Karen M. Goeller

I gave this book 3.5 for a couple of reasons. I wanted to mark it highly because there are actually relatively few books about gymnastics past introductions for children, and hardly any that contain drills. However, this book was £10ish and I don't think it is worth that. The faults are mainly amazon's and the publisher's faults. The book looks cheap, it is simple text and whilst I have nothing wrong with that the copyright sign and website address at the bottom of each page makes it look a bit commercial and a bit spammy, like the e-books that cost £100 that you download from websites.
Another problem due to the publishers is that the text looks a bit wonky on the page and the text is small so it looks like it has been produced by a school rather than a professional publisher. A further problem is the images, they are stick men. I don't mind basic graphics, cartoons are fine, but an essential part of the drills is the direction you are facing and the stick men make it hard to figure out which way to face.
The last problem is probably amazon's fault is because I couldn't even do a bridge when I bought this book. The books says you have to perfect your handstand but just presumes you can do a bridge. However, a strong bridge is probably the most essential part of learning the other skills. So I was dissapointed I had to teach myself a bridge first without drills for that, and then the drills in this book seemed to be less effective.
I want to give this book a higher mark because it is a good book and because of the few books on drills, but I just couldn't because of the reasons above. However, I still may consider more in the series.… (mais)