Tag Archive for: Book Reviews

Vern Gambetta

Practice Based Evidence & Coaching Significance

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In the move to evidence based practice are we shooting ourselves in the foot once again? So much “evidence based practice” is questionable, inaccurate, fraudulent or flat out wrong. I put my stock in practice-based evidence that I can support with good science where I can. In 45 years of coaching I have found that where it is necessary to produce results coaching (clinical) significance trumps statistical significance. I have yet to see a doctor or a scientist innovate a training method or a technical modification. Read more

Vern Gambetta

Some More Books for Educated Coaches

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bookscoachingHere are some that I neglected to share last week. I want to call you attention to two true classics – Science of Swimming by Doc Councilman and Modern Training For Running by Ken Doherty. Read more

Vern Gambetta

Some Books for Educated Coaches

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Here are books that I recommend if you want to consider yourself an educated coach. All these books are books I find myself referring to on an ongoing basis. Some are classics and some are contemporary. No doubt they represent my bias and my background in Track & Field, which has served me well in my career.  There are a few more I will add later. Read more

Vern Gambetta

2014 My Year in Books

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This is my top ten list of the 125 books I read in 2014 and ten honorable mentions. This list could have been easily twice as long as there were so many good books that I read last year.
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Martin Bingisser

Sport Under Communism

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Anytime you mention communism it is a sensitive political topic. Throw sports into the discussion and doping then dominates the conversation. It was far from a perfect system and, as Vern Gambetta pointed out over last week, communist countries could have learned much from the US and others. But it is also undeniable that there were some things they did right and there is much to be learned by studying sport under communism.
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Nick Garcia

The Inflection Point

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In my last post I talked about the book Only the Paranoid Survive. The central theme is about finding “inflection points.” When you figure out that the situation you are involved with has reached an “inflection point” it is time to change. When do we know its time to change? Author Andrew Grove explains that we need to “figure out who our major competitor is and see if they’re about to change. If there is more then one competitor then there is something significant going on.” When this is realized there are a number of things that Grove suggests you do:
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Nick Garcia

Only the Paranoid Survive

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Being that I am from San Jose, California I have always followed our Bay Area sports teams. One of those teams being the Stanford University football team. A number of years ago Stanford was considered one of the worst football teams in all of NCAA Division I football. Then came Coach Jim Harbaugh. There was an immediate effect as soon as Coach Harbaugh took over Stanford football. In the following years Stanford went from one of the worst football teams in Division I to one of the top programs. This obviously intrigued me and led me to read everything available regarding Coach Harbaugh’s coaching style. After I found that he endorsed a book called Only the Paranoid Survive, I immediately purchased it in hopes that it could be applied to my own coaching.

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Martin Bingisser

Book Review: The Olympian Manual for Strength and Size

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I’ve given a teaser and interviewed the translator, but I have yet to give my own thoughts on Dr. Bondarchuk’s new book The Olympian Manual for Strength and Size. As we are sending out the pre-orders I thought it was time for me to weigh in with my thoughts. As I normally do in my book reviews, I will give an overview of the book, discuss in detail it’s organization and content, and then summarize what I like and didn’t like. If you would like to order the book, you can do so in the HMMR Media Store. As discussed below, if you order the book from HMMR Media I can also help answer some questions you might have after reading it. Read more

Martin Bingisser

Interview with Jake Jensen

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The publisher is putting the finishing touches on Bondarchuk’s latest book (Olympian Manual for Strength & Size – pre-order here) and it should be shipped this month. An overview of the book and its table of contents are available here, but in the meantime I had a chance to talk with translator Jake Jensen about his own thoughts on the book. I assisted Jake in the editing of the book and got to know him throughout the process. As a competitive weightlifter and trainer, Jake is not just interested in translating the book, but also in what it contains.
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Martin Bingisser

Book Review: Olympic Weightlifting for Sports

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book-OlyForSportsBefore the Olympic weightlifting coaching roundtable finished up with the thoughts of some throwing coaches, I thought I would share my thoughts on a recent book on Olypmic weightlifting as it relates to the training for other sports.

Coach Greg Everett participated in both part 1 and part 2 of the coaching roundtable, providing input from the perspective of a weightlifting coach. Everett runs the Catalyst Athletics club and is also a prolific writer. He prodcues the Performance Menu online journal, hosts a number of quality blogs on his website, and has written two books. His most recent book, Olympic Weightlifting for Sports, is written for non-Weightlifters and seemed to fit in well with the theme of the last week on HMMR Media.
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