Customer Reviews

Renegade Training for Football: The Ultimate Guide to Developing Maximum Strength, Maximum Speed and Maximum Power

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Okay, I'm not a football player, or a football coach. I'm a guy who wanted a book about training. Football players are some of the best conditioned athletes - even if some of them don't look like it. I'm a regular guy who wants to be in good shape. So from that perspective:

The Good: There are many exercises to improve your agility, strength, and power. Things that can benefit anyone of any sport or sportless background.

The Bad: As someone else said, there is no guidance. In general, there is no mention of amounts of sets, reps, or how often. No recommended routines or schedules. Just an explanation of how to do the exercises and drills.

That being said, this book does serve as an "idea book" so I can incorporate new things into my workouts. If you are looking for a book with a collection of interesting exercises (though someone may say some of them are not practical) and can deal with the lack of guidance, get this if you are willing to pay the high price. ...

I have played football very competively in both high school and college and can tell you that the fooundation that Davies lays out in his book produces better results than any other workout I have seen. There are some problems with the book however. First, as everyone has stated, there is no scheduled training guideline, this requires the reader to formulate their own. Thankfully I was very experienced and could do so with no problem. But I know that not everyone else is. Another problem with the book is that Davies has no emphasis whatsoever on gaining size. And yes, ask anyone who played real football and they will tell you that speed and then size are the two most important things (acceleration x mass= force). Davies has few if any exercises for developing much mass and even alludes to size slowing one down. Big mistake for anyone who wants to play a high level of football. It is few and far in between when someone has so much muscle that they are slowed down by it, look at the professionals. So again I had to go back and address that problem as well. Lastly, these exercises are not easy to accomplish. Many require considerable experience on how to perform the lifts, though Davies does a decent job with the pictures of showing you how to perform them. I strongly recommend this book to anyone with enough experience to formulate their own routine, if not it will only give you insight into some new lifts.

I've heard nothing but great things about Coach Davies, and figured anybody hired by more than one NFL team to consult regarding their strength and conditioning programs certainly knows what they're doing. While I'm sure Coach Davies does know what he's doing, this book isn't the comprehensive guide to physical training that I thought it would be. It's more of a list of exercises and drills, which seem very useful... but without being put in the context of an overall approach to training, really didn't provide much benefit for me.

A book that did provide EVERYTHING I was looking for is "A Chance to Win" by Coach Mike Gentry. I can't speak highly enough about this book. It provided everything from the basic physiology, concepts about training cycles, different objectives during different points in the season, nutrition, motivation, etc. It also provides the requisite exercises and drills for strength, power, speed and agility development; and most importantly (for me) it provides loads of detailed, day-by-day, very specific sample training routines that combine everything for you. You want a sample workout for an advanced skill position player during the offseason? It's got a day-by-day 18 week program laid out for you. This book is comprehensive. Now, I'm a regular guy... just looking to get more out of going to gym... and this book has been fantastic. I've noticed real gains, and more importanly my knowledge about what I'm doing and why has increased dramatically. I can't recommend Coach Gentry's book enough.

Once again, I find another [...] publication not living up to the hype in other dragondoor books. The price [...] was not worth it. The book had few illustrations and and seldon corresponded to the type. A person could get very frustrated in trying to figure out how to do these few exercises. There were never enough illustrations to properly understand the exercises.Horrible - little thought went into this book just hype on how to be a great player. Dragondoor is a rip -off factory. NOT RECOMMENDED

After hearing a little about Coach Davies and his "Renegade" training for football, I decided to do a bit of research. The more I read, the more I was liked.
Coach Davies knows his stuff. His no hype approach to it all is very refreshing. But this book is not all about the exercises, it shows you how to adapt it to you, by using the Renegade creed. It shows that it's not just the exercises, but also the mental state that is required to succeed.

This book is not about taking it easy. The Renegade way is hardcore to the extreme. Coach Davies asks you to do more than you ever imagined. But do you want to increase your skill base for football (or any sport), or do you just want a book to sit on your shelf. If you buy this book, use the book and the exercises, and you will never regret it (Except perhaps after every workout!)

Coach Davies spells out every exercise with full pictures, and makes it simple enough, even us Linemen can understand it.

His book is not about how "genetic freaks" or "gifted athletes" should train. His book is for those who are determined to succeed, no matter what.

A major part of Coach Davies book is based on Integrity, Drive, Commitment and Discipline.

This book should be the cornerstone to any skills and conditioning guide for sport at any level. It is optimised for football, but I have no doubt that all athletes could benefit from this. Run faster, Jump Higher, and Learn.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in working hard to improve themselves. Do yourself a favour and buy this one!

To Quote the last line of the book
"Take Control of your Destiny. Seize and Crush every limitation before you".

I have been SO excited about this book, I have been waiting for about 2 weeks to receive it and today I finally received it.

The book promised so much and I expected a really indepth book of Renegade Training principles and experiences from this top strength coach. I was really looking forward to diving into a really meaty book of profound insights, with a couple of recommended exercises.

To my disappointment, this book has little-to-no meat at all, it has a lot of great exercises and descriptions of how to do them with pictures, but that is it. IT IS A PICTURE BOOK!!
I was expecting a LOT more reasoning and discussion around the Renegade Training Philosophy, and that is not there.

So, in conclusion, if you want a book with some absolutely brilliant exercises and how-to's of those exercises, then this book is BRILLIANT, but if you are like me, and you want a book with a lot of discussion and reasoning behind the exercises and experiences from his strength training career, then this is unfortunately NOT THE BOOK FOR YOU!!

Coach Davis' program is a real deal. Straightforward, low tech, and powerful. I especially liked the unique lateral drills and squat variations. I strongly recommend Renegade Training to athletes from most power sports.

This book promises a lot, but doesn't deliver. Its simply a compilation of exercises. Most seem reasonable and useful, but it makes this a picture book and not a training book. While exercises for the various aspects of football are provided there are no routines or program recommendations. For example in the strength training section there is no discussion of reps, sets, % max, etc. On static stretching there is no discussion of how long to hold or how many sets to do. The same applies throughout the book except for the skipping rope section. In other words, other then talk about how hard his program is, Coach Davies doesn't provide a clue as to what it is. There are much better references for training. Save your money, there isn't anything here other then pictures.

I have the same general complaint that many others did. This book is fantastic as a list of training movements, but there is no explanation of training methodology or procedure at all. I've got listings of most of the movements presented in this book in several other books I own already. I was really hoping that Davies would delve more into what factors he considers when designing routines rather than just the movements he uses. If you're a football coach looking to add some spice to your drills, get this book. If you're looking for theory on how to train a football player, you're not going to find it here unfortunately. As a big fan of Coach Davies' Renegade routines, I was really hoping for more insight into the brilliant design and I would certainly say I was disappointed when I didn't get it.

We are having great success implementing Coach Davies' ideas into our summer strength and conditioning camps. If your goals are to develop maximal speed, acceleration, power, explosive strength, agility, flexability, body awareness and good, old fashioned mental and physical toughness then this is the book for you.
Derek Alford
Garland, Texas