Volleyball Facts
November 15th, 2007Volleyball is an Olympic sport in which two teams separated by a high net use their hands, arms, or (rarely) other parts of their bodies to hit a ball back and forth over the net.
Volleyball can be a very active sport that can be an excellent source for aerobic exercise.
It also helps players improve their hand-eye coordination and the ability to override the instinctive desire to dodge a fast-moving object such as a ball.
On February 9, 1895, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, William G. Morgan, a YMCA physical education director, created a new game called Mintonette as a pastime to be played preferably indoors and by any number of players. The game took some of its characteristics from tennis and handball.
The first rules, written down by William G. Morgan, called for a net 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 metres) high; a 25 × 50 foot (7.6 × 15.2 metre) court; and any number of players. A match was composed of 9 innings with 3 serves for each team in each inning; and no limit to the number of ball contacts for each team before sending the ball to the opponents’ court.
The game is played on volleyball courts 18 metres long and 9 metres wide, divided into two 9 x 9 metre courts by a one-metre wide net placed so that the top of the net is 2.43 metres above the centre of the court for men’s competition, and 2.24 metres for women’s competition.
Each team consists of six players, three located in front of the attack line and three behind.
When the ball contacts the floor within the court boundaries or an error is made, the team that did not make the error is awarded a point, whether they served the ball or not. The team that won the point is awarded the right to serve for the next point. If the team that won the point served the previous point, the same player serves again. If the team that won the point did not serve the previous point, the players of the team rotate their position on the court in a clockwise manner. The game continues, with the first team to score 25 points awarded the set. Matches are best-of-five sets and the fifth set is usually played to 15 points.
Travel Facts
November 15th, 2007Travel is the transport of people or things on a trip/journey or the process or time involved in a person or object moving from one location to another location.
Tourism is the act of travel for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes, and also refers to the provision of services in support of this act.
The security in travel has significantly increased since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
The world’s top tourist attraction is France, netting about %75 million visitors a year.
In the United States, California is the most popular state for tourism.
In 2004, over $54 billion dollar were spent on online travel sites such as Expedia and Orbitz. That number is projected to reach $100 billion in 2010.
The number of visits made to the UK by overseas residents in 2005 was the highest ever recorded – 30.0 million, with visitors spending a record £14.2 billion. Spending by overseas residents increased by 8 per cent in constant price terms between 1985 and 2005, and 6 per cent between 2004 and 2005.
In 2006, over 12 million passports were issued in the USA, a new record.
Track and Field Facts
November 15th, 2007Track And Field is is a collection of sports events that involve running, throwing and jumping. The name is derived from the Greek word “athlon” meaning “contest”.
Some languages refer to these sports as “light athletics” to distinguish them from “heavy athletics,” like weight lifting, wrestling, etc.
Athletics was the event at the first Olympics back in 776 BC where the only event held was the stadium-length foot race or “stade”.
The AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) was the governing body in the United States until it collapsed under pressure from advancing professionalism in the late 1970s. A new governing body called The Athletics Congress (TAC) was formed, it was later renamed USA Track and Field (USATF or USA T&F).
There are two seasons for track and field; indoor and outdoor.
The outdoor track and field season begins in the spring and may last through the summer. Usually the tracks are an oval shape track of 400 meters. However, some old tracks are still measured in yards, so they measure 440 yards.
The track consists of 6-10 lanes and, for the bigger tracks, a steeplechase lane with a water pit. This can be inside or outside the track, making for a tighter turn or a wider turn.
There are other variations besides the ones listed below but races of unusual length (e.g. 300 m) are run much less often. The unusual races are typically held during indoor season because of the shorter 200m indoor track.
Tennis Facts
November 15th, 2007Tennis is a sport played between either two players (”Singles”) or two teams of two players (”doubles”). Players use a stringed racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent’s court.
Tennis is now an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society, by all ages, and in many countries around the world. Except for the adoption of the tie-breaker in the 1970s, its rules have remained remarkably unchanged since the 1890s.
There are four types of tennis courts; clay, hard-court, grass, and indoor (wood, carpet).
Some players are more successful on certain surfaces and are known as, for instance, “clay court specialists” such as Rafael Nadal.
Grass is a fast surface and was the surface used at three of the Grand Slam tournaments until the Australian Open and the U.S. Open changed to hard-court.
The players (or teams) start on opposite sides of the net. One player is designated the server, and the opposing player, or in doubles one of the opposing players, is the receiver. Service alternates between the two halves of the court.
A tennis match usually comprises best of three sets (women’s) or best of five sets (men’s). A set consists of a number of games, and games, in turn, consist of points.
In serious play, there is an officiating chair umpire (usually referred to as the umpire), who sits in a raised chair to one side of the court. The umpire has absolute authority to make factual determinations.
Tchoukball Facts
November 15th, 2007Tchoukball is an indoor sport played on an indoor court measuring forty metres by twenty metres. At each end there is a ‘frame’ which measures one square meter and a semi-circular ‘D’ measuring three metres from the frame in all directions.
Tchoukball was developed in the 1970s by Swiss biologist Dr. Hermann Brandt, who believed that “The objective of human physical activities is not to make champions, but make a contribution to building a harmonious society.”
Each team can score on both ends on the field, and comprises twelve players, of which nine may be on the court at any one time.
In order to score a point, the ball must be thrown by an attacking player, hit the frame and bounce outside the ‘D’ without being caught by the defending team.
Physical contact is prohibited, and defenders may not attempt to intercept the attacking team’s passes. Players may take three steps with the ball, hold the ball for a maximum of three seconds, and teams may not pass the ball more than three times before shooting at the frame.
Tchoukball has come to be an international sport, played in Taiwan, Great Britain, Switzerland, Japan, Canada, the United States, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore.
A player scores a point when he bounced the ball onto any of the two trampolines and that it touches the ground outside the semi-circle facing the trampoline.
Touching the ball with one’s feet or legs is forbidden.
Table Tennis Facts
November 15th, 2007Table tennis is a sport where two or four players hit a ball back and forth to each other, with a racket on a table, in a manner similar to tennis.
Table tennis is very popular in East Asia and is the most popular sport in the world in terms of player numbers, as well as one of the newest of the major sports.
Table tennis is often called ping pong in the US.
Ball spin, speed, placement, strategy and tactics play an important part in competitive table tennis matches.
The speed of the ball can vary from slow serves with much spin to smashes that travel as fast as 112.5 kilometers per hour (69.9 miles per hour).
Table tennis requires a large enough room so that players can move freely. In international competitions, the International Table Tennis Federation requires an area not less than 14 m (46 ft) long, 7 m (23 ft) wide and 5 m (16 ft) high. The 4 corners may be covered by surrounds of not more than 1.5 m (5 ft) length.
Table tennis has its origins in England as an after dinner amusement for upper class Victorians in the 1880s. Mimicking the game of tennis in an indoor environment, everyday objects were originally enlisted to act as the equipment.
The international rules specify that the game is played with a light 2.7 gram, 40 mm (formerly 38 mm) diameter ball. The 40 mm ball was introduced at the 2003 World Table Tennis Championship. However, this created some controversy as the Chinese National Team complained that this was merely to give non-Chinese players a better chance of winning.
Strength Sports Facts
November 15th, 2007Strength sports are a wide variety of sports, in which athletes perform actions involving physical strength.
The term strongperson refers to an exhibitor of strength or circus performers of similar ilk who displayed feats of strength such as the bench press, supporting large amounts of weight held overhead at arm’s length, steel bending, chain breaking, etc.
Some examples of strength sports are weightlifting and arm wrestling.
There is no set rule about what specific events will occur in a contest, except that to prevent single-event specialists from gaining an advantage, each event will be different.
Normally, a strongman contest comprises six events, though at the top level of competition seven or eight events may be held. Among the most common events are:
Farmer’s Walk - competitors race along a course while carrying a heavy weight in each hand. A variation is the Giant Farmer’s Walk, with a much heavier weight carried over a shorter distance.
Atlas Stones - five stones of increasing weight are placed on top of podia at approximately head height. This used to form the climax of most strongman events but has been seen less in recent years.
Carry and Drag - an object (usually a heavy anchor) is run across half of the course. The competitors then must attach it to a chain of almost equal weight and pull it across the rest of the course.
Squash Facts
November 15th, 2007Squash is a racquet sports played by two players (or occasionally four players for doubles) with ’standard’ rackets in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball.
Squash historians assert that the game originated in the 19th century at Harrow School, in London, England, as a derivative of the game of Rackets.
The game generally remained the preserve of the schools and universities until the early part of the 20th century, by which time it was becoming popular in the private clubs (such as the Royal Automobile Club in London) and with officers in the British armed forces.
Students at the school who were waiting to use the rackets court supposedly began hitting a softer rubber ball against the walls of the buildings with their rackets, and from this the game was ultimately created.
The traditional ‘American’ court for the USA game, is a similar size, but narrower at 18 feet 6 inches (5640 mm). The floor and wall markings differ slightly from the ‘International’ court and the tin is lower, at 15 inches high.
‘Standard’ rackets are governed by the rules of the game. Traditionally they were made of laminated timber (typically Ash), with a small strung area using natural ‘gut’ strings.
The players usually spin a racket to decide who commences serving at the start of the match and this player starts the first rally by electing to serve from either the left or right service box.
Games are usually played to 9 points (alternatively, the receiver may opt to call ’set two’ and play to 10 when the score first reaches 8-8). Competition matches are usually played to best-of-five.
Sports Medicine Facts
November 15th, 2007Sports Medicine is an interdisciplinary subspecialty of medicine which deals with the treatment and preventive care of athletes, both amateur and professional.
The team includes specialty physicians and surgeons, Athletic trainers, physical therapists, coaches, other personnel, and, of course, the athlete.
The origins of sports medicine lie in ancient Greece and ancient Rome where physical education was a necessary aspect of youth – training and athletic contests first became a part of everyday life during these times.
Sports medicine has always been difficult to define because it is not a single specialty, but an area that involves health care professionals, researchers and educators from a wide variety of disciplines.
Its function is not only curative and rehabilitative, but also preventative, which may actually be the most important one of all.
The Sports Medicine specialist, either an Orthopedist or a Primary-care Sports Medicine specialist, is usually the leader of the sports medicine team, which also includes physician and surgeon specialists, physiologists, athletic trainers, physical therapists, coaches, other personnel, and, of course, the athlete.
While watching his daughter Louise swim at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Dr. J. C. Kennedy, a doctor based in London, Ontario, Canada concluded for a variety of reasons that competing athletic teams from Canada should be accompanied by a qualified and well organized medical team. This belief led him to be a founding father of the Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine. One of the primary mandates of this society was to provide expert care to Canadian athletes, and in 1972 Dr. Kennedy was appointed chief medical officer of the first “true” medical team, at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. Other countries soon followed this example and assigned medical teams to their own Olympic athletes.
Many believe that sports medicine will make its most significant future contributions in the area of prevention. According to Dr. David Janda, orthopaedic surgeon and director of The Institute for Preventative Medicine in Michigan, prevention is sports medicine’s final frontier. The risk of injury will never be entirely eliminated, but modifications in training techniques, equipment, sports venues and rules, based on outcomes of meaningful research have shown that it can be lowered.
Softball Facts
November 15th, 2007Softball is a team sport in which a ball, eleven to twelve inches (28 to 30.5 centimeters) in circumference, is thrown by a player called a pitcher and hit by an offensive player called a batter with a round, smooth stick called a bat.
Scoring is accomplished by the batter running and touching a series of three raised markers on the ground called bases, and then touching the final base, called home plate.
The sport’s governing body, the International Softball Federation holds world championships, held every four years, in several categories.
Fast Pitch softball is a very defensive, pitcher-oriented game. The pitcher delivers the ball at maximum speed with little to no arc. The ball is colored bright yellow.
Modified Pitch softball strikes a balance between fast and slow pitch. The speed of the pitches are limited by not allowing the pitcher to raise their arms above their shoulders.
Slow Pitch softball gives batters more dominance by making it easier for them to hit the ball. The ball type in women’s and youth competition is usually smaller and more dense than that of the fast pitch variety, making for a harder hit ball to the defense.
The playing field is divided into fair territory and foul territory. Fair territory is further divided into the infield, the outfield, and the territory beyond the outfield fence.
Located in foul territory outside both baselines are two Coach’s Boxes. Each box is behind a line 15 feet (5 meters) long located 12 feet (3 meters) from each baseline.
Hot Sports Links
Website Design Studios
Over 5000 websites developed for all business both small and large.
Vegas Edge - Free Picks
Play For Free... Call 888-393-6222
Blog Categories
- Sports Articles (23)
- Sports Facts (92)
- Sports Picks (9)
- College Football NCAA CFB (2)
- Free CFB Picks (1)
- Free Sports Picks (1)
- MLB Baseball Picks (1)
- NFL Football (1)
- NFL Football Odds (1)
- NFL Halftime Picks (1)
- Pro_Football_Picks (1)
Sports Picks Handicappers
Sal has vegas pegged and continues win at an amazing rate in college and pro football.
Michael Blake
14th year as a professional handicapper, all of our plays are independently documented.
Sean Higgs
The Money Man and hes just that, no one is documented hotter in football.
Top 10
- Watch Football Online
- Sidney Crosby Information
- Mario Lemieux
- Cricket highlight video - Indian Cricket - cricket australia
- Big Ten Football & Basketball
- Sports Jerseys, memorabilia, NHL, MLB, NFL Jerseys
- Sports Predictions
- Sports Handicappers Websites
- Football Bowl Game Resource
- Basketball Coaching – In Search Of Excellence
NFL Football Sports Picks
Yahoo Sports
- Texas rallies past Ohio State 24-21 in Fiesta (AP)
- Nuggets: Anthony has 'probable' fracture in hand (AP)
- Report: Patriots to put franchise tag on Cassel (AP)
- AP Source: Bradley, Cubs agree to $30M, 3-yr deal (AP)
- L.T. could be sidelined Sunday by 'tough' injury (AP)
- Bucs' Morris latest candidate meet with Broncos (AP)
- J.R. Smith facing traffic charges from fatal crash (AP)
- Scioscia set for extended stay in charge of Angels (Reuters)
- Villanueva magic enough to see off valiant Spartans (AFP)
- Oilers beat Islanders 3-2 (AP)
