of technicality or fancy shot making advice. It really is about winning ugly. Gilbert does two major things in this book. First he breaks down the game itself. Second he breaks down the mind of the player. Gilbert really shows his understanding of the critical nature of certain points in the match and what to do in certain situations. He also shows from vast experience just how psychological the game is. Gilbert doesn't focus on 'great players' so much as he focuses on players with a mentally tough approach to the game, the thing that makes them really hard to beat. There are plenty of examples he uses from Mac to Connors to Lendl, all to great effect. And gives an insider's look into some of the game's greatest minds, and what they do to win. You don't necessarily need to read this as a tennis guide either. There are a lot of things which you can apply in life. It makes for an overall entertaining read.

Although I no longer play tennis, this remains my favorite tennis book. After beating Becker to win Wimbledon, Brad explained how he had done it. He said: "I couldn't beat him at his level so I had to drag him down to my level." And anyone who saw that match knows that is exactly what he did.

That particular Wimbledon Finals was such a tactical masterpiece that anyone who knows anything about tennis knew that Gilbert was really on to something big. Against great odds, he "sliced and diced" Becker to the point of utter frustration -- the same as Ashe had done to Conners in the 1975 Wimbledon Finals.

Although Brad has been described condescendingly as a "journeyman tennis player," and as a "blue collar tennis player," since his ranking never rose above number 8, I still put him in a class of only a handful of the elite tennis strategists.

As this book so aptly demonstrates, his game is based on "playing the odds" to get and maintain a winner's edge. It begins with the idea that everyone in your rated-class is as good as you are, so the winning edge must lie other than just in talent alone: It must lie in preparation, both physical and mental; and then in knowing all of the fine points of the game and how and when to use and exploit them. In the book he de-constructs the games of the best players of his era, and somehow you know that everything he says is "dead on."

Gilbert's mental game is un-excelled and eclipses even the book called "Inner Tennis," which is devoted exclusively to the mental game of tennis. The fact that Brad went on to coach some of the greatest players of his era is testament to his vast tennis knowledge and skill as both a tactician and as a strategist.

There may be better tennis books out there in the market, but as player who retired as a 4.5 player at my best, I used this book to scare the hell out of more than a few 5.0 players, and that is no mean trick.

Touche to Brad, and five stars

I could never break past the round of 16's or quarters at any big tournament. I'll summarize how to win those matches now: get in great physical shape, apply the principles of Winning Ugly, visualization, and embracing/enjoying close matches with your best effort rather than choking.

Another title of this book might be "Helping your opponent make mistakes and lose". For the majority of us, especially at the club level, we dont have the skillset to win by hitting winners. We just need to play percentage tennis, and help our opponents lose. Its only at the very highest levels of the game that winners are sometimes greater than unforced errors. Only at the top fo the game where two guys can trade winner after winner, hit stuff around the net and between their legs. Unless one is a naturally gifted tennis player (Federer) Winning Ugly is for the rest of us. And its a lot more than just hitting to a guys bad backhand.

To Champions, a lot of this comes naturally. But it CAN be learned. Once in my life, I got in the zone. I could not miss. My dad still talks about that set! I'm so happy he was there to see it. I took a set off a guy who was ranked #3 in the US, and as I was marvelling at the crowd forming to watch me, and calculating the rise in my ranking, he mopped the floor with me 0 and 1. If I'd had Winning Ugly, I might have kept my head in the game and won that match.

I remember this guy in my Sectionals, who was the dorkiest guy on the junior tour, but always in the top 5 seeds. He wasnt in great shape. He actually had a tether! built into his grip for his unorthodox two handed forehand, and thick coke bottle glasses. In the semi's, he met this new kid recently from California, a snobby Bjorn Italian FILA wearing Brad Pitt looking guy with the most beautiful strokes, and boundless confidence, who was just deystroying excellent players and getting all the girls attention. Imagine that blonde dude Johnny from Karate Kid I. Yeah, ok, I was jealous.

Well, expecting Brad Pitt to claim his next victim, I marvelled as this dorky nerdy chump wouldnt get intimidated, and wouldnt allow this guy to play his game. Instead of trading strokes in jousting fashion, he applied his strengths to Cobra Kai's weakness. I was witness to the total dismantling of a superior opponent's game. By the end of the match, Brad Pitt was smashing his rackets and scratching his head, trying to figure out how a guy with coke bottle glasses and a home-made TETHER on his raquet's butt beat him! The dork went to the finals and I was smiling inside at "Brads" misfortune. Twenty-five odd years later, there's a name for this: Winning Ugly. For most people, the match is lost before you go out. Well, that's the negative thinking that costs one matches. That's why the same people advance through the draw at almost every tournament.

Winning ugly isnt about trading fire at Gettysburg, until somebody drops, thats how I used to play. I didnt just have to win, it had to be with panache. How stupid. It was somehow unsportsmanly to hit "junk" or "push" the ball to take off pace, or hit "moonballs". I wish I had this book when I was a junior player, I bet I would have won half the matches I lost from bad strategy.

Winning Ugly is about applying the best of your game, to the worst of your opponent's. Its about using anything to win. One application of this strategy I use is the super lob when I'm out of position. I hit it as hard as I can so it goes 100 feet and can back up a guy to the baseline. It drives some guys crazy. They're like "play tennis" you ---hole. But I WIN! Yeah, its not pretty, but it feels better driving home. When I read that you should analyze your opponents strokes in the warmup to see what he's missing or practicing more, it hit my like a lightning bolt. I had never ever done this, and it was SO obvious. I was too focused on getting warmed up and MY strokes. The hundreds of matches I had played, and never considered this. This book is a must for competetive players.

As a final note:I wouldnt say Winning Ugly is about the mental game. I think its more a book about tactics. The mental game is best explained by Inner Tennis.

Easy to follow. Starts off easy and adjusts with a learning curve for all interesting in different aspects of Biomechanics.

Book is very in depth. Pictures in the book are pretty lame. Although, everything is explained well in the book. Not worth 65 dollars, buy the product used if you can.

This book is very accessable, which was obviously one of the goals of the author.

Read it slowly and carefully and you will undoubtedly aquire some of the understanding necessary to consider human movement in terms of natural mechanics.

I am a clumsy, non-flexible person with IT Band issues...Doing the poses explained very well in this book (both verbally and pictorally) has made a noticeable difference in my flexibility. I also have less IT Band issues. Great book.

Not only is this a perfect book for athletes, it is also perfect for non-athletes. It is an excellent introduction for those new to yoga, and would be a great new resource for yoga instructors. As a cyclist and a yoga teacher in training, I found this writing to be the most elegant and direct explanation of the broad principles of yoga of any book I've read. It introduces the concepts of yoga and then provides examples of how they are to be applied in the real world. Resources are provided for those who want further study.

Sage Rountree's introduction to yoga in the first part of the book is worth the price itself. For anyone curious about yoga, this explains everything needed to approach it safely and with confidence. For athletes, she specifically discusses how the different types of yoga can be appropriately incorporated into their training program. The middle of the book is dedicated to the poses, breathing and meditation. Each pose is illustrated and fully described as to how to safely get into the pose, along with modifications. Relaxation and breathing are well covered with an emphasis on how important they are to an athlete's recovery time. The last part of the book discusses how to use yoga within the cycles of a training plan and finishes with several sequences for specific needs, such as stretching, warming up and restorative poses. Many of these sequences are great for any busy person wanting to "sneak" in some yoga during their hectic day. This author seems to be one of the few who understands that many who are interested in yoga are also very busy.

This is just a wonderful book. I hope it gets the attention of a very broad audience because it has so much to offer. It has now become the first book I would recommend to anyone asking about yoga.

As a busy professional, dedicated age group triathlete, and regular yoga class student, I've experienced both the physical and mental benefits of yoga in my racing and my life. However, I've really struggled to practice yoga at home - without a teacher telling when, where, and how. Sage Rountree's book is what I've been looking for: a practical, user-friendly guide that speaks my "athlete language" and includes step-by-step yoga rountines that complement specific portions of my training. The pictures are beautiful - and depict realistic pose modifications that make yoga much more enjoyable when I'm feeling especially tight. I also have a deeper (and more functional!) understanding of yoga's history and philosophy thanks to Sage's clear description of yoga's 8 limbs - and how they translate to the athlete's world. A helpful book for those very new to yoga AND those hoping to practice outside the gym or studio.

While yoga is an extensive topic and can be difficult to understand, Sage keeps it simple to understand and easy to follow. I love the way she breaks it down to incorporate into various training programs as an adjunct to the primary training.

THE STUPENDOUS DODGEBALL FIASCO is an excellent first juvenile book by lawyer, Janice Repka. Using her expertise in the law, Ms. Repka has woven a clever story of circus facts, dodgeball, and a boy who tries to seek justice through the legal system. The book is humorous, clever, and different with its approach. All good things, especially for the age group it is intended for. I would use this book as a read-a-loud chapter book for second through fourth graders, because adults will not want to miss this story. THE STUPENDOUS DODGEBALL FIASCO is of course a well written and age appropriate book for the child or fluent reader who chooses to read this book alone. I hope to see more books by this talented, new author.
A. D. Tarbox, author of ALREADY ASLEEP (fall 2006)

I liked this book because this kid from the circus, a nobody went against the dodgeball capital of the world and tried to get things fair, and he did.

I'm 70 and loved The Stupendous Dodgeball Fiasco. It is brilliant, funny, and taught me more about circus life than I can use in a lifetime.

Point is, it's advertised for 9 to 12 year olds. I'd say it's more for 9 to 90 year olds. It's a page turner and one fun read.

The Stupendous Dodgeball Fiasco is a must read for every pre-teen in the country. Not just because it's a cute story filled with wonderful insight into the lives of circus people, but because it's a book about finding one's own niche in the word, believing one deserves better than life's circumstances, standing up for oneself, and really, it's about standing up for others when they're too afraid to stand up for themselves.

THE STUPENDOUS DODGEBALL FIASCO IS TOTALLY AIR HEADED AND FOR PEOPLE WHO... WE'LL GET TO THAT LATER. THIS BOOK IS BY JANICE REPKA. THE MAIN CHARACTER IS PHILLIP EDWARD STAINSLAW. HE IS A CIRCUS BOY. HE WAS ACTUALLY BORN INTO A CIRCUS. NOW I THINK THAT'S TOTALLY AWESOME AND OUTSTANDING... BUT NOT PHILLIP. HE THINKS IT'S MISERABLE. NOW I KNOW THAT MOST BOOKS START OUT WITH A BORING BEGINNING, BELIEVE ME!!! BUT NOT WITH THIS BOOK, JUST START THE FIRST SENTENCE OF THE BOOK AND WALLA, IT'S CAPTURED YOUR ATTENTION. ANYWAY BACK TO THE STORY, PHILLIP'S JOB IN THE CIRCUS IS TO.... OH MY GOSH THIS IS FUNNY, HIS JOB IS TO SCOOP UP ELEPHANT DROPPINGS WITH A POOPER-SCOOPER. NOW THE PROBLEM OF THIS "STORY" OR AS I WOULD SAY IT A "COMICS" IS THAT YOUNG PHILLIP DOESN'T LIKE LIVING IN A CIRCUS AS A CIRCUS BOY. FOR HIS BIRTHDAY, WHICH JUST PASSED, HE GOT A SWALLOWING SWORD. HOW WEIRD IS THAT. MOST KIDS WANT A DIRTBIKE OR A XBOX OR VIDEO GAMES. PHILLIP GOES TO LIVE WITH HIS AUNT AND UNCLE. THATS WHERE THE REAL STORY STARTS, IN HARDINGTOWN MIDDLE SCHOOL. I WOULD RECOMEND THIS STORY TO PEOPLE WHO LIKE SPORTS AND ACTION. I WOULD RATE THIS BOOK A 5 STAR BOOK BECAUSE OF THE PLOT AND THE RESOLUTION. WHEN YOU FIND OUT THE RESOLUTION YOU WON'T PUT THIS STORY DOWN.
GOOD LUCK BOOK LOVERS. THANKS FOR READING MY REVIEW

We enjoyed eating and making the recipes in this book.

A warning though, the food is very much like what you would find in the homes of those in China. Do not expect it to taste like the food found in an American Chinese restaurant.

The tastes and influence of the Hunan region of China are fully explored in Fuchsia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, which provides over a hundred dishes easy to make and accompanied by color photos and stories from the province. Dishes come with historical introduction, many a cultural insight, and the author's own experiences discovering and cooking the dish: all these factors make for a fine and well-rounded cookbook which goes far beyond the usual light Hunan coverage to probe the depth of Chinese culture and cuisine, making it a 'must' for any serious collection offering Chinese cookbooks beyond one or two basics.

This is one of the best cookbooks I own. I received the book as a gift and I use it everyday.

I am originally from Hunan and loved its food when I was there. The recipes here are (brace for cliche) AUTHENTIC, insofar as reading these pages brings me to these very dishes experientially.

Ms. Dunlop continues to amaze and delight with her second book. The current tome educates the reader in the disciplines of cooking (as well as) ancient Chinese history (Appendix: the Main Chinese Dynasties), language (Appendix: Glossary of Chinese Characters) and contemporary history (revolutionarily centric). Echos of David, Grigson and Fisher resonate. [Not unsurprising considering her Cantabrixian education! (superb bibliography)] I haven't yet tried any of the recipes, so cannot vouch for their efficacy - but, they have a good feel about them. Will become a classic by aficionados.