Koncocoo

Best Swimming

Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier
Swim better—and enjoy every lap—with Total Immersion, a guide to improving your swimming from an expert with more than thirty years of experience in the water. Eddie Reese 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 United States Olympic Coach and Head Coach, University of Texas (six-time NCAA champions) The most valuable service a good coach provides is to sharpen your technique, not make you work harder.
Reviews
"I am not like Olympic swimmer great b/c that's absurd, but I do swim a lot better and also, the most important thing is that I enjoy swimming now."
"That means low effort against high speed which is basically efficient swimming. A warning - if you like to swing your arms into the water with full force, crank your neck up to gulp air, or create huge froth as you kick your legs wildly, this book is not for you."
"i am a 42 year old who just learned to swim this year."
"This book really makes me think about how I'm swimming."
"The point is that I found this book helpful even as a neophyte in the water, though I think the people who will profit most from it will be people who can already swim adequately but want to improve, although Laughlin stresses that anyone from beginners through competitive athletes can benefit. I think that as a beginning swimmer if I had read the book without first watching the DVD I would have gotten very little out of it, and would have probably given the book a lower rating. As it is I see the book as an indispensable companion for the DVD, and really think they should be sold as a set, the alternative being to profusely illustrate a new edition of the book with numerous photographs. The DVD is relatively expensive, and if you have some swimming experience the book will have more value on its own than it does for beginners like me, but in all cases the book and DVD are mutually reinforcing, and are of much greater help when used together. If you want to be a better freestyle swimmer, this book can help you."
"Understand also that I'm old, a senior who led an active outdoor life until my knees gave out, and I washed up into the backwater of swimming and kayaking, all that remains for the older athlete when your legs give out. There are a lot of similarities between TI swimming and kayaking, as both are somewhat concerned with a principle of that naval architects call "hull speed." for every description, and speaks excessively of "training" and "drills," which may appeal to a certain class of competitive athlete interested in winning races, but leaves me dead on arrival. A competitive swimmer or triathlete would understandably disagree because coaching, training, drills and dedication may be music to his ears. But TI needs to hire a professional technical writer to rewrite a version with illustrations for the common man who isn't a competitive swimmer or triathlete, and who isn't interested in personal bests or races, a version for somebody who just wants to learn from good pictures and illustrations with well-designed, descriptive captions, and wants to swim effortlessly and gracefully in a noncompetitive world of his own."
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Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence
Gary's lessons and David's writing provide examples of the importance of the mental game." Through forty accessible lessons and inspirational anecdotes from prominent athletes--many of whom he has worked with--you will learn the same techniques and exercises Mack uses to help elite athletes build mental "muscle." In Mind Gym , noted sports psychology consultant Gary Mack teaches athletes the lessons he's learned about how the mind influences athletic performance as much as physical skill does, if not more so. Through forty accessible lessons and inspirational anecdotes from prominent athletes--many of whom he has worked with--Mack shares the same techniques and exercises he uses to help elite athletes build mental "muscle."
Reviews
"Great book-easy to read and provides a lot of good insight into mental training and imagery."
"This has some good stuff in it but it is very redundant in its content."
"Great book."
"They will let me know whether or not the books were good reads."
"Actually, the book was recommended by one of my former athletes, a state champion."
"Some parts of this book are really interesting but I was expecting more theory and more exercises."
"Excellent book to get an athlete to consider the mental aspect of sport."
"Best book ever for mental strength on any sport and just all around confidence in life."
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I Found My Tribe
‘The Tragic Wives’ Swimming Club’, as they jokingly call themselves, meet to cope with the extreme challenges life puts in their way, not to mention the monster waves rolling over the horizon. As she tells the story of their marriage, via diagnosis to their current precarious situation, Ruth also charts her passion for sea swimming – culminating in a midnight swim under the full moon on her wedding anniversary. "A moving memoir of family life, coping with her husband's motor neuron disease and the icy joys of wild sea swimming." Fitzmaurice tells her story in sparkling prose that is as sinewy as her new sea-strengthened body, and as admirable and boundless as her spirit… This debut is set to become a global bestseller. RUTH FITZMAURICE was a radio researcher and producer when she married her husband, Simon, in 2004 and had three children.
Reviews
"One of their boys described how their heart fell into their stomach in their childish description of 'being in love' and there were many moments in this book when my heart fell into my stomach, but through sadness thinking about the difficulties some people have to contend with."
"The author has a wonderful way with words, I found this book to be a very warm story that went straight to the heart."
"You & Simon were fantastic to make that journey with three smallies...so it was great you had such a good time."
"What a wonderful strong and amazing woman, wife and mother."
"Brave book by a brave woman."
"Very moving and honest book and stayed with me even after reading it ."
"Well written, heartbreaking."
"This books is so sad and beautiful and uplifting and well-written- I highly recommend it."
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Best Sailing

Get Real, Get Gone: How to Become a Modern Sea Gypsy and Sail Away Forever
If you are not rich, but dream of seeing our beautiful world from the deck of your own boat, this book is packed full of practical and spiritual advice to help you cut through the endless marketing and identify what it is you truly need to become a modern sea gypsy and sail away on the greatest adventure of your life…. He became a RYA qualified skipper in 2008 and has lived aboard every day since 2007 when he bought his first boat Marutji – a steel Van de Stadt 34 (pictured on the cover).
Reviews
"Interesting take on considerations made for affordable and comfortable sailboat cruising."
"Reading this book will no doubt prevent many bad purchases or decisions."
"Incredibly brilliant book."
"Even if sailing is not your bailiwick the book is applicable anyone looking for inspiration and advice on how to move forward with experiencing life vice a job."
"Though a little over the top in the beginning, bashing corporate everything, the book settled in to very good and strong information."
"This book is similar to the Fatty Goodlander book "Buy, Outfit, and Sail" but rather than more of the same it was a good complement to the Goodlander book."
"It is amazingly written, full of real info, and extremely funny."
"I think this book has had a bigger impact on my state of mind than books about how to change your state of mind."
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Best Boating

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
The #1 New York Times –bestselling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany and now the inspiration for the PBS documentary “The Boys of ‘36” For readers of Unbroken , out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. It encompasses the convergence of transcendent British boatmaker George Pocock; the quiet yet deadly effective UW men’s varsity coach, Al Ulbrickson; and an unlikely gaggle of young rowers who would shine as freshmen, then grow up together, a rough-and-tumble bunch, writes Brown, not very worldly, but earnest and used to hard work. In doing so, he offers a vivid picture of the socioeconomic landscape of 1930s America (brutal), the relentlessly demanding effort required of an Olympic-level rower, the exquisite brainpower and materials that go into making a first-rate boat, and the wiles of a coach who somehow found a way to, first, beat archrival University of California, then conquer a national field of qualifiers, and finally, defeat the best rowing teams in the world.
Reviews
"But by taking every sliver of hope, and mixing in superb craftsmanship (from George Pocock), excellent coaching (Al Ulbrickson), and these nine perfectly attuned young men learning together........the result was perfection. It is nice to learn something you never knew, but is common knowledge to an entire set of other people. Concepts from Daniel Brown to consider that are mixed into the story to teach all of us: 1) One of the fundamental challenges in rowing is that when any one member of a crew goes into a slump the entire crew goes with him. The speed of a racing shell is determined primarily by two factors: the power produced by the combined strokes of the oars, and the stroke rate, the number of strokes the crew takes each minute. There are other great ideas to ponder in this epic almost 400 page, could-not-put-down story."
"Astonishing tales of Joe's upbringing and resilience; the unbelievable drive of every member of the rowing teams, their coach Al Ulrickson and boat builder George Pocock; the rivalry between West Coast universities; and then the astonishment of the East Coast clubs and schools confronting the Seattle crew."
"This book tells the true story of the nine young men from Seattle, Washington, then a far west, rustic town, who won the rowing championship for the United States in the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics, presided on by Hitler."
"I am sitting here, just having finished the book, with tears drying on my face. I have just spent the last hour turning the last pages the book and sobbing. These boys lived this life, this dream, this dedication, this passion, this experience. Thank god we have men like these, who have daughters like this, who work with story tellers like this one."
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