It's All About The U

You may have clicked on this link hoping you were about to watch a clip of Miami Hurricanes highlights with Uncle Luke’s rap song “The U” blasting......not so much. “The U” I want to talk about has no ties to Nevin Shapiro (thank goodness). It has no palm trees or beaches, in fact it’s miles away from any large bodies of water. This U, is located in the rural Midwestern part of the United States (yes people live there), in a town known as: Ulysses, Kansas. Until moving to Ulysses, KS in 1999, the semester before I entered high school I hadn’t ever heard of it either, so don’t feel bad, but once you experience Ulysses, it’s impossible to forget.

Like most small towns, Ulysses has an immense amount of pride for its high school sports. In a way, the Ulysses high school shapes the image and community you will find in Ulysses, Kansas. For example, east of Ulysses you will find a giant orange cement "U" as you pull into town. Last spring, that U was painted pink by owners of the land on which the U sits(I don't know all the details as to why, but that's besides the point). You would have thought the town had been invaded by aliens, and I wasn't even there to experience the uproar firsthand. Countless facebook posts, letters to the Editor of the Newspaper, and Town meetings were held to discuss this painted U. The town was turned upside down. Why? Honestly, what does it matter, it's just cement, right?

Wrong! While Ulysses's identity is much more than just some orange cement U, that U represents more than the simple mind can imagine. It represents a town that had several thousands of it's only 6,000 population drive almost 5 hours to support their beloved Tigers in the football state championship in 2006. It represents a town that packs into a gym every Friday night in the winter, no matter what kind of record the basketball team has to cheer on their boys and girls. It represents memories, heartaches, lessons learned, friendships, but most importantly it represents a home, a community that people are proud of. It represents, that it really is, "All about the U."

Limits were Made to be Broken

As a child, I had several of the famous "No Fear" t-shirts. My favorite was probably the one that said "Limits were made to be Broken." Being only 9 years old when I got it, I loved the fact that around the words on the t-shirt was the image of glass being shattered. I didn't completely understand the quote, but for a 9 year old, the idea of breaking things was a dream come true.

Many of us dream of breaking barriers that have been set before us. Whether they are barriers set at work, school, in sports or wherever, the idea of breaking them is something we strive for. They are something that drive us, motivate us, and give us something to live up to.

Throughout my years of being a sports fan (my entire 27 years on this year), I have had the opportunity to see several sports records broken. I can still remember putting off my 7th grade math homework to watch Mark McGwire break Roger Maris's home run record. Then a few years later watching Barry Bonds break McGwire's record. Over the last few years we have seen several other sports records shattered by the likes of Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Drew Brees and several others.

And tonight we witnessed another "limit" broken as Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions, broke Jerry Rice's record of most receiving yards in a season, a record that had stood since 1995. While it might not seem like that big of deal, records are a part of what keep the game interesting. The record came on a night when the Lions actually lost just adding to what has been a dismal season for them, but people still watched (like my dad and myself), to be able to say they saw the record broken.

Sports can teach us and inspire us in ways we maybe never thought about. Chances are you aren't getting up early tomorrow morning to start training to break Calvin's receiving record, but maybe you can use his accomplishment as encouragement to break a limit that currently stands in your way.

What it takes to achieve your goals: Aaron Craft

We have just entered into a new year. With a new year comes new possibilities and new goals. More than likely, most of you have already made some New Year’s resolutions. Popular New Year’s resolutions usually include getting rid of a habit or changing a behavior. This might be trying to lose 20 pounds, giving up soda pop, quitting smoking, trying to exercise more and so on. But reaching some goals might include more than just giving up things that aren’t good for us, they might even require giving up things we really love.

Majority of you know the name, Aaron Craft. Craft is the point guard for the Ohio State Buckeyes college basketball team. In high school he was a very talented football and basketball player at Liberty Benton High School in Ohio. In fact, he started as a freshman as the QB on the Varsity football team & the point guard on the Varsity basketball team. During his first 3 years of high school he acquired several state awards and led both his basketball and football team to the state championship. The summer before his senior year, he committed to Ohio State to play basketball & made the tough decision to not play football his last year so he could focus on basketball. Many questioned why a 3 year starting quarterback who was one of the best in the state would give up his last year. Craft gave the following answer: “Ohio State has put their trust in me and are taking a chance on me. I have a strong desire to improve future and become the best point guard I can, I owe that to myself and to Ohio State. This requires sacrifices, dedication, effort, determination and yes, even some heartbreak, but to reach my ultimate goals this is something I have decided I have to do.” (I might add to, that Craft was the valedictorian of his senior class.)

Craft made a tough decision as a teenager, a decision that I think we can learn a lot from. Think about some of your goals you would like to achieve. Maybe you would like to become a better parent, a better employee, a better student, more reliable. To do this going to require time, effort, energy, dedication and sacrifices. It might mean helping your child with a school project when you would rather be out watching a sporting event with your buddies. Watching the sporting event isn’t a bad thing (trust me I love watching any type of sport I can) but sometimes the sacrifice is necessary to reach the goal that we have. I have learned that a lot over the last 2 and a half years being in law school. The biggest step towards reaching your goals is managing your time.

So as you look at your list of New Year’s resolutions, I encourage you to take them a step farther. Ask yourself, “what is it going to take to reach these goals?”, “What am I going to have to sacrifice to give my best effort to make my dream a reality?” Any goal you set for yourself is obtainable, but it will require action. It might even mean giving up something that you are considered to be the best in the state at, but is necessary to improve your future and make the best you that you can be.

3 Tips for Betting Baseball

Baseball is one of most misunderstood sports when it comes to betting. This misunderstanding is the reason why many find betting on baseball extremely difficult.
The main reason that makes baseball difficult to bet on is the length of the season and the number of games that are played. Each of the 30 Major League Baseball teams plays 162 games in a season. That equals 4,860 games to bet during the regular season. Then there is the playoffs and World Series.
With the number of games in a season, you must have good money management. However, money management alone will not enable you to win while betting on baseball. You need sound baseball handicapping strategies and tactics as well as proper money management to profit by betting on baseball.
Even without advanced baseball betting strategies, a bettor can be placed on the track to profitable baseball betting by following a few simple baseball betting tips.
Limit the Number of Games
With 4,860 games in a season, there are over 29,000 different bets that can be made in a season when you take in consideration of all the different bet types such as runline, moneyline, over/unders and first five innings.
Simple math tells you that you must limit your baseball bets to only your strongest plays and opinions. After all, the more baseball games you bet on means the more games that you must win to maintain a profitable winning percentage.
Many baseball bettors fall victim to betting too many games because they listen to so many opinions and place extra bets like parlays or want action on a game because it is on television. Regardless of the reason, betting too many games is an equation for losing.
To increase your odds on betting baseball and maintain a healthy betting bankroll during the baseball season, try to limit the games that you bet to only the ones that you thoroughly handicap and have a strong opinion about.
Putting Too Much Weight on the Impact of a Injured Player
In a sport like football, star players can be the difference between a win or loss. When a star quarterback, running back or cornerback goes down, the opposing team might find an advantage.
The outcome of a baseball game, however, isn't affected as much by the loss of one star player. This is because baseball is the ultimate team sport.
Public baseball bettors believe that the loss of a star player will lead to a completely different line-up and defensive games.
However, in a baseball game a player typically has only 3-6 at bats in a game. If you take that into consideration, that stud power-hitter might not decrease the run production as much as you think.
When it comes to defense, many teams have defensive specialist. Major League Baseball teams are comprised of the most talent baseball players in the world, when one player goes down, they typically have enough talent to compensate for that absence.
Though it is true that multiple injuries can affect how a team plays, the loss of one star does often doesn't affect a team as much as the public believes.
Betting on Highly Public Team
Teams like the Red Sox and Yankees are always on television. Because they are highly public teams and there is plenty of information to be found about them, many baseball bettors love to bet on these teams.
The problem with betting these highly public teams is that you are losing value in your baseball bet. Not only do these teams garner attention from the public bettors, but the oddsmakers pay closer attention to them as well. Because of this, the odds on these teams will be tighter and typically higher.
If you bet on highly public teams night in and night out, you will not be receiving the best value on your baseball bets. To find spots of real value while betting on baseball, you must diversify your teams and examine situations and pitching match-ups.

Frank Benjamin is the co-founder of the Sports Betting Academy that includes tips for betting baseball.

Baseball Uniforms - History Of Baseball Uniforms

When you enter the field, you will recognize instantly the baseball uniform of the players. Baseball uniforms are like light bulb that will illuminate right away and inform you who belongs to your team and who are the ones who belong in the rival team.
Uniforms is also worn to remind the spectators that they are there to watch and enjoy the game while the players will bravely fight in the field as it stands for the symbol emblem to their baseball uniform
Baseball players do acknowledge that they are please and proud to see that other fans wear their jerseys. Accordingly, this is one effective way to which fans expresses their support.
Actually, seeing your favorite player wearing their uniforms is a great feeling already. And for fans who wore a baseball jersey, the feeling of being united with other fans will bring more excitement as each share the pride with the whole team and other supporters.
But amidst for the identity and excitement of baseball game, have you wondered how baseball uniforms started?
Let's travel down the lane to know the history of uniforms.
Knickerbocker Baseball Club used the first recorded baseball uniform in 1849. The
Knickerbocker Baseball Club was characterized with white flannel shirt, wool pants and straw hat. It is common knowledge that this type of baseball uniform is very outdated and outmoded in comparison to today's uniforms.
Baseball uniforms are now made with synthetic materials and these materials are really produced with good quality.
Meanwhile, in 1868, another baseball team, this time the Cincinnati Red Stockings had introduced another uniform. This type of baseball uniform is more promising as it had given players the enough movement.
In 1880 up to 1890, colors and designs of uniforms were change and altered and replaced a lot.
In 1882, player's uniform became multi colored depending on the player's position. The use of stockings was the only one used to identify a teammate.
It was in 1888 - 1889, that the three major teams, Detroit and Washington from National League and Brooklyn, member team of American Association had decided to launch stripes on their uniforms.
The stripes design during this time became a short lived but since then, the team Brooklyn became known for being trendsetter in uniforms.
Brooklyn had brought back the striped uniform in 1907, 1916 and 1917, respectively. They are not also afraid in trying other materials for the uniform; they tried a satin material for their uniform.
They were also the first team in baseball history to put numbers on front panels of baseball jersey in 1952.
The evolution of baseball uniform did not stop there; a long process was involved before each team had developed the best baseball uniform for their players today.
So before you sell uniforms that you think you don't need, you have to remember that baseball uniform may have endure careful planning and long process before how it became the baseball uniform you see it today.

Article Baseball Uniforms [http://www.skyfireproducts.com/servlet/the-MLB-Baseball/Categories] is written by Cassaundra Flores, owner of skyfireproducts.com

Better Baseball Hitting

Many people seem to believe that baseball hitting at a high performance level is just some natural athletic ability that some people have while most people don't. But excellent baseball hitting requires excellent baseball training in the science and art of batting.
It's true that some natural abilities are needed in order for one to have the potential to become an excellent hitter in baseball. For instance, a .400 hitter will never be unless he's got superior eyesight, so that he's able to pick up the ball from the earliest point in the pitcher's delivery and then read the spinning of the seams in great detail. And, yes, there does need to be a natural gift for basic hand-eye coordination.
But hitting a baseball well is widely regarded as the single most difficult feat in all of professional sports, all things considered. The baseball hitter has to use a round stick to hit a round ball, and that ball is moving rapidly (sometimes VERY rapidly) over a short distance and has been thrown by someone who is intending to make that ball miss the bat. And that's all just about making CONTACT with the ball. Then there's the part where the contact is supposed to be good enough that it gives the batter's team some offense!
So, truly, there's more to batting than meets the eye when it comes to baseball hitting. Mind and body have to work in unison to achieve effective hitting results. And that's just not going to happen unless there is some excellent baseball training in hitting.
Think about it. With only rare exceptions, major league baseball pitchers, some of the greatest athletes in the world, are utterly terrible at batting. You would think that they would be some of the very best hitters because they supposedly can anticipate the pitcher better than most other players. And those of us who played little league baseball surely remember those guys who were great pitchers as well as great hitters--in fact, that seemed to go hand in hand a great deal of the time. But clearly, that's not the case in the major leagues. You see, major league pitching itself is such a demanding art that pitchers have to spend most of their practice time pitching--not taking batting practice. So, even though they may have a lot of natural talent, very few of them can be even competent big-leagues baseball hitters. Their baseball training just doesn't fall into that category.
If you notice, you'll see that most catchers aren't anything better than mediocre hitters, either, although they certainly are better than pitchers and there are some of them who are real batting champions. The baseball training of catchers, too, is more highly specialized to focus on the extremely difficult to master set of skills needed for catching.
So, excellent baseball hitting is so difficult that some of the best athletes aren't very good at it--simply because they don't get enough of the specialized baseball training that makes good hitters. Another thing to think about is that really good baseball hitting is so difficult to master that we give Most Valuable Player awards to hitters who get put out 650, 675, 700 times out of every 1,000 at bats! And if a guy makes an out even more than 700 times for every 1,000 attempts, but he can hit that ball a country mile 35 or 40 or 50 times when he DOES make contact, we may give him an MVP trophy, too!
So, what this all means for you is that there are certain baseball training techniques that are designed to make "merely" talented baseball hitters into good, or great, baseball hitters.
Baseball hitting training is designed to: improve hip and thoracic spine mobility; increase the ability to store and release bodily kinetic energy, especially by increasing the tensile power of the hips; and improve the synergy between the hips, torso, arms, bat, eye, and brain.
Using machines as well as body resistance training and a little bit of free weights, specific movement training exercises are used to improve a player's baseball hitting to take him to another level. The best batting coaches know of these various exercises. If you want to improve your baseball hitting or help your son or daughter improve theirs, research these exercises and talk to these batting instructors. They're a lot easier to find than Nolan Ryan's fastball was!

Chris Moheno has a long time passion for sports in general and for baseball coaching more specifically. His goal is to spread the word about effective non-fluff baseball training techniques for both more experienced and young baseball players, to help them perform better during the game. Discover more about baseball training on baseballtrainingsecrets.com

Improve Your Tennis Technique

Better tennis technique and strokes can make the difference between being an average player and a great player. The keys to improve your tennis technique begin with understanding the fundamentals of world class tennis strokes.
There is not much difference between a 4.0 player than a 4.5 player, other than the 4.5 player usually has better tennis technique. Tennis technique can be described as the way a person swings or uses their body to hit the shot. The way to improve tennis technique is by having a solid understanding of the fundamentals of the technique. This will allow a player to add the proper technique into his or her repertoire.
Roger Federer's Forehand is an example of a great shot. And when you watch Federer's Forehand on TV, it's astounding how he is able to create winner after winner with his forehand. This is due to none other than having proper and efficient tennis technique. So what do average players have to do to improve tennis technique?
First, watch the technique of the pros, like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova. Watch some slow motion videos of them playing tennis. Watch how Nadal's forehand shapes into the powerful bomb at contact. Watch Maria Sharapova's forehand and backhand and see how explosive and smooth it is.
Tennis Technique is one of the most important areas for any player wanting to improve. Note that all great players have proper technique and its no longer a mystery why they can produce the excellent shots they hit. So if you want to play better tennis, focus on developing tennis strokes that do not break down under pressure. Proficient tennis technique means having a stroke that is biomechanically efficient, adaptable to various conditions and explosive.
Proper forehand and backhand tennis strokes is a commonality shared by all high level players. At the pro level, most pros have flawless technique, and this allows them to hit great shots time and time again. For the recreational tennis player, they will need to spend time working on developing proper tennis technique. This may mean working on the fundamentals first and then solidifying them. With quality practice and hard work, a tennis player can be on the path to improving tennis strokes.
There are 3 areas of tennis technique and tactics to use that will allow a player to improve their tennis game:
First, positioning and preparation is vital. This is true for every stroke in tennis. On the groundstrokes, the forehand and backhand are the main areas to focus on. The forehand for example, should be initiated with a full body turn, rather than a backswing. On the backhand, the same principles apply. A backhand is not just a stroke but a dance routine in which you need to do the Twist. The backhand requires trunk mobility and if executed correctly, the ball comes off your tennis racket properly with the right pace.
The tennis technique on the forehand and backhand doesn't require great strength, just proper tennis technique that will provide the good results on every shot. Mastering the key elements of preparation on the groundstrokes will allow you to hit much better shots on a consistent basis which will make your opponent in trouble.
The second part of tennis technique is critical to reach a higher level of play. It's important to utilize your whole body to hit every shot rather than just the arm. In order to develop a true weapon, learning to incorporate the entire body into every shot will maximize the power of every hit. Tennis is unlike the sports of squash or badminton. The entire body must be incorporated into the tennis stroke, and any excessive wrist flick will lose you the game.
Position and balance together with the correct tennis technique is key, as you learn the techniques of the game you can introduce new tactics. I like to follow a key rule, the start of the rule is important. This is to "return the ball in the court" and focus on making fewer unforced errors and then that's your opponents problem. Eventually you can become smarter with more advanced technique and tactics.
The third area of tennis technique involves the tennis tactics. Tennis tactics are a essential part of the game of tennis. I like to think about tennis strategy as if I were a chess player. A good tennis tactic is to constantly make your opponent guessing and off balance, so he won't know your next shot. This will keep your opponent off balance. Tennis tactics involve how will you play the next shot. Tactics such as where do you want your next shot to be in relation to where your opponent is on the court, are examples of what it will take to win the tennis match.
Watch Nadal or Roger Federer, they do not run across the court chasing each ball without a set purpose and without a sound understanding of tennis tactics. Their technique is flawless because they run the shot selection. This is also because they do the basics excellently which is something that players at all levels should strive to do.
With lots of purposeful practice on these areas of your game, attaining the proper strokes are about quality practice and repetition. Only perfect practice makes perfect, so be certain to practice with one hundred percent intensity on each and every session. By doing so, you will be practicing the correct methods and eventually removing your old habits on the court.
So get started on the right path to play from day one. Always make sure to practice with full intensity permitting you to obtain the correct techniques sooner and rid yourself of the incorrect methods. This applies to all aspects of the game.
Learning the right technique from a certified coach will be beneficial for your tennis game, as you will improve quicker and much easier without the same trial and error.

Coach Ed is a former nationally ranked player and coach. More instruction and tips are available at Optimum Tennis
Click here to learn how to improve your Tennis Technique