How To: Racquetball (407)

Racquetball is a very interesting sport invented in the early 1950's. Racquetball courts can be found in most cities, and very often on college campuses.

 

A regulation Racquetball court is 40 feet by 20 feet. The four walls in the room are 20 feet high. The court is divided by two solid lines and one broken line. The service line is parallel to the short line, 5 feet closer to the front wall. The broken line known as the receiving line runs parallel to the short line. There are also two lines connecting the short line and the service line. One is the screen line, which is 3 feet from each side wall, and the other is the doubles line, 1.5 feet from each side wall.

 

To start a game of Racquetball you must first find a court, two racquets (one for each player) and a partner to play with. A serve starts the game. To serve, stand between the two solid lines and within the two screen lines to serve. Your serve must hit the front wall before anything else, then come back over both solid lines and hit the floor before reaching the back wall. So, if you hit the floor first, or the back wall before the floor after the serve, you forfeit your serving privileges to your opponent. Your opponent must hit the ball before it bounces twice and hit it to the front wall without letting it hit the floor. The rally continues until somebody fails.

 

To score, you must be the one serving. If you receive the serve and get the ball to bounce twice on your opponent's side, you have not scored yet. Now, you have the serve and have the opportunity to score.

Racquetball equipment needs to fit under a certain measurement. The largest a racket can be is 18 inches long. The handle needs to be big enough for you to hold (of course) but it has no real restrictions. The long side of the elliptical racket head can be no longer than 11 inches. The short side of the pad can be no longer than 9 inches. The racquetball itself needs to be precise as well. All racquetballs have to be exactly (or as close to exact as possible) two and a quarter inches in diameter. It must be rubber and it must also be hollow for safety and to allow the ball to bounce with ease.

Basketball: Center (421)

Basketball is one of the most popular sports around the world. In basketball, there are two teams of five players. The object of the game is to score points by making "baskets". The game consists of 48 minutes, four 12-minute quarters. The game starts with a tipoff. A tip is when one person from each team goes in the center of the court and jumps to tip the ball to their teammates after the referee throws the ball straight up. The goal here is to hit the ball to your teammate standing behind you. Each goal or 'basket' is worth 2 points. However, if a basket is scored from outside the 3-point line, (the curved line outside the free throw line), then the basket is worth 3 points. The 3-pointer distance from the basket is 23.75' in the middle of the court, and it gradually decreases to 22' at the sides. The free throw line is at a distance of 15' from the backboard. A free throw that results in a basket is worth 1 point. to shoot a free throw you must first be fouled while shooting. Offense The game of basketball consists of offense and defense. When the ball is present with a player of your team, then all the team members of your team are on the offense. The goal here is to score points by shooting the ball into the defending team's basket. Defense Similarly, when the ball is present with the opponent team, then all the team members of your team are on the defense. The goal here is to stop the other team from shooting the ball into your team's basket, and also to steal the ball from them so you can again attack and score. You must do this without committing fouls or other rule violations. The team with the most points at the end of regulation wins.

 

One position in basketball is known as the Center. The Center's main job is to block shots on defense, and create an issue for the other team on offense, that be scoring or making a need for two or more players to guard him at once. A typical professional center hovers around 7 feet tall. As a center, your worth is greatly dependent on your agility and shot blocking ability. If you can guard quick defenders, help your teammates guard people, and change (if not block) opposing players' shots, you are worth a lot more than a center who is slow and drags behind the team.

Ski Jumping (414)

Ski jumping has been around since the early 1800s. Ski jumping combines aerodynamics and a pair of brass ones. Ski jumping is usually performed during the winter, but recent technology allows us to do it on plastic during the summer. Ski Jumping is a pretty simple sport; go off a ramp and try to glide in the air above the hill for a distance. The distances are created into a point score and the person with the most points at the end of the competition win.

 

 

A ski jump starts at what is called the in-run. You slide onto a start bar at the top of the ramp with your skis in the "grooves". The groves are exactly what they sound like. The groves create a track for your skis to insure that you are going in the right direction (as you have no poles for balance or maneuvering) as well as creating an even playing field. Your jump will start at the top of the ramp to maximize your gravitational potential energy. Push off the start pole with your arms and get in a  tuck position to ensure that you reach maximum speed by making sure that you are as aerodynamic as possible. Keep your skis in the center of the grooves to avoid any unwanted friction on the sides of the grooves. This friction is unwanted because it will slow you down and make your jump shorter.

 

As you reach the bottom of the ramp, explosively extend your legs and jump up and out. Your speed, and power will determine how far you jump. While you're in the air, you should adopt a spread eagle-esk stance with your legs outward, but with your arms at your side for balance. This will prolong your flight and ensure that you get your maximum potential jump.

 

When you start your land, bring your skis out of the split-position and put them underneath your body and over your legs. Bend your knees and lean back when bracing for impact. You will be going very fast, so after recovery you should slow down quickly. You've now just done a ski jump. Hopefully you went 250 meters.

Remember: The ski jump is potentially one of the most harmful sports around if you are not a properly trained veteran. While you’re up in the air for that long, wind is a huge factor that must be considered. Be careful and get a proper coach before trying any of this stuff.

Slamball

Slamball is a very recently conjured sport. The original inspiration was to mix football, basketball, and hockey (the inventors favorite sports) all into one. Though the football may have been moved more to the side, the game grew very greatly during it's first season which was televised.

Slamball is played on a court that are the exact detentions of a basketball court. The edges of the court are shielded like a hokey rink. There are four trampolines inside the three point line of each basket. A player is allowed to either shoot the ball from the ground, shoot after bouncing on a trampoline, and dunk the ball after jumping on a trampoline. There are 5 players on each team. Every member of each team must wear a soft helmet, shoulder pads, knee pads, and a mouth guard.

All of the rules in slamball are very comparable to basketball except for a few. You can legally hit anyone into the ground, even if they are carrying a ball. You cannot, however stike an opponent while he is jumping onto a trampoline.

Ferret Legging

Ferret legging falls under the category of an “endurance contest”. The goal being to see who can keep a ferret in their pants for the longest duration of time. Ferret legging started becoming a popular competition from the 1970s among coal miners in Yorkshire, England who obviously had no interest in doing any of their work.

Ferrets are the obvious choice for such a sport, as they are natural tunnel crawlers that take pleasure in cramped spaces. So for all of you environmentalist folks, the ferrets like it, so it’s cool, alright?!

To Ferret Leg, you must find a large group of male-only participants and at least a matching number of ferrests to put live inside their pants. Participants must tie their pants at the ankles before placing the two ferrets inside and fastening their belts (For obvious reasons). A female version was once held where the ferrets were inserted inside blouses, but it was not popular. Nobody wanted their lady’s lady parts smelling like a ferret. Plus, their reactions just aren’t as comical as the ones of drunken men.

Contestants are not allowed to wear underwear as it would provide protection. The ferrets must also have a full set of teeth. In order to win the contest, the man must simply not care when “he get his tool bitten”. The winner is the last to release the animal from their garments.

Other variations of the rules call of the competition to include competitors are not allowed to be not drunk or drugged, and ferrets can’t be sedated.  The ferret leggers can try to knock the animals off a spot they are biting but from the outside of their pants only.

Former ferret-legging world champion Reg Mellor (whose record time was 5 hours and 26 seconds on 5th July 1981) said that new contestants should wear white trousers so they could see the blood caused by the ferrets. In 1986, he tried to beat his record again in a crowd of 2500 people. After five hours, the crowd got bored and left. Mellor’s record was broken in 2010 by a retired headmaster, Frank Bartlett and Christine Farnsworth. They managed to keep the ferrets inside for 5 hours and 30 minutes, raising £1,000 for the Whittington Community First Responders. What a crazy sport Ferret legging is!

Source: http://www.topendsports.com/sport/unusual/ferret-legging.htm

Sumo Wrestling

For most people, when they hear the phrase "sumo wrestling" all they think is a fat Asian man with a diaper looking thing on. Sumo wrestling is much more than that. I'm going to go in depth about the rules of sumo wrestling and how cool of a sport it really is.

 

Sumo takes place in a ring that is 15 feet in diameter, raised about 2 1/2 feet off the ground on a dohyo. A dohyo is a very large block of clay. A new dohyo is made for every tournament. This block of clay is about a 17x17x2.5 foot square, about 725 feet squared of clay. This is 72,500 pounds. There is a small amount of sand for footing that the wrestlers (rikishi) also throw on the ground before the bout. The edge of the ring is made of tightly wound straw bands called tawara and rises up about 3 inches out of the dohyo. Five shinpan dressed in black kimono, a customary dress sit below the dohyo and around the ring. These judges must be former rikishi. A gyoji, dressed in an elaborate kimono stands at the edge of the ring and officiates the bout. At the end of the bout, the gyoji points to the winner. In a dispute between who’s the winner, they discuss. Any of the five judges can dispute the call made by the referee. In this case, a congregation called a mono-ii is held to discuss the match. In modern times, television instant replay is used to determine the actual outcome of a match when in dispute.

There are three basic types of rikishi. One, the very heavy 200+kg who uses brute force and use his size to bully the opponent out of the ring with straight charges. These bowling ball men are often very athletic for their size. Then, there is the less popular small sumos. Small Sumo wrestlers. Sounds like an oxymoron. These giant men can be all the way down to a mere 90kgs, or 200 pounds. These wrestlers use their mobility to their advantage, making the big wrestlers go into poor position, usually causing these big boys to be thrown out of the ring. It's a real David and Goliath story every time they wrestle the buildings that are the 500 pounders. Then, there is a hybrid. The best of both worlds. Heavy enough to not be picked up and eaten, but mobile enough to cause issue to their opponent.

There are very few rules in sumo.

1.       No hair pulling

2.       No hitting with closed fist

3.       Stay away from ears- no pulling

4.       No choking, but pushing at throat is legal

5.       No grabbing the mawashi (Diaper thing) in the crotchal region

How to win: push your opponent out of the ring, knock them off their feet, or make anything but the bottom of their feet touch the tawara.

How to lose: Break the rules or be forced out by one of the ways to win.

How to: Euchre

Euchre is a semi-popular card game involving four players. There are two teams in Euchre and you must sit diagonally from your partner so that the teams alternate each play. To win Euchre, you must score a preset number of points which is determined by an agreement of both teams.

To play Euchre, you need either a Euchre deck, or a regular 52 pack of playing cards. If you have regular cards, remove all of them except for the 9-A. You should have 24 cards.

To start a game of Euchre you have one player deal 5 cards out to each player. It doesn't matter what order it is, but most players like to alternate 2-3-2-3 until all but four are dealt. The top card of the four remaining cards will be flipped over face up. This will start a process called the "Bid".

Bidding is a process where all players have chance to decide what the trump suit is. In simplest terms, the trump suit beats every other card, except that of either the left bower, or a higher trump rank. The highest card is a Jack of the trump suit or the right bower, the second highest rank is the Jack of the same color suit, and then the trump suit down from King to 9. For example, If Spades was the declared trump, the best card is the Jack of Spades, the Second is the Jack of Clubs, then the King of Spades, and so on. If Hearts were trump, the second best card would be the Jack of Diamonds.

After the cards are dealt, the player sitting left of the dealer is the first player to decide whether or not the suit of the turned card becomes the trump suit. A player would tell the dealer to "Pick it up" if he thinks he and his partner can do well with that suit. If the player says pass, the decision goes on to the next player, then the next, going in a clockwise motion. As long as the bid is passed, the next player to the left has the same options of picking up or passing. At any time a suit is declared trump, the bidding is over and the play begins.

If the first three players all pass (meaning that none of them want to declare the suit of the trump), the dealer has his turn to either pick-up the upcard himself, declaring it trump, or to turn it over and start the second round of bidding.

In the second round of bidding, the dealer can pick up the card, or pass. Though, if he now passes, the upcard is turned over and following the same clockwise path before, the players can chose trump if they wish. If everyone passes and it gets back to the dealer, the dealer MUST declare the trump suit.

How to: Shot Put

The discus is not a competition for everyone. To be a professional in the shot put and compete for world titles, you have to be very strong. Discus throwers are some of the most explosive and powerful athletes in the world. Imagine this: You're bowling and you pick up a HUGE 4.4 pound dinner plate. Now, instead of rolling it to hit the pins, you put it on top of your shoulder and with one arm, throw it 15 feet passed the end pins. Yes, that's possible.

 Keep the discus high in your hand. Make sure to keep your elbow high. During the beginning of your throw, you will stand at the front of the ring. Your left foot will be against the edge of the circle (but not outside of it) if tou are right handed, and if you're left handed, you do the opposite. Step back with your back foot, bending at the hips and knees to lower your center of gravity and gain momentum. Your non-throwing arm should be hanging down almost to the ground as you prepare to explode from the ground up. you will face forward, start to turn and simultaneously stand up and press the shot put off of your neck. Make sure to stay in the circle the entire time.

 

What? That’s it? This seems easy doesn’t it? Yes. What I’ve just explained is known as a power throw. To throw the shot put to your furthest potential, you need to throw with a rotational put technique. To start the rotational put, you will place yourself at the back of the ring with your feet shoulder width apart. Place the shot put in the putting position and bend your knees slightly. Torque your upper body and shift your weight over to your left leg. Swing your right leg around and place it in the middle of the ring. Now, swing your left leg and plant it next to the toe board just like the power throw. You should now be facing toward the back of the ring. You have your right foot under you in the middle of the ring, you have your left foot pointed toward the direction of the throw by the toe board, and you have you are ready to explode into the throw. Now you are in a proper power position and you do exactly the same motions as before. Happy discus throwing!

Billiards: 8-ball

There are a lot of different games you can play with a billiard, or "pool" table. In most games, you strike a white "cue" billiard ball and try to make another colored ball into a pocket. I will be explaining the rules of 8-ball; the most popular of all pool games.

First, you have to understand what it is you are playing on. There is a lot of equipment that goes into playing pool. The biggest, and most expensive part you need is a pool table. Pool tables vary in size depending on the space the consumer has available for use. Pool tables are rectangular in shape; with parallel long sides and parallel short sides. The pool table has six pockets to hit balls into. There are one in each corner, and one on either side of the center of the long side of the table.

To legally hit a ball under the confines of pool games you need a pool cue. A pool cue, or pool stick is a cylindric piece of wood that slightly thins toward the end of the sick, and has a tip appropriate for hitting. The purpose of the tip is to create friction between the ball and the stick. This will provide accuracy and prevent miscues. To use the pool cue properly, you must create a "Bridge" with your off- hand and hold toward the back of the cue with your dominant hand. The purpose of the bridge it to provide stability and control in your shot. You then, under control, thrust the stick forward toward the cue ball, striking it.

The final thing you need to play pool are the balls. There are 16 balls necessary to play all games of pool. There is a white cue ball, and 15 numbered balls. The numbered balls are split, 1-9 are solid and 10-15 have a stripe. these are the balls you are supposed to knock into the holes after striking them with the cue ball.


You start 8 ball with a break. A break is when one of the two players hits the cue ball with a lot of force to break up the triangular rack of balls. If you make a ball in on the break, you continue your turn. If you hit the center 8 ball into the pocket, you win the game.

There are 15 balls in 8 ball. 7 solid, 7 stripes, and one 8 ball. To win you have to hit all of your designated balls into the pocket, then hit the 8 ball into a pocket (which you designate before the shot) without scratching.

That's how easy it is!

Billiards: 9-ball

There are a lot of different games you can play with a billiard, or "pool" table. In most games, you strike a white "cue" billiard ball and try to make another colored ball into a pocket. I will be discussing the rules of 9-ball; one of the most popular games in pool.

First, you have to understand what it is you are playing on. There is a lot of equipment that goes into playing pool. The biggest, and most expensive part you need is a pool table. Pool tables vary in size depending on the space the consumer has available for use. Pool tables are rectangular in shape; with parallel long sides and parallel short sides. The pool table has six pockets to hit balls into. There are one in each corner, and one on either side of the center of the long side of the table.

To legally hit a ball under the confines of pool games you need a pool cue. A pool cue, or pool stick is a cylindric piece of wood that slightly thins toward the end of the sick, and has a tip appropriate for hitting. The purpose of the tip is to create friction between the ball and the stick. This will provide accuracy and prevent miscues. To use the pool cue properly, you must create a "Bridge" with your off- hand and hold toward the back of the cue with your dominant hand. The purpose of the bridge it to provide stability and control in your shot. You then, under control, thrust the stick forward toward the cue ball, striking it.

The final thing you need to play pool are the balls. There are 16 balls necessary to play all games of pool. There is a white cue ball, and 15 numbered balls. The numbered balls are split, 1-9 are solid and 10-15 have a stripe. these are the balls you are supposed to knock into the holes after striking them with the cue ball.

Okay, now that we know what we need, we can start. 9 ball only uses 9 balls plus the white cue ball. In order to win the game you have to make the 9 ball into a pocket. Before you can hit the 9 ball into a pocket, you must hit the 1-8 balls in in numerical order. If you fail to knock one of these balls in, or miss the target ball, you forfeit your turn to your opponent.

There are a few tricks in 9 ball. If you hit the cue ball into a pocket at any time, it is your opponents turn and he may place it wherever he pleases. This is known as "Ball in hand"

If you hit the target ball first, then pocket another ball after contact, it is a fair play and you keep your turn. This rule will actually allow you to hit the one ball into the 9 ball and hit the 9 ball into a pocket. This is very rare, and will win you the game, assuming you do not scratch the cue ball as well.

the only rule of racking 9 ball is that the balls must be in a triangular pattern with the 9 ball in the middle. Players often alternate the "Brake" where you hit the triangular rack of balls as hard as you can with the cue ball, trying to spread the balls around the table, and possible make a ball in a pocket to continue your turn.