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Chapters: Polish Nordic Combined Skiers, Polish Cross-Country Skiers, Polish Ski Jumpers, Adam Małysz, Justyna Kowalczyk, Stanisław Marusarz, Bronisław Czech, Kornelia Marek, Robert Mateja, Władysław Żytkowicz, Wojciech Skupień, Łukasz Rutkowski, Tomasz Pochwała, Józef Zubek, Józef Łuszczek, Marcin Bachleda, Janusz Krężelok, Kamil Stoch, Małgorzata Ruchała, Dorota Kwaśna, Rafał Śliż, Krzysztof Miętus, Wojciech Fortuna, Tadeusz Kwapień, Stanisław Karpiel, Stefan Hula, Jr., Piotr Fijas, Łukasz Kruczek, Tomisław Tajner, Władysław Czech, Franciszek Gąsienica Groń, Sylwia Jaśkowiec, Maciej Kreczmer, Paulina Maciuszek, Michał Górski, Stanisław Bobak, Stanisław Gąsienica Daniel, Michalina Maciuszek, Leopold Tajner, Bernadetta Bocek, Marian Woyna-Orlewicz, Stefan Hula, Sr., Piotr Żyła, Andrzej Krzeptowski, Antoni Łaciak, Stanisław Ustupski, Józef Bujak, Andrzej Dorula, Antoni Wieczorek, Jakub Węgrzynkiewicz, Jan Staszel, Tadeusz Zaydel, Józef Gąsienica, Paweł Słowiok, Krystian Długopolski. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 125. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Adam Maysz ( listen) (born 3 December 1977) is a Polish ski jumper born and still living in the town of Wisa in southern Poland. Maysz is considered to be one of the best and most successful ski jumpers of all time, winning 38 World Cup competitions, with only Finn Matti Nykänen having won more (46). Maysz is the only ski jumper ever to win the World Cup 4 times (equalling the result of Matti Nykänen) and 3 times in a row. He has also won the most titles in the history of the individual World Championships. Maysz's career began in 1995. For two consecutive seasons, he was moderately successful in Ski Jumping World Cup (7th and 10th in the overall standings respectively). He re-emerged in the 2000/01 season when he won the Four Hills T...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=175867 ... Read more

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PSIA Nordic Technical Manualcopyright 2005 by the American Snowsports Education Association Education Foundation, Lakewood, Colorado.108 Pages; spiral bound ... Read more

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Take the next step toward a stronger, leaner, healthier physique with Nordic Walking for Total Fitness. From selecting equipment to creating your own personalized workout, it is your complete guide to the power of Nordic walking.

In Nordic Walking for Total Fitness, Nordic walking experts Suzanne Nottingham and Alexandra Jurasin show you how to make the most of every walk. You'll learn how to choose the perfect pole, master proper form and technique, and supplement your routine for the ultimate total-body workout.

Nordic Walking for Total Fitness includes six essential workouts from short, quick walks to longer, more challenging workout excursions. You can tailor each workout to achieve your fitness goal, or you can select from a menu of sample programs developed specifically for cardio health, strength, power, flexibility, sport cross-training, and full-body fitness.

If you're ready to hit the path with power and purpose, Nordic Walking for Total Fitness is for you. It's like having a personal trainer striding alongside you every step of the way. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

An ideal pick for those who want to add more vigor to health walks
Walking is healthy exercise in itself, but throwing some technique into it can enhance it. "Nordic Walking for Total Fitness: Your Path to a Lean, Strong, and Fit Physique" is a guide to Nordic walking and its many health benefits. Outlining six workouts that one can use to enhance one's health, each with different focuses,. With plenty of tips for tweaking one's routine for better form and execution, "Nordic Walking for Total Fitness" is an ideal pick for those who want to add more vigor to health walks.

Nordic Walking for EVERYONE!
This book is ideal for the beginner to the athlete to the professional instructor.Suzanne Nottingham and Alexandra Jurasin do an excellent job of creating a progressive approach to describing Nordic walking technique, as well as all the exercises in the book.They have taken the total body approach to exercising with Nordic Walking poles and provided all the tools to build your own workout, regardless of the level.As a plus, injury prevention is addressed with each exercise.It's great to have all this information at your fingertips!This book shows that anyone who can walk, should walk with Nordic walking poles and take advantage of all the benefits!
Kendra Densmore
Fitness & Wellness Manager, UC Davis

Nordic Walking
In "Nordic Walking for Total Fitness," Suzanne Nottingham and Alexandra Jurasin have created a compelling and comprehensive guide to a variation of a fitness favorite - walking. By implementing their suggestions and tools everyone, from the novice to the athlete, can achieve a variety of levels of fitness. Unlike many fitness genres which might be isolating, expensive, and hard on the body, Nordic Walking can be a social event with friends, families, and loved ones. The authors include clothing and gear requirements, skill development, warm-up and strength exercises, and address injury prevention and rehab. As a professional in the fitness field, I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a great fitness program that can be enjoyed anywhere, anytime, and for your entire life. As an added bonus they've included easy to follow programs and advice for how to design your own programs.

Liza Forster - r.y.t
Western Regional Group Fitness Director/Plus One Health Management

Nordic walking for total fitness
I knew absolutely NOTHING about Nordic walking until I started looking through this book--it looks like a lot of fun as well as an activity that will benefit my health. The older I get the less likely I am to lace up the running shoes or hit the gym for mega-strength-building classes but investing in a pair of poles and enjoying the great outdoors while building my strength and energy levels is something I can get excited about. This book is full of great pictures, loads of information and specific "workouts" for everyone (beginner through the veteran Nordic walker). Can't wait to get started on this fun new activity/form of exercise! ... Read more

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Cross-country expertise . . . easily

Glide into an invigorating sport with this guide from true experts who show you how to have fun from your first day out and coach you all the way through the advanced skills you'd like to learn. No ordinary manual, The Essential Cross-Country Skier brings together the combined expertise of one of the country's top cross-country skiing instructors; a two-time Olympic biathlete and former Dartmouth skiing coach; and one of the sport's foremost professional writers.

This all-star team has created one of the most engaging, clear, and potent learning tools ever published for beginning and intermediate skiers. This unique, carefully illustrated guide gives you the information you need to get started: choosing the right skis, boots, and poles; where to find the best trails; what to wear for comfort and warmth; plus tips on safety.

And, if you're already familiar with nordic skiing, the book shows you how to improve your style and your conditioning; master the subtleties of waxing and ski maintenance; and enjoy new skills including ski skating, telemarking, ski racing, and backcountry touring. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Perfect for me
I am an absolute beginner at cross country and have no downhill experience. Through a stroke of good luck my second lesson was from Paul Petersen, one of the authors of this book.His ability to teach is extraordinary and his enthusiasm is contagious.Those qualities are evident in the pages of the book.It is perfect for me because I can use the book to review everything he taught.Other reviewers question the book's usefulness for the non-beginner; I don't have the expertise to comment on that, but if you are just learning this awesome sport I think this book should be required reading.

Good Beginning
I am finding this book an excellent one for someone who has been away from the sport for years, having been a novice in the past.Have just recently decided to renew this interest and the book is providing good guidelines for me.

Good for Beginners
"Essential Cross-Country Skier" is a good handbook for beginnerskiers.It is an easy read and probably what you want to get you started.

Intermediate level to elite skiers could take issue with many of thetechnical explainations, for then I would suggest "Ski "Skatingwith Champions" or "Tao of Skiing" but the then, the book"Essential Cross-Country Skier" was written by someone whoobviously loves the sport and will be enjoyed by those who want to take itup.

The Essential Cross-Country Skier:A Step-By-Step Guide
I'm a beginning cross-country skier and former Valley Girlwith no downhillexperienceand found this book to be helpful.The book covers choosing equipment, getting started and gives good tips on technique.Ihaven't purchased any other books on cross-country skiing but this oneseems to be a valuable resource. ... Read more

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With the programme in Ski Games, children can learn basic skills faster, develop more confidence, and enjoy skiing more in a carefree, non-competitive environment. The book will enable teachers or parents to teach skiing playfully and positively, develop solid skiers at young ages, teach specific skills through activities that focus on those skills, teach different age groups, and much more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great ideas for teaching kids
Lots of ideas for teaching your own kids or for ski instructors. ... Read more

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This entertaining series features fascinating quick-reference guides to all the Winter Olympic sports and events. Filled with fun facts, dramatic stories, and dynamic photographs, each book is a terrific guide to both historical and current records, as well as to the reigning Olympic champions. Have you ever wanted to fly like a bird or ski at top speed across snowy terrain? Can you imagine racing on skis across the countryside only to stop periodically to fire shots at targets at rapid-fire speed? In this book, you'll experience the excitement of Olympic ski jumping, cross country skiing, and biathlon. ... Read more

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If Long Distance begins as a storyabout the transformation of the body and what it means to challengeone's physical limits, it evolves into a thoughtful lesson about awholly different kind of endurance.Halfway through McKibben'straining, his father was diagnosed with the most virulent form ofbrain cancer. As McKibben was reaching peak condition, his father'slife lurched toward an end, forcing McKibben to snap out of hisself-inflicted self-absorption. He had tried to think of endurance as"the ability to fight through the drama of pain. But now I understoodit, too, as a kind of elegance, a lightness that could only come fromsuch deep comfort with yourself that you began to forget aboutyourself." And the elegance of Long Distance is in its ultimatelesson that each of us has a mind, a body, and a spirit, and we mustfind our strength in all three realms. --Svenja Soldovieri ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

An Exercise Self-Study
This book reports on a year-long exploration of the effects of strenuous exercise.Prior to the study described in this book, McKibben had considered himself endowed with no more than average physical ability.He was in his late-30s, in decent shape, but had never been a competitive athlete.He was curious about the natural physical limits of his body, and decided if he were ever going to discover what those limits were, he needed to act soon, before middle age took its toll.In this book, McKibben relates his experiences while training and competing in his first long distance ski races. At the same time he was monitoring the changes in his own body as he improved his physical conditioning, he was observing the rapid decline of his father's body as he succumbed to a fatal illness.

In the book, McKibben provides some interesting details about the science of athletic training, but as he discovers, the more interesting part of the journey is the spiritual aspect.From the outset, McKibben is aware that his chances of becoming a world-class athlete are practically nil, just as his father's chances of surviving brain cancer are practically zero.In such circumstances, what matters is not the final outcome, but one's attitude in facing the inevitable.The book is not meant as an athletic training guide, but rather a description of the mental conditioning one must master in order to successfully negotiate any long-term challenge.

Tear-jerker of a read
I guess they say real men don't cry, but this book really tests you. It's written from the first-person perspective about a guy's yearlong effort to get in shape through cross-country skiing, and also to enjoy his relationship with his father during the latter's long bout with terminal cancer.

Because I enjoy all kinds of outdoor activity (I cycle toured around Australia not too long ago!), I was initially attracted to the book by the sports angle. From that perspective, the book was great. Having down-hill skied since the age of 5 I'm not overly versed about the world of cross-country skiing, but the author delves into different kinds of techniques, skis, waxes, and other equipment, as well as the underlying physiology in a detailed way that shed some light on the sport that I never got riding the lifts. Additionally, I definitely enjoyed gaining greater insight into the subculture (Did you know that the major event in the sport is called the "Birkebeiner"?)

What I didn't expect at first was such an emotionally gripping book about family relations during serious illnesses. The author describes the gradual decline of his father's health, and the toll that takes on the whole family. There are some really nice passages where you recognize the moments that all of us enjoy with our families, but the not-so-fun moments are part of the reality portrayed, too. By the end, I was glad for having read this book, because it was a lot more than just a journal of a year spent skiing.

Read it whether you ski or not
Bill McKibben does a fabulous job of writing about his experience trying to be a better person. He learns, and shares with us, that it is more than just a physical challenge, its an emotional and interpersonal one as well. Beautifully written.

a mortal's perspective on endurance sport
Using a casual tone, the author allows the non-elite athlete to vicariously live the "what-if" scenario we all think of -- what if I REALLY trained...?A good, casual read that offers no answers, but plenty to think about.

For the armchair athlete; Competitors need not apply
This book is disappointing. It purports to chronicle a year of high performance endurance training for a not quite elite athlete. It also, surprisingly, chronicles his father's death from cancer. Neither topic has anything much to do with the science and psychology of world class level compeition in endurance sports. There is no training data, only anecdote; there is no bibliography, but many references to other books which sound like they are better; there are almost no racing experiences in this book - believe itor not, the author only races 8 times in a year. (Why doesn't he enter a few running races in the skiing off season or during the snow drought he whines about ad nauseam?) If nothing else, this book demonstrates that training without competitive drive equates to zero racing results. (If his point is that serious training can only augment genetic capabilities in small ways, serious athletes already know that.) This is really a personal account of the loneliness of the long distance runner - why does the author train for 2-4 hours a day if he isn't really a racer? I don't know what he is looking for, but he is never going to find it on a race course of any kind. ... Read more