Pinned (Junior Library Guild Selection (Listen & Live Audio)) Review

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(More customer reviews)Wrestling isn't just a sport to Bobby Zane and Ivan Korske. It's a way of life. From the midnight runs to the cutting weight to plotting maneuvers in their sleep, wrestling is all they think about during the winter sports season. Both compete in the 129-pound weight class, and both refuse to let anything stand in the way of the state championship title.
Beyond their mutual love of wrestling, however, Bobby and Ivan couldn't be more different. Bobby's school wrestling team is known throughout New Jersey for its winning record. His family, though rich, is troubled by his mother's long working hours and his father's infidelity, and news that Bobby's girlfriend might be pregnant leaves Bobby wondering exactly where his life is headed.
Meanwhile, Ivan and his small-town farming father are grieving his mother, who was a strong influence in both their lives, and Ivan's anger and loss are felt by everyone except for his neighbor Shelley, who encourages Ivan's talents. Ivan's only hope of leaving his backwater town of Lemmings is a scholarship to Western Arizona University, but his father wants him to attend college close to home.
Each chapter alternates a point of view, taking the reader through both Bobby's and Ivan's journeys to the state championship. Alfred C. Martino, a wrestling fan, brings the excitement of their matches into the story. Both characters have depth and devotion to the people they love, even though their commitment to wrestling sometimes eats away at their relationships. Reading this book will make you think twice about the dumb jock stereotype.
   --- Reviewed by Carlie Webber


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The Mental Athlete Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the best mental training book that I have ever found. In 1985 I was on the National Team for my sport, but I was not up to par for the other aspects of my sport. I found "The Mental Athlete" and it totally changed my athletic life. The book teaches you how to visualize, do relaxation exercise, run mental training programs, etc. Even though it is not specific to my sport, you can incorporate the techniques into any sport. It is an amazing book. It is not a boring, hard to understand technical book, it is written very well. This book took me from a good athlete to a National Champion (many times over). This book is worth it's weight in gold.

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Improved mental ability means improved sports performance. Athletes who excel do so not just because of their physical abilities but because of their mental awareness, preparation, and skills as well. The Mental Athlete will help improve your overall performance by providing the tools, guidance, and practical insight you need to sharpen your mental skills.

This conditioning manual for the mind will help you

further enhance mental strengths and address weaknesses through effective self-assessments,increase confidence in personal abilities and avoid the fear of failure,heighten awareness of inner-thought processes and learn ways to improve them, and be free of inhibitions to initiate action and to respond intuitively and positively to challenges.

No matter what sport you play and at what level you play, you will find this practical, reader-friendly book useful because it not only lets you know what you need to do to improve your mental abilities, but it also shows you how to improve them. It contains exercises, tests, and worksheets that help you move through the steps of mental achievement.

In addition, The Mental Athlete contains the following features:

Sections that cover specific sports and issuesSport-specific visualizations for football, soccer, volleyball, and many other sportsInformation on issues such as team building; recovering from injuries; and letting go of mistakes, losses, anger, and fear

Take full advantage of your physical skills by fully developing your mental skills—the aim of The Mental Athlete!

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Fast Lane to Victory: The Story of Jenny Thompson (Anything You Can Do... New Sports Heroes for Girls) Review

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(More customer reviews)Fast Lane To Victory is the third in Wish Publishing's outstanding "Anything You Can Do...New Sports Heroes For Girls" series and the story of swim champion Jenny Thompson. Swimming was what Jenny like best, but when her friends at school started to tease her and call her "tomboy" and "Too Tall Thompson", she felt the pressures placed on a lot of young girls to conform to social norms of what was "proper" for girls. Jenny dealt with the negative peer pressure and became so successful as an athlete that she came to be called the "Fastest Swimmer in the World". Also very highly recommended for school and community library collections are the first two volumes in this superbly presented and inspiring sports oriented series for girls: A Drive To Win: The Story Of Nancy Lieberman (40-8, ...) and Sword Of A Champion: The Story Of Sharon Monplaisir (39-4, ...).

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Fast Lane to Victory: The Story of Jenny ThompsonJenny Thompson grew up in a working class New England coastal town with a single mom and three older brothers. As her family struggled to make ends meet, Jenny found a bounty of good fortune and success in the swimming pool. The family folklore maintains that Jenny could swim before she could walk. This water baby went on to win eight Olympic Gold medals as one of the fastest female swimmers in the world. Jenny had to deal with some hardships, including wearing a brace for scoliosis and being teased about being so tall and strong. And she did it with her constant positive outlook and rugged determination to succeed. This story lets the young reader know that being competitive is okay for girls and that dreams really do come true.

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Body Mind Mastery: Training For Sport and Life Review

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(More customer reviews)The book has 166 pages of content and can be divided into three main parts. The first part is fairly abstract, Millman calls it "Understanding the Larger Game". The first chapter is about natural laws that Millman sees as being helpful to understand; the next has to do with bringing awareness to our activities as a way to see what we are doing wrong, what we are doing right, and then learning from our mistakes; last chapter of part 1 is about preparation, about slow and steady progress. Personally, having read alot of self help and mind body I didn't really find this first part very helpful. The second part and the first chapter of the third part are, to me, the meat and bones of the book, where the concrete content is. He has chapters on Mental, Emotional, and Physical talent and how to cultivate all three. He talks about the self concept, fear of failure, about breathing, and then about strength, suppleness, stamina, and sensitivity. Then there is a chapter with specific advice for working on skills, like hitting a golf ball or diving or gymnastics. The third part of the book criticizes the focus on results and urges more focus on focus, concentration and personal growth and the last chapter is about new sports, less competitive, that Millman sees developing in the future. Again, this part is more abstract and it is very normative, criticizing competition, though he does recognize that it can bring out the best in people, and then naming some new sports he sees as good developments. He also suggests requiring athletes in asymettrical sports such as golf, tennis, bowling and baseball to "use both arms equally" (pg 143). I found that a little annoying and I also didn't really see it as having a place in this book. Overall, there are a bunch of good points in here, it is clear that Millman understands how to pursue excellence and growth, but I felt the book was a bit unfocused and there was nothing really new for someone who has done some reading in this area. Greg ...

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Physically demanding sports such as tennis and basketball have a lot in common with skills such as playing the piano. In addition to physical training, mastering these activities requires developing mental and emotional talents as well. Drawing on his own experiences, Dan Millman, in this revised and updated edition of The Inner Athlete, offers a regimen to integrate physical training with psychological growth. He examines the motivations for athletic excellence and offers a transformative guide to success that is as applicable in everyday life as it is in sports.

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