Publisher: Reading Essentials
An examination of the place of the martial arts in Japanese culture includes discussions of the history, philosophy, and techniques of judo, karate, wrestling, and fencing.
Millions of people watched The Battle of the Sexes in 1973, but no one knew more about the historic tennis match than a 14 year-old boy. While the world s eyes were focused on Bobby Riggs, the self-proclaimed king of male chauvinist pigs, and Billie Jean King, the defender of feminism, Richard Muscio saw the match through the headlines of the day, headlines he had carefully clipped and saved as Bobby Riggs scrapbook maker. Only years later would Muscio realize that Bobby Riggs, the man who said that women should belong in the kitchen, actually made America a more tolerant society. A far cry from your grade school history book, So, What's Your Play? shows how life propelled Muscio to overcome blindness and birth inspired running events. Ultimately, showing how taking action, collaboration and leaving a legacy can change your own life and help build a better, more embracing world.Show book
Leo Durocher (1906–1991) was baseball's all-time leading cocky, flamboyant, and galvanizing character, casting a shadow across several eras, from the time of Babe Ruth to the Space Age Astrodome, from Prohibition through the Vietnam War. For more than forty years, he was at the forefront of the game, with a Zelig-like ability to be present as a player or manager for some of the greatest teams and defining baseball moments of the twentieth century. A rugged, combative shortstop and a three-time All-Star, he became a legendary manager, winning three pennants and a World Series in 1954.Durocher performed on three main stages: New York, Chicago, and Hollywood. He entered from the wings, strode to where the lights were brightest, and then took a poke at anyone who tried to upstage him. On occasion he would share the limelight, but only with Hollywood friends such as actor Danny Kaye, tough-guy and sometime roommate George Raft, Frank Sinatra, and his third wife, movie star Laraine Day.As he did with Bill Veeck, Dickson explores Durocher's life and times through primary source materials, interviews with those who knew him, and original newspaper files.Show book
Mike Brearley is one of the most successful cricket captains of all time, and, in 1981, he captained the England team to the momentous Ashes series victory against Australia. In The Art of Captaincy, his study on leadership and motivation, he draws directly on his experience of man-managing a team, which included a pugnacious Ian Botham and Geoffrey Boycott, to explain what it takes to be a leader on and off the field. Giving an insight into both his tactical understanding of the game, as well as how to get a group of individuals playing as a team in order to get the best out of them, The Art of Captaincy is a classic handbook on how to generate, nurture and inspire success. With a foreword by former England player and BBC commentator Ed Smith, to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of its first publication, and an afterword by director Sam Mendes, The Art of Captaincy remains urgently relevant for cricket fans and business leaders alike. Covering the ability to use intuition, resourcefulness, clear-headedness and the importance of empathy as a means of achieving shared goals, Brearley's seminal account of captaincy is both the ultimate blueprint for creating a winning mind set, but also shows how the lessons in the sporting arena can be applied to any walk of personal and professional life.Show book
A history of those who have scaled Mount Everest—and the advances in mountaineering over a century. At one time, the summits of the world’s highest peaks—Everest included—were beyond reach. Pioneering attempts to overcome the dangers of climbing at extremely high altitudes ended in failure, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Yet today, high-altitude ascents are frequent, almost commonplace. Everest can be conquered by relatively inexperienced mountaineers, and their exploits barely merit media attention—unless they go fatally wrong. This dramatic history of Everest climbs describes in vivid detail the struggle to conquer the mountain and the advances in scientific knowledge that made the conquest possible. It also offers compelling insight into the science of mountaineering—as well as the physical and psychological challenges faced by individuals who choose to test themselves in some of the harshest conditions on earth.Show book
1001 Running Tips by Robbie Britton is a light-hearted and informative guide to all kinds of running. This is no standard instruction manual – it is much more useful than that. This is a huge collection of small tips to make a real difference to your running, whether you're just starting out and aiming to run for 30 minutes without stopping or if you're training for your first marathon – this book will improve your running. The myriad of topics featured include starting out, setting goals, training plans, injury, nutrition, safety, kit, running with your dog, navigation, sleep deprivation, running in all weathers, racing, fell running and music. Robbie's unique and accessible style will keep you entertained and, most importantly, he'll motivate you to keep enjoying running, overcome obstacles getting in your way and to become the best runner you can!Show book
A guide to mental toughness from the author of 80/20 Running: “Fitzgerald’s research will help you become your own sports psychologist.” —Joe Friel, endurance sports coach and author of the Training Bible series The greatest athletic performances spring from the mind, not the body. Elite athletes have known this for decades and now science is learning why it’s true. In How Bad Do You Want It?, coach Matt Fitzgerald examines over a dozen pivotal races to discover the surprising ways elite athletes strengthen their mental toughness. Fitzgerald puts you into the pulse-pounding action of epic races from running, cycling, triathlon, XTERRA, and rowing with race reports and revealing post-race interviews with the elites. Their words reinforce what the research has found: strong mental fitness lets us approach our true physical limits, giving us an edge over physically stronger competitors. Each chapter explores the how and why of an elite athlete’s transformative moment, revealing powerful new psychobiological principles you can practice to flex your own mental fitness. The new psychobiological model of endurance performance shows that the most important question in endurance sports is: How bad do you want it? This fascinating book will forever change how you answer this question and show how to master the psychology of mind over muscle. Discover new psychobiological findings including: Mental toughness determines how close you can get to your physical limit * Bracing yourself for a tough race or workout can boost performance by 15% or more * Champions have learned how to give more of what they have * The only way to improve performance is by altering how you perceive effort * Choking under pressure is a form of self-consciousness * Your attitude in daily life is the same one you bring to sports * There’s no such thing as going as fast as you can—only going faster than before * The fastest racecourse is the one with the loudest spectators * Faith in your training is as important as the training itself Featured athletes include: Sammy Wanjiru, Jenny Simpson, Greg LeMond, Siri Lindley, Willie Stewart, Cadel Evans, Nathan Cohen and Joe Sullivan, Paula Newby-Fraser, Ryan Vail, Thomas Voeckler, Ned Overend, Steve Prefontaine, and John “The Penguin” Bingham “Fitzgerald has been writing about the psychology of endurance performance for more than a decade now and is really one of the pioneers in terms of trying to take this body of research out of the laboratory and into the field for everyone to try.” —Runner’s WorldShow book
