Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life
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Book Reviews of Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life
Book Review: Target Audience Young Adults
Summary: 4 Stars
I differ with previous reviews lamenting the brevity of the book. Obviously, adults reading the book were thinking in terms of adults. I read the book thinking about my 12-year old grandson and felt it was a perfect book to send him at this stage in his life.
This is exactly the type of book you would want to send your grandchildren or have your own children read.
It sends a powerful message and being written by someone having been coached by this person at the age of 13 makes it even more valid.
It may be short, but that's the beauty of it. It keeps your interest, gets the point across and leaves you wishing for more or better yet, offers the opportunity for discussion with young adults.
Book Review: Will leave you wanting this coach for your children!
Summary: 5 Stars
MONEYBALL by Michael Lewis was one of the best baseball
books that I have ever read . . . so when I saw the author
had another book out, COACH, I made it a point to get
and read that one too . . . and I wasn't disappointed, though
it is radically different from his earlier effort.
MONEYBALL dealt with the economics of professional
baseball as it is played today . . . COACH is the story
of the author's coach when he was in high school who now--because
he hasn't changed his approach--isn't completely understood by
his players or their parents . . . in fact, many even want to
see him replaced.
And that's a shame because as Lewis notes, [he was] "a man trying
to give boys a sense that their lives could be something other than
ordinary."
Others have that same opinion, too, including Peyton Manning who
might be the highest-paid player in pro football:
"As far as the respect and admiration I feel for the man, I couldn't put
it into words. Just incredibly strong. For me, personally, he prepared me
for so much of what I faced at the college and pro level. Unlike some
coaches--for whom it's all about winning and losing--Coach Fitz was
trying to make men out of people. I think he prepares you for life. And, if
you want my opinion, the people who are screwing up high school sports
are the parents. The parents who want their son to be the next Michael
Jordan. Or the parent who beats up the coach, or gets into a fight in the
stands. Here's a coach who is so intense. Yet he's never laid a hand
on anybody."
My only complaint about COACH is that it is quite short--only
91 pages, in fact, in a 5" x 7" format . . . it left me wanting to read
more about Lewis' high school days and how he described
them . . . such as in the following passage:
Graduating from Babe Ruth to the varsity with only the slightest physical
justification ( I now resembled less a scoop of vanilla ice cream than a
rounder Hobbit) meant coping with an out-of-control hormonal arms race.
A few of our players had sprouted sideburns; but the enemy retaliated
by growing terrifying little goatees and showing up at games with wives
and, on one shocking occasion, children. I still had no muscles, and no
facial hair, but I did have my own odor. I smelled, pretty much all the time,
like Ben-Gay. I wore the stuff on my perpetually sore right shoulder and
elbow. I wore it, also, on the bill of my cap, where Fitz had taught me
to put it, to generate the grease for a spitball that might just compensate
for my pathetic fastball. Everywhere I went that year, I emitted a vaguely
medicinal vapor; and it is the smell of Ben-Gay I associate with what
happened next.
Book Review: Good ideas - A little short and undeveloped
Summary: 3 Stars
I liked Mike Lewis' basic premise in the book, but I just thought the book was awfully short. It was more like a magazine article than a book. It was only 100 (very small) pages and a bunch of those pages were photographs. But I did agree with the basic sentiment of the importance of "battling one's way through all the easy excuses life offered for giving up" and that now we bestow self-esteem on children at birth rather than have them earn it through accomplishments attained with hard work and sacrifice. I hope that parents everywhere take an hour and read this short book.Book Review: Coach
Summary: 2 Stars
Michael Lewis has captured the lessons that many of us learned a long time ago with the old style of Coach. The kind of Coach who cared a great deal about his players but never showed it . Todays youth and their Parents cant take the 'Coaches' style anymore because it doesnt cater to their self esteem and constantly being told everything they do is ok even if it isn't! Old coaches demonstrated tough love all the time and you lived with it or you moved on! Basically you learned to grow up! Richard Farnham, former Director of Athletics at the University of Vermont 1973-2003 Book Review: Could have been so much more
Summary: 3 Stars
Moneyball was a genius book in my opinion - an examination of baseball statistics that challenges the historical significance of sacred stats such as RBI and batting average. However, it appears that Mr. Lewis was banking on the success of that book when he hurriedly put together this short memoir of a high school baseball coach that seemingly impacted his life in great ways. Mr. Lewis manages to package that nice story up in barley 70 pages.
The thought was nice, however, it very much lacked any kind of character development and real substance. Just as we get to meet his "Coach" the book is almost over.
This is a nice little read that you could get through in an hour or less, however, if you have a hearty appetite and want to sink your teeth into a meaty book, this is not for you. Skip it and read Tuesday's With Morrie.