Push Dick's Button: A Conversation on Skating from a Good Part of the Last Century--and a Little Tomfoolery Author: Dick Button | Language: English | ISBN:
B00HG1QLYU | Format: PDF
Push Dick's Button: A Conversation on Skating from a Good Part of the Last Century--and a Little Tomfoolery Description
Everything many of us know about figure skating, we learned from the man who’s been called the “Voice of Figure Skating.” Now Dick Button, the Emmy Award-winning skating commentator famous for his precise, passionate, opinionated rinkside analyses and for his historic career as a two-time Olympic gold medalist, five-time World Champion, and seven-time U.S. Champion (plus being the inadvertent inventor of the flying camel, the first to successfully land a double Axel in competition, and the first ever to do a triple jump) demystifies this art and sport beloved by millions.
In Push Dick’s Button, you'll learn about the difference between a Lutz and a Salchow . . . performance highs and lows . . . memorable entrances, exits, and falls (including his own) . . . costume delights and disasters . . . the new judging rules . . . and nuggets of skating training and history, PLUS stories about Katarina Witt, Peggy Fleming, Johnny Weir, Brian Boitano, Dorothy Hamill, and more, including today’s champions, such as Evgeni Plushenko, Davis and White, and the latest sensations. Droll, dishy, dramatic, and dead-on, this book is like a one-on-one conversation with the man whose unsurpassed knowledge, experience, and love of figure skating have influenced generations.
- File Size: 2224 KB
- Print Length: 256 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1494223473
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00HG1QLYU
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,793 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Winter Sports > Ice Skating & Figure Skating - #3
in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Winter Sports > Ice Skating & Figure Skating
- #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Winter Sports > Ice Skating & Figure Skating - #3
in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Winter Sports > Ice Skating & Figure Skating
This is a wonderful book, and not just for die-hard fans of figure skating, but for everyone who has ever been amused by Dick Button's colorful skating commentary. Button has understandably scaled back on that commentary in the last few years and that has been a huge loss to the sport. None of his many replacements has even come close to providing the depth, honesty, humor, and reverence for the sport that Button brought to his commentary.
This book helps to make up for that loss. It is a wonderful account of Button's involvement with sport, of the things he loves about it and the things he doesn't. It uses the conceit that the reader is actually a guest in Button's home, sitting on his couch and watching skating with him. I initially found that annoying, but as the book progressed, I found it increasingly charming. Button punctuates each reflection with a digression on food and drink (popcorn, nachos, beer, scotch...) with the result that if you read the book through in one sitting you're likely to feel you've over indulged.
There's a lot of material here on the work that went into Button's apparently effortless skating commentary. Many readers will be surprised to learn that in fact a great deal of effort went into that commentary, particularly in the beginning. That part of the book makes it a nice compliment to Skating on Air: The Broadcast History of an Olympic Marquee Sport (another must-reading for fans of figure skating).
There is just too much good material in this book for any summary of it to do it justice. You need to read it. There are Button's observations on skating itself and then there are his observations on how the sport is governed.
Push Dick's Button: A Conversation on Skating from a Good Part of the Last Century--and a Little Tomfoolery Preview
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