Overachiever's Diary: How the Army Triathlon Team Became World Contenders [Paperback]

Louis Tharp (Author), Brett Wiggins (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2007

Welcome to Army Triathlon swim training. Meet this group of overachievers and take advantage of their Overachiever's Diary, including the same proprietary online speed and efficiency assessment Cadets take to measure their improvement. Overachiever's Diary chronicles the team's triathlon swimming journey and, for the first time, all athletes can benefit from the unique style of coaching motivation, and analysis that has bee developed in real-time with this dedicated group of America's athletes. Sometimes the right combination of people come together and magic happens. This happened in the '06-'07 Army Tri season, and the magic has carried over to '07-'08 when this West Point club team, led by dedicated officers, will once again be out to surprise competitors and take the accolades that others assumed were theirs to keep. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book and other Overachiever's Diary products is allocated to the West Point Tri Team in an effort to ensure that future cadets will have the opportunity to confront the challenges, personally and as a team, that triathlons uniquely provide.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Triathlete Magazine review is available at overachieversdiary.com/publicity_triathlete.shtml
Please add the www to the beginning of the link.

Swimmer Magazine review is available at overachieversdiary.com/publicity_usmsswimmer.shtml

Please add www to the beginning of this link. --Swimmer Magazine

Active.com review is available at active.com/gear/Articles/Book-Review_-_em_Overachiever_s-Diary__em_-for-Triathletes-and-Swimmers.htm
Please add www to this link.
Thanks.
More reviews are available at overachieversdiary.com --Active.com


T DOT Triathlon review is available at tdottriathlon.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=125&Itemid=1
--T DOT Triathlon

Recovox News
recovoxnews.blogspot.com/2007/12/new-book-celebrates-overachiever.html --Recovox News

From the Author

This book was reviewed positively by every major triathlon, running and swimming publication and website. Proceeds go to the West Point Triathlon team

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Total Immersion Swimming; 1st edition (October 11, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931009120
• ISBN-13: 978-1931009126
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,587,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Louis Tharp
Executive Director, Global Healthy Living Foundation
CEO, TGI Healthworks, Inc.
Triathlon Swim Coach
Author


After running a successful international public relations, advertising, and marketing company for nearly 20 years, www.clay.com and working for some of the largest international PR and marketing agencies specializing in maritime, technology, health and dot coms, Louis Tharp became a social entrepreneur in 1999.

He co-founded and acted as venture capitalist for CreakyJoints, www.creakyjoints.org an international service organization and social media site for people with arthritis, RedPatch, www.redpatch.org, an advocacy organization for people with psoriasis, and CreakyBones, www.creakybones.org, a social networking site for people with osteoporosis which are now a part of the Global Healthy Living Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit patient advocacy an access to care organization.

GHLF and Louis Tharp are also active in eliminating fail first practices within the healthcare industry where people are forced to fail on insurer-specified medications before they can take the prescription drugs their physicians prescribe www.failfirsthurts.org.

Previously, Louis Tharp was a contract writer for The New York Times and other daily newspapers. He published his first book, The Complete Manager's Guide to Promotional Merchandise (Dow-Jones Irwin) in 1989.

TGI Healthworks -- also co-founded by Louis Tharp -- produces and executes branded, measurable grassroots education events for chronic disease patients, caregivers and healthcare providers.

In 2005, he started the TGI swim coaching division, naming elite Swiss swimmer and All American Stefan Bill as senior coach www.sbillswimming.com. The division coaches elite, fitness, and phobic swimmers of all ages.

As the swim coach for the U.S. Military Academy Triathlon Team (West Point, NY), Tharp shared his training methods in his 2007 book, Overachiever's Diary: How the Army Triathlon Team Became World Contenders, www.overachieversdiary.com published by Total Immersion www.totalimmersion.net.

An elite swimmer himself, Louis Tharp won two gold and two silver medals at the 2006 Gay Games, www.gaygames.org and two silver and two bronze medals at the 2009 Outgames www. Outgames.org in Copenhagen.

He served on the Board of Visitors for the College of Business Administration at Butler University, Indianapolis, www.butler.edu where he graduated with both a B.S. and B.A. in Journalism in 1972.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you're a swimmer, you have to have this book!, November 23, 2007

By 

Kristopher Adkins "butlerguy2006" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Overachiever's Diary: How the Army Triathlon Team Became World Contenders (Paperback)

It's a fun book to read -- all the emails from him to the team. If you're a swimmer you need to read this. It's all about the basics as well as race strategies. The basics work for pool or open water swimming. The strategy is for tri swimming. He's obviously got a great rapport with the team. He's got a great sense of humor, and he's able to really reach out and grab them emotionally before big events. There are hundreds of pics. Also, the interesting twist is that he's gay, he's out, he's coaching at West Point, and nobody cares that he's gay. It's a very interesting dynamic. This is not your usual boring swimming book -- or triathlon book for that matter. It's worth the 15 bucks.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Could have been better, could have been more..., July 6, 2008

By 

G. Soos "emanigol" (Dublin, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Overachiever's Diary: How the Army Triathlon Team Became World Contenders (Paperback)

The positives:

1, Louis Tharp appears to be an exceptionally gifted coach, writer and has a unique ability to describe and emphasize the concepts of Total Immersion. He is personable, funny, convincing and reading the book does not feel like a list of e-mails, but more of a list of "on-deck discussions". He is engaging and you truly would want to have someone like him as your coach and guide. I really loved his chapters, although a little more structure, sense of skill progression, and...well, a little more would have made this book so much better.

2, The concept is great: an e-mail/diary with tons of pictures that has the intimacy and laid back feel of a friendly advice on improvement. It has the look of a yearbook, playful and easy-going. Although, here is a possible problem: one can not make the book too specific to any particular year or team without the risk of losing the emphasis on the general concepts. The entries have a discussion, then a training practice plan.

The negatives:

1, The title: Who is the "overachiever"? There is the Army Triathlon Team, but who is achieving what over what inherent skill, genuine lack of talent or limitation? Was it the stroke, the recovery, the balance? What improved? What was overcome to overachieve? What made the difference? There are all these pictures throughout in the book, but who was really a team member and when? There is no description, introduction to any of the team members, so it leaves the expected intimacy of a diary missing. "How the army triathlon team became world contenders?" Page 213 lists 87th, 121st, 154th, 209th, 139th of overall position for respective members. I am not dismissing these as valuable results, but this does not list their swimming leg results that this whole book was supposed to address. It was a book about the swimming, right? "Diary"? There is no year listed, so we don't know if the Month and Day of the entries belongs to the year of the above mentioned race result (World Championship 2007) or not.

2, With all respect to Laurie Ferguson, PhD, whose motivational chapters appear in the book (about 15% of the volume), the value of her contribution to both the possible improvement of the reader and the team appears limited. It is hard to imagine that a multisport athlete struggles with focus, motivation and drive, requiring outside assurance and guidance.

3, It is annoying to read a book that refers to websites and links for further explanation. Even if you go to these websites, how do you find the description of the "stone skipper" drill, for example? A book should be more complete of its own.

4, Unless you are familiar with the concepts of the Total Immersion, you will be lost reading "zipper-skate", "underswitch". Some terms are never explained like "90 second rule". A short, condensed summary would have gone a long way.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for swimmers - or gay people, November 26, 2007

By 

Dan Woog (Westport, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Overachiever's Diary: How the Army Triathlon Team Became World Contenders (Paperback)

Lou Tharp is an amazing man -- and he's written a marvelous book. It doesn't fit in any particular category -- it's a swimming book, a motivational book, a memoir, a gay book, and much more. If you're interested in any aspect of the human condition -- improving one's body, fitting in to society, figuring out what makes us tick -- you'll find something of interest here. Actually, you'll find plenty of interest. You'll even find yourself interested in things you didn't know you could be interested in!