Sports Science Book Reviews

This book will give you all that you need to know in order to learn the skills involved in sports massage. Although it principally aimed at students and practitioners of these physical therapies, it also provides detailed information for those more advanced athletes who would like to know more about their body’s composition.

There are several introductory chapters that explain about how to conduct a massage, it’s effects on the bodies of both the patient and practitioner, and some important things not to do. It then gives detailed descriptions of a wide range of injuries and the details of the muscular structure of the body.

The main part of the book is then given over to describing how to massage each of the areas of the body. The book concludes with details of acupressure, remedial exercise and how to massage people with medical conditions, as well as a useful chapter for athletes on self-massage.

This is a very well written book which can be thoroughly recommended as being both readable and thorough. It would well prove to be very helpful, particularly to those who have intensive training programs to help avoid over-use injuries.

One word of caution, if you are going to use this book to massage on others or have them massage you, it would prove beneficial if the person being massaged knows what correct massage by a therapist feels like as poor treatment could exacerbate problems. Having said that, this if the books instructions are followed this should be avoided.

This is a comprehensive text book style look at the fundamental principles behind training for a sport. It combines the knowledge that Frank Dick has accumulated over 30 years as one of the top coaches that the UK has ever produced in a well structured reference book, as well as contributions from a range of experts in the sports science field.

It starts by looking at the human body's composition, progressing through to how it functions and a section on psychology. Once the human framework has been looked at, the second half of the book concentrates on the theory of training and planning a schedule.

This isn’t a book that is written for the beginner, but will make very interesting reading for most coaches and any athlete looking to compete at a high level. It contains a lot of information which those who have been involved in the sport for a long time may already vaguely know, but it will clarify many issues with facts and explanations.

This is a reference book that will be used over and over again by those with a thirst for knowledge.

Although the Sports Injury Handbook is not aimed specifically at runners and as such contains quite a bit of information that is likely to be slightly redundant, it does give a good overview in how to take part in sports and do your best to avoid injuries.

It also has a good range of tips about what to do when injuries occur – listing those which can be treated by the individual and pointing out those which require medical attention.

This is a reference book and as such is a little difficult to read, but useful to dip into when you want to know something specific. For those not very familiar with a good warm up or conditioning and strengthening routines, this book has a couple of informative chapters which will give a good foundation to the sorts of exercises to carry out.