Sports Books

This book is amazing! I actually wanted to read every page of my assigned reading and it was very easy to understand. The diagrams are only drawings, but they are simple and realistic. The book is outlined very well and I highly recommend it.

I bought this book as well as the Ultimate Guide to Weight Training for Golf. I think this book has a better program, particularly when used in conjunction with the Core Performance web site.

The illustrations of various strength and stretching movements are helpful, but when and how frequently to perform is quite confusing.
Too many categories: eg "Movement Prep, Prehab, etc. and too many options Par 3,4 etc make it problematic to create a specific program for an individual. A more straightforward "cookbook" approach would help..

I am a 24 year old former collegiate golfer, and this book is probably one of the best I have read for golf specific training. The exercises are described well and the workouts are easy to follow. There is also a nutrition section which talks about how to be healthier day to day as well as what to eat pre / during a round. For anyone looking to increase flexibility, strength, power, eat better, prevent injury, this book is a must.

Just a side note, but the movement prep sequence for the workouts / pre round are worth the price of this book itself. I will never workout or play golf again without completing the Movement Prep beforehand, it is the best stretching / warm up routine I have seen.

I highly recommend this book.

This book is excellent and worth the read. It shows how Mike Boyle trains his athletes and gives you different ideas/exercises on how to train athletes. The only problem I have, is that it is too text heavy without enough pictures to explain the text. Even with this being said, you can figure out how to do the majority of the exercises based on the text alone. If you want to learn how to train athletes properly, I would definitely get this book.

Is ideal for personal trainers, athletes or anyone who wants to improve sports skills and knowledge, its a great complement for diferents sports

I don't remember if this was the first book I read on 'functional training' but it is the one I kept and remember best. It is interesting that Mike Boyle wrote in a T-Mag article that he wished the title didn't include "Functional Training" since that term has become associated with all sorts of wierd balance drills and exercises on swiss balls.

The big idea is that general fitness counts. The ability to perform movements that are common to lots of sports and actitivies will improve your performance as an athlete.

The reality of things is that even star athletes do not have perfect bodies. Their left and right sides don't match, don't have equal strength.. they can pull better than push, they can't explode from a squatted position, etc.

This is a good book - nearly a great book. Not the easiest read I think think coaches, athletes, and serious fitness folks will get the most out of it. "Bigger, Faster, Stronger" may be better for high school atletes, and "Core Performance Essentials" better for the recreational athlete. But no matter how you look at it, this is a worthwhile book to have.

like the title says. I'm a veteran personal trainer and find this book to be one of the most useful in my library. Clear & concise, thoughtful. Indispensible.

This is the guy to read when you are ready to give up the bodybuilder- based mythology most of us have built our conditioning programs on since the 60's.

Boyle's site is the #1 source to research topics like functional movement, core training, plyometrics and the like. I bought his book after reading every page on the site and in my opinion it represents the cutting edge of athletic performance programs.

Check out sites for Boyle, Verstegen and Gray Cook if you're interested in changing your program to one that will last your lifetime and give you a more stable, functional body. If I'd been reading these guys when I was an active athlete instead of the memoirs of various "physical culturists," I'd have saved myself a lifetime of back pain and been a much better athlete into the bargain.

Still, there's no short cuts, and I guess you have to make the mistakes you're going to make along the way so you'll appreciate the truth when you finally stumble onto it. If you'd like to save yourself a few of those mistakes, though, and you're flailing around the gym listening to bad advice, take it upon yourself to do a little research with Boyle and his peers. You'll save yourself years of wasted effort, and develop a much more useful body in the bargain.

The book is pretty BASIC, and for beginners it's a least the minimum that you need to know before hop on !!!! Tells you a little bit of everything, but if you looking something more especific or deep in details, definally IS NOT the right one !!!!
Really good to know boats part and names though !!!!

I took the ASA 101 course and a lot of the material that was asked on the test was not emphasized in the book. I found it very dry, somewhat scattered and generally not enjoyable from which to learn.

I've only skimmed through New Complete Sailing Manual by Steve Sleight and that book looks like it might be a lot easier to understand.

I used this book as a companion book to another text for learning to sail on the Hudson, and I found it to be a thorough and informative text, with all basic information on rules of the road, parts of a boat, parts of a sail, rigging, water safety and rules of the road.

As a beginning sailor, learning on a responsive boat with a sail and a jib, I would recommend this book to anyone learning to sail smaller craft and slower craft. By my second lesson, this book and the companion I used allowed me to gain the comfort necessary to prepare for my basic keelboat certification.

I also got this book with a keelboat class I was taking at the time. In combination with an experienced instructor, the book was quite useful. However, there are quite a few sloppy mistakes, due more to poor editing than poor writing. If I had bought this book outright, I'd be pretty angry as well. The companion books for cruising and navigation are much the same.

I have both Sailing Fundamentals and the US Sailing Basic Keelboat text. Overall, I find the Sailing Fundamentals to the more complete text of the two. However, the editing is sloppy in places and the illustrations are lacking compared to the US Sailing text. For those of you who are very visually oriented, I would suggest getting both texts. The US Sailing illustrations are very good.

This book is good but with other map books and gps map details it was not needed.

We took a one week trip to Yellowstone at the end of July. This book was invaluable. The hikes are ranked from 1 (easiest) to 5 (hardest) making it simple for us to figure out what the four kids could handle. By taking trails rated over "2" we saw almost nobody else on the trails for most hikes. It seems that a vast majority of visitors to Yellowstone do not actually want to hike and having this book made it easy for us to have an uncrowded, pleasant experience. Very detailed, easy to find trail heads from the descriptions. Highly recommend this book, it made our experience fantastic. We also bought "Yellowstone Treasures: The Traveler's Companion to the National Park" which offers more info on the actual park. Together these books covered everything we needed to know.

"Top Trails" for Yellowstone and Grand Teton is extremely well-organized and eary to use. We had limited time in the parks and needed to quickly assess how to make the best use of our time, hiking limitations, etc. The first few pages offer an excellent overview of how long and how difficult each trail is, what you're likely to see (from geology to wildlife, panoramic views, etc). Then it gives you a reference page number, where you can get more detail on the trail, best time of day/year to do it, pros and cons, etc, etc. I can't vouch for the longer hikes, as we stuck to those under 2 miles, but it was quite accurate, easy to use, and a valuable asset.

This is a really good trail book for Yellowstone and the Tetons, but I wonder if maybe the writter is holding back on more secluded or backwoodsy, if you will, trails? I feel these same trails are pretty much in all the books I have read. The thing that puts this one in the lime light is the fact that it has pretty much all the trails in one book. I find it handy that I only need to tote one guide book, instead of three, with me on the trail. I would like to say thank you, Andrew, for the details your book puts forth!

I wish there were more of the common trails in the book (I used to work in YNP) but it's definitely a handy book with a lot of useful info

the swimsuit issue barely gets opened more than once any more. I'm just keeping up my collection, which goes back 40+ years....

It's the SI Swimsuit Issue, what more can I say. Scantily clad, beautiful women in exotic locations. Why didn't I go to photography school when I had the chance?!

Whenever I pick up the yearly edition of SI's swimsuit magazine, my hands are always clammy and sweaty and shaking in pubescent, giddy anticipation; my pulse and heartbeat pound away at a million miles per second; my breathing's always belabored as it emerges in low, guttural rasps; my back, underarms and forehead are drenched in the sweat that only sweet, sweet stimulation can incur; and my whole body generally heaves up and down from excitability. But--and this is a BIG but--these symptoms are not from what you stereotypically may infer!!!!

Contrary to what your dirty and immature mind may've presupposed, the aforementioned symptoms are NOT from lustfully anticipating the taut, oh-so tight and toned bodies of insecure swimsuit models with something to prove, bouncing off the pages of the magazine. They're also NOT from me drooling at the sight of curvaceous, silicone-infested women who are wh*ring themselves provocatively in their half-naked, scantily clad, low self-esteem!!!! Neither are they from the savage, animalistic overeagerness felt at the sight of the enticing female form, courtesy of the swimsuit models...regardless that they're all suffering from low self-opinion and thusly have something to prove by posing half-nude. Rest assured that my symptoms at picking up the 2008 edition of SI's magazine have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with any of this! No way, Jose!!!!

However, the reason for my symptoms is very much rooted in reality, and that reality concerns itself with more ethical matters. Specifically, why does the 2008 SI swimsuit magazine market these women as brainless pieces of meat that exist only for the lustful hedonism of men (and maybe lesbians, too)?!?! As a sociologist who deeply cares about the direction of the country, I will damn both the immaturely indulgent men who succumb to their impurest, pubescent fantasies and the slu*ty vixen-women who willfully prostitute themselves as pieces of meat for a few, cheap dollars!!!! I'm also repulsed at the double-standards these skin-mags inflict on society: with their salacious poses, women are undoubtedly telling men it's "all right" to touch, yet as soon as a man makes a move, look out! It's sexual harassment allegation time!

2008's SI swimsuit magazine is unpalatable for many affronts involving female insecurity and low self-esteem, f*tish-flirtation, arrogant self-promotion, moral inconsistency, and on the lowest, most fundamental level, simply unattractive "women."

In the case of f*tish-flirtation, there's no more glaring transgression than the section on body painting where an*rexic, fretfully skinny models Jessica Gomes, Quiana Grant, Marisa Miller, and Tori Prayer get swimsuits painted on by obviously screwed-up "artists," who are sexually frustrated that painting women's bodies is the closest they can get to actual sex!!!!

In the arena of arrogant self-promotion, the already desperate-for-attention and ever-jealous sports stars' wives have it. Here, Jeff Gordon's wife, Jeff Garcia's wife, Johnny Damon's wife, and Carmello Anthony's fiancee--all overshadowed, obscure women who will never be as famous as their husbands and therefore are mired in eternal jealousy and desperation for attention!--pose in near-p*rnographic shots designed to get the wet dreams of teenagers going! Of course, liberal pop culture dictates that the interpretation here is these wives really are only "empowering" themselves and being good, true feminists by doing so, because all their shots are "tasteful." The husbands who are really letting their wives pimp themselves out for money are kidding themselves by pretending it's good for their sham-marriages that their wives str*p for money.

In the arena of moral inconsistency, I will have to be especially hard (no pun intended!) on Danica Patrick for posing like a little, submissive sl*t. She's totally unpardonable for two, essential reasons. One, she actually is--believe it or not--Catholic though by her continuous misuse of her semi-attractive body over the years in magazine spreads, she misbehaves like a liberal atheist. However, it's with this SI spread that she totally crosses into beyond-the-pale territory. Her poses are totally suggestive and completely inconstant with the virtues preached in Catholicism; as punishment she should be denied the sacrament of Communion like every other lib-Catholic who gets out of line (like John Kerry in 2004).

That aside, from a purely sexual standpoint, many of the "women" featured are just NOT attractive to begin with; maybe SI lowered the standard to the pubescent boy who would have his way with any woman.

To make my case, I'll now rate--that's right, RATE--on a scale of ten most of the soulless and wh*rish "women" in this issue.

Danica Patrick - 3 (face only a mother could love)
Michelle Damon - 1 (junk in her trunk)
Carmella Garcia - 2 (frumpy-looking and wide hips)
La La Vasquez - 0 (plain jane)
Ingrid Vandebosch - 4 (body-type of a little boy)
Marisa Miller - -1 (rail-thin and freckle-infested)
Will Ferrell - 5 (comedic-though-still-jackass-value makes him more tolerable)
All NFL Cheerleaders - 2.5 (stereotype of blonde bimbos)

The bottom line is SI's 2008 magazine is primarily good for two things and two things ONLY. One, masturbating material for men of all ages, but primarily pubescent and teen boys who are just awakening to raging hormones and the obsession with getting laid. And two, envy material for women of all ages who will imminently move towards the path of doing psychological damage to themselves by longingly trying to measure up to these unrealistic body images of an*rexic models.

This is the best SI Cover Yet 2008 !!!!!! Marisa Miller is the perfect American Beauty !!! This is a healthy, curvy woman that is a joy to look at. There are alot of different types of women that represent womens beauty to the fullest...I highly recomend this magazine!!

I think it's pretty hilarious that the review above this one condemns society and SI for producing this issue of "insecure" models (even though many of these models are world-class models, not Maxim models), and yet the review then goes on to evaluate some of the women on a scale of one to ten. Dude, isn't that just as repulsive?

To be honest I haven't seen the issue yet but I can promise you that if Marissa Miller is on the cover, it's going to be what it is. Not the most edifying thing for our children but nevertheless a home run for what it's supposed to be.

Books are easy reads for a number of reason, the primary ones are you are engrossed in the material or the writing is straightforward and to the point. This book is a combination of the two, I enjoyed the personal reflections of Mr. Burfoot (i.e. I enjoy biographies) and so the stories were quite enjoyable. I also liked the fact that it was written to be read by the everyman, straight with no chaser. Good read and a book I will pass on to others.

I probably won't read the book, as I don't run. The birthday gift will be given June 14, so I won't hear about it until after then. I am giving 5 stars for the good delivery servicde.

Amby Burfoot may be more known as the long-time editor for Runner's World magazine than for his 1968 victory in the searing heat at the Boston Marathon.

Burfoot merges his skill of a journalist with his many years in the sport to deliver wonderful essays on the peaks, valleys and rugged terrain of life. Though the starting line is his running, the course that is mapped out is accessible to those who never laced up a pair of shoes for a marathon or a jaunt around the block.

This is a gold medal performance by Burfoot, that comes straight from the heart.

Running has always been one of my favorite things to do. It relaxes me, clears my head, and gets me ready for the day. This is a classic about the world of running. If you run occasionally, or obsessively this is a must-have.

Burfoot's "The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life" is so simple yet so thorough. It's such a quick read, but the depth and variety of each short, powerful chapter is incredible. I literally could not put it down.

I particularly connected with the chapter on traditions (the need for anchors in this fast-paced world). Amby talks about the draw of Manchester and it's annual Thanksgiving day Road Race, which he has done 37 consecutive times. This fall will be my 17th straight. Like Amby, I make the pilgrimage back to Connecticut (despite now living in Chicago) because of the opportunity to re-connect with family and friends for this one "magic" day.

As a father of three daughters, I also appreciated his perspectives on his children and how he came to the realization that they must choose their own paths. While I would love for my daughters to share my passion for running, I have learned through Amby that it is OK if they don't. Finally, the chapter titled "Materialism - what you really need you already have" is right on and should be "must read" for our entire society.

This is a book much like "Tuesday's With Morrie" that I will refer back to from time to time to put life - and running - in perspective.

Thanks Amby and see you in Manchester!

Todd Gothberg
Gurnee Il.<

I'm a Rachel Gibson fan, and this was my latest read from her and now it's my favorite!
I could not put the book down.
I liked the depth of the characters and the growth Georgie and John went through. And Lexie's character made the book hilarious.
It's absolutely fabulous and a must-read.

When I first started reading the book I thought, there is no way I'm going to be able to finish it with Georgeanne being so dang flighty. I could not stand reading her run on sentences and what not. But, she changes (and actually becomes quite funny to me later on) and the book picked up speed.

This book was definitely not all fluff. It dealt with some serious life altering events. Suicide, death of a child, alcoholism, etc...

Definitely worth reading!

I just finished my first Rachel Gibson book and I'm looking forward to read other books from the same writer. It was well written, light, fun and sexy. A perfect book for the beach or a night alone by the fireplace. It's not a book I will treasure for years to come or that I plan to re-read as soon as possible but it was fun notheless. After reading the reviews here I was under the impression that it was full of love scenes and little else but that was so untrue! First of all, there were only two love scenes and although it's true that Georgie fell in love with John mainly because he was handsome, the development of John's feelings was much more gradual and deeply founded. Anyway, it's not a book for the demanding reader but for those seeking some fun and a few hours of romantic escapism.

Every one of Rachel Gibson's books is hot. Her two with hockey heroes really rocks and I have read them twice. Of course, my favorite is still Nick & Delaney in Simply Madly Yours. What a hero! But John and Luc in her two hockey romances sizzle. Enjoy.

This was not a romance book - this book should have been considered a guide for women everywhere to not let men get away with. John repeatedly used Georgeann for sex and she was such a masochist about the whole situation. Even when they did end up together towards the end his behavior was completely self-involved, he almost seemed like he was doing her a favor.

John was a big self-centered, cocky, narcissistic man. When a man acts like his 100% sure he will be sleeping with a women and throws it in her face - it's never a good sign! Yes they had a good time together in the bedroom, but he never stepped up to the plate afterwards. This book is sending the message that sex compensates for the lack of love and compasion in a relationship. To make matters worse; when it came time to apologize for his inexcusable behavior; I did not feel like he implored sufficiently to deserve Georgies forgiveness and love.

I like Rachel Gibson's other books, but in this particular one, John was just too much of a jerk for me to sympathize with him to deserve a second chance.

One of the hardest challenges that many new and even experienced life coaches face is marketing. In Four Steps to Building a Profitable Coaching Practice, Deborah Brown-Volkman's goal is to show these coaches how to build a practice by following the steps she details in her book. As a beginning coach myself, I definitely knew it'd be a good idea to read her book.

This book delivers a lot of good marketing ideas and more importantly coaching assignments that can really help a coach both define and begin to promote his/her practice. I've incrementally been doing the exercises and found all of them useful in defining and enhancing my practice. Also I really appreciate that the approximate time and cost is listed to give the coach an idea of what costs are involved.

What I've really found useful is that the book breaks everything down into a step by step approach. This is especially important when you first start a practice, because it can be overwhelming to contemplate how you are going to get your business off the ground. With this book, it makes it much easier to take off and grow your business.

One thing I did find odd is that while the author did focus on a variety of ways to promote she left out things like promoting via flyers and where it would be a good idea to do so. Still this is one book I think every life coach should consider buying. I know I'll be using it for a long time to come in growing my own business.

This book was a great read and outlined step by step what you would need to do to get a coaching practice off the ground. The resources that are listed in this book are invaluable. It is awesome to have everything you need at your fingertips. I have already browsed various web-sites as a result of this book and it has saved me time of browsing the internet aimlessly. The book also points out the pros and cons regarding accepting different payment methods and once again it links you to where you can do further research. I love that the author breaks down the cost and projected start time for each project. I love this book!

I have looked through this book, and have read the first part. The coaching exercises I have encountered so far are very thought provoking. You have to work out a lot of things as you go in this book. It is only a quick read if you skip all the work. It is almost like actually working with a coach because of how interactive it is. I am going gradually as I figure out my plan. I can't do some of the exercises yet because I don't know all the answers at this point. It really helps you develop an overall business plan, and the results of that are that you know exactly why you are making all the choices you make in establishing your practice.

It is a very easy guide to read. As a Coach and experienced Sales Professional, it provides practical and effective excercises to follow.

I recommend this book for new and experienced Coaches.

Unfortunately, this is the first book I've actually returned to Amazon. The information is fine if you've never owned or managed a business before and have no idea what you're doing. But with all due respect to the author, this is kindergarten level material. I've already been in business for a number of years and found nothing helpful.

If you're just getting started or re-entering the business world after a prolonged time off, go ahead and get the book. If you already have a business, you don't need this book--and probably could have written it yourself.