Category Archives: sports

BOOK: “Fight Ready” by Santino DeFranco

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Fight Ready: An MMA Coach’s Guide to Losing Weight, Getting Strong, and Kicking AssFight Ready: An MMA Coach’s Guide to Losing Weight, Getting Strong, and Kicking Ass by Santino DeFranco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher site –St. Martin’s

Release Date: May 19, 2026

MMA fighter turned coach, Santino DeFranco, offers an insightful and pragmatic overview of the process of getting one’s body shipshape, including: getting sleep, dealing with injuries, strength and conditioning practices, nutrition, and more. The book attempts to be of broad appeal, not just relevant to MMA and other competitive fighters, but to athletes of other sports and non-athletes as well. It was not clear to me that the book achieves said broad appeal. One of the most fascinating and engaging chapters dealt with the process of cutting weight, an activity that applies to few outside weight-graded combative sports. (And an activity which the author, with the pragmatic approach that makes the book so useful, attempts to dissuade general readers from attempting.) The book does discuss the calories-in-and-calories-out basics of nutrition in a more generally relevant manner, as well. And there is certainly wisdom to be gleaned for the non-fighter, but, overall, I don’t know that this would be a good book to send a person toward if they were a typically unathletic person trying to lose a few pounds and be in better shape. (Though I do acknowledge a sort of aspirational motivation that a book might have for such readers, particularly UFC fans.) [And it’s completely out of my wheelhouse to know how generally applicable strength and conditioning approaches are for completely different sports, but I can’t help but have doubts.]

That said, I did come across many thought-provoking tidbits of wisdom in this book. The author is clearly one prone to look to the science and established best practices and to challenge the fad-laden fitness influencers and not dive headlong into the trend du jour. The book uses stories and anecdotes to increase the book’s readability and relatability. Here I’d say the results are mixed, but the aforementioned Tracy Cortez weight cut story is one example of when it is done very well.

If you’re curious about the training life of professional fighters and are looking for a few health and fitness concepts you might apply in your own life, I’d highly recommend this book.

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PROMPT: Favorite Sports

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Daily writing prompt
What are your favorite sports to watch and play?
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I would gladly watch free-form survival games, such as the Hunger Games or the Running Man, if such sports were actually available in my viewing area. As for playing, I like darts.

PROMPT: Sports Team

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Daily writing prompt
If you started a sports team, what would the colors and mascot be?
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The Chiaroscuro Churros. The colors would be black and white, and the mascot would be Jaime the Angry Churro, a ten foot high tasty Mexican dessert with rage issues.

BOOK: “Lucky Devils” by Kit Chellel

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Lucky Devils: The True Story of Three Rebel Gamblers Who Beat the Odds and Changed the GameLucky Devils: The True Story of Three Rebel Gamblers Who Beat the Odds and Changed the Game by Kit Chellel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site — Simon & Schuster

Release Date: April 14, 2026

This book provides a fascinating look at the field of “advantage gambling” from the 1970’s through the 1990’s / early 2000’s. Advantage gambling is the use of applied mathematics and computing to snatch up part of the advantage in odds that normally accrues to “the house” (i.e. the casino / gambling establishment) to make gambling not so much a sucker’s game. Card counting is a specific variety of this undertaking. This story is largely told through the life stories of three prominent advantage gamblers, Bill Benter, Bill Nelson, and Rob Reitzen. While the book starts with card counting in blackjack, it broadens beyond that — and even beyond the casino — into horse races and online poker.

As one reads about the activities of these gamblers, one also learns about intriguing, related subjects such as the mafia’s hand in Vegas, the development of computing technology (as it applied to gaining advantage,) and even how a younger Trump managed the challenging task of losing money through casino ownership.

If you’re interested in how smart people have tried to beat the house, and the risks that that entails, I’d highly recommend this book. I found the book compelling from start to finish.

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DAILY PHOTO: Cricketers at Maharani Laxmi Bai College

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College students playing cricket on the field in front of Maharani Laxmi Bai Arts and Commerce College in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India.

CANADA LIMERICK

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There was a hockey player from Canada
   who was entirely lacking in stamina.
      He shot like a sniper,
      but breathing was hyper,
   He got outskated by dear old grand-ma-ma.

PROMPT: Athletes

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Daily writing prompt
Name the professional athletes you respect the most and why.
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Muay Thai fighters. To survive careers spanning of hundreds of fights, taking knees and elbows, is a feat. While they might not be fighting as often these days, you still probably have to go through a period of a fight per week to raise up to the point where you can have a more sensible rest-to-fight ratio.

PROMPT: Olympic Sport

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Daily writing prompt
What Olympic sports do you enjoy watching the most?
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Curling. I don’t know why. By all logic, it should be boring as hell, but – somehow – it’s like a slow-motion train wreck, and I can’t take my eyes off it.

BOOKS: “Swimming: Made Easy” by Terry Laughlin

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Swimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Any Swimmer to Achieve Fluency, Ease, and Speed in Any StrokeSwimming Made Easy: The Total Immersion Way for Any Swimmer to Achieve Fluency, Ease, and Speed in Any Stroke by Terry Laughlin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Google Books Page

I learned a lot from this book’s emphasis on how to smooth out and lengthen one’s strokes. The author describes his approach as teaching “fishlike” swimming, and effortlessness is emphasized.

The book covers all four of the strokes one sees in competitive swimming (i.e. crawl [a.k.a. freestyle,] backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly.) For each stroke one learns how to improve balance, stroke length, and fluidness, as well as a bit about breath and coordination.

The book is presented in two parts. The first is the more theoretical bit and the second describes drills one can use to improve one’s technique. Part one is longer, more detailed, and written in more readable prose. Part two is shorter, more picture-laden, and tends to stick to bullet points. Photos are monochrome, mostly from above water level, and of varying degrees of clarity / informational value.

My biggest peeve with the book is that it frequently breaks into advertisement for other products (i.e. DVD’s [dates the book, as I’m pretty sure no one has an operational DVD player anymore] and gear.)

I’d recommend this book for readers interested in learning to swim more efficiently. The book is geared toward competitive swimmers interested in shaving time, rather than recreational swimmers who are just interested in a move pleasant experience (e.g. if one swims for fun, one will probably not be running a sequence of drills as that kind of defeats the fun of the activity.)

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PROMPT: Athletes

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Daily writing prompt
Name the professional athletes you respect the most and why.
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I generally leave admiration for professional athletes to others, as I feel — like other entertainment celebrities — they get an unhealthy level of adoration as it is.

That said, I have been impressed by grappler Mikey Musumeci for the intensity of his training regime and for finding his own way.