Parenting Sports

Acclaimed essayist Mark Edmundson reflects on his own rite of passage as a high school football player to get to larger truths about the ways America's Game shapes its men. Football teaches young men self-discipline and teamwork. But football celebrates violence. Football is a showcase for athletic beauty and physical excellence. But football damages young bodies and minds, sometimes permanently. Football inspires confidence and direction. But football instills cockiness, a false sense of superiority.

The New Rochelle High School team in suburban New York is like many across the country: a source of civic pride, a manhood workshop for a revered coach, and an emotional proving ground for boys of widely different backgrounds. In the fall of 2014, New Rochelle's season unfolded alongside watershed NFL head injury revelations and domestic abuse cases (remember Ray Rice?) as well as fatalities on nearby fields. The dramatic story of that season, for players, parents and coaches, underscores fundamental questions.

For most of his life, Josh Wilker has been on the sidelines. Spending his days in a cubicle in the far reaches of Chicago, and his nights in front of Red Sox games, he has been content to let others take center stage. From childhood onward, he sought comfort from anxiety and depression in the archival pages of sports almanacs and stat sheets: a place where forgotten players lingered and time seemed to stop - a welcome relief from worldly problems.

When award-winning ESPN producer Lisa Fenn returned to her hometown for a story about two wrestlers at one of Cleveland's toughest public high schools, she had no idea that the trip would change her life. Both young men were disadvantaged students with significant physical disabilities. Dartanyon Crockett was legally blind as a result of Leber's disease; Leroy Sutton lost both his legs at 11, when he was run over by a train. Brought together by wrestling, they had developed a brother-like bond as they worked to overcome their disabilities.

Join Amy Tan on an incredible journey of self-discovery, healing, and transformation. After a terrifying first dive left her full of fear, Amy avoided the ocean for thirty years, despite once loving it deeply. Now, she's ready to face her past fears and reconnect with the sea. Her story unfolds on the beautiful Tioman Island, where she shares her emotional and spiritual growth as she dives back into the ocean.

In "The Disconnect Between Martial Arts and Street Combatives," seasoned martial artist and self-defense expert Michael Morton delves into the often-overlooked gap between traditional martial arts training and real-world street combat effectiveness. This eye-opening book challenges conventional wisdom, revealing why some martial arts techniques may falter in the chaos of a real-life confrontation.

As children, we learn that trying to put a square object in a round hole of the same size will never work. A piece of wrong shape and description just will not fit together, even if we try to force it. When we pause, and analyze what works, what does not work, and why, we begin to assemble the piece in perfect harmony. Anticipating that the same can be applied to human relationships, John sets out to track down and understand the secrets formula that only a few couples experience in life and reveals it within.

In the fall of 2012, after working on a presidential campaign that suffered a devastating loss, Stuart Stevens, having turned 60, realized that he and his 95-year-old father had spent little time together for decades. His solution: a season of attending Ole Miss football games together, as they'd done when college football provided a way for his father to guide him through childhood - and to make sense of the troubled South of the time.

Swim is a celebration of swimming and the effect it has on our lives. It's an inquiry into why we swim - the lure, the hold, the timeless magic of being in the water. It's a look at how swimming has changed over the millennia, how this ancient activity is becoming more social than solitary today. It's about our relationship with the water, with our fishy forebearers, and with the costumes that we wear. You'll even find a few songs to sing when you push out those next laps.

Literate, honest, and deeply observant, Faithful Travelers is a beautiful meditation on the bond between parent and child and the nature of love and loss. Dodson proves that sometimes life isn't what happens while you're waiting to go fishing; sometimes it happens while you're there.

Augusta National is golf’s Holy Grail. Navigating the azaleas to play the exclusive course that hosts The Masters is a pipe dream for every golfer. Imagine being afforded the opportunity not only to play the course, but to be able to bring your father along for the ride. To complete the priceless fantasy, Jack Nicklaus - “The Golden Bear” - hosts the round. Through fate, coincidence and good fortune, Joe Wessel managed to find a way to make that happen. In White Fang and The Golden Bear, Wessel recounts that special round, how it came about, and what happened....

The author has spent his life studying the Japanese martial art of Aikido. When looking for teachers, he asks questions about the meaning of sacrifice, the physical and mental limits that can be exceeded. This is a book about passion and the cost of following your dreams.

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of America's most beloved sporting event - the Super Bowl - an authoritative collection of the most pivotal plays through the decades, compiled by the legendary Jerry Rice.

Embark on a transformative journey through the riveting audiobook "Ball Ain't Life," narrated by the esteemed author Coach Nix himself. Crafted from years of wisdom gathered on bleachers, planes, and even bustling automobiles, this audiobook is a beacon of guidance for parents and support groups navigating the dynamic realm of grassroots basketball. Coach Nix's unparalleled philosophy illuminates the path to strategically "using the game", fostering holistic success while evading common pitfalls that obstruct progress.

This book is designed to be a self-help book; that is, to encourage you to become a better athlete, to persevere in your sport from football, running, gymnastics etc., and to become a better person. The book also Includes some once-in-a lifetime sports stories to amaze you as well as to entertain you.

From the New York Times best-selling author of Brady vs. Manning and dean of football writers - an audiobook that explores the many interesting facets to NFL quarterbacks and their relationships with their fathers. My First Coach goes behind the scenes to explore the unique relationship between these and other quarterbacks and their fathers, as well as investigate various approaches to parenting through their stories. Can young athletes overcome helicopter parents? How did the kids with NFL aspirations deal with their fathers who'd already made it?

When we first meet the young man at the center of this extraordinary and moving story, he is one of 13 children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or any of the things a child might learn in school. And he has no serious experience playing organized football.

As Moire charts the first harrowing year after Pete’s death - the shock, the loneliness and the difficulties of single parenting two young children - she also experiences glimpses of hope and acceptance as she trains to become a mountain leader. The people she meets through the mountains, as well as the peace and wild beauty of the Mournes, help Moire discover her inner strength and prove she is not alone in her struggles.

In Unsinkable, you will follow Abby into the depths through a gripping and evocative firsthand account that starts prior to her departure, travels through her daring (and sometimes near-death) encounters on the open sea, to her dramatic rescue in the remotest part of the Indian Ocean. Today, when the most productive thing a teenager may do is play videogames, Abby's courage and tenacity shows us all what can happen when we choose to challenge our own limits, embrace faith, and aim for what our critics say is impossible.

Growing up on the Cambridgeshire Fens, Will Millard never felt more at home than when he was out with his granddad on the riverbank whiling away the day catching fish. As he grew older his competitive urge to catch more and bigger fish led him away from that natural connection between him, his grandfather and the rivers of his home and into large commercial fisheries catching fish after fish.