Push Mob: Sport

Showing posts with label Sport. Show all posts

Monday, May 31, 2010

World Cup: Top 10 Players to Watch

By now, I’m sure you're all aware that the long-awaited FIFA World Cup gets underway in less than two weeks. The stadiums are built, the new ball has been released by Adidas (naturally, the players can’t stand it) and football fanfare is sweeping the globe.

Media outlets worldwide are clamouring for a piece of the action, but Vanity Fair’s insubstantial cover story reeks of opportunism, providing a superficial glance at soccer’s hottest stars. (I’m thinking Annie Leibovitz just wanted dudes with hot bods to take their pants off.) Too bad many of the players pictured will miss the tournament, a gaffe that’s got to have Conde Nast cursing their uber-long lead time. Score one for the bloggers and familiarize yourself with these soon-to-be-household names.

1. Lionel Messi, Argentina, attacking midfielder: Rightfully billed as the best player in the world, Messi’s form is peaking at the right time. The diminutive winger will be spurred on by his egomaniac manager,Diego Maradona, who’s never had a problem with cheating to win.

2. Kaka, Brazil, midfielder: The centerpiece of the Real Madrid attack has always seemed to lack killer instinct, and he will face mountainous pressure from the impatient Brazilian faithful, who haven’t celebrated a World Cup triumph in (shock!) eight whole years.

3. Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast, striker: How badly does Chelsea’s fearsome scorer want to win the World Cup on African soil? Ivory Coast’s MVP has postponed a hernia operation until after the tournament, proving that Drogba won’t be acting when he’s rolling around the field in agony.

4. Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal, midfielder: The villainous Ronaldo has practically done it all at the age of 25: won the Champions League with Manchester United, been named FIFA World Player of the Year, and reportedly slept with Paris Hilton. But he’s never gotten the job done for his country. Two pressing questions remain: is this Portugal’s year? Will Paris be there to celebrate?

5. Wayne Rooney, England, striker: Here’s hoping Manchester United’s bulldog talisman will do his best to refrain from exiting South Africa the way he left Germany in 2006: stomping upon the opposition’s genitals in frustration.

6. Gianluigi Buffon, Italy, goalkeeper: The man who carried a low-scoring Azzurri side to the title in Germany will have to be even better if Italy plan to win it again. Their core players are all four years older and slightly over the hill, but Buffon’s magical display in 2006 proved that he’s more than up to the challenge.

7. Jozy Altidore, USA, striker: American soccer bosses are desperate for a breakout star to emerge at the World Cup, and no doubt they’re swooning over Altidore. He’s a marketer’s dream: just 20 years old, with an inspirational story, and a bit of seasoning in the English Premier League. Oh, and like all young North American sports stars, he’s addicted to Twitter. If all goes according to plan, Altidore will return to America a hero. Now if only the MLS could get him back in the fold…

8. Xavi Hernandez, Spain, midfielder: The Spaniards breezed stylishly through Euro 2008 and are the trendy pick to come out on top again in South Africa. But with so many of his teammates battling stubborn injuries, Xavi must be the playmaking engine that drives the Spanish offensive.

9. Bastian Schweinsteiger, Germany, midfielder: This guy doesn’t just have the best name at the World Cup, he’s got a girlfriend who posed in body paint for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. He’s also got big shoes to fill, stepping in to replace German captain Michael Ballack, who will miss the tournament due to injury.

10. Samuel Eto’o, Cameroon, striker: Eto’o is the best kind of goal-poaching striker, and he will be a joy to watch, provided he plays, that is. Some nasty comments from a former Cameroon great have prompted Eto’o to suggest he might walk out on his team. I think he’s bluffing. Look for Eto’o to lead the charge when Cameroon get their tournament underway.

[via Rob Duffy]

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Keys to Great Cardio, MMA Style

The term cardio doesn’t include just one aspect of fitness, like the name implies, and if you don’t understand how cardio is developed, you’ll never be in great shape.

Luckily, I’m going to tell you what you need to do.

So here’s how developing your cardio is more than just running, or intervals, or 5 minute circuits, or CrossFit:

Now let me tell you that these things are in no particular order, because the order in which it’s best to develop these aspects is different for each individual.

The first key is general strength.

If you’re weak, then you’ll be working closer to 100% of max strength than a guy who is strong. You can only last a short period of time working at 100% max strength (like 20 seconds) so then you’ll gas out quickly.

If you don’t quite get it, let’s make it even easier to understand.
Let’s say you can Bench press 100 lbs for 1 rep (you monster, you).
If a guy is laying on top of you, and you need to bench press him off (because your technique sucks) , and he weighs 170 lbs, you’re using 100% of your strength to try to do this.
You’ll be able to push with all your force ONCE, then every attempt after, your level of force will go down, until your energy supply runs out and you can no longer lift your arms, unless you rest them.
Now let’s say you can Bench press 250 lbs for 1 rep and the same guy is on top of you.
Now, his bodyweight of 170 lbs is about 70% of your bench, meaning that you’ll be able to bench him up and down for at least 15 reps before starting to lose strength and tire out.
Make sense now? Good.

Now let’s say you’re strong, but you’ve never trained or don’t know how to train your cardiovascular system.

What do muscles need to recover after they’ve been spent?

You guessed it.... OXYGEN.

The second key is to get blood to the muscles. This is where your cardiovascular system comes in.

Your heart has to be fit enough to pump blood quickly to the muscles that need it.

To develop your heart to do this you need to increase the amount of blood it pumps with each beat in 2 ways: increasing the volume of blood the heart can hold and increasing the % of blood the heart pumps out with each beat (heart strength).

Dreaded traditional steady-state cardio training improves the volume of blood, while strength training and hard interval training improves the strength of the heart.

The third key in the process is that your muscles need to be efficient at extracting the oxygen from the blood and getting rid of the waste products developed from contracting.

This is where specific local muscular endurance training comes into play, where the muscles are forced to recover faster through progressively longer sets and shorter rest periods.

The fourth key is that your lungs need to be able to efficiently take oxygen from the air and they have to be trained well enough to avoid fatiguing.

This is a relatively new concept but there is some good research that shows that specific respiratory muscle training can improve endurance. I just make sure to incorporate different lengths of hard intervals to get the lungs working at high levels.

So now you understand that cardio requires general muscular strength, and it also requires a 3-pronged attack to make sure you’ve got all your bases covered from a cardiovascular point of view.

Make sure you’re not leaving yourself exposed by neglecting any of these important aspects of your physical fitness, and you’ll be sure to keep going if the fight goes the distance.

[via Eric Wong MMA]

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Is Snowboarding Getting Spoiled by Big Money?

Snowboarders take seriously the art of not taking things too seriously. But after this season, the athletes face some serious questions about whether their sport is being transformed too quickly into a big risk, big money game. Halfpipe snowboarders differ from most other athletes: they're a proud comradeship of renegades, who scorn convention or anything that compromises their independent spirit. They also seek to advance the magic of the board, as a symbol of their limit-defying mentality. "All the athletes in snowboarding have this fire inside to just keep evolving and to keep pushing the sport," says Hannah Teter, a silver and gold Olympic halfpipe medalist.

But as Olympic snowboarders are soaring to new airborne feats, some in the sport are worried about the extreme risks and seemingly endless dollars being spent. The pace of change quickened last year when leading halfpipe snowboarders, with the assistance of corporate sponsors, sought new equipment to break performance barriers and set a new bar in the sport. Snowboarders had already perfected the tricks developed by predecessors. To add new and ever more dangerous tricks to their runs, they sought equipment from other action sports like motocross, as high-end airbags (essentially large air cushions) and foam fits (picture a giant, foam-filled sandbox) were incorporated into 22-foot halfpipes. The safety equipment, ironically, enables more risk taking. During training, snowboarders position themselves to land in the airbag or foam pit instead of on the pipe. The softer surface largely eliminates the fear of falling, allowing snowboarders to focus on a trick's air mechanics instead of the landing. Airbags and foam pits also increase the speed at which athletes master new maneuvers.

But such rigged training halfpipes are costly, and until recently the price tag put them out of reach. Then last season White and Kevin Pearce approached sponsors Red Bull and Nike, respectively, to invest in the halfpipes. Red Bull, a private company with estimated revenues of $4.43 billion, reportedly paid $500,000 for White's private facility in Silverton, Colo., known as Project X. Pearce approached Nike about a similar though less costly facility, and got it. "It changed our sport forever," says veteran snowboarder Keir Dillon, who was invited to visit both private halfpipes. White broke records, put a new spin on gravity-defying tricks and won his second Olympic gold in February. Though Pearce suffered a brain injury in December and could not compete, most felt that his skill matched White's. Yet the leap forward in the risky nature of stunts has not been universally embraced in the snowboard community.

"It has gone from being something that was just fun to do to it being something that has life or death consequences," said two-time snowboard cross gold medalist Seth Wescott. The money has also been troubling for some. Sponsors have long been involved in athlete training. Organizations like the United States Ski and Snowboard Association use sponsor funding to develop training programs. And apparel and snowboard companies, like DC Shoes, develop training and equipment-testing facilities for sponsored athletes. (Snowboarders call this "giving back" to the sport.) Red Bull and Nike are mostly applauded for sponsoring private halfpipes. However, each of the companies' sizable investment in just one athlete's training was unprecedented and, for some, shockingly expensive for what was a rag-tag sport.

As the first to integrate a foam pit into a halfpipe, White was able to push the envelope. "He unlocked a lot of secrets to the double cork," says White's coach Bud Keene. (The double cork — made famous by snowboarder Travis Rice — combines flipping and spinning and marks a new chapter in halfpipe snowboarding.) Similarly, Nike included an airbag at Pearce's halfpipe at Mammoth Mountain in California, enabling him to land a Double McTwist there in June. "The main part with these double tricks is getting them around so you're not landing on your head," professional snowboarder Danny Davis says. "That's what that pipe was so useful for — just learning these tricks so you could get on your feet and then the landing part would come later."

While Davis (who missed the 2010 Olympics after being injured in an ATV accident) acknowledges the private pipe helped him learn several tricks, he cautions that airbags and foam pits do not eliminate risk. "These training devices are great and they're helpful but they don't do all the work for you," he says. "You still have to be able to land them."

While training in Park City, Utah, on New Year's Eve, Pearce fell while practicing the double cork, a trick he already landed several times, hitting his head and severely injured his brain. After months of therapy at Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo., he is expected to return to his Vermont home within weeks.

A month after Pearce's fall, White hit his face against the halfpipe during practice at the Winter X Games, while performing his variation of the Double McTwist (the Double McTwist 1260).

"These tricks are getting progressively more and more dangerous," says Susan Izzo, an agent for Pearce and several other top snowboarders. "We're not looking at blown out knees anymore. Kevin is a perfect example of what could happen." However, Izzo adds, "I do not blame the double for Kevin's accident. Kevin caught... on that edge and slammed. That happens." It was a mistake any snowboarder could make — even the elite. But, Wescott points out, "the price for mistakes is getting higher and higher."

To some, the price to be able to progress in the sport is also getting higher, and some snowboarders worry that rising training costs will necessitate increased corporate funding, which will deter aspiring snowboarders. Snowboarders also fear tunnel vision training will be used to "breed" athletes for competition. "There's a lot of artistic influence and individuality, which I think is core to what makes snowboarding so awesome," says Izzo. "We are not necessarily cultivating and developing snowboarders anymore." "It scares me," she adds, "because it really takes away from what snowboarding is and what it should be." As the money and risks rise, the loss for snowboarding could be the very things that draw so many to the sport — its accessibility, esprit de corps and sheer pleasure. "I really believe that it will never lose that — it can't lose that primarily because snowboarding is really fun," Rice says. "That's the base of it. It's as simple as that."

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Run Less to Grow Faster

Image by SSCusp via Flickr

Running doesn't build muscle mass. If it did, marathoners would have legs like defensive linemen, and workers in Boston would have to repave the streets each year following the city's signature race. But running shrinks muscle fibers to make them more metabolically efficient, thereby saving the pavement.

You'd think you could get around this by lifting weights in addition to running, but your body negates that work through a mysterious 'interference effect.' Your type II fibers—the biggest ones—will still grow if you run and lift. But your type I fibers won't, and even though they're smaller than the type IIs, they probably comprise 50 percent of the muscle fibers in your body that have any growth potential.

Cut back on your running program and you'll see growth in both your slow- and fast-twitch muscle fibers, and perhaps finally get your body to look the way you think it should.

[via MH]