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Perfect 10: The UGA GymDogs & the Rise of Women's College Gymnastics in America
The story of the winningest women's college coach in history
- GenresNonfictionSports
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 27, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 11, 2018
The topic had great potential; the writing was painful, with nonexistent transitions, unclear organization, and repetition.
June 1, 2010
Perfect 10 is a classic example of a niche book that has been pitched optimistically at a wider audience. An autobiography of Suzanne Yoculan, the esteemed former women's gymnastics coach at the University of Georgia, the book would make a sensible addition to the university's campus store. Mediocre autobiographies with limited appeal are what self-publishing is made for!
Somewhere along the line, however, someone decided they could shill this book beyond Athens, Georgia. The addition of the byline, The UGA GymDogs & the Rise of Women's College Gymnastics in America gives the book a whole different spin. Unfortunately, this dull, poorly-structured book does not rise to the task of bringing to life the rise of college gymnastics.
Women's college gymnastics is, in fact, a fascinating beast. While most athletes compete in college and then, if they're good enough, advance to the Olympics or the national baseball/football/basketball leagues, women's college gymnastics works inversely. Since their teenage years are their prime gymnastics years, women's college gymnastic competitions are the preserve of athletes who've already reached incredibly high international standards and are now finishing out their careers.
US college women's gymnastics takes a lonely and physically taxing sport performed by teenagers with little-girl bodies and reinvents it as a team sport performed by grown women. And, in a post-Title-IX world, its meteoric rise in popularity and relevance is an interesting subject for discussion.
I mention this because, based on Perfect 10, you'd think college gymnastics was really, really boring.
I tend to think that structure is what separates good non-fiction books from bad ones. With that in mind, this book has one of the worst structures I've ever seen. For example, the chapter on Title IX (which made it illegal to financially favour men's sports over women's sports) is bewilderingly buried at the very end.
The GymDogs' 25-year history is unloaded in a style that can only be described as INFODUMP. There's no attempt to bring to life the team's championship wins and losses. Individual gymnasts are not evoked as living, breathing characters; they're just names on a page. All of this makes it just so hard to care!
What Yoculan's co-author Bill Donalson was doing during the writing of this book, I have no idea. In the acknowledgements, Yoculan thanks him for compiling the scoring stats. Gee, thanks, dude! The book is written in the exhausting style of a non-writer who has no idea how to present events and ideas with flair. Most bizarrely, the author literally copies and pastes long sections of text written by other people -- articles that appeared in newspapers and magazines, additional info given by colleagues and coachees. Do I need to point out that this is just not how you should ever write a book? (A blog post, maybe.)
GOD, THIS BOOK IS REALLY BORING. And, the sad thing is, in the hands of a talented journalist or ghostwriter, it could have been a decent read.
Somewhere along the line, however, someone decided they could shill this book beyond Athens, Georgia. The addition of the byline, The UGA GymDogs & the Rise of Women's College Gymnastics in America gives the book a whole different spin. Unfortunately, this dull, poorly-structured book does not rise to the task of bringing to life the rise of college gymnastics.
Women's college gymnastics is, in fact, a fascinating beast. While most athletes compete in college and then, if they're good enough, advance to the Olympics or the national baseball/football/basketball leagues, women's college gymnastics works inversely. Since their teenage years are their prime gymnastics years, women's college gymnastic competitions are the preserve of athletes who've already reached incredibly high international standards and are now finishing out their careers.
US college women's gymnastics takes a lonely and physically taxing sport performed by teenagers with little-girl bodies and reinvents it as a team sport performed by grown women. And, in a post-Title-IX world, its meteoric rise in popularity and relevance is an interesting subject for discussion.
I mention this because, based on Perfect 10, you'd think college gymnastics was really, really boring.
I tend to think that structure is what separates good non-fiction books from bad ones. With that in mind, this book has one of the worst structures I've ever seen. For example, the chapter on Title IX (which made it illegal to financially favour men's sports over women's sports) is bewilderingly buried at the very end.
The GymDogs' 25-year history is unloaded in a style that can only be described as INFODUMP. There's no attempt to bring to life the team's championship wins and losses. Individual gymnasts are not evoked as living, breathing characters; they're just names on a page. All of this makes it just so hard to care!
What Yoculan's co-author Bill Donalson was doing during the writing of this book, I have no idea. In the acknowledgements, Yoculan thanks him for compiling the scoring stats. Gee, thanks, dude! The book is written in the exhausting style of a non-writer who has no idea how to present events and ideas with flair. Most bizarrely, the author literally copies and pastes long sections of text written by other people -- articles that appeared in newspapers and magazines, additional info given by colleagues and coachees. Do I need to point out that this is just not how you should ever write a book? (A blog post, maybe.)
GOD, THIS BOOK IS REALLY BORING. And, the sad thing is, in the hands of a talented journalist or ghostwriter, it could have been a decent read.
December 16, 2015
Honestly, this book was a little bit confusing. Another reviewer used the term "info dump," and that is pretty much completely correct. It's a LOT of numbers, stats, and information that isn't necessarily required. The chapters don't go in any kind of order at all.
And yet... I enjoyed this book. For all its flaws, it's fascinating to get inside Yoculan's head. Her thoughts on Title IX in particular are a must read for anyone interested in women's collegiate athletics. And as a women's gymnastics coach, there are some really great tidbits on strength and conditioning, team cohesiveness, etc. that I found particularly useful.
A great book? No. A good book? Yes. A must-read for folks deeply involved in gymnastics? Absolutely.
And yet... I enjoyed this book. For all its flaws, it's fascinating to get inside Yoculan's head. Her thoughts on Title IX in particular are a must read for anyone interested in women's collegiate athletics. And as a women's gymnastics coach, there are some really great tidbits on strength and conditioning, team cohesiveness, etc. that I found particularly useful.
A great book? No. A good book? Yes. A must-read for folks deeply involved in gymnastics? Absolutely.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews