Customer Reviews (6)

Honest view of Track & Field in the 80's
This book is fascinating.It give you a view of what it takes to make champions behind the scenes.As we know Charlie Francis' prodigy Ben Johnson became the scape goat for performance enhancing drug use during the 80's.He chronics the history of drug use and takes a scientific & pragmatic assessment of the "dangers" that drug use entails.Whereas the "higher ups" chose to follow President Richard Nixon lead in making a moral claim against drug use; this moral claim causes much more harm and continues to push drug use "underground" where athletes are more likely to obtain drugs illegally and thus creating more problems than solving them.

Excellent Read.
I was fortunate enough to buy the book when it first came out. I have read the book several dozen times and often use it as a reference.

I have learned alot from this book and it describes the training methods Charlie learned and the transformation to his own training system.

I also have "The Charlie Francis Training System" which is autographed by Charlie. It is a great book for preparing your own training and periodization schedules.

The book is laid out in an easy to read fashion and Charlie knows how to get the point across very well.

I'm very fortunate to have read this book.

The Definitive Book on Sprinting
I purchased this book when it was first released in late 1990 and have read it cover to cover several dozen times over the years. Unfortunately, most of the attention and commentary regarding this book give a false impression of its content. Though the narrative does culminate in the drug scandal in Seoul, the topic of drug use by athletes (and by Charlie's sprinters in particular) is really of secondary importance and only constitutes a small portion of the book.

Speed Trap is primarily an autobiography of Charlie's career as an athlete and coach. In the course of reading about Charlie's training as an Olympic sprinter himself and the subsequent evolution of his coaching methods, the reader is treated to perhaps the best education on the technical aspects of sprinting ever put into print. From his early training with Percy Duncan and Harry Jerome to his subsequent tutelage under legendary sprint coach Gerard Mach, Charlie describes what he learned from these greats as well as how he synthesized and adapted their methods in developing his own training system. I know of no other book on sprinting that comes close to providing the quality of technical insight found in Speed Trap. To a certain extent, Speed Trap is a technical treatise on sprinting masquerading as an autobiography. While the description of the careers of athletes such as Ben Johnson, Angela Issajenko, Desai Williams, et al., is entertaining in its own right, it also serves to provide anecdotes that illustrate many of the technical concepts discussed throughout the book. Anyone who has met Charlie in person knows this is exactly how he teaches. In her own autobiography (Running Risks) Angela Issajenko describes how Charlie always seemed to have a story to explain any point he was trying to get across to his athletes.

Even on the topic of drugs, Speed Trap offers insights not found anywhere else. Most if not all of the literature related to anabolic steroids is dominated by the field of bodybuilding and to a lesser extent powerlifting. Charlie explains how steroid use by sprinters and similar athletes is a world apart from bodybuilding. As an example, in her first year of steroid use, Angela Issajenko's total dosage for the entire year was about 700mg, an amount many bodybuilders would use in a couple days. Much of the discussion of drug use by athletes is part of the larger topic of how sport is administered by the various governing bodies around the world. Charlie provides a very sobering insight into the bureaucratic and often corrupt nature of international sport.

Lastly, in addition to the quality of its content, Speed Trap is also remarkable for the quality of the writing. The narrative is written in a very conversational style that makes it very easy to read. Having met and trained with Charlie on a couple of occasions, I can attest to the fact that the book reads pretty much the way Charlie talks. I cannot recommend this book more highly for those interested specifically in sprinting or just training in general. If you can find a copy, it is well worth buying.

Tremendous Read
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.

Drugs and the Elite Athlete
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. ... Read more

Product Description
John Lucas has dedicated his nearly half-century of academic life at Penn State University to researching and writing about his first love of sport, track and field, and the Olympics.He has attended every Summer Olympics since the 1960 Rome Games and has written several books, including 'Future of the Olympic Games.'From his over 200 monographs and articles, Lucas has selected a score of his articles written since 1953 for this anthology.They cover the range of his academic interests. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Olympic Historians on John Lucas
Here's what the academic specialist are saying about John Lucas' book:

"In 1962, six years before I first met him, John Lucas defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Maryland on "Pierre de Coubertin and the Formative Years of the Modern Olympic Movement."Almost a half century later, following 8 books and some 250 scholarly articles on Olympic history, comes this book, "The Best of John Lucas," compiled by the world's doyen of seriously researched, thoroughly documented, and passionately written Olympic history. As I have done, enjoy!"
(Dr. Robert Barney, founder of OLYMPICA:THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC STUDIES and past-president of the North American Society for Sport History.)

"For me, he is the Nestor of the writing of Olympic history. Lucas is a historian who places great value in the careful study of primary sources and has often reached new and interesting conclusions."

(Dr. Karl Lennartz, founder member of the International Society of Olympic Historians, 1996 member of the board of directors, 2000 vice-president, 2004 president; since2003 - together with Dr. Stephan Wassong - editor of the journalJournal of Olympic History)Rethinking the Olympics: Cultural Histories of the Modern Games ... Read more