Extreme Sports

Explorers of the Infinite: The Secret Spiritual Lives of Extreme Athletes-and What They Reveal About Near-Death Experiences, Psychic Communication, and Touching the Beyond

Real-life psychic, near-death, and paranormal experiences are combined with cutting-edge science and vivid adventure stories in this energetic look at why extreme athletes and mountaineers take the risks that allow them to push the limits of consciousness, and what they encounter there.

In the life-or-death world of extreme adventure sports, there is one thing that athletes often keep quiet about: the “forbidden” territory of paranormal experiences. Ranging from fleeting moments of transcendence to full-blown encounters with ghosts and everything in between—visions, near-death experiences, psychic communication—many extreme athletes have experienced these moments of connection with the beyond, but have been reluctant to talk about them.

In Explorers of the Infinite, award-winning outdoors journalist and lifelong adventure sports devotee Maria Coffey probes the mystical and paranormal experiences of mountaineers, snowboarders, surfers, and more. She reviews cutting-edge science, and consults the history of philosophy and spirituality to answer the question: Could the state of intense “aliveness” that is the allure of extreme sports for so many actually be a route to a connection with the beyond?

Coffey investigates the scientific explanations for mystical phenomena, ranging from simple explanations to theories from consciousness studies and quantum physics, and leaves us wondering where science ends and spirituality begins.

An energetic, you-are-there look at the spiritual lives of extreme athletes, Explorers of the Infinite asks why extreme athletes take the risks that allow them to push the limits of consciousness, what they encounter there, and what we can learn from them.

Fit to Fight: An Insanely Effective Strength and Conditioning Program for the Ultimate MMAWarrior

The ultimate strength and conditioning book for ultimate fighters.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is America's fastest-growing combat sport, with millions signing up for MMA classes and many more tuning in to "pay-per-view" to watch events with names like "Cage Rage" and "No Limit." MMA is not for wimps, and participants take a real pounding-they must be ready for anything. However, there is one way to predict a winner in any bout: conditioning. When facing an opponent with equal technical skill, the better-conditioned athlete will win- every match, every round, every time.

Now, with amateur fight leagues springing up across the country, top conditioning coach Jason Ferruggia reveals the ultimate conditioning program for the ultimate fighter. By gaining overall strength, stamina, speed, and flexibility, athletes can substantially reduce their risk of injury in this intense contact sport.

The key to Ferruggia's system is his emphasis on matspecific conditioning techniques. Too many would-be fighters use training programs borrowed from football or bodybuilding-methods that are all wrong for MMA. Included are:

- A first-rate warm-up guaranteed to make a fighter more explosive and to reduce injuries
- Off-the-charts strength-building secrets
- Dozens of exercises to develop crushing grip strength - Top speed-building methods, including Olympic lifts, plyometrics, and throws
- Incredibly effective exercises for building a thick, powerful neck that could be the difference between victory and serious injury

Each exercise is accompanied by black-and-white photos illustrating proper technique and form, and "Inside the Cage" tips share the secrets to success from top professional fighters.

One Helluva Ride: How NASCAR Swept the Nation

From its raw beginnings on Southern dirt tracks, NASCAR smacked of a slightly depraved spectacle, as if nothing but trouble could come from the unbridled locomotion of a V8 engine. By the time NASCAR roared into the twenty-first century, it had grown into a billion-dollar sports and marketing colossus, its races attended by hundreds of thousands of fans on any given weekend from mid-February through mid-November, watched on television by the second-largest viewing audience in sports, and bankrolled by the marketing largesse of the Fortune 500’s elite.

One Helluva Ride, a full-throttle account of the rise and reign of NASCAR nation, is award-winning motorsports reporter Liz Clarke’s chronicle of how stock car racing exploded from regional obsession to national phenomenon. In covering the sport for more than fifteen years, Clarke has developed a strong rapport with NASCAR’s drivers, team owners, and hard-core fans. Through her reporting and analysis, we get to know the public and private sides of NASCAR’s most iconic figures, including seven-time champion Richard Petty, who set the standard for treating fans with respect, and the late Dale Earnhardt, whose brazen, bullying tactics wreaked havoc on the track, but whose heart was as big as Daytona’s infield.

The sports world stopped in its tracks the day Earnhardt was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Some feared that NASCAR’s soul would die with him. But it has raced on, steered by visionary promoters, the all-controlling France family (who founded the sport), and, above all, the next generation of drivers to stir fans’ passions: Dale Earnhardt, Jr., son of the NASCAR legend and now, like his father before him, the circuit’s most popular driver; Jeff Gordon, the beloved but oft-maligned outsider, bred from the cradle to be NASCAR’s winningest modern champion; and Kasey Kahne, a reluctant heartthrob whose confidence derives entirely from an accelerator pedal. Clarke also brings us inside NASCAR’s most triumphant and tragic dynasties: the Pettys, the Earnhardts, and the Allisons–and reveals how faith, family, and a deep-seated love of their sport helps them cope with grief and loss.

Clarke shows NASCAR to be at a crossroads. In pursuit of a broader audience, NASCAR has severed its sponsorship ties to Big Tobacco, abandoned racetracks in small markets in favor of speedways near glitzy major cities, and welcomed Japan’s Toyota into a sport traditionally restricted to American-made sedans. As NASCAR races toward mass appeal, some suggest it is leaving its roots behind. To others, it is boldly extending its reach from the Southern workingman to every man, woman, and child in the world.

Whether you’re one of the die-hard NASCAR faithful or just a casual follower, nobody brings you closer to the sport and business of big-time stock car racing than Liz Clarke. This book, like the phenomenon it profiles, really is One Helluva Ride.

Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You'd Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking

Crushing your enemies, driving them before you, and hearing the lamentations of their women? It doesn't get any better than this." –Eugene Robinson, ripping off John Milius

That's the sentiment that surges just below the surface of Eugene Robinson's Fight – an engrossing, intimate look into the all–absorbing world of fighting. Robinson – a former body–builder, one–time bouncer, and lifelong fight connoisseur – takes readers on a no–holds–barred plunge into what fighting is all about, and what fighters live for. If George Plimpton had muscles and had been choked out one too many times––this is the book he could have written.

When Robinson and his fellow fighters mix it up, they live completely for the moment: absorbed in the feel of muscles slippery with sweat; the metallic tang of blood mingling with saliva in the mouth; the sweet, firm thud of taped knuckles impacting flesh. They fight because it feels good. They fight because they want to win. And even if they get their asses kicked, they fight because they love fighting.

Fight is part encyclopedia, part panegyric to fighting in all its forms and glory. Robinson's narrative – told in his trademark tough–guy, stream–of–consciousness noir voice – punctuates this explanatory compendium of the fighting world. From wrestling, jiu–jitsu, boxing and muay thai to bar fighting, hand–to–hand combat, prison fighting and hockey fights, from the greatest movie fight scenes to how to throw the perfect left hook, Fight is a scene–by–scene tour of the bloody but beautiful underworld that is the art of fighting.

With his aficionado's enthusiasm and fast–paced, addictive voice, Robinson's Fight combines compelling text with beautiful photographs to create an illustrated book as edgy and interesting as it is gorgeous.

Paintball and Airsoft Battle Tactics

Thrasher Skate and Destroy: The First 25 Years of Thrasher Magazine (High Speed Productions)

In January 1981, a group of San Francisco skateboarders put together the first issue of Thrasher magazine. Today, Thrasher is bigger and better than ever—its name synonymous with both skateboarding's roots and constant evolution. Marking Thrasher's anniversary, this jam-packed retrospective recounts skateboarding's twists and turns of the last two decades and offers a glimpse at its thriving future. New and old school skaters alike will love Thrasher: Skate and Destroy. Not only does it cover the first twenty-five years of the magazine, reprinting the best of the original columns—"Photograffiti," "Zounds," "Trash," among others—but it will feature unpublished photos, rejected covers, interview outtakes, and detailed profiles. Action-packed photos capture legendary skaters such as: Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Andrew Reynolds, Tony Alva, Mike Carroll, and Lance Mountain.The definitive guide to the history and development of skateboarding, no other book will take you as close to the risk taking, bone breaking world of what has since become the world's fastest growing extreme sport. With an emphasis on the current trends that will especially appeal to today's hundreds of thousands of skaters, this will be the skateboarding bible for fans of all ages and levels. Like the tattoos carved into the arms of skaters worldwide, Thrasher is forever. This one's gonna be gnarly!

Extreme Running

Whitewater Kayaking: The Ultimate Guide

Whitewater Kayaking is the most comprehensive and valuable book about the sport. It draws on the combined 30+ years experience of world-renowned paddlers and instructors, Ken Whiting and Kevin Varette, and covers everything from the most basic skills and concepts to the most advanced, cutting edge paddling techniques.

Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu: Revolutionizing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Roller Derby: The History and All-Girl Revival of the Greatest Sport on Wheels

Scores of American women are leading double lives. By day they are librarians, financial analysts, bartenders, teachers, and even mothers; by night their athletic alter egos assume their authority with monikers such as Helen Wheels, Dirty Britches, Anna Mosity, and Assaultin' Pepa. They lace up their skates, slide into racy racing uniforms, and adorn a full set of protective gear. One of America's greatest sports is back-roller derby.

In Roller Derby, readers will encounter roller derby in its various incarnations, from the original Depression-era games through the days of Roller Jam to its current revival.

What started as a dance-a-thon-style test of endurance has evolved into a unique sport that exemplifies point-scoring, body-checking, speed, blood, punches, and miles and miles of personality and style. Punctuated throughout the book are derby vignettes: stories from old-school and new-school girls, the process of selecting a derby name and style, the artistic element to logos and uniforms, so-gruesome-you-just-have-to-look injuries, what's legal during a bout and-more importantly-what's not, and much more.

Encircling the story of roller derby are vintage promo paraphernalia and histori-cal photographs, as well as stunning, full-color and black-and-white, modern-day shots of the women, the bouts, and the sport.