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by (Editor: Delaine Fragnoli) (Editor: Don Douglass)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Fine Edge Productions (1998-04)
ISBN: 0938665537
EAN: 9780938665533
Dewy Decimal #: 917.9490453
Paperback: 351 pages
Edition: 2
SKU: 111408027
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...no markings or highlighting...minor scratches and edge wear on cover
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Customer Reviews
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A decent, but often confusing guidebook.
Rating  (2)
Date: 1998-10-13
9 out of 9 customers found this reveiw helpful
I think Fine Edge makes some great recreation topo maps for mt. biking, but I was frequently disappointed by this book. It's written by groups of different authors, and as a result, it's way uneven. Some regions feature good, clear writing, others are almost shockingly bad. (Palm Springs cyclists will hate it.) I'm kind of ashamed to admit it, but some of the route descriptions and maps got me lost, too. Maybe it was my fault, but I don't think so. For a company based in Bishop that makes such good recreation maps, the maps here seem especially lame. Bottom line: I'd buy this book for some of the regions, but not the others.
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by (Editor: Jess O'Brien)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: North Atlantic Books (2004-10-26)
ISBN: 1556435061
EAN: 9781556435065
Dewy Decimal #: 796.815
Paperback: 300 pages
Release Date: 2004-10-26
SKU: 040908008
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No Underlining or Highlighting...minor wear on cover
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Using an interview format, this book brings out the many different facets of the Nei Jia Quan, the umbrella name for Tai Ji Quan (Tai Chi), Xing Yi Quan, and Ba Gua Zhang. Each teacher gives a sense of the history of their art, its philosophical and spiritual underpinnings, and their training philosophy, giving students strategies for incorporating a wide range of approaches into their own studies. Included is additional commentary on these traditions, along with biographies of each of the teachers. Nei Jia Quan also features interviews with Tim Cartmell, Gabriel Chin, Gail Derin-Kellog, Bruce Kumar Frantizis, Paul Gale, Fong Ha, William Lewis, Luo De Xiu, Allen Pittman, James Wing Woo, Tony Yang, Zhao DaYuan, and Albert Liu.
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Customer Reviews
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Want to think about "internal" martial arts?
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-07-08
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Then this is an excellent book to start with. In this collection of 12 interviews and one essay, there are numerous departures for fruitful musings on the martial arts in general and on those typically classified as "internal" in particular. While some of these teachers try to shy away from the use (and abuse) of the term "qi", they all fundamentally agree that there is no real distinction between "internal" and "external" arts. Beyond that, though, the opinions expressed by the 13 teachers gathered in this volume can be extremely divergent.
The volumes opens up with a real bang, in this reviewer's opinion. Tim Cartmell certainly has strong opinions. Whether you agree with him or not (and some of the teachers represented in the text appear not to), his essay is a breath of fresh air in comparison to the stale discussions of the historicity and lineage of mythical figures like Zhang San Feng. [Yes, yes, there was at least one historical figure with this name, but the use of this figure in martial arts is purely mythical.]
Likewise, if there are any died in the wool Bruce Lee fans left out there, then James Wing Woo's depiction of him as a "horrible martial artist" may raise your hackles.
All of the interviews in this book gave me something to think about. If you enjoy hearing about the lives and opinions of life-long martial artists, then this is an excellent book. If you want a little stimulation to help jumpstart thinking and introspection on your own practice, then this book may well work. It will fill a worthy slot in my bookshelf.
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Fascinating - Couldn't Put It Down...
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-05-09
5 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a really fascinating read which presents the views of various contemporary practitioners and teachers of the Chinese neijia (internal schools). Each chapter provides valuable insight into the true nature of these unique arts and gives you plenty of food for thought.
If you practice an internal form of Chinese martial arts, you need this book-
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An informative introduction and in-depth analysis of each of the martial arts practices of China
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-03-15
5 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
Nei Jia Quan: International Martial Arts is collectively written by thirteen knowledgeable teachers of Tai Ji Quan, Xing Yi Quan, and Ba Gua Zhang and is ably edited by Jess O'Brien. Nei Jia Quan informs the reader of the many varying perspectives of the philosophy, history, training methods, and fighting technique that make each of these fighting styles unique and individually inspiring. As an informed and informative introduction and in-depth analysis of each of the martial arts practices of China, Nei Jia Quan is a very highly recommended read for all students of the martial arts, as well as those with an interest in Chinese history and general culture.
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Can't Wait for Volume Two
Rating (5)
Date: 2005-12-04
10 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
Here are contemporary teachers talking clearly about things that are often shrouded in needless mystery and myth. Yet the truly mystical aspects of these arts becomes even more convincing when discussed concretely, and the practical aspects are clarified. Though not intended as a training manual, the book offers a great deal of profound and useful guidance and inspiration. If you're a devotee of any of these arts or qi gong, the book is really fun and helpful. I read it in two days and look forward to rereading it. It's definitely worthwhile. I hope for a second volume with other teachers.
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Food for thought.
Rating  (4)
Date: 2005-11-19
11 out of 11 customers found this reveiw helpful
I just received this book and have really found it interesting. I really like that it features so many different folks. Some of them are famous some not but they all have something to offer and their differences help make the book accessible to more people.
It isn't how to, but most how to martial arts books are useful only as an occasional reference piece. This books is more vital because it's more fun to read and because the various opinions presented challenged me to rethink what I've been taught or what I'd been thinking.
Additionally the book is pretty entertaining which sadly cannot be said of all Martial Arts books.
In summation it's much more T'ai Chi magazine than Inside Kung-Fu and that's a really, really good thing.
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by William Nack
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Da Capo Press (2002-04)
ISBN: 0306811332
EAN: 9780306811333
Dewy Decimal #: 798
Paperback: 384 pages
Release Date: 2002-04-02
SKU: 103008039
Condition: Used: Acceptable
Comments: some markings...stain on block of book...creases in cover
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
In 1973, Secretariat, the greatest thoroughbred in horse-racing history, won the Triple Crown. The only horse to ever break the two-minute mark in winning the Kentucky Derby until recent winner Monarchos, Secretariat also pulled off one of the most astounding victories in the annals of horse racing by winning the Belmont Stakes by a record-breaking thirty-one lengths. Now William Nack updates his acclaimed portrait with a new afterword that examines the legacy of one of ESPN's "100 Greatest Athletes of the Century": the only horse to ever grace the covers of Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated all in the same week.
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Customer Reviews
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The Horse Who Ran History's Greatest Race
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-11-12
No one who watched Secretariat win the Belmont Stakes in 1973 will ever forget that performance. For many, it immediately stamped him as the "greatest racehorse of all time" among many. I thought the same thing, frankly, until recently when I read a book about Man o' War, who really is the best ever if you're objective about it. However, for a Triple Crown series and for one race - that Belmont - no horse ever has ever come close to accomplishing what Secretariat did that year. Secretariat's Belmont was the greastest effort in one race in history. This book will convince you of that. The chapter describing his performance in that incredible 31-length victory in record time (which still stands) is worth the price of book alone!
Along with the ups-and-downs of Secretariat's brief career, we get interesting looks at the horse's trainer, Lucien Laurin; the owner "Penny" Tweedy and the jockey, Ron Turcotte, as well as other horse racing notables of the time period.
Author William Nack does a wonderful job showing everyone's good and bad sides. Nack is considered one of the best sportswrites of his generation, so you know you're going to get a well-written book here and a worthy author to a most-worthy horse!
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A Girl Who Loves Horses
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-08-16
Thirty six years ago I was a girl who loved horses. I fell for Secretariat because he was beautiful. Over the years I have gone to the races to see horses run, because they are beautiful. Nack's book is not about beautiful horses. It is not about flowing manes and streaming tails and the loving relationship between a horse and his humans. It is about horse racing and in particular describing what made Secretariat the phenomenon he was. In clear, magazine like prose--only occasionally lyrical -- Nack covers his breeding, the unromantic coupling that produced the red horse, his gentling and training. More centrally, it covers the background of the farms and families that owned and managed the horse. The two families key to Secretariat are the Chenerys of Meadow Farm, particularly Penny Chenery Tweedy, and the Hancocks of legendary Claiborn Farm. Penny Tweedy and Seth Hancock are nearly as bred for their businesses as the horses they raised. In taking over the management of Meadow Farm, Mrs. Tweedy has to learn the economics of horse racing and take the chances that this expensive and complex industry demands -- and that Nack ably describes. It is a successful farm, but with her father's death, she must do something to raise the cash to pay the stiff inheritance taxes. The syndication of Secretariat raised a then-record breaking $6MM in four days by the nearly as inexperienced, but farmed raised, Seth Hancock. The investors bought into the 1972 Horse of the Year with a fine albeit brief one year record. They were betting that the virgin horse would race well in 1973 and earn enough in stud fees to earn a nice return on their investment.
With this understanding well in place, Nack describes in detail the races of 1973. His race descriptions combine technical detail (racing to the 12s), summaries of the competition, the jockey's strategies. The race narratives get your heart pounding and add suspense when the outcome is already known. These are the best race descriptions I have read--but I could be prejudiced, because he is describing the best running horse of -- perhaps ever. Broken down by starts and furlongs and stretches, the reader is shifted between the being in the saddle from jockey Ron Turcotte's point of view to the view from the rail, watching the entire field. These are thrilling, exciting, moving passages that educate the reader at the same time--strategies around the curve, horses bumping one another, assessing the competition in split second observations.
Nack also describes the players. Mrs. Tweedy does not show as well as her public persona suggests, much to my surprise. (Does Nack not like Mrs. Tweedy?) The Martins who trained Sham also appear badly, supporting that impression with some whining quotes. Most other figures that peopled those two years show well: the Phipps family, the Hancocks, the trainer Lucien Lurien, Ronny Turcotte, groom Eddie Sweat (who seems under served by this book), Charles Hatton, the Racing Form writer who loved Secretariat from the start and score of others who directly or peripherally were part of Secretariat's life. These are all described as a reporter would describe them, without attempts at psychological insight but through observations and extensive quotations. This is not writing for the little girl who loves horses, this is writing for the adults who people horse racing or would like to.
While Nack does not emphasize it unduly, one thing does come through for the girl who loves horses. More often than not, Secretariat ran his own races. The specific strategy was up to his jockey, but when Secretariat felt like running --and he often did -- Turcotte simply let him run, without a whip, without much encouragement at all. The Triple Crown races are deeply detailed but two of them particularly stand out. At the Preakness, early in the race, horse and jockey move from their usual last place out of the gate and circles the field in a quarter mile in a burst of speed that is amazing, stunning all by itself...and all the more stunning when the horse maintains the sprinter's pace. And the 1972 Belmont is beyond superlatives--Secretariat races the small field entirely on his own, Tucotte "sitting chilly", winning by 31 lengths, moving 'like a tremendous machine', running because he loves to run. I wanted to read the races with the book in one hand and the race clips on You Tube in front of me. Nack explains the races in a way my own observation never could, but, boy, to see that big red horse run is enough to make you cry. That is, if you are, or were, a girl who loves horses.
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Wow!
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-06-27
This is an excellent read. Heart pounding, zooming, electric excitement page after page. William Nack sure can write, here in the last paragraph of the book he describes Secretariat on the day of his arrival at Claiborne, at the end of his racing career:
"Outside the sun was down and it grew colder now by the grove of trees in the dark by the stallion barn. Leaves fell, and a faint wind strummed and turned along the trees that rose along the paddocks in the back. Then in the distance, beyond the Claiborne fields toward the home called Marchmont, the sound of a horse whinnying rose. Secretariat came to the window of his stall, and through he darkness of it you could see nothing but rims of his eyes and hear the breathing in the quiet. The sound of the whinnying rose again, and beyond that and beyond the rows of fences and the fields of grass and the salmon colored sky, beyond the stand of trees strung out along the skies of Paris, there was the sound of horses charging the bend and the crowd on its feet roaring and the announcer calling the name of a lone figure of a horse reaching and snapping, pounding in a rush at the turn for home."
Lovely, lyrical and brimming with the magic that Secretariat inspired in many hearts. An intimate, detailed and fitting testament to perfection, to the great Secretariat.
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Excellent
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-06-10
Just finished this book. The book flows very quickly and is very pleasant to read. Finished it in a couple of days, which is a testament to how readable it is. The book is also extremely informative, providing an excellent description of Secretariat's breeding, training and racing career, with the Triple Crown races being the centerpiece of the book. I enjoy horse racing and have become a huge fan of Secretariat who raced before my time. This book doesn't disappoint in the detail it provides. However what is most important to me is the degree to which I was engrossed by the narrative. Even though you know what happens in the end you find yourself lost in the story. It's definitely worth reading.
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Secretariat: The Making of a Champion
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-08-26
This is a WONDERFUL book! Received promptly. Loved every page! Thank you so much! Mia Rose Mahoney
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by Bruce Tegner, Alice McGrath
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Thor Publishing Company (1993-04-01)
ISBN: 0874070244
EAN: 9780874070248
Dewy Decimal #: 613.660240544
Paperback: 127 pages
SKU: 042208046
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: edge wear on cover...No Underlining or Highlighting...
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
SELF-DEFENSE for YOUR CHILD is a fully-illustrated, clearly explained practical course for parents and teachers of elementary school age boys and girls. The techniques are appropriate for that age level; they are easy to learn and easy to remember. They are effective without being violent.
The course is based on ancient jujitsu methods, but the ceremonial and complicated techniques have been eliminated to meet modern needs.
Assertive behavior to minimize the threat of assault is emphasized. Self-defense is viewed not as preparation to fight, but as instruction in attitudes and procedures to avoid becoming a victim of assault.
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Customer Reviews
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I read it as a child--now I'm using it with my child
Rating (5)
Date: 2001-06-09
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
I read this book as a child, and indeed, it helped me through a few scrapes. Now I'm using it to teach my child. Can't give a better recommendation than that!
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Please tell me!
Rating  (1)
Date: 2000-12-16
0 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
When is someone going to write a review for this!I want to know!
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