Best Children's Sports Coaching
Most of these children quit because our youth sports culture has taken the ‘play’ out of ‘play ball.’ A shift in values, the rise of expensive youth sports models, and the myth of abundant athletic scholarships has led parents and coaches to focus on wins instead of enjoyment, and trophies at the expense of development. In Changing the Game , John O’Sullivan draws upon three decades of high level playing and coaching experience to take us behind the scenes of competitive youth sports, and demonstrates how they have changed from being a fun pastime to an ultra competitive, adult centered enterprise that is failing our children. By following seven actionable principles of high performance, parents can give their children a competitive edge, while at the same time making youth sports a positive experience for their family, their community, and their country. Changing the Game serves as a powerful guide for both parents and coaches who want kids to have fun, enjoyable, and meaningful youth sporting experiences. Any parent who wants their children to gain the physical, psychological, emotional, and social benefits of what sport has to offer (and isn’t that every parent!). It will make you a better sports parent, and it will ensure that your children get all the good stuff and avoid most of the bad stuff from participating in sports. I firmly believe that the youth sport experience for a child is shaped as powerfully by their parents or guardians involvement. In this book John gives practical and helpful guidance to elevating the experience of the children in youth sports by directly addressing the role of the parent or guardian. Changing the Game is a wonderful resource for parents to help their young athletes succeed in sports and life, and I can’t recommend it enough --- Brian Baxter, director, Sport Psychology Institute Northwest, and author of The Sports Mindset Gameplan: An Athlete’s Guide to Building and Maintaining Confidence. Changing the Game offers invaluable insights into the reality of the youth sports world and the critical impact that parents have to make or break their kids’ experience in sports. With such a changing climate of youth sports today, this book provides a guide for parents that brings the focus back on what is truly important for a child participating in sports. Changing the Game should be required for all youth sports parents.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I would recommend this book to all parents who have kids in any sport."
"I am interested in learning how to be a better sports parent with my sons, and found this book to be everything I could have asked for."
"Become knowledgeable about the sport and observe, analyze and evaluate the group based on your presence at all events pertinent too practice and play."
"As a long time coach and trainer, it pains me sometimes to see how youth athletics has devolved to it's current state i.e. year round play, too much emphasis on winning at all costs, no joy in the play, way over the top parents in all aspects, etc."
"Let's bring the fun back into sports and all work together to make our kids better people first and better athletes second."
"The author provides the big picture as well detailed behaviors and techniques everyone can pattern to avoid that negative outcome."
"I needed this book to help me coach my son's soccer team better."
"The author John O'Sullivan changed how I approach my athletic son's development in sports and soccer in particular."
Longtime coaches Keith Miniscalco and Greg Kot return to share their experience and provide advice you can rely on from first practice to final shot. Develop your team’s dribbling, passing, shooting, and rebounding skills with the Survival Guide’s collection of the game’s best youth drills. "Keith and Greg are to be congratulated for providing a simplified book of basketball skills, drills, techniques, and plays for youth basketball. “Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Basketball is a crash course in how to teach the basic technical skills of basketball.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Great Product, got here just in time!"
"Great book!"
"The only thing keeping it from 5 stars is that it does not cover implementing a full court press (it does cover breaking one) and it doesn't illustrate enough of the ways you can score out of the offenses it provides you."
"Perfect gift for the coach on your list."
"I've never coached basketball at any level."
"I initially bought the book as a reference when I would assist with a basketball camp."
"Good for any coach not just new coaches."
"Great book, very informative!"
Soundly based in the research literature and theory, this comprehensive introductory text is a practical guide to teaching physical education to the elementary school child. He serves as the coordinator of the K-12 Health and Physical Education program and as the Director of the Pedagogy of Physical Activity Laboratory. Dr. Graham has published extensively on the topics of physical education teacher effectiveness and physical education and activity for children with twelve books and monographs to his credit and over 50 articles. He was awarded the Margie Hanson Honor Award presented by the Council on Physical Education for Children, and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education Curriculum and Instruction Academy Honor Award. She is the immediate past-president of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, the first elementary physical education teacher ever elected to the highest office of the Alliance. She served on the Task Force for the development of the National Standards for Physical Education (NASPE), and served as chairperson for the development of the National Teaching Standards for Physical Education (NBPTS). Her areas of interest are elementary physical education and teacher education. Prior to entering higher education, Parker was an elementary physical education teacher in middle school physical education in a special program for underserved youth.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This was a required text for me elementary PE class but it was full of good ideas and activities for a PE class."
"received product as described!"
"Everything that I had expected, and more!"
"A very good book."
"Great book for physical education."
"Very good textbook with great pictures and charts."
Best Teen & Young Adult Track & Field
The book lays out in detail how youth and teen athletes can achieve successively higher levels, year after year after year, following the proven success of Mick's training program. The results he has gotten are nothing short of remarkable including National Champions six consecutive years and having qualified athletes for the Olympic Trials, Hershey National Championships 12 years in a row. As investor he has been investing for more than 20 years and also previously worked as a nuclear engineer for 22 years before retiring at age 43.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It is also helpful to parents and coaches who are navigating the challenging waters of the demanding high school race seasons in cross country and track."
"While reading on a subject that I consider "my own", my opinions danced in several directions, but at the conclusion, my impression was that this book is not only comprehensive, but serves as an invaluable resource for coaches, runners, and parents of runners; and one that I'll use to make some modifications to future training regimens that I prescribe."
"For indoors only ran 4 to 6 quarter miles five days a week and that was it. In my early thirties I ran maybe 20 miles a week and ran races every week, the opposite of what the book suggests. In my mid thirties I trained for a marathon, running 60 miles a week (this training guide suggests a lot of long runs putting money in the Bank)."
"I bought this for my son who is 16 years old."
""The Youth and Teen Running Encyclopedia" by Mick Grant and John Molvar is one of the best books on training that I've come across. For instance, the last part of the book provides a detailed description of Coach Molvar's sons, who began running at a young age following the principles of the book and saw significant improvement. These authors are aware of the difficulties of coaching high school kids who sometimes have upwards of 40 races on their schedules."
"Excellent resource!"
"Great Book."
"We bought this to help our young son who has found a love for running."
Best Tennis Coaching
The Inner Game of Tennis is a revolutionary program for overcoming the self-doubt, nervousness, and lapses of concentration that can keep a player from winning. Instead of serving up technique, it concentrated on the fact that, as Gallwey wrote, "Every game is composed of two parts, an outer game and an inner game." The Inner Game of Tennis still does much to keep that idea in play.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My 16 year old son asked for this book and he said he loves it and he is reading it slowly to "savor it"."
"Yes this book is about tennis but it's lessons can be applied to life in general."
"As reading this i am already excited to finish the book and help me alot how the mental works."
"Practical and theoretical guidance on the power of attention and focus, and the pivotal role these essential skills play in the game of tennis and the game of life."
"Every competitive athlete needs to read this book."
"This book is WAY more than about just tennis."
"Excellent book that provides great techniques to counter the emotional rollercoaster of a 12 y/o competing in such an intense environment."
"A unique book that teaches you to develop and depend on your inner reflexes rather than making conscious effort in any sport."
Best Soccer Coaching
Like having an X-ray for each exercise, the anatomical depictions show both superficial and deep layers and detail how various setup positions affect muscle recruitment and emphasize underlying structures. Delavier lives in Paris, France.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Strength Training Anatomy, 3rd Edition, is a reference book--it's got really cool drawings with tips for common techniques at the gym. Delavier and Gundill have lots of drawings, pre-planned routines including those to supplement other sports, and succinct advice to get the most out of every technique. Delavier and Gundill translate their extensive anatomy and weight-lifting knowledge into language anyone can understand and information is succinct so reading's a pleasure."
"I owned the first edition of Strength Training Anatomy (blue cover) for nearly 15 years and I've been recommending this book to my clients for that long as well. A page is devoted to each exercise, and a small amount of text accompanies each illustration, explaining proper form and giving additional tips or precautions. For beginners, this could be a training instruction "bible" for learning how to do the exercises properly and understanding exactly what muscles are working. Studying the drawings and looking at the muscles engaged, the direction of the fibers and where they insert and attach could be a great tool to help with these mental skills. That doesn't detract from the value in my opinion, it actually helps keeps this volume concise and focused on one thing: strength training exercises and anatomy. On that note, again, this is not a text-heavy book and while you do get an explanation and illustration of each exercise, you don't get. in-depth written details on biomechanics and muscle actions."
"This book is beautifully illustrated, very detailed and comprehensive."
"Great color pictures that depict muscle groups highlighted according to the exercise you are doing."
"This book is awesome!!"
"I have several workout books by others including Mike Matthews and Dan John."
Best Sports Training
Many people all over the world have used the simple biological principle of stress/recovery/adaptation on which this method is based to improve their performance, their appearance, and their long-term health. With over 150,000 copies in print in three editions, Starting Strength is the most important method available to learn the most effective way to train with barbells -- the most important way to improve your strength, your health, and your life. -- How the human body adapts to stress through recovery, and why this is the foundation of the development of strength and lifetime health. Mark Rippetoe is the author of Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, Practical Programming for Strength Training 2nd edition, Strong Enough?, Mean Ol' Mr.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Bench was 195lbs for 5 reps and is now 245lbs. OHP was 115lbs for 5 and is now 155lbs. DL was 315lbs for 5 and is now 455lbs. BS was 285 for 5 and is now 365lbs. and all still climbing.. Update: My Squat is now 415lbs DL 505lbs. As an added benefit, I am not constantly hurting myself with bad form and having to take time to heal and thus lose gains."
"I’ve really enjoyed this book."
"It feels funny at first but makes perfect sense after you see some gains."
"Great book with a lot of detail."
"Possibly the most detailed information available on earth on power lifting and how to do the 5 big lifts properly."
"Excellent book with good detail on the various lifts."
"This book also helps you build a routine, learn to track progress, properly warm up, and outlines linear progression. This helped my body adjust to lifting and more reps to practice form."
"Rippetoe does a great job going into detail not only regarding the fundamentals of developing an effective strength training program, but also provides extreme detail on the physiology, biomechanics and proper form for each exercise outlined. Eventually, you may want to develop a more balanced strength program as I think the starting strength program lacks some emphasis on certain back muscles, the traps, rear delts, etc."
Best Golf Coaching
Filled with insightful stories about golf, Dr. Bob Rotella’s delightful book will improve the game of even the most casual weekend player. Golfers will improve their golf game and have more fun playing. Filled with delightful and insightful stories about golf and the golfers Rotella works with, Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect will improve the game of even the most casual weekend player. Dr. Bob Rotella, a noted sports psychologist and performance consultant, roots around the golfer's mind to expose--and analyze--the doubts, the fears, and the frustrations that haunt anyone who's ever picked up a club and swung it.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is a great book."
"This is an excellent book for any golfer of any experience/skill level."
"I have been struggling with my golf game all year and my mental strength on the course was really lacking."
"I love this book and this is my second copy after I lent my first one and never got it back."
"Regardless of age or skill level there's plenty to learn from this book."
"Great book for disc golfers too!"
"Golf is 90% mental."
Best Hockey Coaching
Since their founding in 1926, the Hawks have won six Stanley Cup championships and produced dozens of standout stars, from Hall of Fame goaltender Mike Karakas in the ’30s to Bobby “The Golden Jet” Hull in the ’60s to current team captain Jonathan Toews. The Chicago Tribune , founded in 1847, is the flagship newspaper of the Chicago Tribune Media Group.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I have purchased every history book of the BlackHawks that's ever been printed, including the 75th Anniversary Large Volume."
"absolutely perfect and loved the history aspect - a hockey lovers book!"
"Bought it as a gift, but I flipped through it and it looks like a very interesting and informative book about the history of the Chicago Black Hawks."
Best Baseball Coaching
The New York Times Bestseller With inside access and reporting, Sports Illustrated senior baseball writer and FOX Sports analyst Tom Verducci reveals how Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon built, led, and inspired the Chicago Cubs team that broke the longest championship drought in sports, chronicling their epic journey to become World Series champions. Tom Verducci, twice named National Sportswriter of the Year and co-writer of The Yankee Years with Joe Torre, will have full access to team president Theo Epstein, manager Joe Maddon, and the players to tell the story of the Cubs' transformation from perennial underachievers to the best team in baseball. Those dual qualities make him the perfect guy to not only capture the experience of what the Cubs at long last achieved, but to explain the thinking and planning that led to last Fall's crescendo of emotions.” —Bob Costas. "Verducci, a longtime baseball writer for Sports Illustrated, is perhaps the perfect scribe to tell this definitive tale, a generational talent who can talk numbers and remain awed at the game’s beauties. “In Mr. Verducci’s entertaining book, he notes that the ‘construction of a championship team is granular’ and the ‘final picture is a Seurat painting’ with ‘many tiny dots of color’ and ‘millions of reasons and thousands of cascading events.’ He’s right: The artistic brush containing the power of positivity helped make the Chicago Cubs winners once more.” — The Washington Times.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"But it is a beautiful story about good people, and for any baseball fan, a well-written dive into the best baseball story of the last century."
"While Tom Verducci’s The Cubs Way reads more like an eventual 108 year victory lap for long suffering Chicago Cubs fans, I think baseball fans in general can take a lot from the story of the 2016 Chicago Cubs."
"All in all this book will answer your Cubs questions and you have to admire this team even if your team is in the Natonal League Central...this is baseball...Theo Epstein has got to be one of the more interesting Baseball Executives ever as he's hall of fame bound already...he broke not 1 but 2 curses which amazes me...when he took over the Cubs i knew they'd improve but i didn't think they'd win a world series in only his 5th season at the helm...so impressive stuff and i'm not a Cubs fan per se but i like what they did with the team."
"The natural flow of the season, the various characters and the quest for a championship, coupled with a look at the vast remake that Theo Epstein and Tom Ricketts undertook make this a highly memorable baseball book. Added to this is Joe Maddon, the whiz on the bench who takes a team of young talent and some veterans to a place that many Cubs fans have dreamed of for over a century -. a championship."
"Congratulations to Mr. Verducci for this truly outstanding insight, into baseball in general... and, of course, the Chicago Cubs’ once-in-a-lifetime rise to the top after a century of ineptness and sorrow for their fervent and loyal fans."
Best Football Coaching
Remarkable lessons in leadership and teambuilding from one of the greatest college football coaches of our time In only thirteen years as a head football coach, first at Bowling Green and then at Utah, Florida, and Ohio State, Urban Meyer has established himself as one of the elite coaches in the annals of his sport, with three national championships and a cumulative record of 142 wins and only 26 losses. In Above the Line , Urban Meyer shares with readers OSU’s groundbreaking game plan—the game plan he followed every day in the Buckeyes’ historic 2014 season—for creating a culture of success that engages and inspires the people around them. A student of psychology long before he became a coach, Meyer believes that trust is the bedrock of great achievements and healthy relationships, and explains how to build it, step by step—whether in a team, a family, or a Fortune 500 company. Urban Meyer is the head football coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is one of the best leadership books I've read."
"Inspirational look at leadership."
"This book drives home the need to align all aspects of business to have a championship team."
"It was ok - basic philosophy made sense but stories supporting that seemed to wander."
"Great Read from Coach Urban Meyer!"
"I got this book over a year ago and my son really enjoyed it."