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A SEASON ON THE MAT: DAN GABLE AND THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION

A SEASON ON THE MAT: DAN GABLE AND THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION

List Price: $18.95
Your Price: $18.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Simply the best"
Review: "A Season on the Mat" is simply the best book about the greatest wrestler and coach ever to grace the the mat. You will lose yourself as you read about Gable's struggles in pursuing yet another NCAA title. Read about how Gable sucked up the pain for one final season and set an example for the 1996 Hawks. Buying this book is the best way a fan can remember DG's final year on the sidelines.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An inspirational book showing REAL work of REAL wrestling
Review: An excellent summary of a tough year for the great Iowa Hawkeyes. A tough loss to the Oklahoma Cowboys at the NCAA Duals could have given the Hawks a vision of their future, but they overcame the pressure. Gable led his team to a NCAA Championship after a third seed. Gable's Hawkeyes not only won the tournament, but came away with 5 champions, the highest point total in NCAA history, and the greatest win margin to date. A great inspirational book for any wrestler who needs to see the way champions deal with setbacks

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a great look inside the wrestling room and lockerroom.
Review: As a former wrestler and now a coach, the book gave a great look at the behind the scence of Iowa wrestling. the book shed some light on some of the rumors of the program. it also gave you a look at Dan who everyone wants to know about.I know most of the names and people in the book and remeber most to the event that the book looks at both past and present.Iwould recomend this book for any wrestling fan or wrestler.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, not great
Review: As an ex-wrestler turned journalist (and someone who has interviewed Dan Gable), Zavoral's book is a decent look into Gable and the Iowa program. However, the writer at times tries to be bigger than his subject(s) using silly similies(describing Lincoln McIlravy's wrestling style as a man probing an ear or corn) and far flung analogies. The book also lacks logic in some areas, but does a good job of explaining the nuances of amateur wrestling to the uninitiated -- which is no easy task. Typos are also pretty prevalent, but that's the editor's job to catch it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This Gable guy seems to know wrestling
Review: Exellent book for all wrestling fans

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: best wrestling book i have ever seen
Review: gives a great look into a sucessful college wrestling program and what it takes to be a great team, a great wrestler and a great coach.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great coverage of a wrestling season.
Review: I am a wrestler and this book went into detail about all a coach and his wrestlers go through in a season. In this case the coach is the legendary Dan Gable. Great autobiography.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A good read, not great
Review: I could not have been more excited to read this book. I'm fascinated by wrestling, the lore that surrounds it and the legend of Dan Gable. I only wish there was more access to coverage of wrestling. As such, I enjoyed the book for what it was - a sort of play-by-play review of the season. The book did not, however, give any sort of insight or analysis of any real depth into the culture of wrestling, or the effects of the absolute sacrifice made by its participants. No real effort was made to fully characterize the wrestlers (or even Dan Gable for that matter), and they remained somewhat thin (no pun intended) throughout the book. I came away thinking "Wrestling at Iowa sounds tough" - I should have been lead to shake my head in wonder at the trip to hell and back that such a season must be.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Didn't do wrestling and Gable justice
Review: I enjoyed this book because I am a die hard wrestling fan. It is so hard to find any book about the REAL sport of amateur wrestling, and so I devoured every word. However, I agree with others who write that "something" was missing. I think that that is because the author must not really grasp the nature of the sport as he certainly did not capture nor convey its essence, intensity or the spirit of the legendary coach. The writers lack of ardor coupled with lack of understanding for the passion involved within the wrestling family is what led , I believe, to the "flatness" of his account. I could have done better!!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Book was both great & mediocre
Review: I grew a Dan Gable fan (as did any other Iowa kid who touched the mat in the last 30 years). I have studied much about him. This author did a great job in two areas: 1)analyzing the murder of his sister and the implications for the Gable family. Very detailed (such as Dan told his father who probably (and Dan was right)killed his sister on the ride back to Waterloo and that his father struck him for not telling him sooner. 2) Dan's only collegiate loss to Larry Owings. In depth and probing. You feel some of the pain Dan was bearing.

However, the author was very weak on his ability to convey the wrestling spirit during the Hawks tremendous season. At times it was liking reading a $2 romance novel.

Overall, this would have been a better book if it was just a Dan Gable biograghy.

It should be noted that Dan was not happy about a lot that was in the book. It exposed alot of his (and his Parents)flaws. Dan has an enormous ego and has been treated with kid gloves by reporters and authors up until this point. I doubt the author would have been given this much access if Dan knew that the dirty laundry was going to get mixed in.

Anyway, with the lack of books on Dan Gable/wrestling - this is a must read.


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