The Fastest Nation

It’s quite usual for us to get to know that some American athlete wins another world or Olympic title in sprint event. Last time it was news from Helsinki World Championships, where the Americans had clear superiority over others in individual sprint disciplines. They won more titles than all other nations taken together. Of course, that’s not every time that it happens, but the advantage of American athletes which is due to their high level is obvious. While athletes from other countries come to sport elite and go away, Americans always stay in. Moreover, it’s impossible to imagine the sprint elite without Americans. They dominate short-distance running championships now. They have been dominating for all history of modern athletics since the first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.

To prove this point of view I’m giving the so-called rating of all nations’ Olympic performance athletes of which ever took prices at the modern Olympic Games. A nation gets 3 points for every gold medal, silver is 2 points and bronze is 1 point. For example, at the 2004 Olympics the Americans won all medals in men’s 200 meters dash. In women’s 200 meters dash a Jamaican won gold, an American got silver and a Bahamian got bronze. Thus Americans get 8 points, Jamaicans - 2 point, Bahamians – 1 point. Summing up points for all years we get following statistics:

100 meters:
USA – 120
Germany – 22
Great Britain – 20
Canada – 14
Australia – 13
Other countries – 69

200 meters:
USA – 117
Germany – 18
Jamaica – 16
Australia – 14
Great Britain – 12
Other countries - 63

400 meters:
USA – 97
Germany – 22
Great Britain 20
Jamaica – 13
Australia – 12
Other countries – 52

In every event Americans are far ahead of others. However, even if we take into consideration such a huge advantage, it might be still wrong to say that other countries’ athletes are much worse trained. During the twentieth century there were stars among British, Canadian, Caribbean and other sprinters whose achievements have become part of sports history. Many of them are Olympic and world champions. There also world record holders among them. Now we talk about Asafa Powell, Veronica Campbell and Tonique Williams-Darling. We also remember Linford Christie, Donovan Bailey, Marita Koch and Marie-Jose Perec from the past.

However, the point is that they are the only representatives of their nations. They come into sports, show outstanding performance and go away followed by no compatriots matching their level. But only the USA athletes show high-level performance constantly. It’s quite hard to find reasons for it taking into account that the level of training process is also high in many other countries. Actually it is not the training process itself that differs the States from other countries. It is rather sports system organization which selects, raises and motivates athletes.

Prevalent approach to athletics

There are two models of sports system organization in the world.

The first one is the system of state financing developed in most countries. State Sports Department exercises supervision over Sports Federations which provide athletes with good conditions for trainings, medicine care, opportunities for preparations and so on. The State takes care of athletes from the beginning of their career and they feel comfortable in such conditions.

Many of them come into athletics and train like for fun, considering running from this point of view: “I have an opportunity for training. First I will train for fun and will see if I am good in running. If I’m good, I will pay more attention to trainings. If I’m not, I will just enjoy the achieved level. My country will take care of me and will give me an opportunity to afford such “pleasure” trainings.” For some of them sprint is a hobby. Some of them achieve good results at the local level performing time of 10.4-10.2 seconds in 100-meters dash, and think that it is good enough. Those who are highly motivated progress further and sometimes take prizes at international level. But most of such sprinters don’t even reach a 10-second barrier let alone 9.8-9.7 second time which is necessary for major competitions.

So there are no good selection process and no high competing environment in such a system.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association

One more model is when business interferes with sports and government doesn’t take part in the process simply providing the athletes with conditions. Such model is developed in the USA. Besides professional sports, there is a unique system of university sports organization which gives birth to a huge amount of world-famous stars in athletics. The National Collegiate Athletic Association sports are fantastically popular and widely covered on television and in press. Even world-known bookmakers provide lines for bets on NCAA leagues. No country in the world can boast of such situation. College teams receive huge money from their team sponsors and are interested in achieving high results attracting well-trained athletes. It means that skilled athletes receive scholarships which cover expenses on study and living. For many of them such way is the only chance to enter a university. Thus athletes who competed for a university team are highly motivated in achieving good results. They don’t just train, they secure stability of their lives. Very often at NCAA championships college athletes achieve higher results than professional athletes of other countries.

There is one more positive aspect of the USA model. Several sport events are extremely popular in the United States. These are football, basketball, baseball, hockey, track and field and some others. Almost all universities have their own teams for participating in these sports. If an athlete at the beginning of his career chooses some event, and some time later it turns out that he is much better in some other event, he can simply change an event within the same university. There are many such examples among Olympic champions at sprint events. Marion Jones who was member of her university basketball team, later became the fastest woman in the world. Famous sprinter Ato Boldon started his career playing soccer. Jim Hines used to be a baseball player in his early years. Eddie Tolan won Michigan state football championships as a high school boy. Much more examples could be mentioned.

Such conditions give an opportunity to find out really talented athletes, and hard competition compels them to develop their skills very fast. Yesterday’s NCAA champions become top world athletes today. Now it is John Capel, Shawn Crawford, Justin Gatlin, Jeremy Wariner and Lauryn Williams. In future there will be new stars and the National Collegiate Athletic Association model will never fail.

It’s worth mentioning that Caribbean athletes are good too. But note that many of them studied in American universities.


One might ask why American athletes are not so good at long distance running as they are at sprint events. The answer is simple – they like action. It’s much more interesting for them to watch a 100-meter race during 10 seconds than wait for the end of a 10-kilometers race for a half of an hour. They are crazy about eye-catching shows. And what could be more eye-catching than short-distance running? It’s not just a part of running or athletics, it’s another kind of sport, where limits of human body performance come out. That’s why they just go and grab world and Olympic titles in sprint and left the rest of events for the others.

3 Best Ways To Improve Soccer Skills Individually

If you’re looking for ways to improve soccer skills individually, you’ve come to the right place. I know that soccer team practice sometimes just isn’t enough if you want to become great. Just take a look at most of the great soccer players in activity. They always say that they spend a lot of hours off-pitch improving their soccer skills, which makes them so good in matches. But simply training after hours isn’t enough, you need to train intelligently, after a rigorous program.

-Best Ways to Improve Soccer Skills – DVD Programs

There’s a lot of these babies around the Internet these days, so if you’re planning on buying a DVD program for individual soccer practice, make sure it’s a serious author that created it and it’s not some lame compilation of soccer highlights with subtitles saying “Do this and you’ll be great”.

A quality DVD program is a great way to improve soccer skills, because it allows a certain level of interactivity to your learning. It’s not like learning from a TV show, because with DVD’s you can go straight to the chapter that interests you, you can go back and review stuff over and over again until you get the picture.

-Best Ways to Improve Soccer Skills – Skill Focusing

If you notice that there’s a certain area in your game that isn’t on par with your other skills, focus on it to get it on level terms. Having an unbalanced skill set is extremely damaging to your game. For example, you could be very fast and strong, but if you don’t have good ball control, you won’t be able to use your physical skills for anything.

Same goes with players that are extremely technical but very weak on their feet, so improving your soccer skills in a balanced way is best. Also, you could focus on your best skill not your worst one. Are you a good long range shooter? Make that your trademark. Practice long shots over and over again and your teammates will soon know that they need to create space for your shots and you’ll be able to score more often. You could also make a trademark of your heading, your passing, your set pieces and so forth.

-Best Ways to Improve Soccer Skills – Variation

Never allow a particular exercise or drill become boring routine, or you risk entering a stalemate with your soccer skills. Whatever you’re practicing, go for alternative techniques. For example, if you’re practicing dribbling, don’t just focus on a single type of dribble, effective as it may be. You will need to have a varied repertoire of dribbles if you want to stand up to your different adversaries.

In conclusion, you will probably want to combine these three methods, not just use them separately. Use a DVD program to cover the theoretical aspects of your practice and use the other two as practical methods of getting your skills up. You should be gaining an edge in no time!

3 Little Known Tips Of Basketball Hoop Shopping

I've got a confession to make. I play basketball. I play it very poorly and can't make very many of the shots that I shoot at the basketball hoop. I have a feeling that I am not alone in the world at being a rather poor basketball player. However, one thing that I'm not bad at is comparison shopping. I've mastered the ancient art of comparing prices between merchants and can usually ferret out a fairly good deal with a little bit of leg work. Basketball hoops are no different than other items when it comes to shopping for them. There are some tips you should know before embarking on your journey to shop for a basketball hoop.

1)New or Used. You really might consider buying a used basketball hoop if you are interested in value. However, make sure you are buying one that hasn't been banged up too bad. Years of basketball practice can only make your rim bent and dirty. Ebay can be a great place to buy used equipment and basketball hoops are regularly for sale on Ebay.

2)Do your homework by comparing different merchant offers on different search engines and different websites. Just because something is advertised for sale on Google doesn't mean its also advertised for sale on Yahoo. Some merchants advertise their good strictly through the Amazon partners program and don't do any other advertising anywhere else. Price vary drastically and the only way you will know that you are getting a good deal is to examine what the different people are selling the same goods for on different websites. Basketball hoops are no exception.

3)Learn about the different types and styles of basketball hoops. Without the knowledge of what you are buying, points #1 and #2 are nearly worthless. Buy your hoop the right way and get a great deal on one by being an informed consumer. Learn how to buy a basketball hoop and you can guarantee that you got a better deal than everyone else.