One of the important lessons of Martial Arts training is the ability to use hip rotation as a way to generate power and speed for maximum impact.

Martial artists know that the hips are where the body’s ‘center of gravity’ is located. It lends balance and stability to every move. The lower body is designed for power- the upper body for finesse.

If you can translate this knowledge into a better golf swing, you will be blessed with both power and accuracy.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

Hip rotation holds the key to a powerful swing. Do you want to turn easily from the hip and get more yards out of your swing? It’s not hard when you know the proven secrets of golf pros.

The first thing you need to know about turning, is that you won’t get a flawless turn till you develop stabilization and strength in the lower body.

To get your upper body in sync, make sure you stand straight with your shoulders pulled back, to facilitate that perfect swinging motion from the shoulder- instead of the elbow. Practice turning your shoulders as far back as possible, with your trunk acting as the pivot. If you are right handed, you can see your left shoulder aligned with your chin.

Strong shoulders and well-conditioned abs are a must to maximize torque, while minimizing the distorting forces at the hip- which can lead to imbalances and injury.

Top players initiate their downswing with the powerful muscles of the abs and hips. Once the desired momentum is generated by the lower body, they use their arm muscles to effectively “fine tune” the swing.

Recreational players, on the other hand, use their arm muscles right at the outset. As a result, they are unable to recruit the latent muscle-power in their lower body, while the arm muscles work extra hard both to power and guide the club. No wonder it leads to a shaky, inconsistent swing!

Many players employ faulty swing mechanics, which actually dissipate the energy generated by the lower body, before it can be transmitted to the upper body.

Recreational golfers show a higher tendency for movements that rob swing momentum, such as hip sliding and lateral bending.

The reason can often be traced to reduced range of motion in the hip joints. Often, the process of aging or a sedentary lifestyle can lead you to lose some internal rotation at the hip joint. This condition can be helped with stretches and strengthening exercises that target the hip flexors, hip adductors (inner thigh and groin), hip adductors (outer thighs or hips) and the glutes (buttocks).

Susan Hill is a fitness trainer, CHEK golf biomechanic and sports nutrition specialist. Her work has been featured in Golf Illustrated, Travel Golf, Resort Living and SELF magazine. For on-line golf specific exercises and stretches, visit www.fitnessforgolf.com

Football was always a dangerous sport. As far as physical contact goes, there is no sport that has more of it. But as dangerous as football has always been, it is more dangerous now than ever before and not so much because the game itself has changed. It’s more dangerous because the players who participate in the game have changed. Some would say for the better. But have they? We’re not going to take a stand either way in this article but simply present both sides of the argument. We’ll leave it to you to determine if football itself has become too dangerous to play.

Let’s start with the theory that football has become too dangerous and then we can present opposing arguments. The main reason that critics claim that football has become too dangerous is that the players themselves have become way too big. Years ago, to have a man on a team who was 300 pounds was an amazing thing to see. Now, a 300 pound lineman is average. Men are constantly topping 325 and 350 with no sweat at all. When bigger bodies start falling on you and running into you, there is going to be a greater probability that you’re going to get hurt, even with all the padding.

Football players are also faster than they were years ago. When a running back is carrying the football into the secondary and he gets run at by a charging linebacker at the speed of which these guys come at you, well, let’s just say it’s not the most pleasant feeling in the world. You can get more than just the wind knocked out of you.

Many would sat that the number of injuries today more than support this theory that football has become too dangerous. Many injuries, if not life threatening, come very close to it and in many cases have ended careers. Plus there is also the painful truth that many of these players, years after they retire, have aches and pains that stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Those who say that football has not become too dangerous and argue against the “bigger player” problem claim that these bigger players are in better condition than players of years ago and therefor can withstand more punishment. They say that it is because these men are in better condition that the game is not only not more dangerous, but may even be less dangerous than ever, especially with the advances and improvements made in the equipment that they wear. Faster players mean faster players at both ends of the field, thus making it easier for a running back to dodge that oncoming linebackers running tackle.

Again, it is not our intention to take either side. Certainly there are valid points to be made for each side. A football player’s mother will probably feel the game is way too dangerous since she’s worrying about her little boy getting his skull cracked. But for the casual or even big fan, this may not be something that they give much thought at all to. Football is what it is and they accept it.

We’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Football

With the 2006 NFL Draft coming up at the end of next month (April 29 and 30), fans are asking, what they should expect and if there will be any big surprises this year. To answer these questions, let’s take a look at the players, teams, and negotiations that are highlighting this year’s event.

Reggie Bush is looking like the first-round favorite. Bush, who played running back for USC, is a great all-around athlete. He’s versatile too; equally skilled in running, receiving, and returning. Vince Young garnered national attention when his Wonderlic test score was originally reported as a 6; it turned out to be an unexceptional 16, so look for this talented quarterback from Texas to be tapped in the top five. Another quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart from Southern Cal, gave up being last year’s #1 draft choice to finish school. This savvy player will be snapped up early in the proceedings. D’Brickashaw Ferguson, an offensive tackle from Virginia, should go quickly as well due to the fact he’s little, but nimble, and extremely fast.

At 2-14, the Houston Texas will make this season’s first pick. Look for them to beef up their struggling offensive line. The New Orleans Saints, in the number two spot, is looking for a strong young quarterback to take over. Third pick goes to the Tennessee Titans, who are looking to rebuild after last year’s salary cap reorganization. Fifth-seated New York Jets could use a strong offensive tackle, but will likely choose a more dependable QB in the first round.

The biggest League news so far this year is that the owners and the Players Association still have had trouble reaching a labor contract agreement. The free-agency deadline has already been pushed back by three days to give all parties time to cool off. Fans are watching this dispute closely, hoping that the NFL doesn’t go the way of Major League Baseball.

We have a slew of NFL Betting Systems to help you invest properly in sports and for those of you novice bettors looking find a Safe Reliable Bookie Review – Bodog.

America has always been one of the most innovative and inventive nations of the world when it comes to sports. Softball is one of the finest innovations in the history of American sports. Softball is another close relative of baseball, but with slight and significant alterations.

However, softball is basically a team sport where, like baseball, the ball is thrown by a player to another player on the opposing team. The player who is throwing the ball is better known as the pitcher. The player to whom the ball is thrown is known as the batter, who holds the bat (the round smooth stick like thing made of wood). The game gets its name after the ball with which it is played – the softball. Just like the game of baseball, where the score depends on the player who holds the bat and hits the ball, the game of softball also depends on the batter. Nonetheless, scoring is accomplished through hitting the softball and by running and touching a series of four markers on the ground, called bases.

It is very worthwhile to throw light on certain differences between baseball and softball:

A. the first and foremost point one might put forward is the difference between the balls; baseball is played with a hardball and the game of softball is played with a relatively softer ball.

B. the ball is always thrown or pitched to the batter in an underarm fashion. It is released when the hand is below the hip and no further from the body than the elbow. But in baseball games, the ball is pitched over arm or sidearm.

C. usually the playing field for softball is much smaller in comparison to baseball.

D. the game of softball is much shorter than baseball. Baseball is played for nine innings (the number of times the whole team gets the opportunity to bat), but in softball a game is only seven innings long.

Softball provides detailed information on Softballs, Fastpitch Softball, Softball Equipment, History Of Softball and more. Softball is affiliated with Miken Softball Bats.

Usability testing with children is similar in many respects to usability testing with adults. In order to get the most out of the sessions, and ensure the child is comfortable and happy, there are a few differences that you need to be aware of.

Stress of new people and surroundings

Children are far more likely than adults to find encountering new places and people stressful. You should always remember this, so try to find as many ways as possible to relax the child. Some things you could do are:

- Allow a significant period of time – at least 10 minutes – to meet the child. This is critical in putting them at ease before beginning the session. Some easy things to talk about might be computer games, cartoons, sports or school. Trying to make all the equipment used during the session match that which the child uses at home/school (phone up their parents/teachers beforehand to check).
- Try to be as comforting and reassuring as possible. It’s especially important to make it clear to the child that you want their views on the site and that you’re not testing them.
- Plan for the fact that younger children may prefer their parents to remain in the testing room with them. Make sure that parents know that they should stay out of the child’s line-of-sight and not help or distract them.

Asking for help

Children are far more used to asking for – and receiving – help than adults, so it’s very important for the moderator to:

- Clearly explain at the beginning of the test that you want the child to use the site on their own
- Make a sustained effort to deflect any such questioning during the session itself

Good ways of deflecting questions can include:

- Answering a question with a question (e.g. What do you think [you should do now]?)
- Re-stating that you want the child to use the site ‘on their own’
- Asking the child to have ‘one last go’ before you move on to something else

Children get tired, bored and discouraged more easily

Children (especially of younger ages) are less inclined – and/or able – to apply themselves to a single task for a prolonged period. Some ways to work around this are:

- Limiting sessions to 1 hour or less.
- Taking short breaks during sessions if the child becomes tired or irritable.
- Ensuring that sessions cover the intended tasks/scenarios in a different order – this will make sure that the same scenarios are not always tested by tired children, who are less likely to succeed/persevere.
- Asking the child for help so as to provide them with motivation (e.g. asking ‘Could you please find out for me how to…’, or by actually pretending to not be able find/do something on the site).
- Keeping up a steady stream of encouragement and positive feedback (“You’re doing really well and telling us lots of useful things – it will really help make the site better. Keep it up!”).

The importance of non-verbal cues

Children can’t always be relied upon to verbally articulate their thoughts/feelings, either due to their:

- Not being articulate enough
- Being too shy
- Not wanting to say the wrong thing and displease an adult
- Saying things they don’t believe just to please the adult

This makes it particularly important that the usability expert be sensitive to children’s non-verbal cues, such as:

- Sighs
- Smiles
- Frowns
- Yawns
- Fidgeting
- Laughing
- Swaying
- Body angle and posture

Physical differences

A couple of very obvious – but easily forgotten – differences which need to be taken into account are:

- Chair and table settings – Make sure you have a chair/table setting that allows the child to comfortably use the equipment during the session.
- Microphone positioning – Children tend to have quieter voices than adults, so microphones should be placed slightly nearer to the participant than normal.

Levels of literacy and understanding

It is critical to ensure that a session’s participant has an accurate understanding of the scenario being presented to them. Some ways to do this include:

- Asking participants to re-phrase scenarios/goals in their own words.
- Asking participants to repeat a scenario (i.e. what they are trying to achieve) if the task has gone on for some time and you suspect they may have forgotten it.

This article was written by Tim Fidgeon. He’s crazy about web usability – so crazy that he now works for Webcredible ( www.webcredible.co.uk ), an industry-leading usability and accessibility consultancy.

One of the major drawbacks of playing online pokern is the fact that many online casinos have very low daily deposit limits. While this isn’t normally a problem for the beginning player, it can pose a significant hindrance to players that are trying to move up to higher value games. If you are an online poker player that is faced with a daily deposit limit that is lower than you would like, there are a few things that you can do.

The first thing that you should do is to see if you can get you deposit limit raised. Some casinos will make special exceptions for their high rolling clients. It is worth a try to see if you can get your limit lifted so that you can play higher stakes games for longer periods of time.

If you can’t get your limit lifted, you are going to need to adjust you play with the low limit in mind. Because you have fewer chips to play with, you need to keep your bets relatively small. One of the best games for low deposit limit online casinos is Texas Hold’em poker because of the multiple rounds of betting. Even if the initial limit is low, the pot can get very large after a couple rounds of betting. Playing a game like Texas Hold’em will optimize your chances of making a large amount of money with a small investment. Sometimes there is just no way to get around a low deposit limit at your favorite online casino. In this case it might be advisable to join multiple online casinos. You would also benefit from multiple signing bonuses if you were to join more than one online casino.

With the Portland Trail Blazers in a sticky situation over ownership, and the draft day quickly approaching this NBA franchise made a rather bold statement in dumping their General Manager John Nash. As the Portland Franchise will not renew his contract Kevin Pritchard, director of player personnel will act as Interim General Manager.

Pritchard did have his contract renewed for the next season in a short news conference. Now it is up to this short-term gm to deal with the June 28th NBA draft. There is a possibility that he will end up taking over as general manager. Following an NBA season worst 21-61 record, the Portland Trail Blazers will have the fourth pick at the NBA draft. Nash felt that there was not much in the way of court progressions yet there were many successes that he was privileged to be a part of.

Nash’s contract is set to expire on June 30th, considering the possibility of the team being sold, and the upcoming draft the ownership did not want to delay the decision to relieve Nash of his duties as GM.

Albeit losing 19 of their last 20 games this season, the organization was hesitant on labeling Nash as the scapegoat for the team’s very poor performance this year. The blame basically is going to be spread all around the organization, as they feel this is not time to be pointing fingers at one another for the shoddy season.

At any rate Nash is out, and the team is now making preparations to weather the controversy surrounding the possible sale of the team, and where that will leave the organization in a whole.

Read more exciting sports articles at Suite101

Are you looking for a healthy mindset, fitness, spiritual guidance, holistic health, self-improvement, success, or just more oxygen? Yoga can deliver all of these, but I doubt you find all of this “under one roof.” The reason is that there are many kinds of Yoga, and some ashrams, or Yoga schools, will address some of the above-mentioned needs as priorities.

Do you ever wonder why some people are so successful in life? I am not talking about someone who has “everything handed to them.” What I am referring to is someone who has taken the time to know what they want from life, pursues it, and then attains it. This comes from self-analysis, meditation, and goal setting skills.

Do not confuse yourself with someone else’s dreams or expectations of you. You must know your particular strengths, weaknesses, passions, and desires to move forward in your Yoga practice. Remember when you were a child and adults asked you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

If you are not sure, you should compile a list of ideas. Here are some things to consider when deciding “how to find yourself” and “where to go from here.”

What is your concept of happiness?

Please be honest with yourself and go after your dreams. You cannot abandon responsibility, but you can make small changes in your lifestyle. Wake up each day and pursue your goals with happiness in your heart.

What are your real passions, obsessions, and desires?

These are ideas you think about all the time. Listen to your heart; the answers are within. They should not cause harm to anyone and should be morally sound. Whatever they are, they will keep you going when you have any doubts. This is your fuel for daily motivation.

What does any of this have to do with Yoga?

Everything – Yoga is a daily path of self-discovery and self-improvement. Yoga literally means “Unity,” and applies to all things. If you know yourself, you can help yourself. Help usually starts from within. Most of us have to ask for help, and you must know when, and who, to ask.

Seek and find the Yoga that will help you find yourself. Yoga’s many branches are over 5,000 years old. They are the origin of many self-improvement and health maintenance systems. Achievement is realized by habits. You alone, have the power to create or change your habits.

© Copyright 2005 – Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

By Vigdis S. Aas

The history of the sport called wakeboarding goes back for a couple decades It is really a combination of several sports; water skiing, snowboarding, and surfing. For years surfing has been the sport of many beach goes, but Tony Finn developed skurfer in 1985 in San Diego. Skurfer is what wakeboarding use to be called and is a combination of skiing and surfing.

To do the sport you used a little surfboard and was pulled by a boat while the rider performed many surf-style moves. The ride style was visions of snowboarding and skateboarding with a little bit of skiing. In the beginning, the boards didn’t have a foot strap and so the rider stood anywhere on the board and tried to stay on the board as long as possible.

In the summer of 1985, foot straps were added to the boards. This was an interesting innovation at that the time because it came from two different people at the same time and each person was not aware of the other. The two were Jimmy Redmon from Texas and Tony Finn. Because of this innovation, more jumps and tricks were allowed to be incorporated into the sport. The sport became more dynamic and free-styled. All the riders were trying to find new ways to get attention and many tricks came out of the late 1980’s.

By the early 1990’s, it has become a huge sport and had competitions on ESPN. But the sport was still struggling a bit. The lack of technology was holding the sport back and only experience riders would actually attempt any of the sports. So then many people began to develop their own boards and ideas that would eventually make the sport popular again. Herb O’Brien designed a new board for the sport and called it a wakeboard.

The new invention turned out to change the sport forever an including its name. Instead of being called skurfer, it was now known as wakeboarding. The board allows the rider to submerge it for easy deepwater stars and it was accessible to everyone from four and above ages. Then O’Brien continued to make innovations to his wakeboard.

A thin board would curve like a slalom ski. By adding dimples, the board could break up water adhesion, give the rider a loose feel, and have softer landings for jumpers. As the sport continued to grow, the boards grew better too. They were designed better through the years to give the rider and ultimate water experience that would allow them to show off their tricks more. The

Redmon founded WWA or World Wakeboard Association in 1989 and Redmon is now considered the guru of wakeboarding. He has been responsible for making the sport and has been responsible for the increase interest in the sport. Wakeboarding has recently been added to the X games because the sport is so popular.

Written by Vigdis S. Aas, webmaster and author of www.wakeboardingsite.biz
This article may be reproduced as long as a Live link back to www.wakeboardingsite.biz is present.

When swinging a metal detector, proper technique is essential. if you hold the coil too high above the ground depth is lost. If you swing the coil to quickly, you may miss a valuable target. And if you walk too quickly, you may pass over a target.

I like to think of the coil as a paint roller. Pretend that your coil is loaded with paint, and that you’re trying to paint the ground that you’re walking across. As you slowly sweep the coil back-and-forth across the ground imagine paint being applied. You’re trying to paint the entire area you were trying to cover. If you can imagine the paint, you should be able to cover the entire area without missing a single spot.

As far as the height above the ground goes, you want to hold the coil as close to the ground as possible. Obviously, if you’re working in tall grass you’re maybe 3 or 4 in. above the ground. On the other hand, on a smooth flat beach surface, you can easily skim the coil right over the sand. Remember, the higher the coil is above the surface the more depth you will lose. If they’ve got a old coin that is 6 in. below the surface, and your detector can detect 8 in., and the coil is 3 in. above the ground, you will miss that target. If the coil had been directly upon the ground you would be able to detect that target.

For walking speed, remember the paint rollerr analogy above. As long as you are painting the entire surface of the ground and not missing any spots, you are not walking too quickly. However, if you find that your imaginary paint is missing areas, you need to slow down your pace.

I have used this technique successfully to find lots of gold coins, valuable jewelry, and other rare finds. The hope you find this technique improves your success rate.

About The Author

Dean Novosat is an avid treasure hunting and can often be found metal detecting the beaches of the mid-Atlantic United States. He uses Minelab equipment exclusively, but you will also find Garret and Fisher detectors in his arsenal.n He is the webmaster of http://www.treasure-metal-detecting.com and http://www.metal-detector-info.com.