Sports Blogs | The People's Sports Network | ecachockeycoachesvscancer.com

I treat martial arts somewhat as a sport and as a workout routine, but I’d be lying to you if I didn’t think it also had some practical utility as a self defense technique, and a lot of the classes I teach focus on self defense, particularly in teaching classes to women and teenagers, in particular mugger defense and knife defense.

Recently, I’ve had to give some thought into teaching knife defense. Knife defense and martial arts techniques sort of mix, and sort of don’t. When we spar in class, we focus – and we focus a lot – on not hurting one another. Knife defense has to take a different approach.

First of all, don’t get into knife fights. I don’t care how good you are, if you’re bare handed and in street clothes, and the other guy has a combat knife, you’re at a serious disadvantage. If you can, run away. If you have to give up your wallet to run away, do it. Knife fighting is messy and bloody.

Which leads to the first principle of knife defense: You’re going to get cut. Repeat after me: You’re going to get cut. Again, I say. You’re going to get cut. Be prepared for it, understand that it can happen, and that it will hurt (when you’re getting cut) and hurt a lot less immediately after. The trick is to make sure that you do as much damage to your assailant as you can, while turning the least amount of damage to yourself.

The basic knife attack is a thrust or a slash delivered with the forward hand, sort of like a punch. The knife is used to add those critical four inches to your reach. Most people aren’t particularly trained at knife fighting, so they use a natural punching motion. The first thing you want to do is interpose your hand, or better yet, the outside of your forearm on the line of attack. Just like you do an inside block or outside block on a punch, you do the same thing against a guy with a knife. Again, you’re going to get cut – the key here is to make sure that when you get cut, it’s on a part of your body where it won’t permanently injure you. Try to block his wrist with yours, barring that, block his blade with your forearm. It’ll hurt, but you have to get through the pain to follow up with the punch.
Read the rest of this entry »

How you finish often reveals what’s happening during your swing In fact, I often key on a player’s finish in my golf lessons to determine exactly how to help he or she can improve their game. You can do the same for yourself—if you know what to look for.

Below I describe four of the more common finishes I see when giving golf lessons, possible causes of the finish, and ideas on how to eliminate, the swing faults that cause them.

High Finish
The high finish position is among the most common. Hands held high and a flying left elbow (for right handers) characterize the position, associated with pushes, thins shots, and shots struck toward the clubface’s heel. High finishers tend to swing on an in to out path that’s extreme, with the club traveling to the right of the target, minimizing control.

If you read my golf tips, you’ll find that the in-to-out swing is my preferred approach; however, in this case, it’s extreme. When the inside-out move becomes severe, you push the shot. When club comes too far inside with a closed clubface, you pull the shot. Also, swinging too far inside delivers the club below the swing plane, preventing the club from striking the ball on a descending path. The key is not to exaggerate the move too much.

Low Finish
The low finish stems from an overly out-to-in swing path, caused by a downswing motion initiated by the arms instead of the body. Players developing this finish come over the top of the plane, as I’ve explained in my golf tips, causing the clubhead to cut across the ball through the impact zone. The position is associated with pull slices, pull hooks, and shots off the toe. Since the club is moving steeply and across the ball, none of the shots are well struck. Nor do they fly toward the intended target.

If you freeze this finish, you’ll notice that the player’s hands and arms seemed to be all jammed up. That’s because the arms have moved earlier than the body, impeding the arm’s movement and limiting their extension. To fix this problem, you obviously need to work on the body/arm synchronization, so your arms don’t out race your body on the downswing.

Lunge Finish
I don’t know how popular this finish is statistically, but I often see it in my golf lessons. With this type of finish, the player’s head is in front of his or her left leg, or the golfer feels himself or herself falling forward. It stems from a poor rotation of the lower body through the hitting zone, causing the upper body to get ahead of the ball. The end result: the player fails to stay behind the ball during the swing.

To correct this fault, you need to work on your hip rotation. Try leading the down swing with your hips instead of your body. Try placing a chair to your front side, with the back of the chair just touching your hips. Take a few practice swings being careful to stay in contact with the chair’s back as you turn through impact. Also, try finishing with your head over your left leg.
Read the rest of this entry »

As the world moves forward with technology and advances in other areas one place you might be surprised to hear that advances as well is grass. The use of Artificial grass these days is second to none. You will not go to many places these days without finding an artificial grass football pitch or at a major event and even now we are starting to see Artificial Grass Lawns used in residential aspects. Around a swimming pool or just replacing your standard front and back gardens with artificial grass, it’s a common thing now to see artificial grass used. And for good reason not only is it easy to up keep the lawn, your also guaranteed come rain or shine to have your lawns looking perfect all year round.

The South Pacific has long been known because of the exciting experiences the waters can offer. It has been famous to tourists and even neighboring countries because of adventures and excitements it can offer. Many fishermen come to New Zealand when summers draws to a close. This is the season when tuna and billfish swim closer to the shores to find a warmer place.

During the remaining seven months of the year, that is the time for the fishermen to have a great time especially the months after the winter. You do not need many things to bring to enjoy the exciting destinations of the South Pacific. All you need is your clothes and hats and off you go.

Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Niue are places that most tourists visit to fish. These spots have been the highest rated fishing vacation sites because of the abundant fish and the weather as well. These spots have temperatures that attract fish, which explains why there are abundant fish in these places. Fishing in these spots is never complicated. You can even target sailfish and mahi-mahi with your own tackle.

Sailfish have been famous for their aerobatics with their sails dashing in the sunlight. It is also in the South Pacific that you will witness a big bull mahi-mahi lure you out. For the adventurers, this is also a chance for you to cast “poppers” and jigs to a dogtooth tuna or a trevally.
Read the rest of this entry »