Room for Improvement: Notes on a Dozen Lifelong Sports

From the author of the novel "Spartina, " which won the National Book Award and has established itself as a modern classic, comes a collection of essays that describe with tenderhearted candor and humor a lifetime's worth of addiction. No, not an addiction to booze or drugs, but an addiction to a more natural gratification: the joy of sport, exercise, and the sheer elation of being ready and willing to say yes to a challenge. Want to run a marathon? "OK." Climb Mount Katahdin? "Sure!" How about canoeing the entire length of the Delaware River? "Why not?"
Spanning more than fifty years of ambitious and sometimes peculiar endeavors, these essays take us along on some of Casey's greatest adventures: a twenty-six-day Outward Bound course in Maine during the dead of winter; being pinned by a two-hundred-pound judo instructor whose words, "Come on, white boy. Don't give up," encourage at least one more attempt at escape; leading a lost couple on a yacht through the rocky waterways of Narragansett Bay by a simple rowboat; and completing--on his seventieth birthday--a 70K marathon of his own devising that included rowing, bicycling, skating, Rollerblading, and finally, trotting the dog out for a mile.
Be it a preoccupation with health, vanity, or just an indomitably playful sense of adventure, John Casey's "Room for Improvement" is a joyful self-portrait of a writer who loves going to extremes, just to find out what it's like once he gets there.

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Sailing for Everyone

Builder, designer, and sailor Simon Watts has written a friendly, straight-forward how-to, geared for the "novice of any age." He provides you with practical, clear text and drawings, woven through the chapters.
Table of Contents:

# About the Wind

# Too Much Wind

# Arrivals and Departures

# When Things Go Wrong

# Rules of the Road plus some basic knots, nautical terms, and more.
 
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The Devil and Bobby Hull: How Hockey's Original Million-Dollar Man Became the Game's Lost Legend

An award-winning writer sets the record straight on hockey's forgotten golden boy--Bobby Hull
In his prime, few could dispute Bobby Hull's athletic brilliance--the first to have five 50-goal seasons, the highest scorer on the 1976 Canada Cup team, the first to use the slapshot as a scoring weapon, and the first hockey player to sign a million-dollar contract. With his body-builder torso, and his 100 mph volleys across a rink, the world of hockey glory was his to lose. And he did. With his publicized marital troubles and his defection from the NHL to the WHA, Hull's star began to fall, leaving him broke and in exile from the game. In "The Devil and Bobby Hull, " this once great hockey player and pioneer is finally given his due.
Not only are Hull's remarkable on-ice achievements finally put in perspective, so, too, are his achievements off the rink--including endorsements for a wide array of products (rare for an NHL player) and his appearance on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" a record four times. And the book details how Hull's battle with the owners of the Chicago Blackhawks--challenging the reserve clause in his contract, a move that enabled him to move to the WHA--helped other players follow him.The author places Hull squarely in the pantheon of other hockey greats, including Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, and Wayne Gretzky--and makes the case that he is the game's most influential and important playerThis is the full, unauthorized story of Hull's life--that doesn't sidestep the controversies (including the domestic violence tainting his private life)Details Hull's recent reconciliation with the Chicago Blackhawks
A candid look at one of hockey's most gifted and controversial figures, "The Devil and Bobby Hull" tells the story of his extraordinary career and life--and why this remarkable man has not faded into oblivion.

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The Timeless Swing

Tom Watson, a few months short of his sixtieth birthday, led the 2009 British Open with one hole to play and came within an unlucky bounce of winning it for the sixth time. His stunning performance electrified the golf world and showcased a swing that has endured as a model of good mechanics, rhythm, and repeatability.
In "The Timeless Swing, "Watson draws on all the knowledge and expertise he has accumulated over the course of his extraordinary career, imparting lessons that will help golfers of any age play to the best of their abilities and enjoy the game more. From fundamentals like learning the proper grip to advanced shotmaking techniques such as swinging in wind, he breaks down the full swing into all its parts and explains with his trademark easy voice the most effective ways for mastering each.
Watson complements these lessons with time-tested drills and also offers a variety of tips and exercises to help golfers continue to swing well as they get older. And for the first time ever, he reveals the two key concepts he considers the most important of all--concepts that can enable players of all levels to attain a timeless swing.
"The Timeless Swing "is illustrated with stunning photographs by award-winning "Golf Digest "photographer Dom Furore, and Watson carefully draws the reader's eye to what is essential in each photo, providing the kind of easy-to-understand guidance usually found only in private lessons.
With a foreword by Jack Nicklaus and archival highlights of Tom Watson's most memorable shots and tournaments, this is an indispensable guide from a consummate teacher and one of the most respected and admired players in the game.
Special Bonus: Each chapter includes an easy-to-access video via your smartphone of Tom Watson teaching key lessons. See details in the book's introduction.

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Canoe Camping: An Essential Guide

Learn how to plan, pack for and do a fun canoe camping trip - whether your plan is to go on a weekend trip with friends or family, or to head out on a multi-day wilderness experience.This comprehensive guide by senior guide and World Champion paddler Mark Scriver makes canoe camping fun and safe for both new and experienced canoe trippers. Canoe Camping" ""gives you all the information you need to have a great canoe trip."

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Football Scouting Methods

2011 reprint of the 1962 edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. "Considered the bible of scouting techniques" according to the Los Angeles Times, Football Scouting Methods explains the basic scouting strategies and insights of author Steve Belichick. He was widely viewed as the ablest football scout of his time and coached at the U.S. Naval Academy for 33 years; his son is New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, a three-time Super Bowl winner. When Steve Belichick died in November 2005, the New York Times headline cited him as "Coach Who Wrote the Book on Scouting," and quoted Houston Texans General Manager Charley Casserly calling Football Scouting Methods "the best book on scouting he had ever read." Joe Bellino, Navy's Heisman Trophy winner in 1960, told the Times that Steve Belichick "was a genius. On Monday nights, he would give us his scouting reports, and even though we were playing powerhouses, I always felt we were prepared because he found a way for us to win." In recent years Football Scouting Methods has been one of the top ten most sought out-of-print books; used copies have been quite scarce. This reissue edition makes the original 1962 text available once again in exact facsimile. The book covers how to scout opponents, recognize defenses, analyze offenses, discover "tip-offs" that reveal the opponent's plays, compose a useful report, self-scout, and conduct postgame analysis. "Steve Belichick taught many younger men how to scout and how to watch film and how to prepare their teams for the next week's game," David Halberstam noted in the Washington Post, and his best student was his own son Bill Belichick, "one of whose greatest skills as a coach to this day remains his ability to analyze other teams, figuring out both their strengths and their vulnerabilities, and shrewdly deciding how to take away from them that which they most want to do." When CBS asked Bill Belichick to name his favorite book, he replied "Well, I've got to go with my dad's. Football Scouting Methods. I'd have to go with that."

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The Best American Sports Writing (2011)

Well established as the premier sports anthology, The Best American Sports Writing brings togther the finest writing on sports to appear in the past year. Edited by the award-winning Jane Leavy, author of Sandy Koufax and The Last Boy, the pieces in this volume embrace the world of sports in all its drama, humanity and excitement.

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Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football

"Three and Out" tells the story of how college football's most influential coach took over the nation's most successful program, only to produce three of the worst seasons in the histories of both Rich Rodriguez and the University of Michigan. Shortly after his controversial move from West Virginia, where he had just taken his alma mater to the #1 ranking for the first time in school history, Coach Rich Rodriguez granted author and journalist John U. Bacon unrestricted access to Michigan's program. Bacon saw it all, from the meals and the meetings, to the practices and the games, to the sidelines and the locker rooms. Nothing and no one was off limits. John U. Bacon's "Three and Out" is the definitive account of a football marriage seemingly made in heaven that broke up after just three years, and lifts the lid on the best and the worst of college football.

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Mental Training for Runners: How to Stay Motivated

Generations of exercisers and athletes have struggled with the motivation to get out the door, to continue on tough days, or to push through the final barrier of discomfort to the long awaited goal. This book describes the source of problems, how to diffuse them, with methods that can keep one motivated. The unconscious process of stress build-up often sends body and mind on separate missions. Galloway provides a series of mental training methods which can bring body, mind, and spirit into a powerful team. Each major area of low motivation is noted with proven ways of overcoming the problems. Many runners have applied these methods to work through other low motivation challenges at work, in the family and in other areas of life.

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Learn How to Increase Your Chances of Winning the Lottery

In his book, Richard discusses the ins and outs and dos and don'ts of buying lottery tickets to increase your chances of winning. He has created a method that he and members of his family use that has enabled them to WIN several lottery game GRAND prizes. This is a very easy to use method and will work with any type lottery games (scratch tickets or number games) in any state or country. Here are some quotes from people who have used his method: "My husband and I used Richard Lustig's lotto method and within months of starting the method we hit a Mega Money jackpot for 2 million dollars! It was really easy to follow. You only play what you can and you can still win! Shaun and I will only play lotto from now on using these strategies."-Jennifer and Shaun, Florida "Since we've been using your method, we have definitely been winning more that we used to. It's easy to follow"-Dale, Florida "I just wanted to let you know that my husband and I read through your lottery method last night. It seems great. It seems to be just simple logic and makes sense."-Kate, Illinois.  


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