Sports Books

I am a 50 year old struggling 25 handicapper who has finally decided to take lessons or quit. People, you can read 100 books on the golf swing, and I imagine some of you have, but you won't know what you're doing wrong without feedback. Take a golf lesson and have someone show you, through video, what is going on. Oh sure, there are some gifted athletes out there who can self improve just by reading a book. Not possible with an average person. In the long run lessons will be cheaper than buying books. I have read many books including all of Hank Haney's and I thoroughly enjoy reading them, but you can't fix what's broke without help- trust me. Go ahead and read the books, but take a few lessons and your game will take off. Improvement takes time, some money, and practice. With three lessons I have started scoring in the mid 80's. It is fun to play again. I can't wait to get out there and beat my best score.

Good book, but suggest Steve Elkington's book instead. Go back to the fundamentals and stop over-analyzing your swing.

Fairly difficult to read/understand. Not particularly helpful (as title woud seem to indicate).

Couldn't put the book down. It is a well written, straight forward guide to self assessment of golf swing issues. I love his approach to fixes and improvement and found it far more useful than any other golf instructional book I've read. I wish he had a local school.

haney needs to write another book. i think he does have a great understanding of the swing, but it doesn't come through at all in this book. he pretty much loses the reader in the first chapter and it only gets worse.

he opens by stating the goal of the swing is to keep the club on the same arc established by the shaft angle at address, but doesn't really explain why this is the objective and then proceeds to make a complete mess of trying to explain how to achieve this goal.

Haney's best comments are saved for his TV color job - which at times can be very good - and I guess his work with Tiger Woods. for the rest of us, if you're looking for instruction on developing an on-plane swing try jim hardy's "plane truth."

I wish I had had this book the first time I built a stitch-and-glue boat. Loads of really good advice and neat tricks. I'm often approached by people after they've seem my boats asking me for advice. This is now the book I'll recommend first to someone who wants to build a kit. As another reviewer noted, this book is really for someone who plans to build from a kit, not from scratch. If its your first time building, I recommend you follow the author's advice and go with a kit - building from scratch, while exciting, is tough the first time around (unless, perhaps, you're a experienced woodworker). I've seen too many scratch built boats that ended up costing about the same as a quality kit - and looked like crap to boot.

There are so many tips and good ideas in this book. It is definetly worth it, Starting with building the ideal workbench, the ideas for using the templates to hold in the sides to fiberglass it as one piece instead of cutting it up to fit inbetween the bulkheads. Lots of nice color pictures, beautiful presentation. I'd definely recommend this book.

Great book. Invaluable tips. Great color pictures really help you understand things you might not get from just reading your instruction manual. If you have this book, you don't really need any others, as there is little in the rest of them that isn't in here. And this one is easier to read, and has useful full color pictures.

Kayaking has become the latest popular fad, with many discovering them easier to transport than canoes, and lower-impact than motorboats: for those avid kayakers who would customize their own design, her comes Kayaks You Can Build: An Illustrated Guide To Plywood Construction, an illustrated guide to plywood- constructed kayaks. You don't have to start from scratch: kits are widely available, and KAYAKS YOU CAN BUILD assumes one of these kits is the starting point, providing the authors' expertise as kayak builders and boatbuilding instructors as it follows the process.

The title of this book implies that you will know how to build a plywood kayak after reading it. However; it only tells you how to proceed after buying a prefabricated kit from one of three suppliers. (One of which was founded by one of the authors)
Nowhere does it give you the dimensions you need to start from scratch and build your own. If you have lots of money and don't mind buying a kit, this book is an excellent reference. But for builders on a budget like myself, I don't recommend buying this book.

I bought this for my Dad who just got a new boat. He read it all the way through and it looked like he book marked every page!

This is a must have boaters book if you live in the Puget Sound area. Very detailed in the points of interest, each one is clearly described and rated. Some charting is included for difficult harbors, approaches are described. This gives us (new boaters and new Washingtonians) a great place to start in our explorations. Highly recommended!!!

Very informative, well written, nice layout. Looking forward to much more future use! If I find gunkholing the Gulf Isl by same author next, I'm buying it!

I bought the "A Cruising Guide to Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands" by Migael M. Scherer for an upcoming trip to the San Juans this summer. The guide has lots of information and beautiful pictures from the various inlets and towns of Puget Sound and the surrounding areas, but I was a little disappointed with the charts, which seemed to be just reproductions of USCG nautical maps. I think this guide tries to do too much, and would have benefited by concentrating on one locale or area. Some more defined charts would have been helpful also. Nonetheless, anyone who is a sailor will appreciate it, and I would recommend it to someone who is sailing those waters.

An excellent guide to this outstanding cruising area; obviously well researched and very well written and compiled. From a pilotage viewpoint, it could be improved with a few, more detailed "chartlets" of some of the more difficult approaches and port/dock entries, but the first rate collection of photographs and especially the superb aerial photographs (by Neil Rabinowitz) provide make up for this very minor deficiency.

Samurai Shortstop is a wonderful, but underappreciated tale about a boy and his love for baseball. Toyo, a 14 year-old boy is faced to grow up faster than he ever wanted to when his uncle committed seppuku, legal suicide in Japan. Everything has changed since the French Revolution, and now there are no more samurais, but now there is baseball, Toyo's favorite sport.
He has just now started the most prestigious school in Tokyo, which means new friends, bullies, and many more problems. He tries out for baseball and starts learning the way of samurai from his father. Toyo and his father never really understood each other, and now that his uncle has died, Toyo only has his friends to help him.

Toyo is a very smart person, and becomes a very good leader. Throughout the book everything that happens helps him, although it doesn't look like it all the time. Toyo starts to put his skill in the art of bushido, samurai fighting style, into baseball. My favorite part of the book is when he fights the older kid instead of letting them beat him up. I would recommend this book to students from 7th grade and up.
--Malik McKenzie

This is a story of a boy named Toyo Shimada. The time is set in Tokyo, 1890. Toyo is sent to a boarding school of a very high caliber, but after he arrives he sees how the upperclassmen treat the first years. To fit in, he joins the baseball team, a sport he loves. He wants to be shortstop, but until he becomes a "man" to the upperclassmen he is stuck in the outfield. He is enraged, but nevertheless he pushes through the tormenting and refuses to quit the baseball team. The only problem is his father, who is still using the ways of the samurai, or worrier. Toyo's father does not want him to play, unless Toyo can convince him otherwise. Other than that, his father has decided to teach him the ways of the warrior, or bushido. At first Toyo does not understand any of his bushido lessons, or why he has to do them, but over the course of the book he learns to use his bushido skills.
This book reminds me of a book called Dairy Queen. The story was about a girl, and football, not baseball, but in the end she overcomes many obstacles just like Toyo. In both books, the main focus is overcoming anything that comes your way. They are both also about standing up to important figures in there lives. It happens to be that in both books that person is their dad. Alan Gratz has written an enthralling tale.
I enjoyed the book, although it does have some pretty gruesome scenes. I liked reading it because you always want to see what Toyo will do next, what the other characters are going to say, or do. It also tells you a lot about what school was like back then, in Japan. It is a lot different from Americans school, and the year it takes place in really makes a difference. Overall, this is a great book and you should pick it up sometimes if you are looking for a great read.

Let me start off by saying this is the best book I have read. It is a very exciting book that keeps your attention throughout. It starts off by the Emperer allowing Toyo's Uncle to commit seppuku (suicide) instead of being killed by the government. Samurai Shortstop has a great mix of baseball and culture. You get to read a baseball story but at the sametime learn about their culture and beliefs. Toyo attends Ichiko which is a very big school that consists of only boys.

Ichiko's baseball team is run by the players themselves and when Toyo and a couple other first years want to join the team the have to prove that they are worthy. Toyo's friend Futoshi makes the team as the right fielder but Toyo has a little trouble making the team because Ichiko already has a shortstop. But when their shortstop gets thrown off the team Toyo found himself starting at shortstop. Toyo's father teaches trys to teach him bushido which is code by which Samurai lived but Toyo has trouble understanding it. Not until the end of the book when he has to help with his father's seppuku does he fully understand bushido. This is a wonderful book because it keeps you off balance and never knowing what is going to happen!

Kyle Walmer
Mrs. Bains 3rd block

It's 1890 and you're in Tokyo, Japan. Between classes in the most prestigious high school in town and baseball practice, you learn the old ways--the ways of the samurai. That's Toyo Shimada's life and we get the pleasure of going along for the ride thanks to Alan Gratz's brilliant story telling.


Toyo suffers from familiar teen angst: a parent who doesn't understand him and friends who try to understand him, but often fail. It's the core of most teen stories, but Toyo's world is changing. Old Japan is dying and a new Japan is rising.


His father represents the old Japan. When the emperor reforms their ancient military system and requires all samurai to hang up their swords, Toyo's family is caught in the middle. The opening scene, where Toyo and his father assist Toyo's uncle in seppuku, ritual suicide, is so intense that you'll wonder if Toyo's just having a bad dream.


Even though Toyo's father isn't samurai in the traditional sense, he too decides he can't live in the new Japan. He expects Toyo to assist him in seppuku, when the time comes. First, he must teach Toyo the ways of bushido, the warrior's code.


Between lessons and baseball practice, Toyo learns to meditate and use a sword--and worries about his father. When the time comes, will he have the courage to do what has to be done? Baseball is his passion, and as applies bushido to baseball, he comes to terms with the changing world around him and begins his journey into manhood.


Samurai Shortstop is the story of Toyo's search for his own path in a time of social change and family turmoil. Toyo's personal struggle is one all teens can appreciate. He struggles with peer pressure, studies, and parental control and expectations. Nineteenth century Japan comes alive and provides the color and unexpected tension that every good story needs.

Samurai Shortstop is about a 16-year old Japanese boy, Toyo. Right from the first sentence of the book it really grabs your attention. Toyo's uncle is preparing to commit sepukku. This is considered an honorable way to kill yourself in Japan. The story draws you into the life of Toyo and helps you to understand his relationship with his father and learning the art of bushido. He goes off to a private boarding school where he learns how to stand up for himself and fight off the seniors who are out to torture the first years. I liked this book because it combines the sport of baseball along with Toyo's high school experience in Japan. If you want to read a book that is hard to put down and will keep you intrigued until the very last page, then this is the book for you.

I ordered this book based on an interview with the author that I heard on NPR. Overall it seemed like a very complete book, but it was far to technical and scientific for me to appreciate it. I gave it 3 stars not because it's not a good book - but it's too advanced for me to give it an accurate review. If you are looking for an easy non technical nutrition book - this isn't it. If you are looking for something a bit meatier, with plenty of scientific technical information - it may be the one you want.

I have read other sports nutrition books, but this book is by far the best. The writing style is simple, and the research comprehensive. The books touches on all aspects of nutrition and how it affects performance. I recommend it for any serious athlete.

Too scientific for me. This book may be a good reference if you're a sports dietitian.

I've been studying exercise physiology and sports nutrition for four years now and it is not until my senior year of college I have found a book worth reading. Bernadot intelligently separates fact from myth in an intelligent but simplified manner. I have made it my nutrition bible and use it with my clients on a daily basis, always with phenomenal results. If he makes a second edition, I'm buying it!

First and foremost, this exceptional book is not a "one stop reference"; thats an idea that people often look for in a book, that probably doesn't really exist. Quality books should be added to your library, taken for what they are and what they offer, and compared to other similar books to create a bigger picture or understanding as it applies to you...there is no single perfect "way" when it comes to nutrition, much like training for your chosen sport. This book is no exception, it is well researched and exceptionally useful, written by an author that applies what he knows to Olympic athletes. As a strength athlete most interested in powerlifting and strongman types of lifting and competition, the chapters referring to this type of training directly are limited and mostly bunched up with wrestlers, etc. under "power athletes", so it isn't exactly what I was looking for, but it still fits the bill in alot of ways as the info is there just not set out by itself under that title. Advanced Sports Nutrition covers a broad range of sports and has tons of useful information on everything nutrition that can be useful to just about anyone. It covers alot of unique as well as general topics. Join it up with a few more books like Nutrition Almanac and you'll be on your way to having whatever you need at your fingertips. This book is worth your time and money, although like myself, you might not realize the extent if its usefulness until you open it up and start putting things together.

Organization and topics:

Part I Nutritional Sources for Athletes
-energy nutrients, vitamins/minerals, fluids/electrolytes, and ergogenic aids

Part II Nutritional Aspects of Optimal Performance
-timing, absorption, oxygen, and inhibitors

Part III Factors Affecting Nutritional Needs
-travel, altitude, gender/age, and body comp/weight

Part IV Nutritional Strategies for Specific Energy Systems
-Metabolism for endurance/power (anaerobic/aerobic), and needs for both

Part V Nutritional Plans for Specific Sports
-Power/speed sports, endurance sports, and combined power/endurance sports.

This is a cute book filled with great ideas. This book is for those camping in a city campground though, and not for backpacking in the woods. It's also not a very good choice for the picky eater.

All this is all over the internet. Nothing new and exciting here if you camp with groups like girl scouts or boy scouts. Get it from the library or search the internet for ideas

This book gave me a lot of good ideas when I took my daycare kids camping this summer. They liked most of the recipes, but we tailored some of them to their liking. It was a great book.

I got this book at the library, but then came now online to purchase it. The ideas presented were fun and easy. I hadn't used tin foil on the campfire before, and the author gave some good ideas for that as well as items to be cooked on a stick. For example, I loved the idea about melting chocolate and bananas in the banana peel wrapped in tin foil. One reviewer commented about the use of perishables in the recipes. That wasn't a concern for us because of the refrigerator in our trailer. I suppose one could put the food items in an ice chest as long as one could drive to his/her campsite.

I highly recommend this book. It's fun and easy food for families while camping.

A good beginner book to give basic recipes and ideas for cooking on the campfire. The book does what I imagine it set out to do, giving starting point for people doing outdoor cooking with younger children such as parents, scout leaders, or teachers.

This is our first Maisy book and I'm not sure we'll be buying any others. Unfortunately for Maisy we bought a Dora book at the same time (Dora Goes to School) and the latter was so much more fun and interesting to our daughter and to us.

I've read this book so many times to my 15-month-old, I can recite it from memory! He started going nuts for it around the time he turned one; that's when he wanted a little more of a story line. This book and the other three in the group (Maisy's Bedtime, Maisy Dresses Up, and Maisy Makes Gingerbread) are one step up from the one-picture-and-one-word per page kinds of books for babies, but not so high up that they start having way too much text per page. A typical page in this book is "Maisy and Talullah are feeling hot." Just one or two simple sentences and one wonderful bright Lucy Cousins illustration per page-spread; ten page-spreads total.

If you are the parent of a young child, you probably know who Maisy is. She's a mouse with a duck, a squirrel, an elephant, and a crocodile for friends. Why the crocodile isn't trying to eat the others is beyond me, but that's life in Maisy's workd.

Both of my daughters love the Maisy books; there's something about their simple stories and colorful pictures that even appeals to adults. The books are short and easy to read. But, the stories are never obnoxiously simplistic, like so many other books for small children.

It's a hot summer day and Maisy pulls out her pool to cool off. But she runs into a few problems when she finds a leak in the pool and then has her friend Eddie the Elephant decide to sit in it. Will Maisy ever be able to cool off?

There's no tab pulling or flap lifting in this 1999 Maisy book, but author Lucy Cousins spins a surprisingly exciting tale for Maisy. The story involves Maisy, a yellow bird with a blue hair bow ("Tallulah"), and a large elephant ("Eddie") wearing orange swimming trunks with a blue and white daisy pattern. These three want to take a dip in an inflatable swimming pool on a hot day. However, not only does the inflatable spring a leak, but its not big enough for the two smaller animals when Eddie climbs in. The animals find their way to a happy and satisfying resolution.

Lucy Cousins' illustrations add immensely to her story's appeal. Using rich, vivid colors, she draws her characters wearing toddler clothing--and big smiles. "Maisy's Pool" is 21 pages long. Each of the 10 two-page spreads (there's a one-page biographical piece on Cousins after the story) has large-font, bold text on a white background on the left side, and bright, cheerful gouache pictures on the right. Recommended!

I found that book was lagely inspirational in that it said how good everything would be if you followed certain steps. The trouble was that Orlick never actually gave many steps to follow. On the whole I found the book useless and devoid of any practical tips to improve performance.

There are a lot of good books on mental training for athletes but I think Terry Orlick's stands out by carrying information that is insightful, well-rounded, very practical, beneficial to reducing anxiety, increasing focus on the task and, ultimately, performance.

As an Olympic medal winner who now manages a online sport psych shop (sportsmindskills.com) I've come across a lot of books on the subject and this is the winner!

A very good book, but disappointed that the shipment was lost and almost 3 weeks delayed

This book has many useful tools not just for athletes but also for individuals seeking something for their everyday lives.

Best section I thought was on setting goals, the wheel of excellence, maintaining positive perspectives and outlook, and how to deal with distraction control, quest for consistency, etc etc.

These are all very important concepts not just for the athlete in training but also for everyday people seeking a goal or purpose in life, maintaining that path to success, and knowing how to deal with every day bumps and grinds and highs and lows.

Book talks about:
Setting a goal
Make commitment to that goal
And Initiate Action to accomplish your goals
and don't let distractions, criticism, or other people distract you from your path.

Sounds simple? But for most of us we really have to work on it! Takes lotsa work and discipline to know what you want, work to towards getting it, and not stray from distractions or criticism.

In college I took a sports psychology class taught by a practicing Sports Psychologist who coached Many NFL & PGA Tour players. This was one of out main books we used and it is still in my library today. As a collegiate athlete (baseball), I was able to easily apply the concepts to my own game. I don't know if it helped my physical ability, but mentally I was much more confident and focused.