Athletes Foot

Almost half the world-wide market for athletic shoes is right here in the US. Thanks to an aggressive marketing plan and succession of shrewd endorsements, it has been dominated by the Nike “swoosh”. In a business saturated with players, Nike’s 36% market share represents a substantial margin over the competition.

How much is 36% of the market? Only sales in the neighborhood of $7.2 billion, that’s all. Enough cash to buy every franchise in the NBA. Isn’t it just a little ironic a company that propelled it’s period of rapid growth on a product launch and endorsement campaign grounded on the NBA’s brightest star, could on a whim, buy the whole league?

Not everything is rosy for Nike in the athlete’s foot market. Of the 50 or so “other manufacturers”, number two Adidas has completed a move to present a major challenge.

Athletic footwear is divided into two sectors. Competitive which drives innovation to set the mainframe, and fashion which spins casual wear market entries off from the mainframe. Around the rest of the world, Adidas has long been the leader in competitive footwear. It was Adidas that really started it all, sneaking their 3 stripe trademark past stringent Olympic and World Cup sponsorship regulations of the 1950’s to give birth to a whole new industry

Adidas has acquired number 3 Reebok for $3.8 billion, giving them a 21 percent US market share. Most significant about this deal is Reebok holds a much firmer grip on the fashion market than Adidas ever has. Each brand will keep it’s identity, but expect to see some new forms cross brand marketing invented to capitalize on the strenghts of each. The Reebok brand blended into the Adidas mix means a savvy competitor for Nike to deal with across the full market range. Expect Nike to dig deep and find creative ways to fight them off.

The big business of whose sport shoe they put on their feet assures consumers a new round of innovative choices will be soon on the way.

Good training practices

To be a good athlete you must have good training practices. Training practices are more than just what you do on the track; they involve how you live your day to day life.

Coaching - Seeking out someone with more experience then you is always a good idea. There is no sense re-inventing the wheel when someone has already tested several methods and can save you a lot of time leading to greater effiency in your training.

Be Open - A huge part to becoming an experienced athlete is to keep your mind open, both to new ideas and to feedback. Request feedback. Recognize that you don’t know everything and that you can learn a lot from those who are more experienced.

Take it slow - Set reasonable goals. If you’re a twice a week runner, don’t expect to make the upcoming Olympics. Reasonable goals will keep you mentally fit and motivated to keep training. If you try to take things too quickly chances are you will get burnt out both mentally and physically.

Injury Prevention - I don’t know of any great athlete that hasn’t suffered a injury at one point in their career, and knows how devastating it can be. An injury can put an end to a season or an entire career. Be smart in your running training to best avoid injuries. This can be accomplished by using the right equipment. Why take the risk of training in year old running shoes when it’s recommended to buy new ones every 6 months? Proper warm up and cool downs, can greatly decrease your risk of injury. Not warming up is like driving a car really hard without giving it a tune up. Your playing with fireworks. This can involve jogging to warm your muscles up, stretching and other mobility drills to make sure you are ready to begin your training session.
If you take these things into consideration I have no doubt that you will have success in what ever it is you are training for.

An Introduction To Fantasy Football

Okay, let’s get one thing straight right off the bat, we are talking about American football here, you know the sport with the funny shaped ball! Anyway, let’s not waste time on semantics I have stuff to do.

The way fantasy football works is like this, every participant or owner as we are called in the Fantasy Sports World, drafts or buys through an auction a team of players. For the purposes of this introduction we are going to assume the fantasy football league is NFL, but it could also be based on college players. The way the actual completion plays out depends upon the individual fantasy football league you happen to belong to. In some fantasy football leagues the winner is determined by total points at the end of a season, while others actually play against each other weekly with the team having the best record at the end of the fantasy season being declared winner of that fantasy football league.

The internet has been responsible for taking fantasy football from a hobby played out in sports bars and individual homes to a multi-billion dollar industry now according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. According to the FSTA, nearly twenty million players participate in fantasy sports and the industry has a growth rate of around ten percent. Fantasy Football is the most popular of all the fantasy sports available and continues to grow even faster with the explosion of websites and software to help with the game as well as the proliferation of fantasy football magazines available today.

Most fantasy football leagues will be made up of around ten or twelve individual teams which will have their own mock drafts before the season starts. Because you are drafting real players and their performance really matters it pays to stay in touch with what is going on with them during the off season and pre-season. For example if you draft a Ricky Williams and he decides to go off and smoke dope, too bad, you are screwed out of a running back! In some fantasy football leagues each owner must draft a new team every year, while in others you may be allowed to keep a handful of players which will not be entered in the draft. Some leagues have even gone as far as to create so-called dynasty leagues where an owner may maintain his team from the previous season and only draft incoming rookies. This is very similar to how a real football league works.

Players that are not drafted are designated as “free agents” and may be chosen during the season by trading players that an owner may currently have and making them free agents. The rules that govern this practice vary from league to league.

9 Great Family Boating Activities

One of the most enjoyable outdoor activities that my family and I do during the summer is to go boating. Boating is a great way to bond with friends and family members. If you don’t own a boat you can easily rent one for day at one of your local marinas. There are several boats to choose from and many activities to participate in while on the water. Below are just a few of the great things you can spend your day doing while boating.

1. Relaxation – Many families will take an enjoyable stroll around the lake or river relaxing while spending time chatting with friends and family. Take a cooler and snacks and sit back and enjoy the peace that you can experience while floating on the water.

2. Fishing – Take your kids, grandkids friends and family out for a day of fishing. Not only will you have blast watching the young ones eyes light up when they catch a big one, but you will also be able to spend that quality time together that everyone deserves.

3. Swimming – You’ll find several boats that will dock at the sand bar or out in the middle of the lake. When you notice these boats sitting their you’ll see how much fun their having jumping off the side of the boat, or just floating in the water swimming. The kids seem to enjoy this more than anything else you can do on the boat.

4. Tubing – Here is my favorite activity on a boat. Take everyone out on the boat for a little tubing. This is a great activity for everyone. Watch the kids laugh and yell as they skim across the water on their favorite towable. There are many towables to choose from depending on your rider’s action level.

5. Water Skiing – It’s a great time to get out your skis and hit the water. Friend will love watching the experienced skiers as well as watching the beginners get up for the first time.

6. Kneeboarding – This ones a little easier than water skiing and kids will really enjoy the thrill of racing across the water. Watch out for those waves and be ready to splash in the water.

7. Fire Works – One of my favorite times of the summer is watching the fireworks over the lake while your sitting out on the boat. This can be one of the most spectacular views for watching fire works. Boating is a great way to enjoy the 4th of July weekend.

8. Wakeboarding – If you know how to water ski get ready for some wakeboarding action. You can have a blast trying out new stunts on a wakeboard. This is one of the most popular activities for young ones on the water.

9. Slalom Skiing – Kick away that other ski and use only one. This is for the more advanced skier, but friends and family will cheer you on as you make a big spray behind you while your slaloming.

This summer head to the water with your family and friends and enjoy your time together.

All About Pool Cue Tips

Do you think that your choice in tips is the right choice or simply politically correct? What I mean by politically correct is, is your choice in tips controlled by the opinion of your peers or some professional player that you know, or is it based on fact? By the end of this article you should be able to answer this question for youself.

What are the differences in pool cue tips?

As you probably already know, you have everything from very soft singlepiece animal skin tips from various types of animals (elk, cow, water buffalo and cape buffalo) to very hard single piece animal skins. There is also the laminated tips ranging anywhere from three to fifteen layers. The laminated tips also range from soft to extremely hard using various animal skins and tannages. The end result is a myriad of confusing choices. I would like to unmuddy the water for you somewhat. All of these variables can impact power, accuracy, and your sight picture.

First let's assume that you already know that the shape or radius of the tip is of utmost importance and must be maintained at all times during gameplay. That very important shape that I just mentioned is the radius of a dime (roughly) or a "0.375" radius. In other words, hold a dime edgewise up to your tip and look over the top... If it does not match the shape or radius of a dime on the top of your tip, you've already got a problem.

When the ball is struck by the tip, the portion of the tip that takes the force is no more than an eighth of an inch offcenter in all directions. This is true regardless of whether you've struck the cue ball a sixteenth off center, or a full tip off center. What this radius does is generate the force, regardless of where it is struck, to the center of the tip and down through the center of your cue. Soft tips create more distortion than harder tips. In otherwords, a larger area of the tip makes contact and wraps around the cue ball in the case of a soft tip. This may give you more tip confidence, particularily if you're a beginner, because you will miscue less, despite having a sloppy stroke; but, the price you will pay is less power and a whole lot more deflection of the cue ball, because you have moved all of the tip to one side of the cue ball with virtually no penetration. On the other hand, a hard tip will focus the energy in a much smaller area at impact and will give you a higher degree of penetration. When I speak of penetration, I mean the force being directed to the cue ball by virtue of the direction the cue is being swung or pointed and that force penetrates the cue ball in the direction that the shaft or cue is being driven. As an added bonus, a harder tip lasts longer.

What about miscueing with hard cue tips?

The simple fact of the matter is, that the small, glasslike particles of chalk, which cause the friction, are held higher up on the surface on a hard tip so that they will penetrate deeper into the surface of the cueball at impact. A soft tip allows more particles to come into contact because of it's increased tip surface at impact; however, though there be more particles in contact with the cue ball, it does not penetrate the cue ball as deeply and therefore creates less friction per particle. Bottomline: You have the choice of either more particles penetrating less or fewer particles penetrating more... The net total friction is about a trade-off. Whether the tip you choose is one single piece of hide or laminated multipe pieces of hide, the key issue is the more penetration means more accuracy, more power, and tremendously less cue ball deflection and negative effects on your sight picture. As a side note: You've probably noticed, if you've played much, that a tip plays its best just before it has to be changed. This is because it has been pounded enough through constant play to make the tip more dense (harder in all areas).

What does Meucci Originals do with this information?

After testing every tip on the market, and measuring it's resultant power and deflection variation, we have found that a hard tip with even harder outside edges around the circumference will perform the best. Harder outside edges so that the energy is directed into the cue will be focused more towards the center of the shaft, while at the same time keeping the outside walls of the tip from breaking down. There is only two ways to get this result: 1. A hard water buffalo tip. or 2. To compress the tip of your choice as hard as you can, then shape to a dime radius and then pound the outside edges to further harden the circumference and reshape that area to be once again a dime radius.

We take both the latter and former choice at Meucci Originals with the well-known Le Professional tips or hard water buffalo tips. I hope I haven't caused you even more confusion. I think the choice should now be simple: your choice should be made according to knowledge and experience instead of the fashion of the day.

Safety Tips for Archery

Archery like any sport has rules, most of the rules are best practice rules that are used to keep archers and spectators safe. In general it is good practice to observe these rules whether competing or just shooting for fun.

1. Aim
Always shoot arrows at the target. Arrows can be dangerous weapons and should never to be aimed at anything other than the target.

2. Inspect
Arrows must be carefully inspected before each shot to see that they have not been damaged. If the arrow shaft is damage it could cause the arrow to snap and injure the archer. A cracked arrow could also go off course and harm a spectator. The bottom line is damaged arrows are unpredictable and not safe to shoot.

Damaged nocks may result in arrow leaving bow unpredictably or result in a misdirected arrow. So always inspect arrows prior to shooting them.

3. Safety
Only when everyone has finished shooting should the signal be given, to move forward to collect the arrows. One person at a time should withdraw their arrows from the target. When withdrawing arrows from the target, make sure no-one is standing in front of the target or in the way of the withdrawn arrows.

4. Load
Never pull back and release a bow string without an arrow attached. This could damage the bow or injure the archer. Additionally, a bow should not be loaded with an arrow unless standing on the "Shooting Line" and the signal to start shooting has been given.

5. Placement
Targets should be set up to insure that no one can be accidentally hit by a stray arrow. All competitors must wait for the command to shoot and retrieve.

Archery is a fun sport, but one must not forget it can also be a dangerous sport. By following basic guidelines you are more apt to enjoy shooting.

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.