MACA Coach

Archive for the ‘Games’ Category

Sports come in all forms and fashions. In Japan, you can enjoy a bout of sumo wrestling, assuming that you like to watch two men, wearing loin clothes, pushing each other around a ring. In Canada, you can take in a game of curling if you like to watch large rocks sliding across a frozen lake. Every game has its place and time, and card games definitely have theirs.

The poker family of card games has enjoyed a great rise in popularity in the twenty-first century due to a couple of factors. The first factor is the rise of online poker, which allowed gambling outside of states that offer it legally. The second is the implementation of the hole-cam in televised tournaments.

A hole-cam is a camera that has been built into a poker table to show each player’s cards during the game. The camera can be situated under the table if the top is glass or a small window is built in, or it can placed in the raised bumper around the edge. If placed in the table top, each player needs to place his or her cards face-down for the camera to see them. If the camera is in the bumper, the players can hold their cards naturally. This feature has significantly increased the need for custom poker tables.

The hole-cam has allowed audiences to more thoroughly enjoy the process of poker games. The audience can see what the players are holding and can analyze their thinking, and poker tournaments have become something of a study in card and gaming psychology. The games are delayed during broadcasting so that the audience cannot communicate important information to the players or influence the outcome of the game. Likewise, commentators usually record their comments after the play is complete, also to avoid impacting the player’s choices.

Swimming with kids can be a fun, healthy activity for the whole family. And families who own pools say nothing beats the convenience and enjoyment of swimming in their own backyards—anytime, year round. But owning a pool comes with the responsibility for safety awareness, especially if children are nearby.

Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death in children in the U.S. And recent studies show that, in some states in the nation’s Sunbelt, where more families own pools, drowning is the number one cause of accidental in children under age five.

What are other key statistics regarding children’s risks and dangers when they’re around swimming pools?

• Nationwide more than 300 children under age five drown in residential swimming pools every year. More than 2,000 children in this age group are treated every year in emergency rooms for submersion-related injuries.

• Medical costs for submersion patients can start from about $2,000 for a victim who fully recovers to nearly $100,000 if the patient has brain damage. Victims with severe brain damage can require extended hospital stays (more than four months) and costs can exceed $150,000.

• A recent study by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) showed that 65 percent of children’s drowning and submersion incidents took place in a pool at the child’s house. Thirty-three percent of the incidents were in a pool at the residence of friends or relatives.

• The CPSC study showed that pool submersion incidents happen fast. Seventy-seven percent of the victims had been missing from sight less than five minutes.

• The study showed that, during most incidents, a parent was on site, but 69 percent of the children were not expected to be near the pool.

• Toddlers are most at risk, reported the CPSC study, because they are most likely to engage in unexpected behaviors. Seventy-five percent of submersion victims were between the ages of one and three. Most (65 percent) were boys.

• The victim’s welfare depends on how quickly the breathing process is restarted, said the study. Seconds matter when trying to save a child from death or brain damage

There are many different types of swimwear that are available to women on the market today. But when it comes to swimming for fitness or competition versus swimming for recreational fun, there is a big difference on what type of swim suit that should be worn.

Many styles are available to choose from in the area of swimwear for fitness with many neat patterns and colors, but there are some elements about them that are similar. First of all, the swim suits usually have a high neck so that the water resistance doesn’t drag you down. Also, the straps on the suit are crossed in the back for more stability and so that they don’t fall down when moving your arms during swimming.

Additionally, the swim suits used for fitness or competition are usually one-piece rather than two-piece. It is pretty impractical to wear a bikini or a tankini type of swimming suit when really actively swimming because they aren’t made to resist the water very well and won’t stay where you want them to when pushing off a wall or doing a turn. However, there are some two-piece swimming suits made specifically for fitness swimming that can be used that are made with a higher waist and sports-bra like top, but they do tend to be more expensive than the one-piece ones. And the one-piece swimming suits are still considered the standard and are what is worn during swimming competitions.

Some common variations occur in the different types of swimming suits. The thickness of the straps varies from style to style and really is based on personal preference. Depending if you are outside in the sun and how often you are swimming tan lines might play a role on the strap you prefer. Also, the type of material used to make the suit can differ from being polyester or nylon/lycra. Most of the swimming suits are made from nylon/lycra, but they tend to become stretched out and wear out quickly. A polyester suit might be harder to find, but they don’t wear out as fast and are great for practice.

Most people bet on sports this way: They choose a game that they think is the best, bet big on it, choose a few more that they like, bet high on those, and then bet small amounts on riskier games just for fun. Some people do the same thing online; they pick some sites they like, and use the same principal to bet on sports.

As people have found out, this is not the smartest way to bet. You end up losing too much, overall, even if you win one or two of your wagers. That is because you did not spread your bet evenly, and the percentages are not in your favor.

Sports investing is a method of doing away with this problem by betting in a much smarter way. It assumes that you are a good enough bettor to pick one or two winners. Given that you can do this, sports investing tells you to set aside a part of your available money, after taking into account bills and other living expenses, and use small, equal parts of your cash to bet on a few top games of your choice.

It doesn’t matter how you do it, most people put money on a game because they’re passionate about a particular sport, player, or team. Perhaps they’ve followed this one sport for years. They know a lot of the important stats and can rattle off who won the big games over the last decade. Having all that knowledge is great and will certainly dazzle people at cocktail parties, but why not put it to use? Translate that enthusiasm for the game into a couple of bucks. True sports fans have found this is a way to put money where their mouth is!

Every person who really loves sports knows that it can be an expensive hobby. If you like to play sports, the equipment that you need to participate can quickly add up. If you’d rather watch from the sidelines, the tickets to major events are not cheap, and then you have to add food, parking and other incidentals onto the price of the tickets. Some people aren’t that good with managing their money, and they can quickly get into trouble because watching and playing sports is costing them too much. With a prepaid card, they can only spend a set amount.

That’s just one of the options that someone can use to control his sports spending, though. There are also savings accounts, ‘rainy day’ funds like change jars, and other methods that can be used to control how much money is going out of the house for sports. If you know that a big sporting event is coming up, or you know you’re about to need a lot of specific equipment for a sport, consider budgeting for that and saving up for it. If you don’t overspend on sports, you’ll be more comfortable in the rest of the things you do, because you won’t be worried about money.

Sports are fun, and they’re great stress relievers, too. Getting exercise is always beneficial, so you don’t have to feel badly about playing sports. It’s just a good idea to make sure that you aren’t spending your entire budget on the equipment that you need. Plan ahead and take full advantage of sales at your local sporting goods stores. That way you can get what you need but you don’t have to pay nearly as much for it. It’s a big plus when you can get new sporting equipment and still pay the bills without any problem.

Although we have no early records, surely even the first humans enjoyed the health, spiritual and recreational benefits of submerging themselves in water. Our earliest visual records of swimming are Stone Age cave paintings done more than 7,000 years ago in southwest Egypt. Early written references to swimming are found in two of the oldest works of Western literature, the Greek epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer, written in 8th century B.C.

In 1696, the French writer Melchisédech Thévenot published The Art of Swimming, in which he described a breaststroke similar to the one we use today. This book was became the standard reference for swimming, and one of its many readers was a young American named Benjamin Franklin. In fact, Franklin, an avid swimmer, is credited with the invention of swimming fins. In 1708, the first known lifesaving group began in China. Early swimming clubs (primarily focused on lifesaving) were also formed in Sweden, Holland and Great Britain, and soon similar groups were established all over the world.

By 1844 swimming was well established as a competitive sport in England, but British swimmers used the breaststroke. In a swimming exhibition that year, a group of North American Indian swimmers demonstrated a speedy but unconventional technique that shocked onlookers called “totally un-European.” Europeans shunned the technique for more than 30 years until an Englishman named John Arthur Trudgen reintroduced a variant of the stroke, later known as the front crawl, to the British after he learned it from Native Americans while in South America. The stroke, then called “the Trudgen,” quickly became popular in England and around the world, revolutionizing competitive swimming.

Swimming was an event in the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens. There were three freestyle events, open only to men, and one freestyle event open only to Greek sailors. The swimming competitions were held in the cold waters of the sea (the Bay of Zea, off the Piraeus coast) because organizers were unwilling to spend money to construct an indoor pool.

Women were first allowed to compete in Olympic swimming events in the 1912 Summer Games in Stockholm. Twenty-seven female swimmers from eight nations participated. The Australian swimmer Fanny Durack, in the 100-meter freestyle, won the first gold medal in a women’s Olympic swimming event. The 1912 Summer Olympics are also notable for being the first Games in which electric timing devices were used.

In 1922, the German-American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller became the first person to swim 100 meters in under one minute, using the Australian crawl. Weissmuller, in his 10-year swimming career, won five Olympic gold medals, 52 U.S. National Championships and set 67 world records. His worldwide popularity helped spur interest in swimming as a competitive sport and recreational activity, and the 1920s are regarded as a “golden age” for the sport of swimming. Also in 1922, the American swimmer Sybil Bauer, competing in the 440-meter backstroke, became the first woman to break a men’s world record.

For swimming events at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, pool-lane dividers made of cork were introduced, as well as lines on the bottom of the pool to help orient swimmers.

New York-born Gertrude Ederle became the first female swimmer to complete the 35-mile swim across the English Channel in August 1926. Her swim began at a cape in northern France and ended 14 and a half hours later on the southeast shores of England. Her record held until 1950, when American swimmer Florence Chadwick traversed the Channel from France to England in 13 hours and 20 minutes. The following year, Chadwick crossed the Channel again, from England to France, making her the first female to swim across the Channel in both directions.

In the late 1920s the competitive swimming community began the scientific study of swimming to improve technique. University of Iowa coach David Armbruster devised the underwater observation window and began filming swimmers underwater. The Japanese also used underwater filming to study the mechanics of swimming strokes, and Japanese swimmers excelled at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, winning 12 swimming medals, the most of any country.

Accidental injury is the leading cause of death among children ages one to 14 in the U.S., according to a study by Safe Kids USA. One of the top risks for young children is drowning—and this risk is especially high if the child’s family owns a swimming pool.

Studies by safety groups have shown that at the time of most drowning incidents, a parent or a caregiver was supervising the child at the house, but the child got out of the adult’s sight—sometimes for just a few minutes.

Adult supervision is the first line of defense against children’s drowning death or injury, but the National Drowning Prevention Alliance says that “layers of protection” are vital. Swimming pool owners need several barriers to ensure the safety of children in the proximity. Another important “layer of protection” is an isolation fence that forms a barrier around the swimming pool. Studies have shown that isolation fences, used properly, can prevent up to 90 percent of drownings among children under age four.

What are the characteristics of effective isolation fences?

First, fencing around the property might keep neighbors’ kids away from the pool, but for the safety of children in the home, there must be a fence completely surrounding the swimming pool, isolating it from the house.

The fence should be at least four feet high and have no footholds or handholds a child could use for climbing. Vertical fence slats must be less than four inches apart so even a small child cannot squeeze through.

Gates must be self-closing and self-latching. Magnetically triggered latches have been shown to be the safest and most reliable because, unlike gravity latches, they do not mechanically resist closure. The latch should be high enough to be out of the reach of a child. Inspect swimming pool gates at least once a day to be sure they self-close and self-latch every time.

Never prop open the gate for any reason. Tell visitors and workers not to prop open the swimming pool gate. Many reports of toddler drownings cite a propped-open gate as a contributing factor.

Are you a swimmer who’s just taken up the sport? Are you new to lap swimming in public pools? You might be surprised to learn that lap swimmers have a generally understood “code of etiquette.” Follow these guidelines to make the most of your lap-swimming workout, to stay friendly with fellow swimmers and to avoid injuries.

Know how to choose a lane. It’s often tough, especially during peak hours, to find a lane that isn’t occupied—sometimes with several swimmers. Note the speed of the swimmers in each lane. Often there are slow, medium and fast lanes. Choose the lane with swimmers who match your speed. Enter the lane at the shallow end, preferably when no swimmers are near.

Should you “split”? If there’s only one swimmer in the lane, it’s usually OK to split the lane—meaning, both swimmers use one side. Stay on your side. It’s considered poor manners, not to mention dangerous, to hog a shared lane by swimming down the center. You risk striking, or getting struck by, another swimmer.

Or should you “circle”? If there are three or more swimmers in a lane (including you), it’s often best if all swimmers swim in a “circle.” This means that all swimmers swim up one side of the lane and back on the other side, generally in a counter-clockwise direction. With circle swimming, it’s especially important keep the same pace as other swimmers.

Know how to pass. Even if you’re swimming with others of similar speed and ability, you might need to pass, or be passed. To pass, tap the swimmer’s foot lightly once, the lap swimmer’s universal “passing signal.” If a swimmer taps your foot, stop at the wall and let the person go ahead. Don’t stop in the middle of the lane. Also, don’t speed up to prevent the swimmer from passing.

Don’t jog or walk in the lanes. It’s a pet peeve of veteran lap swimmers when people enter the lane and then walk instead of swim. Pool users who want to “aqua jog” should keep to a pool area that isn’t set aside for lap swimming.

As football season gears up, office workers, teachers, and football fans across America are lining up their picks for fantasy football. In fantasy football, each participant gets to be the owner of a team. He gets to select a roster of offensive and defensive players based on real-life professional players with the NFL or NCAA. Because the team is imaginary, an owner can pick the quarterback from the Saints and a running back from the Broncos. Once the owner establishes his team, the virtual website hosting the fantasy sport uses real-life statistics from season games to calculate points for owners. The owner who has the most points wins the league.

While there are free fantasy football sites on the Web, many people prefer to join a league with money involved. Usually, the person who wins the league wins the jackpot. The more people who join, the larger the pot. If you’re planning to place your money on the line, you’ll want to use every strategy possible to win. Consulting online sportsbooks can help you know the odds of a certain team or player doing well. Since you’re using real-life statistics, you can expect the sportsbooks to stay up to date on the odds.

You can also watch ESPN or one of the other sports channels to keep tabs on the season. During pre-season, you’ll find information from analysts and commentators speculating on the upcoming games. This can help you as you start to look for star players. You’ll also want to stay abreast of any injuries that occur during pre-season. Changes to a professional team’s roster can also affect your fantasy football odds—some players don’t work well together.

If you plan to play fantasy football and you want to win, take advantage of every resource available, whether it’s over the radio, TV, or Internet, to give yourself the best chance of obtaining your goal.