Play by Play Field Events (Play-By-Play)

Rating:
Summary: A solid, practical introduction to field events for kids
Review: For young readers who are planning on enjoying their first Olympic Games on television later this year when the best athletes in the world gather in Athens, this particular Play by Play title will help them to understand the track half of the track and field events. Actually, according to the opening chapter of this book the idea of going highest, farthest, and longest goes back to the Tailteann Games of Ireland, which predate the ancient Olympic Games by a thousand years. Kristin Wolden Nitz, whose best field event used to be the high jump, explains that field events are divided into two categories: jumping and throwing. The jumping events include the high jump, the long jump, the triple jump, and the pole value. The throwing events are the shot put, the discus throw, the hammer throw, and the javelin. These leaves all the running events for track, while the decathlon and pentathlon would cover both track and field.

While this book is of benefit to those who will watch the Olympics from the safety of their armchairs and sofas, Nitz is writing for young people who are going to go out and try these field events. The second chapter covers physical aspects such as developing speed and endurance, stretching for flexibility, and other types of training. The rest of the book is devoted to most of the events listed above (apparently the hammer and the javelin come under the "do not try this at home" category). Nitz does a nice job of breaking down each event into its specifics. For example, the long jump is broken down into the approach, the takeoff, flight, and landing, with color photographs supplied to illustrate each part. Many of the captions provide specific advice for competing in each event as well.

Throughout the book Nitz has also included sidebars on some of the great athletes in each event, such as Jesse Owens, Bob Beamon, and Carl Lewis in the long jump. Of course these are all names that we will be hearing about during the games in Athens (I am really looking forward to them because last year I traveled to Greece and was actually able to run around on both the stadia in Olympia and the site of the first modern Olympics in Athens). The final chapter talks about the Meet, showing where each of these events would take place on the field and explaining how they work. The back of the book includes a vocabulary list of Field Talk with a couple dozen key words from "approach" to "wind sprint." The result is that after reading this book I believed for a fleeting moment that I could actually go out and do these events; then I remembered that I was out of shape and that throwing a shot put would probably make my arm fall off.