Product Description
Moving gracefully from ancient Greek philosophy to school gymnasiums, this book explores the profound connection between physical and mental performance and shows how strengthening the inner athlete leads to a more harmonious life. "It's enough to make you want to go out and run a mile for the sheer joy of it." - NBC News ... Read more

Product Description
Mia Hamm helped the 1996 Olympic team win the gold medal in soccer. Now for her fans and those who would like to know more about this fantastic athlete, this insightful story presents her complete story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Biography On Mia Hamm
Mia Hamm

Mia Hamm was a talented soccer player. As a toddler she lived in Italy, that is how she discovered her love of soccer. Her dad was a marine and so she moved around frequently. During High School she decided to focus on soccer, and so all through High School and college she played on her schools' teams. Mia graduated college in 1994 and married her college boyfriend, Christian Corey. After that, Mia and her team went to Sweden to defend their world cup title. IN 1998, she was named America's best female athlete.

My book, On the Field With Mia Hamm, gave me lots of information about Mia. The cover page is green with a colored picture of her running down the field with the ball. This book is organized into chapters and that made it a lot easier to sort the information about Mia. In the middle of the book are nine colored pictures of Mia and her teammates. In would have made the book easier if there were more pictures, though. I would recommend this book to anyone that loves soccer!

Fun Review
Very good review of a current sports star.Easy for my 7 year old daughter to understand and keep her interested.

Mia Hamm and How She Started
I would recommend this book not only to people who love soccer, but to everyone who enjoys a true story about a great athlete and role model.The story of Mia Hamm is basically about how she was introduced to soccer and how she follows her dream to be the best women's soccer player in the world.

The book is really better than it looks like!
On teh field with Mia Hamm by Matt Christopher was a very goodbook.I didn't have a very good idea who Mia Hamm really was though.The only thing I know is a professional soccer player.I aw the book and it looked pretty interesting.I'm about a quarter of the way through the book and I'm liking it so far.Usually I don't read books , let alone a whole book.

This book is the best!
This book is by far the best i've ever read. It has great pictures and has lots of info on Mia. I think she is the best player i've ever seen. So this book was very interesting. If you love to play soccer, and enjoy watchingand learning about Mia , this is THE perfect book! Once you start readingit, you won't stop reading until you've finished! SO GET OUT THERE,GET OFFYOUR BUTT, AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER, AND READ! ... Read more

Product Description
Everyone has a favorite place. The world's top outdoor adventurers are no different -- except that theirs are often anywhere between 2,000 feet above the ground to three miles out to sea. Featuring stunning images by respected photographer Corey Rich, this soulful book transports readers to 14 favorite playgrounds of world champions, elite guides, and pioneers of sport. Cross-country skiier and Olympic medalist Bill Koch describes why the Vermont wilderness is his stomping ground. Ed Viesturs celebrates the glacier-covered volcano in the Pacific Northwest where he honed the skills to conquer Mount Everest. Sara Ballantyne revels in her mountain bike treks across the desert near Moab. With passionate profiles of first-class athletes in picturesque settings -- Yosemite Valley, the coast of Maine, Florida's beaches, the Appalachian wilderness, and more -- My Favorite Place is an inspiration to anyone whose favorite place is anywhere in the outdoors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Great gift for anyone
This book does a great job of taking you into the lives of people who live their passion for the great outdoors on a daily basis.The photos are outstanding...by renowned adventure photographer Corey Rich.

Buy it for all of your friends and family.

Beautiful!
Corey's show about making this book rocked, I just loved the diversity of the athletes profiled, in particular Jeff Lowe, who shared at a book signing that his photo shoot for the book may have been his last ice climb. The book shows so many cool places to explore throughout the US. Jason and Corey pay great homage to each athlete's passion for being outside in nature, often instilling the same values in their children. Outdoor sports are a tremendous highlight of life for so many people and this is explored very well. Definitely made me reflect & feel good about my choices. I wish the book included even more stories. Great project!

Killer Book!
Between the storytelling of Jason Paur and the beautiful photography of Corey Rich this book delivers on many levels. It is a staple on my coffee table, and I never tire of flipping through it.

Great Book!
I became aware of this book on an Alaska Airlines flight where a few pages of it were featured in Alaska Air Magazine. I was so intrigued I had to run out and purchase a copy. The adventurous people the book focuses on are all very inspiring and interesting. As a "coffee table book", people will pick this up and not want to put it down. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in outdoor activities.

Brilliant writing and photos of the worlds best adventure athletes
The idea of the this book is so great i am surprised i haven't seen it done yet: find the best adventure athletes and interview and photograph them at their favorite places to play. The photography is awesome and the profiles do a great job of getting into the lives of the athletes. some of my favorite stories are of "the making of the book adventures" that show just how involved in the action the writer and photographer got. The stories of Corey getting airsick paragliding and getting talked into Base jumping by Shane McConkey and his girlfriend Kim are laugh-out-loud funny. ... Read more

Product Description
Exercise Your Body.Enjoy Yourself.Experience the Difference.

Whatever your fitness level, world-class Iron Man triathlete Eric Harr shares 100 inspirational strategies to uncover your passion and improve your performance.

• See each workout as a celebration and an opportunity for personal growth (#5).

• Stop counting calories and listen to your body for nutrition information it knows what you need (#22).

• Learn why morning workouts are best–and it's not just because you’ll burn more body fat (#35)

• Experience the power of a “breakthrough session” in your training program (#60).

• Find out the five best fat-burning secrets, and why you must be selfish about your fitness.(#s 90 and 91).

• Put less effort into your workout for world-class results (#73).

• Let go of your ego and rely on your inner strength and confidence (#84).

Gleaned from thousands of hours of training and shared wisdom from the very best athletes in the world, these simple lessons will transform your approach to getting fit, staying active, and being alive.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (60)

Practical and useful
I think this is a practical and easy set of tips about how to improve yourself in any sport.

something wrong with the Kindle edition
This was a great book until I got to the appendix about glycemic indexes. The book then crashed my Kindle 2 and required them to ship me a new one. We had to remove the book and they refunded my money. Hope the publisher releases a fixed version soon. Until then, you might want to buy the paper edition instead.

Need to be motivated? Want to learn abouttrue fitness??
This is one of the easiest reads and greatest books I'v read on wellness, nutrition and fitness. The book is inspiring, motivating, educational and full of easy to use ideas and tips. A must read for any one at any level of fitness.

The most inspirational exercise book I own
Everyday I read this book, I am amazed by the wisdom that this book offers. It covers many diverse aspect of exercise in easy to digest pages and each one is inspiring and sure to change mybehaviour for the better.I wish I had this book long ago but I'm very glad to have it now.

Because of its small and usual (wide vs. long) size, it is very handy as a quick reference. Over a year later, I still refer to it daily, buy it as a gift for others embarking on the road ot fitness and look forward to his next book.

A Great Book, PlainSimple (Response to Barbara Jordan)
I am a fan of Eric Harr's work. I've read his columns in Shape magazine and have enjoyed his other titles very much. I am dismayed at the review written by "Barbara Jordan "brownsugar76" who is obviously misguided and pessimistic. This book is a tips book -- 100 in all -- that give people basic guidance about exercise and living better. It never promises to be a thick, boring, scientific guide ... and THAT'S the appeal. There are hundreds of fitness books out there. Harr tries to deliver fitness wisdom in 100 simple tips. Granted some of them are a little "soft" for fitness buffs -- but most are very valuable.

I'm giving this book 4 stars, because it is GREAT for many people getting into fitness, but it's not geared towards more serious fitness people (who work out, say 5+ times a week).

Barbara Jordan "brownsugar76" doesn't see the book for its incredible value...which is a hearty book in easily-digestible "one-a-day" tips for people seeking to get fit and live and eat better.

As to her comment about the reviews of others, it appears Barbara Jordan "brownsugar76" is jealous of Eric Harr's success. I checked these people's reviews -- and they're REAL people with real opinions.

Be wary of green-with-ency reviewers like Barbara Jordan "brownsugar76." This is a great book. Decide for yourself. ... Read more

Product Description
Age-specific sport, fitness, and health programs for kids 7 to 18

The benefits of strength training for youth are clearly documented. Yet teachers, fitness instructors, and youth coaches are often not sure how to proceed, and they end up watering down adult versions of strength-training programs.

That is definitely not the way to go. But authors Avery Faigenbaum and Wayne Westcott, with their 50 years of combined experience in teaching youth strength-training classes and coaching, can tell you the way to go--and back it with the most current research on instructional techniques and program design for youth.

Long recognized as leading authorities on strength training, Faigenbaum and Westcott guide you in designing efficient, enjoyable, and productive programs for kids of varying abilities in elementary school (ages 7 to 10), middle school (11 to 14), and high school (15 to 18). You will focus first on broad-based, balanced muscle development, and then move into comprehensive, sport-specific strength-training programs.

In addition, Youth Strength Trainingwill teach you

• productive protocols for warming up and cooling down;
• procedures for enhancing joint flexibility;
• innovative ways to incorporate resistance exercises into physical education classes, sport practice sessions, and exercise facilities; and
• proper exercise technique for 111 resistance exercises using weight stack machines, free weights, medicine balls, elastic bands, and body-weight resistance.

Much has changed since the authors first wrote a book on strength training for youth, and those changes--including information in the areas of nutrition, hydration, and recovery to maximize the effects of strength training and minimize the risks of overtraining--are incorporated in this book. Additional changes, based on the authors' studies, are reflected in workout frequency, exercise repetitions, related training components, and other factors that affect program design and conditioning results. All programs were fashioned with the latest NASPE standards in mind.

Faigenbaum and Westcott have included new information on periodization and long-term planning, perceived exertion scale for youth, overtraining and undertraining, dynamic warm-ups and static stretches, new exercises, effective instruction of youth, and plyometrics.

Through strength training, kids as young as 7 can safely develop a strong musculoskeletal system that can help them improve their health and fitness and also withstand the rigors of sport participation.

Youth Strength Trainingis the definitive source to guide you in designing and overseeing the programs of the kids you work with, whether you're in a school, fitness center, or home setting. If you want to see high rates of strength development and spark a lifelong interest in strength-building activities, rely on Youth Strength Training. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Youth Strength Training
Youth Strength Training should be included as an integral book in the library of EVERY youth coach, physical education teacher and parent that wants to learn the RIGHT way to train our youth!Drs. Faigenbaum and Westcott have taken a lifetime of scientific based research and practical applications of the proper way to train our children and young athletes, and have provided a well conceived, appropriate and safe method of training for young people.By following the principles, practice and programs outlined in Youth Strength Training, the coach, teacher and/or parent can not only provide the correct way to improve the strength and condition of the young boy and girl, but give those young people a way to exercise that is fun and functional!Simply put - These programs WORK!!!This is one of the finest books I have ever seen on the unique and specialized strength and conditioning training for the young.The authors' work with youth for their entire professional careers is brought together in this book that is practical, functional, and easy to follow and implement. I give Youth Strength Training: Programs for Health, Fitness and Sport my highest recommendation.

Fantastic!
Once again, Dr. Faigenbaum has succeeded with "Youth Strength Training" in proving why he is one of the most Prestigious & Well-Respected Experts on the topic of Youth Strength Training & Conditioning. The present generation of children are less active than ever before. This book stresses that children are not miniature adults and must not be trained as such. We must continue to bring the concept of "play" into the training of todays youth, as many kids lack the basic skills needed to run, skip, and jump. Without those skills and the pressure of the "early specialization" parent, transferable skills learned in playing multiple sports are lost & underconditioned youth are at a greater risk for injury & burnout.

As a Titleist Performance Institute Certified Golf Fitness Professional who specializes in Youth Performance training, I would highly recommend no other methods than the principles laid out in this book.The research and data based programs that Wescott & Faigenbaum bring in this book fully cover any underlying Myths & Misconceptions about Youth Strength Training. The authors provide easy to follow programs for any child, not just athletes.

I cannot stress enough how highly I recommend that any Parent or Strength Training coach have this book in their library

Graham Review
Dr. Faigenbaum & Dr. Wescott have once again provided exercise professionals with a scientifically and evidenced based resource manual for the strength training of youth and adolescents. This book offers easy to follow guidleines and recommendations for the design and implementation of strength training and fitness workouts for youth and adolescents 7 to 18 years of age. The book also provides 100 illustrated exercises with technique descriptions using various types of training equipment. It is a must read and resource manual and belongs on everyone's book shelf who work with youth and adolescents in strength training and fitness programs.

Priceless
As a parent of 2 teenage boys I was looking for a book on youth strength training and I found it!The descriptions of sample programs are easy to understand and the photos of starting and finishing positions of every exercise are priceless. Highly recommended to parents who want to learn about safe and proper techniques for lifting weights.

Masterful
Drs. Faigenbaum and Westcott are at the top of their game. The new edition of this book is a world-class guide to preparing student-athletes for the demands of sport - and of life.

What makes this book so extraordinary is the authors' evidenced-based approach, and their application of an educational model to training. They do a superb job of explaining strength training as part of childrens' long-term development rather than just in terms of fitness. The discussions of its role in skill acquisition, as well as its transfer to performance and health, are terrific. They also do some important mythbusting.

The big payoff is in the authors' insights on the real risks of working with youth: missed opportunities to teach the fundamentals, the problems with early specialization, and the dangers of failing to prepare for real-world activities. Everything from athletics to ADLs involve strength and power, folks. Here's the curriculum guide. ... Read more

Product Description
The 7 Secrets of World Class Athletes takes you into the minds of super-star athletes when they are on top of their game. The fascinating concept is that regardless of what sport they are playing, they have to be experiencing identical processes in their minds. That is because the mind-body connection works the same for everyone. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The 7 Secrets of World Class Athletes
Awesome!One of the best books I have read in years.It is not another book that teachs mechanics. It gets you to understand the mind-body connection.As a PGA Professional this is what I feel is the missing link in golf.When people get bogged down in mistakes, the conscious thoughts get in the way. This book unlocks the secrets of how to think in the subconscious, where you can perform at your highest effective level. No matter what the sport of choice is.

From A Pro Golfer
I am the author of the book, but I received these 2 emails from Ryan Hardy, a professional golfer from Canada and Darren Reed, a rugby player from Australia:

"I was off to bed after a long night at 2 A.M. and decided to read a few pages of your book before shutting the old brain down. Sure enough it's 6 A.M. and I've read the whole thing straight through twice (and I'm not a big reader, this may be the first time I've read something twice straight through in my life) and think I've retained every word. And to start let me say thank you for giving me the privilege and opportunity of seeing your's and Buddy's life work on paper. I truly see how much effort and time you and Buddy have put into this, and frankly I don't think you could have made the message any simpler.

You're sitting on a revolutionary and dynamic process that WILL revolutionize the future of athletics and sport physiology. I couldn't be more excited for you and Buddy as you continue on your journey, and I cannot wait to initialize your findings and theories in to my own golf career, which fortunately is just taking off so this couldn't have come at a better time, to be honest.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the movie "Jerry Maguire" but I'm about as enlightened as Jerry Maguire was when he wrote his mission statement. You and Buddy have opened my eyes to a whole new level of comprehension that I've never even imagined before. As I read chapter after chapter, flashes of countless memories (all the way back to ages 8-10 and on) rolled through my head. As I dug further and further in to my memory bank, of my epic triumphs and career meltdowns/chokes based on mental mistakes, IT ALL MADE PERFECT SENSE AND JUST CLICKED LIKE NEVER BEFORE IN MY LIFE! The biggest missing piece of my mental puzzles and questions over the years that I didn't even know was missing.

I'm extremely motivated to learn more about this discipline and feel I have what it takes to learn how to take advantage of "The Gap" and effortless, fluid motion. I'm mentally strong and believe I have the potential to take this discipline to DEEP Levels. I look forward to speaking with you further about all this. Too much to put into words right now, got to let it all sink in. This e-mail could have been 6 pages.

You're on to something big, and it's only going to make more and more sense and get bigger and bigger as more and more evidence comes in one swing, throw, forehand and gap at a time. I will play and watch sports in a new light after reading this and working with you more, I'm sure.

Thanks again and please let me know of anything I can do to help or become more involved."

Ryan Hardy


"Now I would love to say I fulfilled all my sporting dreams, I would love to say I am a household name off the back of my myriad sporting feats and that I can spread the word off my personal brand. I would love to say I spent years playing sport at the highest level. The fact is none of those are true. I am the AAA ball player that just never quite made it. The scratch golfer who just can't quite make that step to the pros, the Satellite Tour tennis player who can taste the ATP, but just never quite gets there. My game was Rugby Union and I was pretty damn good, just not good enough to REALLY make it professionally. What really frustrated me then (and still to this day) was the fact that deep down I know I never really played to my full potential during my prime playing years. I always felt like I was "driving with the handbrake on".

Unfortunately at the time, instead of relaxing more, letting go more, doing LESS mentally and freeing myself (all the things PMPM teaches) I forced, I pressed and I strained--and I regressed. All I wanted to be able to do was fully express myself in my sport, but I could never quite get there.

Which is why, when I read your book and we began working together, it truly was a revelation. I have said it before to you on the phone and I will say it here in writing, THIS WILL FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE SPORT. PMPM techniques will be to sport over the next 50 years what strength and conditioning has been over the past 50. Many moons ago, sports coaches frowned on using weights and modern strength and conditioning methods to train player's bodies to perform better. Weights and strength programs were for bodybuilders, not athletes! But increased knowledge has proven that theory completely false, and now EVERY sports team or athlete worth their salt pays massive attention to their strength and conditioning programs. Billions of dollars are spent in this area, massive facilities erected; thousands of man hours of research are conducted. I firmly believe that the next frontier in sport is that of the MIND, and that PMPM Sports and its techniques can be at the vanguard of this revolution.

I haven't been working with you for long now, but the short experience I have had has convinced me this works. I have felt more freedom in my sporting endeavors than ever before.

When the student is ready, the master will appear.

It may be a bit late for me to reach all my sporting dreams, but I know I can help be a part of something that can elevate sport as a whole. Yep, that's a bold statement, but I believe it. In short, I love what you guys do and if you need someone on the ground here to run with this, I am putting my hand up. I look forward to helping."

Dareen Reed ... Read more

Product Description
Now in paperback, the book that jump-started a debate that shows nosign of ending. "Could well be the most intellectually demandingsports book ever written."-Washington PostAward-winning journalist Jon Entine's Taboo: Why Black AtheletesDominate Sports and why We're Afraid t Talk About It created enormouscontroversy when PublicAffairs released it in hardcover in the fall of1999. Rarely does a book so highly lauded by critics also elicitletters to the editor so passionately praising or damning the authorfor even daring to raise a subject.Drawing on the latest scientific research, and addressing all themajor sports of North America, Entine persuasively shows why biologyand ancestry are significant components of the stunning ascension ofblack athletes. He offers a gripping history of blacks in sports and afascinating examination of the circumstances that have made addressingthe facts so difficult and controversial. Artfully, and carefully,combining science, sports history, and sociology, Taboo has alreadyproven to be one of the most controversial and illuminating books inrecent memory.Paperback edition includes new Afterword by author.Amazon.com Review
Is there a genetic reason that African-Americans dominate professional sports? Even raising the question seems tantamount to heresy. Jon Entine not only raises the question, he strives to answer it in Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It.

Entine is no stranger to controversy, having worked with Tom Brokaw on the award-winning NBC News documentary Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction in 1989. He's also willing to ask tough questions--and come up with answers that anger people on all sides of the issue. Entine starts off with some statistics indicating that African-American athletes are disproportionately represented in professional sports: for example, 13 percent of the U.S. population is black, but the NFL is 65 percent black, the NBA is nearly 80 percent black, and the WNBA is 70 percent black. He also examines cultural issues, laying to rest the long-held idea that blacks excel in sports because it is the only avenue open for advancement.

Some scholars cry foul at the idea that blacks are physically gifted, seeing this as a subtle way of saying that they are therefore intellectually stunted. Entine carefully argues that historically athletic ability and intellectual prowess were linked--with a positive bias. The "dumb jock" stereotype is a relatively recent construct--perhaps a defensive mechanism that arose when blacks began to participate on a level playing field and gain prominence in the sporting world. There's no reason to suppose athleticism and intelligence are inversely related; Entine quotes respected sports reporter Frank Deford: "[W]hen Jack Nicklaus sinks a 30-foot putt, nobody thinks his IQ goes down." The issue of physical superiority is further complicated by fears that a genetic explanation results in a belief that blacks don't succeed because of hard work, dedication, and drive, but rather (in the words of Brooks Johnson, who doesn't believe Entine's claims) "because God just gave 'em the right gene."

Is the fear of sounding racist hindering legitimate scientific inquiry? Entine believes so, noting that, "Anyone who attempts to breach this taboo to study or even discuss what might be behind the growing performance gap between black and white athletes must be prepared to run a gauntlet of public scorn, survival not guaranteed." Taboo is destined to make most of its readers uncomfortable. Hopefully this discomfort will serve as a wedge to open up discussion of an issue too long avoided. --Sunny Delaney ... Read more

Customer Reviews (48)

Despicable, dim-witted and wrong
Pop quiz: Which social group dominated U.S. pro basketball in the 1930s? No, no, not Afro-Americans--despite their (snort, eyes roll) jungle-bred natural physical gifts. (You must have read this moronic book.) Nope, nope, sit down, it was...Jewish guys! True story! (Stunned silence)...JEWS? Y'mean... the kids with the glasses and their noses in a book, the LAST kids you wanted for your playground hoops team? Those nerdy guys with the library pallor, on their way to med or law school? THOSE guys dominated PRO BASKETBALL?

Well, yes. See, if you were a teenage Jewish kid in the '20s or '30s, law school was almost surely not in your future. Nor med school. Not college, period: Most American colleges and universities admitted few if any Jews. Nor did "good" professional firms or most other companies hire Jews, certainly not for substantial positions. Anti-Jewish prejudice in the U.S. was almost as thick then as anti-Black racism. Most American Jews were coming out of immigrant ghettos in New York and other cities; they were often street-wise drop-outs who quit school to go to work--and not necessarily at legal pursuits. A young Jewish guy might be looking at a "career" as a street peddler or maybe (good jobs) selling shoes or shoving racks of clothes around the Garment District. If hewas ambitious and wanted a shot at real money and a little glory, it was probably going to be show biz (vaudeville, of course, was full of Jews; Seinfeld is the New Beetle of Jewish comics) or crime (the Jewish mob was thriving) or...sports.

And just as today, the guys who made the cut for the best basketball teams were the hungriest of the hungry, the best and the hardest-working--and more often than not in the inner cities of the Depression years, that hard-working, hungry kid was a Jew. In the '20s, while Harvard's president publicly stated that Jewish admissions needed to be strictly limited because Jews did not "fit in," students at Yale called for the college to loosen its token Jewish quota--so the school's basketball team could start winning some games. The Original Celtics, a barnstorming New York team featuring Jewish players along with some Irish and German immigrants, was credited with helping make basketball popular throughout the U.S., with its popular roadshow games through the Midwest and South. (To be fair, Entine mentions a bit of this history in passing--but then blows right past it and goes back to his race-baiting.)


Back in the '20s as now, the guys who really did have a good shot at law school, or just someday making middle manager at an insurance company...read White guys...never really put themselves in the running. (Especially since in those days there wasn't all that much money in pro basketball.) But you know how those White folks explained all the Jewish hoops stars? They said Jews had the "Artful Dodger" gene! Seriously. Young Jewish guys were often pick-pockets and other street thieves who needed nimble fingers and fleet feet--so, went the belief, those shifty, dodgy Jews could transfer those innate physical "gifts" to the basketball court! Remind you of any more recent Darwinian shibboleths? Y'know, about Afro-Americans...Oh yeah! The ones you'll find in this idiotic book!

Actually, the reason Jews dominated pro basketball before WWII--and don't anymore--had, of course,nothing to do with genes or special, innate physical abilities. Just as genes have absolutely nothing to do with the dominance of pro basketball by Afro-Americans in more recent decades--that is, the decades after millions of Southern Blacks moved north following the mechanization of Southern plantation agriculture, and often found the same racism, ghettoization and lack of life opportunities as Jews had earlier in those same Northern cities. (By the post-WWII years, thanks to the increasingly popular melting pot theory that all European immigrants, including East European Jews--but not Blacks, Mexicans or Asians--could become Americanized (read White), Jews were starting to move out of urban ghettos and into the suburbs--and firmly guide their kids toward higher education, not pro sports. Those same suburbs, and opportunities, were almost entirely off-limits to Afro-Americans.)

Now, as in the past, the success of one social group or another in pro sports has to do with opportunity and its lack: whose life ambitions perforce focus on success in sports because prejudice shuts other doors, and who has a broader range of more easily-attained choices elsewhere. (You can't study to be a great point-guard--but you can study for an MBA.)

The biggest influx into the NBA in the past ten or fifteen years has been recent immigrants from the former Soviet Bloc countries and Asia, as globalization and especially the shredding of the Iron Curtain have made it possible for Russian, Yugoslav, Chinese (etc.) players to get to the U.S. and show off their talents. Again, history and circumstances are the reason, not genetics.

By the way--if the preponderance of Afro-Americans in the NBA and some other sports shows that they are genetically-gifted natural athletes, does that mean rich White kids--who rarely attain or even seriously try for success in pro basketball, football or baseball--are genetically inferior athletic imbeciles?

Don't waste your time with racist pandering like this dumb, exploitive book.

QuarterBacking
After hearing the controversy surrounding this book, I decided to shell out twenty bucks and pick up a copy myself. As a social scientist with a strong interest in racial inequality and identity, and especially as a major sports fan, I figured that this would be a rather intriguing book. It certainly is, but in a different way than which the author/publisher market it.

Entine provides very little evidence and data to explain to us "why black athletes dominate sports." Mostly, he gives us a collection of statistics on the number of black players at the so-called speed positions in various sports (providing a numerical relationship, but no explanation). Quite disappointing - With such an adamant title, I was expecting the author to give us the concrete, infallible scientific proof explaining "why black athletes dominate sports," but I guess my expectations were too high.

I couldn't agree more. It was too historical without enough case studies and science based explanations for the given ethnic group's athletic superiority. But it was fairly comprehensive and the first of it's kind (to my knowledge) to address such a controversial issue, so I give it 4 stars.

A poor book, written by a know nothing!
First of all race has nothing to do with
athletics, unless of course you beleive
the gibberish that got know-nothings like
Howard Cosell [nee Cohen] and Jimmy 'The
Greek' fired. Secondly, the hardest sport
in north America is Hockey and if blacks
are supposedly so superior, why have they
not mastered it? The author is a typical
gutter-trash liberal who beleives every
sterotype that washes down the gutter. On
the other side of the pond is William Rhoden,
who while bragging about black QBs, forgot to
mention the CFL [11 years older than the over-
rated NFL] (Oopps!) and Arena Football Leagues,
which play better, faster styles of football,
and black QBs have done better in those leagues.

The evil of two lessors, I guess. Think what a waste
of reasources, like say, trees this book and all the
ones about the 'holaembellishment' are. Such a shame
that anyone may believe these tales...Revisionist
Rich Salzer [U.Hawai'i '84), Chesapeake, VA, USA,
4-17-08.

Pretty thin soup
And I might be a little generous with the second star.

I, as a few other reviewers, note two problems off the top of the bat.

One is Entine's uncritical handling of "The Bell Curve."

Two is that he ignores the many sports that don't have a lot of black athletes.

Beyond that, he gets selective within some sports that he does address, such as seeming to focus on track more, and field events less.

Also, he ignored the rise of non-American white and non-black athletes in several sports in recent years.

I think of the white Europeans in the NBA, and the non-black Caribbean players and a few Japanese in MLB.

Finally, contrary to his claims otherwise, all too many children of all colors who are lower down the socioeconomic rungs tend to focus on sports as salvation. Unfortunately, more of these children are minorities.

Surprisingly short on substance
There is some interesting information here, but ultimately much of this book is simply a history of African-American athletics, which is not exactly obvious from the book's title.Hey, I'm as interested in the story of Jack Johnson as the next guy, but does the treatment he received really belong in this book?Given that the book weighs in at 400 pages, you've got to wonder what his editor was thinking about some of these anecdotes.

On another note, I'm tired of seeing Tiger Woods be referred to as a "black golfer."For the record, Tiger is 1/2 Asian, 1/4 black, 1/8 white and 1/8 Native American.Why does his black ancestry somehow trump the other 75% of his heritage? ... Read more

Product Description

From sex and drugs to violence, gambling, and wholesale conspiracies, scandals are everywhere in sports. Each of these problems is its own issue, and every case is separate, but taken as a whole this criminal pathology is indicative of a widespread problem with athletes and responsibility. In this wide-ranging and deep-seeking investigation, psychologist Stanley H. Teitelbaum asks why elite athletes take enormous risks with their lives and careers.

Teitelbaum analyzes and diagnoses this culturally resonant set of problems with an honest, critical eye, looking at everything from baseball's steroid abusers to gambling scandals in the NBA to the steady stream of athletes arrested for domestic violence to the murder trials of O.J. Simpson and wrestler Chris Benoit. A concluding chapter holds sports commissioners and others to task for hiding behind a faade of ignorance and duplicitous na•veté in attempting to cover up or defuse brewing scandals.

Product Description
Trim seconds off your time, train more efficiently, or simply maximize your fitness workouts with Mastering Swimming.

Renowned coaches Jim Montgomery and Mo Chambers have teamed up to create the ultimate swimming guide for masters athletes. Swimmers aged 18 to 120 will benefit from a targeted approach that covers these essentials:

• Stroke instruction and refinement for freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly
• Workout plans for fitness and competition
• Training for open-water swimming and triathlon
• Second-saving starts and turns

Customer Reviews (10)

Useful for beginners
Pro: Nice and easy to go through
Con: Mainly focusing on amateurish swimming. Lacks the physiological facts.

The book is well written and well organized. One can go through the book easily and focus on the interesting paragraphs. However, as an ex swimmer, I found this book a bit too shallow.
I gave it to a friend of mind that has just started swimming, and bought "the new science of swimming (Counsilman)" instead (Which is more appropriate).New Science of Swimming, The (2nd Edition)

Very Good General Swimming Book
This is one of the few swimming books that I rated high. Although this is for masters athletes, but it is a general book. It is full of helpful hints and is deeper and more complete than most of the other books.

A good general book to keep.

For newer Master's swimmers
I have a fair amount of swimming experience from swimming in high school and college and a few seasons of masters.I was hoping that this book would help me get into the fastest heats at master's events and help me refine my swimming technique and conditioning.As I read it, I realized it's more geared to less experienced swimmers, maybe a triathlete who knows how to swim but not how to train or compete or someone with a little less competitive background who needs stroke refinement.I think the book is well written and a good choice for swimmers in those categories, but I didn't find it very helpful.At the same time, I purchased "Swimming Fastest" and "Complete Conditioning for Swimming". The "Complete Conditioning..." book is much more helpful for more advanced swimmers and I immediately began finding useful tips even within the first few pages. "Swimming Fastest" will be a harder read (even harder to transport around, it's like a text book) I've read the earlier versions of this book, so I know it will be helpful and more technical.

Worth much more than the price
I was a competitive swimmer as a kid, and now I've returned to the pool after more than 25 years to try to become a competitive masters swimmer.

The basics came back like riding a bicycle (except for the butterfly, which I couldn't remember how to do at all) but a lot has changed over the years, and my technique was clearly rusty.

I don't have a coach, doing it on my own, and this book has been a tremendous help... and I'm not even done with it!

The tips on a proper catch, and their little listening trick to correct hand entry, took 2 full strokes off my pool length in freestyle, for example.

This week I used their 4 phase method for learning butterfly to teach myself the stroke, and did my first pool lengths in fly.I'm looking forward to using their other tips to refine the stroke and start adding it into my regular workout.

This is just a tremendous book.Easy to read and follow.

I strongly recommend it for anyone starting out, or making the transition from fitness swimming to competition, or returning to the water after a long time away.

Definitely worth many times the cover price.

excellent
This book is great and informative even for a beginner swimmer like me. I especially like the chapter 3 on "develop your water sense" that really helped me overcome the fear of water. The step by step teaching method makes it easy to understand and to practice. I now join a local master swimming program as the book suggested. I soon plan to compete in a local triathlon. ... Read more

Product Description
Recent, more rigorous changes to academic requirements for student athletes makes it essential to provide these students with the skills and strategies they need to succeed academically and maintain eligibility. This new, First Edition Student Success text, based on the principles of the best-selling Becoming a Master Student, was developed specifically to meet the unique challenges faced by student athletes in succeeding both on and off the field. Becoming a Master Student Athlete helps student athletes balance the demands of academics and athletics by focusing on issues such as the pressures on time, body, interpersonal relationships, and major/career-oriented decisions. With hands-on involvement from athletic academic advisors and coaches, every sentence in this new first edition has been tailored to meet the needs of student athletes. Most importantly, this text helps students prepare for life beyond college by addressing the importance of selecting a major and considering career options, while underscoring how the skills that help athletes excel on the field can be applied in the classroom and transferred to the workplace. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great for Classroom Use
As a teacher, I can say that this book holds the attention of young readers easily. It stimulates lots of classroom discussion about Babe's era and lends itself well to math lessons in measurement, problem-solving, time-lines, and even setting up your own Olympic Games!! Every elementary school library should have a copy or two.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias - An American Dream
We thought that the book was very historical and learned aboutsomeone we had never heard of before.The beginning of the book madeus want to read on.We think that it is a good children's book, andwe think that all schools should have these books to read to the children.It shows good examples, like you can be anything that you want to be if you try.We are looking forward to the next in the series. ... Read more

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Tips from over 70 college baseball coaches and pro scouts describing how to market yourself to the college of your dreams ... Read more

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Dispelling the myth that language is the sole determiner of thought, Cheville explores the implications of academic settings that ignore or devalue the conceptual significance of the body. ... Read more

Product Description
While many sports books contribute to a reader's athletic development, this book also focuses on the private, personal development of the athlete. Beneath the Armor of an Athlete is the story of a female Olympic Freestyle wrestler. Her love for the sport and striving for success expose her to rare challenges, all of which introduce new experiences in her life. From all-male wrestling camps and tournaments to the competitive ranks of national and international women's freestyle wrestling, this athlete learns that her sport is the gateway to learning more about who she really is and what she is capable of becoming. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Finding a Balance
Beneath the Armor of an Athlete was a very enjoyable, quick read. Please don't be misled by the word "quick," though; some readers associate that with fluffiness of content. This book's content is anything but. In fact, it occurred to me that this book might be useful in school curricula in the areas of sociology, psychology, and even writing adaptation. Its significant social issues and the author's cinematic style of storytelling make it a good candidate for many academic outlets.

A friendly word of warning: some of the lessons divulged and issues raised might make you angry. They did me! I threw the book across the room a few times. Isn't it funny how easy it is to see what we would change in others, and how difficult it is to change things in ourselves, even when we want to?

And that's part of the beauty of this book: the themes running throughout it are universal and timeless. For example, the fear of "not being good enough" and how that fear can become a pattern of behavior causing us to forget who we really are and how we want to be takes on a character all its own in this book.

The search for peace and for what makes each of us truly happy is a path each person must experience for her-/himself. The author seems well on her way to discovering her own peace through this effort. I enjoyed Beneath the Armor of an Athlete and plan to read it again in a few years just to see how timeless it really is.

---Anonymous

Not (necessarily) about wrestling
I am not a wrestling fan - in fact, I know nothing about the sport.Never-the-less, I found Lisa Whitsett's book amusing, well written and entertaining. Within a few pages I was drawn into her easy to read narrative, and was impressed by the honesty and emotional intensity with which she tells her story.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an enjoyable and easy way to fill their time - whether they are a fan of wrestling or not.

An excellent book
Hi, I am Marc Anderson and I have enjoyed the development of women's amateur wrestling for years now. I have recently read the book BENEATH THE ARMOR OF AN ATHLETE Real Strength on the Wrestling Mat by Lisa Whitsett. Lisa is an accomplished amateur wrestler and has made her mark on the sport. Her book details her life in the sport she loves and it shows that she fears no one except herself and the possibility of failure. It shows how she battles her inner demons to become the best wrestler she can be and is an honest and frank appraisal of her efforts. I highly recommend this book to any young person who is interested in becoming a wrestler, especially females. It is my hope that Ms. Whitsett will write a second book about her life in the sport that will bring the reader up to date on her current efforts to advance women's amateur wrestling.

The many faces of "Courage"
All too often we hope to catch a glimpse of something worth our attention, and this is definitely one of those times.

This original and revealing book certainly packs an astounding punch, especially in the descriptive style for which the author takes.

In allowing us into HER mind (and the unique world of many amateur wrestlers), Lisa Whitsett transforms herself into an "educator extrodinaire", by ultimately giving us a first hand lesson on what it's like to face ourselves, and the inner demons that forever attempt to cripple us from within.

Tremendous introspective to the very "soul" of a grappler!

-J. Reggie Roberts
High School wrestling coach (20 years)

Beneath the Armor of the Athlete
Lisa's personal battle with the emotional strain and anxiety of athletic competition is clearly depicted in this excellent book.Every athlete will be able to relate to the pre-competition stress, and fear of failure.The book is well written and easily read.Highly recommended for any athlete who has experienced the brain strain associated with competition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A MUST have
It's been said before, this book is not only for the athletes, it can be applied to anyone who wants to gain knowledge about nutrition. Of course he does address the athlete needs over and above non-athletes, so any serious athlete should not miss out on this important information. Every mineral and vitamin is covered in separate chapters with references to scientific quality studies. You will also find useful information about soy, creatine, melatonin and more. It makes for easy reading and the book is usable as a reference book. The writing style is easy to follow, but he does down-talk FDA numerous times, so if you just ignore that and focus on the facts, this book is excellent. It also covers the importance of antioxidants. HOWEVER, it is written in 2002 and stuff has happened since then, therefore you also NEED his "You can prevent cancer" from 2006 or better yet "Brain Power" in order to get the important info about "Mitochondrial Antioxidants". 90% of free radicals made in your body are generated at the mitochondria and ordinary antioxidants CANNOT neutralize them! "Sports Nutrition" does not cover the "Mitochondrial Antioxidants", that's why.

Dr. Colgan is my husband's most trusted source for sports nutrition and exercise!
I bought this book for my husband, who lives by the first Sports Nutrition Guide by Dr. Colgan.His old book has significant signs of wear and tear from overuse, so I thought my husband would be happy to receive Dr. Colgan's more recent publication of Sports Nutrition and I was right!Now he's constantly referring and comparting and incorporating the information he finds in this book into his health regime!

Sports Nutrition Guide
I am not sure about this book.It is very informative.It is easy to read and comprehend but it tends to stear me in another direction since this book tends to down the ADA (American Dietetic Association).The book is broken down into individual chapters about each mineral and vitamin and what it does to your body if you're an athlete.I am a nutritional consultant and never really learned much about sports nutrition in school.This is my first book on sports nutrition so I really have no comparision.Like I stated before, it tends to go against my believe system and the knowledge I have gained in clinical nutrition.

Don't let the title fool you, this is for everyone!
Not just "athletes."Essentially, this is an update to Colgan's popular "Sports Nutrition Guide" from 1993.Along with Dr. andrew Weil, Colgan is one of the only "doctors" who truly understands how degraded our food supply is relative to what is natural and healthy, and even more so than Weil, Colgan really tells it like it is and lays it on thick!i have been a long time follower of Colgan, and credit him for much of my success in bodybuilding, powerlifting, and professionally as a Personal Trainer.Colgan helped me on my way to becomming a trainer with much enhanced knowledge of nutrition that helped many a client achieve amazing results (especially compared to the knucklehead trainers who told their overweight clients to eat a bagle for breakfast, and/or to do more cardio to lose fat!).Colgan does not take any balogna from mainstream western medicine and the mess it has created, instead, he will expose the lies and show you the truth in a way that your intuition (and any research, if you have doubts), will assure you is correct!

Educational! For everyone to read.
As there are many books on the market concerning this topic, this one actually explains step by step why each supplement is important in our diet. A must read for anyone that is serious about a healthy lifestyle.
Do not hesitate to buy this book, you will not regret any of its pages.
Just look at the pictures of Dr. Michael Colgan for the results! ... Read more

Product Description
In graphic novel format, tells the life story of Jim Thorpe, star of the 1912 Olympic Games and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. ... Read more

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In Body by Weimar, Erik N. Jensen shows how German athletes reshaped gender roles in the turbulent decade after World War I and established the basis for a modern body and modern sensibility that remain with us to this day. The same cutting-edge techniques that engineers were using to increase the efficiency of factories and businesses in the 1920s aided athletes in boosting the productivity of their own flesh and bones.Sportswomen and men embodied modernity-quite literally-in its most streamlined, competitive, time-oriented form, and their own successes on the playing fields seemed to prove the value of economic rationalization to a skeptical public that often felt threatened by the process. Enthroned by the media as culture's trendsetters, champions in sports such as tennis, boxing, and track and field also provided models of sexual empowerment, social mobility, and self-determination. They showed their fans how to be modern, and, in the process, sparked heated debates over the aesthetics of the body, the limits of physical exertion, the obligations of citizens to the state, and the relationship between the sexes. If the images and debates in this book strike readers as familiar, it might well be because the ideal body of today-sleek, efficient, and equally available to men and women-received one of its earliest articulations in the fertile tumult of Germany's roaring twenties. After more than eighty years, we still want the Weimar body. ... Read more

Product Description
Regardless of your sport, whether football, baseball, swimming,