Whatever you do, make sure you buy your books used and as cheap a price as possible (unless of course you are buying a book from Charlie or Lyle :p). Anyone interested in training athletes should amass a library of sorts. There is lots of good information out there, but rarely does all of it exist in one book (actually, it doesn’t).
I have numerous books that have bits of information that collectively make up a portion of my knowledge base. My most useful information comes from working with athletes and sharing information with good coaches.
No book will tell you how to write a training program or effectively interact with athletes. The best books are not the ones that give you answers, but the ones that make you think.
I actually enjoyed reading Mel Siff’s “Facts and Fallacies of Fitness” - not because the content is fantastic or that Mel has great answers. But the way in which he goes over different issues makes you think more critically about exercise. For that reason, I think it is a good book. I also have his book “Supertraining” which is not as enjoyable to read. I find it interesting, but not necessarily useful.
In the case of Speed Trap and CFTS, I find they are both good sources of information and thought provoking. The philosophy of training comes across very strong in both books and the details are relatively simple and straightforward. I make a point of reading Speed Trap annually, as it helps to remind me why I am in the field of coaching and athlete performance. It’s about the process and experience of helping athletes develop and approach their potential. It’s also about problem solving.
BTW - I own a number of Bompa’s books as well, and even though I don’t necessarily wholly follow the methodology outlined in his books, I do believe for young coaches that they can serve a purpose in understanding concepts such as organized training, planning, recovery, supercompensation, loading progressions, etc. I think we sometimes assume everyone can make the leap to advanced training concepts. Some people need to read some of these books to get “up to speed” so they can advance beyond the fundamental concepts.
Facts and Fallacies of Fitness is one of my favorite sports science books as well for the reasons Derek mentions. Very thought provoking and a fun read.
I have to agree on Facts and Fallacies. It does require one to consider if the reasons they have used particular exercises are valid and accomplishing what they are intended for.
I do think that the most recent Bompa book-Periodization-with Greg Haff is an improvement on his more recent works.
I think Principles and Practice of Resistance Training(2007) by Michael Stone, Meg Stone, and William Sands is an excellent text.
I thought it was absolute trash. Bompa repeatedly states that the way to improve results is through increasing volume. And uses examples like the Bulgarian OL team who quintupled volume over a 30 year period.
And completely fails to mention something else that increased in use by about 5 fold in that time period, a topic that is not allowed to be discussed here. Because you can’t keep increasing volume indefinitely without ‘support’.
The charts on energetics of sport are 30 years out of date and don’t reflect current thinking on what’s really going on (e.g. a much higher aerobic component to most activities). And all of the bits about intensifying training with intervals all the time go against modern training concepts as well.
All it’s going to do is lead more and more coaches to destroy their athletes with too much volume combined with too much intensity.
Because OMG intervals rule like I heard on the Internets.
I think you will get the most benefit from sports science books if you are first familiar with successful coaching methods like the ones used by Charlie, Gerard Mach, Bud Winter, Louie Simmons, Bill Starr, Al Vermeil, et al.
The proven track records of the training methods tell you what works. The sports science books can help you understand why.
Can I just say thanks for all your replies…I really appreciate it. I have looked into some books you have suggested and it has been really helpful.
Number 2 I couldn’t agree more with what you have said. There are certainly numerous books that have small chunks of useful info. I will make sure I try to buy as cheap as possible.
I have read on this forum that there is a book “Jumping into Plyometrics” by Donald Chu. Has anyone read this and is it good?
Flash, you are right. I really appreciate the work great coaches such as Charlie, Poliquin, Vermeil etc have done for the strength training community. As you said, the books are just nice to complement their work to understanding how training works I suppose.
Thanks for your help,
Rob.
PS: if anyone has any other book suggestion I would love to hear.
Though I have not looked at the book in quite a while, I felt the volumes that Chu advocated to be excessive.
It’s almost as though he was trying to make his book and work more important by recommending that you do more reps/foot contacts with that particular training modality.
I would also recommend Science and Practice of Strength Training by Vladimir Zatsiorsky. It’s a neat book and covers a lot of material despite its relatively short length. It’s more “digestible” than most other major academic works.
Supertraining by the late great Mel Siff is very good as No. 2 mentioned. Although he is also correct that it can be a tough read. It’s advantage is that it’s so damn comprehensive. I would recommend having it more as a reference than something to read cover to cover for practical advice.
I agree. The main claim to fame of Chu’s book is that it was one of the first to popularize plyometric training in North America. However, in Supertraining and Facts and Fallacies, Siff mercilessly trashed Chu’s interpretation of the Soviet literature on the subject. If you can find a cheap copy of Chu’s book and a copy of Siff’s it might be worth comparing them to each other if only to stimulate your critical thinking on the subject.
Siff’s Supertraining is amazingly comprehensive and already seems like it will be used over and over as a reference in my own training. As far as books for you to purchase, like some of the other (more experienced) posters have noted, you’d almost certainly be better off amassing a large library of knowledge be it from purchasing books or not. I find myself going off on tangents in my training related book purchases and hope that I’ve finally settled on some of the more useful literature available (from old school dogmatic football training books to “combine specialist” books, a few from Human Kinetics and now finally things from UAC like Supertraining and some of the Yessis books).
That being said I’m looking forward to getting myself a bit of disposable income and purchasing some of the Charlie Francis products. (GPP Essentials and Weights for Speed are on my wish list )
On a more practical note, I would also highly recommend Ian King’s How to Write Strength Training Programs. It’s very good at walking you through the nuts and bolts of evaluating and balancing the variables involved in constructing a strength program. And like Charlie (from whom Ian takes a lot of cues), he places a strong emphasis on always weighing the costs and benefits of the strength program within the context of the overall training program (for non-lifting specialists).
If you’re really interested in thinking outside the box on strength training methods, I also highly recommend getting Building the Gymnastic Body by Christopher Sommer. It’s the only book I know of that details gymnastic strength training exercises and proper progressions and is actually geared largely for non-gymnasts.
The key to increasing difficulty is reducing leverage rather than increasing external load. Very humbling exercises, especially when you see 10 year old boys doing advanced versions.
there is a reason why gymnastics, swimming and track are listed by Charlie and Tudor as the best development sports out there.
Gymnastics for strength and flexibility ( perhaps not to the extreme as the kids at the highest level have)
Swimming for endurance ( not to say your kid should be doing the kind of overtraining most swim programs for youngsters advocate and result in life long shoulder issues
Track for speed and strength. Again speed means under 100 meters and much less younger a child is / does not mean distance training for cross country or stupid crap I see most Phys-Ed coaches give " lets begin practice with a 5 k run"
Sounds like a good book Flash. You are always researching something interesting.
Once againg thanks for your suggestions. LCBaller3 that looks a really good book thanks.
Flash, Ian King’s book is one of the books that I would REALLY like but unfortunately I can’t find anyone in the UK who sells it and no doubt the shipping from Aus will be horrendous! What is the book like btw? Ian shares similar ideas with Poliquin on strength doesn’t he?
Building the Gymnastic Body is one of my favourite books I have. I honestly think that using gymnastics exercises for strength is underrated and often not understood. The book is the only good book on gymnastics strength building on the market. Absolute fantastic book! But the only thing I don’t agree on is his ideas on the connective tissue strengtherning (steady state cycle).
I got recommended another book: “Facilitated Stretching”. Anyone have any thoughts on this book and any other books?
Actually, Ian’s prescriptions tend to be a lot more conservative than Poliquin’s. They’re friends (or at least were 10 years ago), but they do things differently.
Facilitated Stretching is probably the best practical book on the application of PNF to flexibility training. I have all three editions, and each one is a significant improvement on the previous ones. The lastest edition comes with a DVD demonstrating the techniques. It’s probably the only book I would recommend as a supplement to Stretch to Win. Those two books together will pretty much cover all the practical bases.
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