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

Rating:
Summary: The best book a wrestling coach can get their hands on.
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. It went through all the problems that can happen in a season. Even if it was Dan Gable last stand as coach the history and reputation of hawkeye wrestling will always be the one to beat. No other divison 1 coach can match what coach Gable as done for his wrestlers. And that program.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but shallow
Review: I'm a high school wrestler and avid Dan Gable fan. I could not have been more thrilled to get this book. It was a good book if you're an avid wrestling fan. The only problem was, like many people said, it was shallow and neglected to convey the emotion and the blood, sweat, and tears all these wrestlers have put in their whole lifes for this sport. It also neglected to talk much about Gable's wrestling career, just giving quick stats here and there. I think it would have been a lot better if a wrestler wrote it (Nolan Zavoral is obviously not). Other, than that it was a page turner and I finished it in about 4 days. Pretty good for a guy who had never previously read a book all the way through.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but shallow
Review: I'm a high school wrestler and avid Dan Gable fan. I could not have been more thrilled to get this book. It was a good book if you're an avid wrestling fan. The only problem was, like many people said, it was shallow and neglected to convey the emotion and the blood, sweat, and tears all these wrestlers have put in their whole lifes for this sport. It also neglected to talk much about Gable's wrestling career, just giving quick stats here and there. I think it would have been a lot better if a wrestler wrote it (Nolan Zavoral is obviously not). Other, than that it was a page turner and I finished it in about 4 days. Pretty good for a guy who had never previously read a book all the way through.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Profile of "The Ultimate Winner"
Review: No, it doesn't do Gable justice but what does? Until another profile comes out on this extraordinary coach/athlete/individual, this book will be the standard reference.

Rating:
Summary: "Simply the best"
Review: This book is a must for the hardcore wrestling fan. I am not a fan, but was won over by the dedication and intensity it takes to excel. Gable is a complex man, but he loved his kids and pushed them to do their best. I would have loved to compete for him.

Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: This book is a must for the hardcore wrestling fan. I am not a fan, but was won over by the dedication and intensity it takes to excel. Gable is a complex man, but he loved his kids and pushed them to do their best. I would have loved to compete for him.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely outstanding
Review: This book is probably the best book that I have seen on intercollegiate wrestling and its most prominent figure. It is well written and entertaining and offers some great insights into coaching athletes, and its lessons can even transcend into business management. Simply excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Inspiring
Review: This is one of the most inspiring books on wrestling I have read. When I push my self I think of how much Gable would push himself so much more and that inspires me.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing, well-written book
Review: Though I'm not a huge wrestling fan, I found this book fascinating. It's part biography and part chronicle of Gable's last championship season at Iowa. It's clear the author had incredible access, so you get a great behind-the-scenes view of the legendary Iowa program. This book also offers an intriguing look at the sport of wrestling. It's well written and moves quickly. Great reading.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat cheerless, and poorly written
Review: Though sort of a one dimensional attempt at deifying wrestling legend Dan Gable, Nolan Zovoral is a little out of his element here. He seems to be grasping at something that he either fails to grasp, or can't convey if he does. Though I was a quite successful at wrestling at a period about 4 years after Gable, and have been involved in the sport for over 25 years, this story leaves me turned off. Perhaps it's because of it's incredibly narrow path -- one I consciously selected NOT to follow. Sure, it's very interesting, up to a point, to know about Gable's life at Iowa -- but one gets the impression he really had no other life, period. Brief sketches of his family life don't tie into the theme very well, and one is introduced to his wife on a bleak winter bus trip to a wrestling match as she stares straight ahead -- apparently not in tune with the banter going on in the bus. The story (not autobiographical, as one 'critic' above has said) switches clumsily back and forth between Gable's one dimensional youth and his final year of coaching -- usually with bus ride scenarios or in the wrestling room. Gable's parents are painted narrowly, his dad drinking and his mother smoking, with ocassional fist fights breaking out between them; there doesn't seem to be much of anything in the waywidening their children's interests. We get to know his mother as she smokes and cooks meals for Gable and his Olympic training partners. I mean there must have been more family wamth than that going on!! Gable always seems to be sitting in the stands, hobbling about on crutches, or even once in awhile offering coaching advice...? Though an incredible wrestling figure, perhaps the most revered name in wrestling, one has to wonder: what's it worth? Several back, knee and hip operations (one waiting for him at the end of every very painful season) have left him a physical mess, while still under 50! Gable's coaching success has to be weighed in the balance with other, less positive aspects of his seemingly very narrow life. And wrestling readers should grasp this unspoken message as well as that which is written. The positive things about the book show what the best can do when totally focused on their goals. What is it that they do then, when these goals are obtained? Coach wrestling. This book surely does little to soften the image of wrestling. It's really suitable reading for well, wrestlers. Who else would want to run thru an entire season on a bus, in a wrestling room or in a sauna? Hell, even hardcore wrestlers get damned sick of that after awhile...