Outdoor Play

The NBA has returned to prominence on the backs of phenoms like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett. The media promotes them, the shoe companies pay them, and America applauds. But how exactly do such players reach the pros? What do they give up to get there? And what happens to those who fall short?

In State of Play, 12-year Major League veteran, Emmy Award-winning MLB Network analyst, and best-selling author Bill Ripken breaks down these modern statistical methods to explain which ones make sense in the game's historical context, bringing them together with proven old-school strategies. He simplifies those sabermetric terms hastily added to the baseball lexicon without being fully realized, taking new-school confusion out of old-school baseball's tried-and-true common sense. 

Today's kids have adopted sedentary lifestyles filled with television, video games, and computer screens. But more and more, studies show that children need "rough and tumble" outdoor play in order to develop their sensory, motor, and executive functions. Disturbingly, a lack of movement has been shown to lead to a number of health and cognitive difficulties, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), emotion regulation and sensory processing issues, and aggressiveness at school recess break.

From sport's weirdest rules to its most unlikely heroes, via comically large cricket bats, pole-vaulting priests, creative football chants and exploding billiard balls, each chapter of Everything to Play For is brimming with surprising facts and intriguing stories. Even if you've never asked yourself what David Attenborough has to do with yellow tennis balls, why Victorian doctors feared the outbreak of 'bicycle face' or what led ancient Egyptian athletes to have their spleens removed, this book will give you the astonishing answers - and plenty more besides.

Many poker players can make good decisions at the table with a reasonable frequency. Nevertheless, there are numerous situations where even very experienced players behave in predictable ways. These deeply-ingrained habits lead them to make mistakes. The problem is that these situations won't often arise at the table by chance - you have to make them happen. Exploitative Play in Live Poker is a ground-breaking work that teaches you how to create the circumstances where your opponents will be likely to blunder and how to exploit them when they do.  

In The Little Book of Breaking 80, the author, a struggling amateur golfer who finally discovered the true keys to breaking 80 after more than 30 years of trial and error, blows the cover off of the hopelessly doomed conventional approach to golf improvement that keeps most golfers stuck on the endless merry-go-round of frustration and failure.

Moses and Troy Horne here. Your mental-toughness guides! We know exactly how you feel. If you are reading this, you probably have a young athlete who struggles with in-game stress and maybe even sports performance anxiety. That is why this version was mostly written by Moses. As of the time of the writing of this book, Moses Horne is a 15-year-old elite athlete who can talk directly about the triumphs and struggles of working toward being mentally tough. This is the only book that I know of with input from an actual young athlete. 

This is not a book about developing a perfect golf swing. But if you're ready to play more consistently, have more fun, and master your mental game, Wicked Smart Golf can help. When you listen to this book, you will learn how to shoot lower scores without changing your swing.

Troy Horne here. Your mental-toughness guide! I am here to help parents understand how to help your young athlete navigate this mental-toughness journey. I know where you are, and I know how to help you help your young athlete find their mental toughness. 

Play Poker Like the Pros is the perfect introduction to the world of poker, including tournaments, home games, and online play. Hellmuth begins by explaining how to set up and play the games and then moves on to basic and advanced strategies. You'll learn exactly which hands to play, when to bluff, when to raise, and when to fold. In addition, Hellmuth provides techniques for reading other players and avoiding "going on tilt" - poker speak for staying cool under pressure.

Pete Carroll is one of the most successful coaches in football today. As the head coach at USC, he brought the Trojans back to national prominence, amassing a 97-19 record over nine seasons. Now he shares the championship-winning philosophy that led USC to seven straight Pac-10 titles.

All-Star player Ben Zobrist (Tampa Bay Rays), considered one of the best all-around players in baseball, writes about the importance of his faith, life, and athletic career in Double Play. Written with his wife, Christian singer Julianna Zobrist, and MikeYorkey, best-selling author of Every Man's Battle and Linspired: The Remarkable Rise of Jeremy Lin, the audiobook gives fans a first look into the heart of an athlete whose talent and devotion to God, family, and baseball make him one of the most loveable figures in the Major League today.

Harrington on Hold 'Em takes you to the part of the game the cameras ignore - the tactics required to get through the hundreds and sometimes thousands of hands you must win to make it to the final table. Harrington's sophisticated and time-tested winning strategies, focusing on what it takes to survive the early and middle stages of a No-Limit Hold 'Em tournament, are appearing here for the first time in print. These are techniques that top players use again and again to get to make it to final tables around the globe.

The mental game of golf remains, to many players, a mystery. Its importance cannot be overstated, with PGA Tour professionals agreeing that golf is 80% mental and 20% mechanical at the highest level. Silent Mind Golf is unique in that it not only explains how the mind can work against you in detail. It also gives you the tools to improve your mental game through explanations and exercises.

In Essential Tennis, listeners—players and coaches, alike—will learn how improving at tennis actually happens and how to easily implement these lessons and integrate them into better play on the court. Players will hit stronger shots, make fewer errors, and beat players who are currently beating them. Coaches will look differently at what it means to provide a student with a holistic learning experience.

On and off the field, Jackie Robinson never backed down from a challenge. The baseball legend broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, changing the sport forever. It was eight years later that a photo of him stealing home during the 1955 World Series became one of the most famous images from his historic career. The iconic photo of his daring base running seemed to sum up the way Robinson lived his life. He acted on his own, doing what he thought was right. He took risks. He used his talents the best way he knew how. And he made baseball - and the world - a better place.

Frustrated with your golf game? Tried changing your swing and it didn’t help? Do you have a handicap that stays still at best and never goes down? Major winner Jackie Burke explains why it is an indisputable fact that if you play your natural golf game then it will be easier to improve quickly and achieve better scores more consistently. Importantly, you do not have to change the swing that you are comfortable with and invest in lessons which may or may not work. 

40 Years with a Whistle - 40 years of coaching tips woven into a touching memoir of a coach's life Dan John has been performing as an athlete for six decades. His coaches - the mentors he describes in this audiobook - steered him on the narrow path toward success in both sports and life. These coaches emphasized performance, yes...but they all also insisted on the balance of health, fitness, and longevity.

In recent decades, the NFL has simultaneously become an athletic, financial, and cultural powerhouse—and a League that can’t seem to go more than a few weeks without a scandal. Whether it’s about domestic violence, performance-enhancing drugs, racism, or head trauma, the NFL always seems to be in some kind of trouble. Yet no matter the drama, the TV networks keep showing games, the revenue keeps rising, and the viewers keep tuning in.

It may shock you to learn that we spend an average of four to seven minutes outside each day—while we spend four to seven hours using devices with screens. Needless to say, our physical, mental, emotional, and relational health has suffered. But there is a ready solution: get outside!