Building the Perfect Star: Changing the Trajectory of Sports and the People in Them - Hardcover

Bob Ward; With Mac Engel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0996194436 ISBN 13: 9780996194433

Publisher: Ascend Books, 2015

Synopsis

Today, it is inconceivable for a professional or even small college sports team to go without a coach designated to enhancing conditioning, strength training, and overall performance. But someone had to be first. In 1976, the Dallas Cowboys and Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Tom Landry hired Dr. Bob Ward and told him to go to work. Part of the aura of the Dallas Cowboys was to be ahead of the curve, which made hiring Ward a natural step forward. No one could have predicted that Ward would become the key figure in revolutionizing how athletes prepare and train for generations to come. Ward believed in analytics long before Moneyball made them synonymous with sports. He saw the value in computers and technology in sports before the two became linked. Born on the Fourth of July to a home of modest means, Ward is a self-made American success story who forever changed the game of football as we know it.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Bob Ward was born on the Fourth of July, the son of a World War I veteran. He came from modest means, even living with his three siblings in a sort of orphanage at the age of six. Ward became a self-made man and one of the most important players in the evolution of professional sports. A former small college All-American, Ward learned by doing. He trained. He played. He coached. Ward earned his Doctor of Physical Education from Indiana University and studied sports science at its infancy with the U.S. Olympic team. He took that education and went on to implement it with the Dallas Cowboys in the mid-1970s where he joined Tom Landry's coaching staff as the NFL's first full-time conditioning coach. While activities such as yoga, CrossFit, and martial arts are now common, Ward was already implementing these programs with pro athletes and would revolutionize the way athletes prepared and trained. Ward believed in analytics long before it became a part of sports vernacular. His ideas studying and analyzing athletes and movement completely changed the way individuals trained and prepared in sports. What strength and performance coaches, and the athletes themselves, do today to prepare can be traced back to Dr. Bob Ward.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ascend Books
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0996194436
• ISBN 13: 9780996194433
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272