So we all own Supertraining and Science and Practice of Strength Training. We have all glanced at Supertraining or at least made a couple of creases in the binding. The most dedicated have stayed up late at night and tried to decipher the code. To those few, I applaud and say, “Why?” Anyway, while there is a wealth of information in those two works, there are many more books that have gone unnoticed for too long. So take a look at a few of these books. There is a lot of gold in the paper.
Children and Sports Training by Josef Drabik – I’m going to claim a little favoritism on this one. As soon as I found out that my wife was con hijo I picked this book up. Any father (or mother) should have this book and learn how and when a child develops and what characteristics they develop at certain ages. This is one of the most thorough books on training children. This is a must for any parent or anyone that coaches young children.
One of the highlights of this book is showing how a boy and girl develop differently. Also, they give age brackets in which certain sporting characteristics should be developed in order to maximize their effectiveness. There are also specific guidelines and exercises to develop coordination, strength, flexibility, speed and sporting technique.
Core Performance by Mark Verstegen – This book is being put on this book for one reason. The amazing effects it had on Dave Tate. Let me tell you a couple stories about Dave and how beat up he is. I’ve seen him barely shoulder press 95lbs when he is “healthy”, I’ve seen him barely able to ¼ squat with his bodyweight, his mobility in just about every joint in his body borderlines on him being geriatric. This is not a knock on Dave as I’m just stating facts. This has been the situation for years. Dave went to a doctor and was diagnosed with being really not mobile. This is a joke, especially the way the sentence reads, but that’s not the point. After performing several of the mobility exercises outlined in Core Performance, Dave remarkably improved his mobility. And the improvements came after only 1 week. So what did this do? He was able to squat down to a parallel box with ease. He was able to perform a full range bodyweight squat. His hip tightness and back tightness went away. He was even able to get under a squat bar with little pain in his shoulders. Anyone that knows Dave, knows that these improvements, in so short of a time period, are amazing.
Train to Win by Martin Rooney – Everyone knows Martin Rooney because of his DVD’s and his books on the 40 yard dash and the vertical jump. But his book Train to Win is probably his best work. And that is saying something as his other works are amazing. So what makes this book stand out? First, this book has 11 training principles that every coach and athlete should adhere to. These are golden rules that are simple but so effective. Second, the book is full of incredible stories that really emphasize the points that Martin is trying to make. There is one story of a young judo student that is amazing and still gives me the chills.
Bottom line: this book should be in every athlete and coaches library. In fact, this should be the first book that is purchased.
Explosive Power and Jumping Ability by Teadeusz and Henryk Sozanski, Ph.D. – This is one of my favorite books as it really focuses on explosive strength and different drills and methods to achieve it. Plus, if you read deeper into the text you will actually find out when to do some of the exercises. So this book actually has some application to it! This is by no means a beginner book so you need to have some kind of background in training to “get it”. But if you do have a basic background in strength and conditioning, then this book would be a tremendous asset.
Naim Suleymanoglu: The Pocket Hercules by Yazan Enver Turkileri - This is one of my favorite books as I have always been fascinated by the Bulgarians training system.I am not a huge fan of Olympic Weightlifting but this book was a very interesting read. This book is a complete biography of Naim Suleymanoglu who is probably best known as The Pocket Hercules. He is the Olympic Weightlifting equivalent of Michael Jordan.
While his story is interesting, it’s the training that is the best part of the book. While it doesn’t take up much of the book, there is several training principles that I believe are the key to strength success. It was these principles that I took to heart during my last meet prep cycle. If you are someone that believes that they respond to high intensities and low volume, than this kind of training schedule is what you need. The training loads and the training intensity (not perceived exertion) are insane.
This book also has quite a few full page pictures, which some may find inspiring. But I think this book, more than any other, has helped guide and verify my present theory of “Going Heavy”.