Backspin traces the playing career of an athlete, beginning with the rigors of college life, and continuing through nine seasons in the European leagues. It is through the author's reflections of life before college, that we get an inside look at some of the quirky characters and unexpected events that help him cope with the challenges of a sometimes lonely life far from home. Humorous, entertaining and above all inspirational, Backspin is a great read for students, athletes of all ages, a...

Every young hockey player dreams of one day playing in the NHL, of skating on a line with his hero and drinking champagne in the dressing room after winning the Stanley Cup. But kids should watch what they wish for. They may make it to the pros, like Sean Pronger, only to end up playing for sixteen teams over eleven seasons. They may end up on a team with a guy like the Great One, but skate on his line only in practice when the bona fide first-line centre has the flu. And they may end up d...

Terry Ryan was poised to take the hockey world by storm when he was selected eighth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1995 NHL draft, their highest draft pick in a decade. Expected to go on to become a hockey star, Ryan played a total of eight NHL games for the Canadiens, scoring no goals and no assists: not exactly the career he, or anyone else, was expecting.Though Terry’s NHL career wasn’t long, he experienced a lot and has no shortage of hilarious and fascinating revelat...

Hockey's most polarizing figure takes us inside the game, shedding light not only on what goes on behind closed doors, but also what makes professional athletes tick.As one of the NHL's most polarizing players, Sean Avery turned the rules of professional hockey on their head. For thirteen seasons, he played for some of the most storied franchises in the league, including the Detroit Red Wings, the Los Angeles Kings, and the New York Rangers, making his mark in each...

Pete Sampras is arguably the greatest tennis player ever, a man whose hard-nosed work ethic led to an unprecedented number one world ranking for 286 weeks, and whose prodigious talent made possible a record-setting fourteen Grand Slam titles. While his more vocal rivals sometimes grabbed the headlines, Pete always preferred to let his racket do the talking.Until now.In A Champion’s Mind, the tennis great who so often exhibited visible discomfort with letting people...

Less than 0.001% of all kids that start playing hockey will play a single game in the NHL. Those lucky enough to come close will experience a world filled with incredible highs and perilous lows. "So You Want Your Kid to Play Pro Hockey" takes the reader on a journey through the various levels of hockey to learn about politics, misconceptions, predators and hazing, drug addiction and alcohol abuse, and several other cultural intricacies.Learn about the differences between the NCAA ...

Think you know NHL tough guy Georges Laraque? Think again.Sure, Laraque knows all about the rough side of hockey. The Hockey News named him “best fighter.” Sports Illustrated called him the league’s “#1 enforcer.” Fans called him “BGL”—for Big Georges Laraque. Ottawa Senators’ pugilist Chris Neil called him “probably the toughest in the league.”Ask Laraque, though, and he’ll say that’s not who he really is.Known as a player who was unfailingly resp...

"Covering many of the biggest names and greatest events in sports, it's a wonderful collection of yarns and reminiscences, told in Perk's inimitable style" ( Postmedia News ).Dave Perkins was once told by a bluntly helpful university admissions officer: "You don't have the looks for TV or the voice for radio. You should go into print." Which he did, first at the Globe and Mail, and then for thirty-six well-travel...

In 1987, Joe Parkin was an amateur bike racer in California when he ran into Bob Roll, a pro on the powerhouse Team 7-Eleven. "Lobotomy Bob" told Parkin that, to become a pro, he must go to Belgium. Riding along a canal in Belgium years later, Roll encountered Parkin, who he saw as "a wraith, an avenging angel of misery, a twelve-toothed assassin". Roll barely recognized him. Belgium had forged Parkin into a pro bike racer, and changed him forever. A Dog in a Hat is Joe's remarkable story....

The wildly entertaining Sunday Times bestseller'This book deserves to be seeded No. 1' Daily MailFifteen years after his massive bestseller Serious, John McEnroe is back and ready to talk.Who are the game's winners and losers? What's it like playing guitar onstage with the Rolling Stones, hitting balls with today's greats, breaking bread with his former on-court nemeses, getting scammed by an international art dealer, and r...

**In a memoir as candid and unconventional as Johnny Weir himself, the three-time U.**S. National Champion figure skater who electrified the 2010 Winter Olympics shares his glamorous, gritty, heartbreaking, hopeful, and just plain fabulous life story. How does a boy from rural Pennsylvania become an all-American original style icon on the ice and off, adored by fans around the world, and hailed as “The Lady Gaga of skating” (Salon.com)? The answers are here, in his invigorating and thoroug...

Gold medal-winning Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno shares the inspiring personal story behind his enduring success as an elite athlete and reveals the universal life lessons he has learned through his training and competition.“Zero regrets. It’s a philosophy not just about sport but about life. School, business, academics, love—anything and everything. It’s complicated and yet not. You have to figure out who it is you want to be. Not what you want to be—who.