Van der Sar won European football’s biggest club prize as a 24-year-old when he helped Ajax defeat AC Milan in Vienna in 1995.

A year later he reached the final again but experienced the bitter taste of defeat when his Dutch club lost on penalties to Juventus in Rome.

June 16—Early entry withdrawal deadline.

June 19—Last possible date of NBA finals.

June 26—NBA draft, New York.

July 1—Teams can begin negotiating with free agents.

July 9—Teams can begin signing free agents.

Blake and Odesnik lifted the United States to a Red Group round-robin victory Monday over the Czech Republic by rallying past Tomas Berdych and Ivo Minar, 0-6, 7-5, 10-8.

The win came one day after Blake dug the Americans an early hole with a straight-sets singles loss to Berdych. Odesnik followed with an easy win over Minar, setting up a 1-1 deadlock heading into Monday’s doubles match.

Blake and Odesnik were sluggish in the opening set against the Czechs, who capitalized on two double-faults and held the Americans to just eight points.

But after breaking the Czechs three times in the second set, the Americans persevered in the third-set marathon, clinching the victory with a winning return.

Sweden takes on Argentina in Monday’s other Red Group action.

Robin Soderling defeated Guillermo Canas in straight sets Sunday to give the Swedes the early lead. But Juan Ignacio Chela cruised past Thomas Johansson to forge a 1-1 draw.

Aaron Garcia was 40-of-48 for 389 yards and 10 touchdowns for the Dragons (6-5). Chris Anthony had 14 receptions for 136 yards and two touchdowns, and Kevin Swayne added 14 catches for 127 yards and four touchdowns.

From worldwide brands known the world over like Koonga, Adidas, and Puma to name a few, this range of rugby equipment is produced with exceptional quality and craftsmanship in mind. If it is training aids you require, you will find a wide range of rugby sport gears, like hoops, reaction balls, and water bottles. Moreover, rugby gloves are offered here as well, as these are as important as the rest of the other types of equipment. Gloves protect the player’s hands and allow him for better ball grip during any grueling game. Head guards are essential too, for in the game of rugby, things could get quite physical and punishing. Being well-equipped for a rugby match cannot be discounted and must therefore be made a priority.

If you are looking for top notch manufacturers of rugby gears, look no further. You can find everything you need in playing rugby whether as a hobby or as a profession. From clothing to socks, accessories to training aids, and body protection to rugby balls, you can easily browse through them according to brand, and even according to game levels as sub categories. Get the best rugby equipment in one comprehensive site that delivers only superior product quality at amazingly attractive deals!

While the latest sellout crowd roared its approval, they stayed on the court for almost a half-hour to celebrate the moment.

David West scored 32 points and Chris Paul had 12 during a decisive run in the third quarter as the Hornets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 114-92 on Tuesday night. New Orleans will have the No. 2 seed in the playoffs in the rugged Western Conference after the Los Angeles Lakers won later Tuesday night.

Three seasons after going 18-64, the Hornets clinched the rugged Southwest division, which has four 50-win teams.

“A lot of people had us not even getting in the playoffs,” New Orleans center Tyson Chandler said. “I don’t think any of us believed that. We all believed that we’re one of the better teams in the conference. If you win this division it says a lot about the team because this is the best division in basketball.”

Two days after his quest for a Grand Slam fizzled at the Masters, Woods had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee for the second time in five years and will miss at least four weeks while he recovers.

The announcement, which Woods made Tuesday night on his Web site, was a surprise to everyone except those around him.

“He’s been having a lot of trouble,” swing coach Hank Haney said. “He doesn’t talk about stuff like that. He doesn’t want to use excuses, you know? I don’t think it affected his play. It affected his practice a little bit.”

The surgery was performed in Park City, Utah, by Thomas Rosenberg, who also operated on Woods’ left knee in December 2002. Woods also had surgery in 1994 on his left knee to remove a benign tumor.

“I made the decision to deal with the pain and schedule the surgery for after the Masters,” Woods said on his Web site. “The upside is that I have been through this process before and know how to handle it. I look forward to working through the rehabilitation process and getting back to action as quickly as I can.”

Pau Gasol had 22 points, leading MVP candidate Kobe Bryant added 20, and the Lakers beat the short-handed Sacramento Kings 124-101 Tuesday night to clinch the No. 1 seed in the West and home-court advantage throughout the conference playoffs.

“I told the guys to celebrate, have a good time for two days,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “We’re back to business Thursday.”

The Lakers (57-25) begin the playoffs this weekend—most likely Sunday— against Denver or Dallas. It will be the Nuggets unless they beat Memphis and Dallas loses to No. 2 seed New Orleans on Wednesday night. If the Hornets win, they’ll have the same record as the Lakers, but Los Angeles wins the tiebreaker because of a better conference record.

The Lakers enter the playoffs having gone 8-1 to finish the regular season.

“It’s all about momentum,” Bryant said. “You want to be playing your best basketball going into the playoffs, and we feel like we’re doing that so we ended the season exactly where we wanted to.”

1) Your body needs fuel and energy so instead of cutting the amount of calories you eat, adjust what kind of calories you intake. If you try to cut the amount of food you take in while on any kind of exercise program your body will not only eat your fat reserves but will start to cut into your muscle mass. A good formula to keep in mind is try to get half your calories from carbohydrates by eating lots of fruits and grain foods. Also make sure to eat your share of protein and even good fat which your body needs to stay healthy.

2) Before you start your run, or any other exercise program, be sure to warm up with stretching exercises. Failing to stretch properly can result in cramps and other more serious injuries like torn or sprained muscles. It is normal that you will feel sore and tired when you first start to run but after a time it will get easier. If you get a serious injury, don’t try to run through the pain, take a few days off to recover or see a doctor or physician.

3) If your just starting your running program be sure to start slow. Ease into the program by starting with long walk or short jogs. Find a short route that leads you around your neighborhood and as you get better and are able to go farther, increase the distance of the route. Running can help you lose weight and burn calories, as well as build energy and just make you feel good about yourself. ]]> http://www.sportsn.info/2008/03/16/running-to-lose-weight-three-quick-tips-to-follow/feed/ http://www.sportsn.info/2008/02/09/you-can-always-get-better-at-golf/ http://www.sportsn.info/2008/02/09/you-can-always-get-better-at-golf/#comments Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:04:40 +0000 Bradley Sports News http://www.sportsn.info/2008/02/09/you-can-always-get-better-at-golf/ Golf has now evolved to be a sport for anyone. Before, only the elite were considered to be aficionados of this sport, but with its popularity gaining momentum, more people are driven into this challenging sport diversion. As a result more golf fans are enrolling themselves in golf schools. An excellent golf school should be able to provide a comprehensive set of lessons for both novices and advanced learners.

Golf schools are headed by professional golf teachers who know the ins and outs of the sport. These expert coaches will be able to teach you the right swing angles, how to control your swings, provide excellent golfing equipment, and also teach you fitness training needed in the golfing sport.

However, if you plan on having a long term golf career, enrolling yourself in a reputable golf college should be a better option. Golf schools are ideal when you want to improve in the game, while a golf college is more suitable if you would rather explore the other careers possible in the golf sport, like golf teaching and instruction, golf business management, golf equipment sales and marketing and the like.

Achieving a lucrative golf career is possible when you have a passion for it and the perseverance to be better everyday. Like anything else, you can also strive to improve at this rewarding sport and gain success. If you want golf to be both a hobby and a career, then why not opt for a pleasurable and profitable golf career.

Discovering your perfect swing will most likely require you to work on two distinct points of your golfing abilities… you’ll need to learn to improve your focus, and also to be able to get the most out of club head lag. If you aren’t sure what’s meant by improving your focus or even what club head lag is, don’t worry; a large number of golfers are in the same boat. All will be explained, and for now all that you really need to understand about these two factors is that learning more about them and incorporating them into your game will result in straighter shots, longer drives, and a noticeable reduction in strokes.

The Role of Focus

Your focus isn’t just making sure that your next stroke is lined up just right… it also affects everything from how you take wind resistance into account to the angle at which the club head strikes the ball. The more focused you are on your stroke; the less likely you are to become distracted or accidentally hit the ball ever-so-slightly in the wrong direction. Proper focus allows you to learn from your smallest mistakes, and makes sure that you are aware of every slight motion that you might make which would affect your stroke. Once you learn to focus properly in your golf game then you’ll be able to make the small adjustments necessary to perfect your swing.

Improving Your Focus

The key to improving your focus is patience. Take the time to work through every piece of your swing before you allow the club to touch the ball. Practice your swing over and over, considering everything from the way that you grip the club to the precise motions of your arm as you transition from your back-swing to ball contact to your follow-through. When at the driving range, allow your focus to shift from your swing to the ball so that you can pick up on subtle hooks and slices that your swing might be causing. It can take a lot of work to improve your focus, but in time you’ll be able to recognize tiny changes in your swing and be able to figure out what you can to do correct them. The end result of focus training will be straighter drives and much more ball control for increased accuracy.

Defining Club Head Lag

The other major influencing factor in developing your perfect swing is club head lag, which is how far behind your swing the head of the club is actually traveling. Think about your standard stroke… do you make contact with the ball at the exact moment that your arms line up with it, or is the club tilted at a slight angle so that the head strikes the ball just slightly after your arms pass the tee? This brief lag is what you want to have in your swing; it allows you to convey a bit more power into your stroke, as your arms are entering into your follow-through when the club head strikes and you’re at the peak of your momentum. Even a slight bit of lag can cause a dramatic increase in the power of your golf swing.

Developing Club Head Lag

Club head lag can require some practice to develop effectively, as it’s created by a combination of the angle that your hands are holding the club at and the way that the club bends as you apply pressure to it with your swing. The more consistent your grip is and the more constant the force of your strokes are, then the more likely you’re going to be to be able to produce the sort of lag that you want. You don’t want to try and add extra force with your hands or to flick your wrist at the last moment, as this actually will defeat your lag and can add loft to your strokes; just work on maintaining a steady swing so that your acceleration is constant and that your hands are arriving to the peak of your swing before the head of the club. You can practice your lag by trying to hit balls low instead of simply working on a long drive… a well-lagged stroke will keep the ball relatively low to the ground, but at the same time will impart a lot more power into the ball which will result in a much longer drive. Just like with learning focus, developing proper lag may take a lot of work but the end result will be a significant improvement in your game.

Creating Your Perfect Swing

By now, you should be starting to realize exactly how focus and lag can be combined to help you create the perfect golf swing for your particular play style. Once you’ve begun learning how to focus on every aspect of your stroke, then you’ll be getting an idea of how you can affect your lag you’re creating. You may start to realize the little adjustments that need to be made in order to increase your lag, and over time you’ll get a good feeling for exactly how much lag you need to get the maximum distance out of your strokes. Before you know it, you’ll be able to surpass some of your previous drives without even making use of a driver. Your distances off of the tee will be some of the longest that you’ve ever had.

It’s important that you keep in mind, however, that there’s a significant difference between a stroke that’s better than what you used to do and one that really is the perfect swing for you. As you start to notice an improvement in your performance on the course, you need to make sure that you keep practicing and working on improving both your focus and your club head lag. So long as you continue to work at it, you will more than likely continue noticing ways that you can change your swing in order to improve lag and get even better distances and control out of your strokes. The real secret comes in realizing that your perfect swing is constantly a work in progress… so long as you continue to study it and work toward making improvements, and then you’re always going to be inching even further beyond what you dreamed.

Visit The Golfaholic for information and reviews on all the latest golf equipment and while your there check out our free golf tips. http://www.thegolfaholic.com

Olympic hockey has come a long way since it was included in the Antwerp games back in 1920.

In 1879 rules were set down for an organized game at McGill University in Montreal. It began to spread around the area and by the 1890s it had been picked up by the US interests. The first known organized hockey game took place between Johns Hopkins and Yale Universities in the winter of 1895.

The first winter Olympic hockey games took place in the 1924 games in Chamonix, France. The first women’s games were held in Nagano, Japan in 1998. Women compete in an eight team tournament whereas the men compete in a twelve team series.

The rules are quite simple for the game. A team may not have more than six players on the ice at any one time, but can have less while players are in the penalty box. The on ice team consists of a goalie, two defenders, two wingmen and one centre. The goalie may be replaced by a skater during a delayed penalty ( when the referee or linesman sights an infraction he raises his arm to indicate a penalty is coming. As soon as the offending team touch the puck the whistle is blown and the penalty is called) for the offending team will not be allowed to score during the delay.

A regular Olympic hockey game consists of three 20 minute periods with a 15 minute rest in between. In case of a tie at the end of the third period, a five minute intermission will take place and then a sudden death period of overtime is played. If the game is still tied after that period, a shoot out takes place to determine a winner. The shootout will feature the best 3 out of 5 shots to go in the net.

Skates

The players must wear solidly built ice skates. The boots are made of many layers of material with padding in just the right places. They must cushion the foot but not allow it to move inside. Ankle support is extremely important as the players who may over 200 pounds must change direction instantly by throwing their weight into the turns causing tremendous stress on the skates and ankles.

The blades must be kept very sharp for good control. Certainly before every game and sometimes within the game itself, if a player is not happy with their performance.

Sticks

Up until recently the Olympic hockey sticks were made by combining a blade of wood into a wooden handle by gluing the joints together. The player wrapped the blade with tape to hold it solid and to assist in shooting the puck. This was the way most sticks were made for many years. The blade had a slight bevel on one side or the other for players to shoot high or left handed.

In the 1960s Bobby hull of the Chicago Black Hawks was one of the first to put a curve in the blade of the stick that not only caused the puck to go faster but it also created a wobble in the flight of the puck. The National Hockey League found it necessary to regulate the arc of the curve to standardize it.

In the 1990s composite sticks began to appear. They are made of different man made materials such as Kevlar, plastics and fiberglass. The stick shown here has holes in the handle to gain even more speed to the shot.

The puck is made of solid rubber. Before the game begins the pucks are frozen so that they will be more crisp when being shot from the sticks.

The players both professional and Olympic hockey, are very well padded. The helmets are made of hard plastics. They have face screens or shields. Under those colorful sweaters the player has shoulder protection for the upper body. Elbow pads. Hockey gloves with plenty of padding. Their hockey pants are all padded and knee pads cover the section from above the knee to the skates.

When the puck is shot by a player the speed may reach over 100 miles per hour and so all that padding is required. Even still, injuries will occur.

The goalie must be heavily padded but must have great flexibility. In this photo you can see the wide pads he wears as well as the huge catching glove.

The Olympic hockey goalie wears a special protective face mask. Very colorful. This protects the goalie from getting hit not only from the puck but from sticks and skates which can inflict heavy damage during scrambles around the net.

The great Hall of Fame star, Johnny Bower, was a great goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs, playing fearlessly without a mask until the ripe old age of 46.

Jacque Plant of the Montreal Canadians was the first goalie to wear a mask in the National Hockey League.

Joe and Irma have built a wonderful fact filled site http://www.whistler-outdoors.com with well over 100 pages of information a visitor really must know prior to visiting.

Most of the common folding bikes are made of lightweight aluminum. They also come in different sizes and styles that suit everyone. It a common notion that just because these are folding bikes they are inferior as compared to the other regular and standard bikes. But that is not true. In fact, you will be very happy to realize that you zip around on these bikes to know that they geared up to help you out on the road. If you are the type of person who wants convenience for a bicycle ride but do not intend to have so much physical work, then there are the electric version that can also help you out.

These aluminum made folding bikes are not only efficient and convenient, they are also cheap and they can fit to any amount of budget which is definitely enough for an average person to purchase one of these folding bikes. However, some of them may cause a little expensive but like anything in the world anything worthy if you take time to look around and shop for bargains. There are some stores that offer discounts on folding bikes. The best place to find the cheapest folding bikes is the online shops. In this way, bargained folding bikes can easily be found with just a few clicks on your browser. There are a lot of reputable companies selling folding bikes online and it is up to you on how good you look for them.

If in case you are not really sure whether a particular type of folding bike is going to suit you perfectly, you can take a look on some other options such as racing, mountain, tandem and even stationary bikes that can also be found online with discounted rates. The best way to pick up the right bike for you is to truly take time to check out a number of online suppliers and see the offers that they have for their customers. Compare he deals before you finally place an order. Also make sure that you are checking out a reputable website. There are some websites that are so gimmicky to attract customers. These are just too good to be true and they will only set you up on a scam. Be smart in scouting out the best aluminum made folding bike in the market. ]]> http://www.sportsn.info/2007/11/11/picking-out-the-best-folding-bike/feed/ http://www.sportsn.info/2007/10/29/world-series-champs/ http://www.sportsn.info/2007/10/29/world-series-champs/#comments Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:40:54 +0000 Bradley Sports News http://www.sportsn.info/2007/10/29/world-series-champs/ After an off century, the Boston Red Sox are making a little more of this one.

Sprung from their past, freed from the dramas and misfortunes that corroded a franchise seemingly born to be the New York Yankees’ valet, the Red Sox are world champions for the second time in four Octobers.

Remember when they’d settle for one, the now-I-can-die-in-peace era?

Turns out, you’ve lived long enough to witness the Red Sox as persistent winners, as budding dynasty, and just as the Yankees have fallen into a period of uncomfortable transition.

On Sunday night, about the time the Red Sox had their group hug at Coors Field, Scott Boras was spreading the news of Alex Rodriguez’s opt-out intentions, and Joe Torre was getting around to that honey-do list, and Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte probably weren’t sure if they were Yankees or not. The once veteran Yankees pitching staff seems sure to be decorated with the likes of Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, introducing growing pains to an organization that traditionally grows only payrolls.

And who’s going to play third in the Bronx? Mike Lowell? The Red Sox’s World Series MVP?

Not if the Colorado branch of Red Sox Nation has any say. More than an hour after Jonathan Papelbon blew that victory fastball past Seth Smith, fans bunched at the Red Sox dugout and chanted for their free-agent to be, singing, “Re-sign Lowell! Re-sign Lowell!”

Three years to the day after ending an 86-year title drought by completing a Series sweep of St. Louis, the Red Sox reached the verge of another sweep in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven final with game four here Sunday.

“It’s a great situation to be in,” Boston leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury said. “We’re very confident but we know Colorado is a great ball club. There’s no quit in them. We know it’s going to be a tough one to get the last one.”