New Books: Health, Human Performance, & Recreation

In 1950, the all-white, upper-crust U.S. Lawn Tennis Association opened its door just a crack to receive a powerhouse player who would integrate "the game of royalty." The player was a street-savvy young Black woman from Harlem named Althea Gibson who was about as out-of-place in that rarefied and intolerant world as any aspiring tennis champion could be. Her tattered jeans and short-cropped hair drew stares from everyone who watched her play, but her astonishing performance on the court soon eclipsed the negative feelings being cast her way as she eventually became one of the greatest American tennis champions.

It's not all about concussions. Repetitive impacts that happen with every soccer header or football tackle can damage the brain, too. The consequences can be even worse for a child's developing brain. Stamm counters the myths, bad arguments, and propaganda around youth contact sports and offers guidance for parents of athletes and those hoping to make sports safer for everyone. Stamm, a former athlete herself, understands the many wonderful benefits that come from playing youth sports and believes all children should have the opportunity to play without the risk of long-term consequences. No athlete has to sustain hundreds of impacts and repetitive brain trauma in order to gain the benefits of sports.

When Black student Jimmy Raye enrolled at Michigan State University in 1964, he did more than just enroll in a university hundreds of miles from his native Fayetteville, N.C.: he was part of a groundbreaking movement that forever changed college football. His story, as well as his Spartan teammates' and coach Duffy Daugherty's, is told in Raye of Light--the first book to fully explain Daugherty's Underground Railroad and its impact on integration in college football. Issues of race still reverberate in college and pro football today, making the inspiring tale of Raye, Daugherty, and the rest of the 1965-1966 Michigan State Spartans even more relevant.

Fans have long touted the diverse rosters of leagues like the NFL and MLB as sterling examples of a post-racial America. Yet the role Black athletes and coaches are expected to perform still can be determined as much by stereotype and old-fashion ideology as ability and performance. Racial politics impact every aspect of every sport being played--yet the gigantic salaries and glitzy lifestyles of pro athletes often disguise the ugly truths of how minority players are treated and discarded by their White bosses. John Feinstein crisscrossed the country to secure personal interviews with quarterbacks, coaches, and more, revealing their stories.

Over 700 anatomical illustrations depict 231 exercises and variations to reveal the primary muscles involved as well as all the relevant surrounding structures, including bones, ligaments, tendons, and connective tissue. Like having an X-ray for each exercise, the anatomical depictions show both superficial and deep layers and detail how various setup positions affect muscle recruitment and emphasize underlying structures. New to this edition are stretching exercises, safety and injury callouts, and training recommendations based on body morphology.

In the twenty-first century, soccer commands the allegiance, interest, and engagement of more people in more places than any other phenomenon in the world. Goldblatt charts the sport's global cultural ascent, economic transformation, and deep politicization. With breathtaking scope and unparalleled knowledge of the game, this book explores soccer's vital role in our social, political, and economic lives: its connections to social discord in the Middle East and political division in Europe; the reasons behind its surprising surge in popularity in China, India, and the United States; and its use (and misuse) in the global advance of equality and human rights.

Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. Most famously, he won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw's New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind. But despite his awesome talent, Thorpe's life was a struggle against the odds. But for all his travails, he survived, determined to shape his own destiny.

Why is doping a perennial problem for sports? Is this solely a contemporary phenomenon? And should doping always be regarded as cheating, or do today's anti-doping measures go too far? Drawing on case studies from the early twentieth century to the present day, Doping: A Sporting History explores why the current anti-doping system looks as it does, charting its origins to the founding of the modern Olympic Games. From interwar notions of sporting purity to the postwar stimulant crisis, what seemed an easily resolvable problem soon became an impossible challenge as the pharmacology improved, the policy system stuttered, and Cold War politics allowed doping to flourish.

After three decades at the center of race and sports in America, the first Black head coach to win an NCAA championship is ready to make the private public. Thompson's book drives us through his childhood under Jim Crow segregation to our current moment of racial reckoning. We experience riding shotgun with Celtics icon Red Auerbach, and coaching NBA Hall of Famers like Patrick Ewing and Allen Iverson. How did he inspire the phrase "Hoya Paranoia"? You'll see. And thawing his historically glacial stare, Thompson brings us into his negotiation with a DC drug kingpin in his players' orbit in the 1980s.

Expanded and updated, the third edition of Yoga Anatomy details the key anatomical systems involved in the practice of yoga, including the skeletal system, muscular system, respiratory system, and nervous system. Anatomical detail and explanation are blended with yogic breathing and mindfulness to create a complete yoga practice. Chapters detail standing, sitting, kneeling, supine, prone, and arm supported poses, or asana, with extensive anatomical illustrations and pose outlines. Cueing callouts connect movement to breath and highlight key aspects of practice.