Unfortunately, these scholarship opportunities are few and far between. In fact, only about 3% of high school basketball players end up playing in college.

The competition for these scholarship opportunities is pretty fierce. Just getting noticed by a college coach can be very difficult. For each scholarship opportunity, coaches usually recruit five or more athletes for each spot on the roster. That means even if you do get noticed by a coach, you still have a long road ahead of you to get the scholarship offer.

To give yourself the best chance of getting a basketball scholarship, there are five steps you should be taking as soon as possible:

1) Know Your Stats

You need to start tracking your stats early in your high school career. If you do this, you’ll be prepared when a college coach asks you about your high school playing career and what kind of stats you had. Being able to tell a coach not only did you make the varsity team as a sophomore, you also averaged 12 points and six rebounds per game will go a long way toward getting their attention. This is extremely powerful information to have when the actual recruitment process begins.

Don’t wait until a coach asks you for this information before you have it ready. Trying to go back a couple of years to find your stats is nearly impossible at the high school level unless your school just happens to do a very good job of tracking stats for all players. Needless to say, most high schools don’t keep very good records and you should track these numbers yourself.

2) Document Your Biggest Achievements On The Court

If you have some big achievements on the court, make sure you document them. If you have a double double (points and rebounds or assists and rebounds), document your efforts for later. Did you hit the game winning shot or get named MVP of a tournament? If so, take time to document it. These documents will come in very handy when/if a coach starts recruiting you some time down the road.

3) Start Collecting Some Video

Before a coach asks for it, you will want to have some video available. When a coach asks you for video, you want to be able to get it to him or her immediately while their interest in you is very high. If you take 2-3 weeks to get some video to the coach, their interest may have moved on to someone else.

Most high school basketball players don’t bother getting any video ready until a coach actually asks for it, which is a big mistake.

4) Develop Your Basketball Resume

Another thing you want to have ready for coaches is your basketball resume. Once again, you want to be able to give the coach a resume when the coach first shows some interest in you. Once again, if it takes you a couple of weeks to get a resume to the coach, their interest may have already moved on to another player.

5) Always Give Your Best Effort

You just never know when a coach (or someone who knows a coach) may be watching you play at the high school level. If a college coach is watching you play they will be looking not only at your talent and skills, they will also be looking at your body language, how well you listen to your coach, and if you do the little things that helps a team win games. A coach will be looking to see if you do these things no matter if you are ahead by 30 points or behind by 30 points.

Summary

Basketball scholarships are not easy to attain. You need to be doing all the right things to put yourself in a position to get a scholarship. The most important thing you can do is market and promote yourself to college coaches. You can do this by knowing what schools you want to play for and then sending those coaches your basketball resume and a personal letter. By taking control of your own recruitment and marketing and promoting yourself, you give yourself a much higher chance of getting the scholarship.

About the Author

Gary Hawkins is recognized as a leading expert in the field of athletic recruiting and scholarships. He is the owner of RecruitedForScholarships.Com which is a site dedicated to helping student-athletes finally get noticed and get recruited. You can get his free recruiting and scholarship report at recruitedforscholarships.com/freereport.html

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Taming Your Slice
Golfers slice when the clubhead is open at impact. An open clubhead causes the clubface to cut across the ball at impact, putting sidespin on it. Sidespin causes the ball to curve in the direction the clubface is pointing.

To correct a slice:

Strengthen Your Grip
To adopt a stronger grip, turn your left hand (right hand for left-handers) so you can see three knuckles at address. This promotes a closed clubface at impact.

Close Your Stance
An open stance causes the clubface to cut across the ball. Remedying this is simple. Turn your body a little to the right to set up an in-to-out swing path. By turning your body to the right, you close your stance

Rotate Your Right Arms
With your body closed to the target line, your right arm will rotate over your left as you swing past your chest. This also promotes a closed clubface at the moment of impact.

Anti-slice Drill:
Using a 7-iron, grip the club extra lightly. Set it down with the toe of the clubhead perpendicular to the ground. From there, swing the club halfway back and halfway through. As you swing through, let the toe of the clubhead hit the ground first. Feel the head take over as your forearms rotate through impact.

Taming Your Hook
A closed clubface at impact, on the other hand, triggers a hook. A closed clubface causes the clubhead to come too far inside. The key to curing a hook is to make contact with a slightly more open clubface.

Weaken Your Grip
To tame a hook, you’ll want to “weaken” your grip. To do that, turn your left hand left (right if you’re a left hander) so you can see two knuckles at address.

Open Your Stance
Just as you needed to close your stance to beat a slice, so to do you need to open your stance to produce a fade. So turn your body to the left slightly (left-handers turn right). That sets up a slightly out-to-in swing path.

Hold Off Arm Rotation
With your body open to the target line, your chest turns open faster on the downswing. This enables you to hold off arm rotation for a bit. It also keeps the face open for a shot that starts left and curves right slightly.

Anti-Hooking Drill
Use a 7-iron, set up with your back foot turned out about forty-five degrees and the ball positioned forward. Now make relatively easy swings, using your shoulders and upper body to do all the work. As you increase speed and improve ball flight, use longer clubs for the drill.

Hooking and slicing can get you into serious trouble—especially off the tee. That can ruin a hole and add strokes to your golf handicap. Taming your hook or slice using the golf tips described above will help you hit more fairways. That will put you into position to hit more GIRs. Do that and you’ll card more birdies and pars, and lower your golf handicap a couple of strokes.

Copyright (c) 2011 Jack Moorehouse

About the Author

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

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His drive whipped off in the wrong direction, which might not have caused as bad an outcome as he allowed it to, had he kept his temper in check.  The driver was flung across the course, his bag was hoisted onto his shoulder and off he walked.  One hundred yards later he decided that perhaps he should retrieve the errant club after all.  He then walked home.

Many golfers are familiar with this type of sorry tale.  To feel this intense anger and to allow this enormous sense of frustration to flood your mind and body is not a good feeling.  In fact, it is a terrible feeling and stays with you for a long time afterwards.  The intensity of the emotion experienced is in fact what embeds the memory even more deeply in your mind that it otherwise would.

This unchecked anger completely ruins the game of golf.  And so if you ever thought you might enjoy the game or if you want to enjoy it in future it is well worth looking around to find a new way of dealing with these feelings.

Emotions like these are easier to change than most people think.  Most of us simply shrug our shoulders and think to ourselves that “this is how I am”.  Well, if you want to enjoy this great game, that’s not an acceptable thought and you should bin it immediately and find a better thought process.

Here is a contrasting golf mind set which you could choose to employ.  Another friend emailed me this week detailing her last three holes on a round of golf at Stanford.

She certainly had a dramatic finish.  Hole 16 is a par 5.  She hit a 30 yard drive, an ok second shot and then hooked her third shot into a tree on the left.  She got lucky with where the ball ended up in the rough and it a beautiful approach shot straight at the pin.  Unluckily it bounced off the green to the side on the right, she chipped to the green and sank a 7 foot putt to save bogie.  Not bad after two pretty bad shots.

Hole 17 is a par 3.  She again hit a horrible and very short drive, and managed to hit her second into a bunker.  From there she made it out onto the green and managed to make a 90 degree putt on a horribly fast and treacherous green to save another bogie.  On hole number 18 (another par 5) she admits to the fact that she was now pretty fed up with her previous drives and so paid extra attention!

Her mental strategy paid off and she hit a ridiculously long drive which left only a 150 yard downhill lying approach shot.  She choked down her 170 club and hit a beautiful shot straight at the pin.  The ball rolled off the second cut of rough at the back which left a 66 foot shot.  She tried to putt but the ball only went 10 feet.  She said she felt so mad at herself! But she gathered herself together to nail a 56 foot putt for a birdie.  As she says “never say golf is boring”.

I like her style.  I like her mindset.  She didn’t let the frustration lead to anger; instead she turned it into a challenge which she rose to in admirable fashion.  Everybody can make this mental switch happen if only they would choose to do so.

Roseanna Leaton, avid golfer and specialist in golf hypnosis mp3s and author of the GolferWithin golf mind training system.

P.S.  Discover how to lower your handicap and win more of your golfing tournaments.  Check out my website now.

About the Author

Play calmer and better golf with golf hypnosis from http://www.GolfrWithin.com. Check out Roseanna’s mp3 to stop getting angryon the golf course.

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Your touring bike should have a strong aluminum or steel frame with sturdy wheels and cantilever or V brakes. You should be able to go into both low and high gears for hills and flat stretches. You should be able to put on pannier packs, especially for very long distance bike riding. Water, Water Water – de-hyradation can kill. Not likely on a normal bike ride, but always be prepared. The last thing you want is to have the last drink from your water bottle and your still 60 klms or so from “civilisation”.So ensure you have as many water bottle fixing points are possible . I also suggest you chart the amount of water you drink on your training rides.This will give you a guide as to how much you will need, daily on your adventure.. Drop handle bars allow you to have reduced wind resistance while riding. Make sure it is mechanically simple so there is fewer breakdowns and increased ease of fixing anything that might go wrong.

A fender/ splash guard on your bike might be a better idea than you may think. Tyre guards and water proof clothing are important. The last thing you want is the “skunk Spine” from splash off the tyres. You should also ensure your gears and chain are regularly cleaned.. A touring bike will start at about $1200 and can go higher than $2500 if you buy a high end bike.

Mountain bikes or road bikes are not out of the question for long distance bike riding. Tyre selection depends on your intended route – Cross country tyres don’t offer speed, they are for traction. Road tyres, by definition are quick, but ensure you get a road tyre that will “last” .Stronger side walls, wider than normal road tyres but with a finer (less chunky ) tread. So, once you know where you are going ,spend quality time choosing the right tyre.. Remember that, while these may be cheaper bikes, it costs money to modify them for the road so keep that in mind.

For long distance bike riding, you’ll need to be able to carry your belongings. The right bike frame is critical. You need to have a frame strong enough to carry panniers. You need a frame that is stronger than the speed merchant road bikes. You also should consider a bike with simple gearing and wheels. Again simple equipment means ( mostly) less weight in parts to carry, means it will be easier to find replacement parts and hopefully less chance of break down..

Don’t forget, the heavier the panniers, the more difficult the bike will be to handle.Experiment with the “right” weight.The lighter you can travel the easier the experience will be.. Road bikes often don’t even have the rack mounting eyelets you need for putting the panniers on so this makes for a problem in modifying the bike. If a touring bike does not , for whatever reason, suit, a mountain bike is the next best option. A strong frame, with pnuematic and or spring suspension. BUT, ensure you get a road tread..

Recumbent bikes make for good long distance bike riding because they aren’t hard on the butt when you ride all day and you’re more aerodynamic being so close to the ground. You can’t stretch or shift around on a recumbent bike, however, so your joints and muscles may get stiff. Recumbent bikes can be fitted for storage areas so you can hold all the stuff you need on your long distance bike riding tour.

The time you need to prepare for a long distance ride, depends on a couple of factors.Your starting level of fitness ( be honest with your self) is obviously important. Your attention to endeavour is also critical. You have heard this before, I am sure – the harder you work the better you will get, quicker!.. Fitness , as with any sport , should be gradually worked on, Obviously, the training rides should mimic the intended long distance ride, The first thing to do is look at the distance intended to travel, and then work out the daily kilometres /miles needed over the time available.Then once you are feeling up to it, do a test ride of the intended daily distance required.You will soon find out if you are fit enough.. Don’t over do the first week or two. If you go too hard too quickly, you run the risk of injury and long periods of muscle soreness.. You know the old saying “uphill, downhill, good weather, bad weather, headwind, and tailwind”.

It is important, when preparing for a long distance ride, to practice in all conditions.You will be extremely fortunate, if you have a blue bird day every day with a constant 18 deg temperature. Hail rain sleet and shine – even wind and dusty environments need to be explored. Note that the weight of the panniers will affect the center of gravity and your balance.Thus you need to experience how the bike handles in varying conditions. Practice riding fully loaded so that you can get the hang of how your bike will interact with you and the heavy weight it will carry.

If you’re using a trailer instead of panniers, practice with the trailer as much as possible and load it down so you get the muscle strength necessary to ride with a trailer that has all your gear in it.

About the Author

If you want to get some grounded ideas on long distance bike riding ,Brian Newell is your man.Find out more at www.bike-race-training.com

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Rugby supporters are well known for enjoying the activities off the pitch as much as the action on the pitch. Certainly New Zealand has a wealth of possibilities in both departments!

Visually New Zealand is very stimulating with absolutely stunning, diverse scenery, plus cities which have heaps to offer. Here is a selection of the gems in the top Rugby World Cup cities of New Zealand.

For England Rugby World Cup supporters, Dunedin will be the venue for the first matches. This means that those of you who enjoy a beer or two can head off on the Speights Brewery Tour, which is both an informational and fun tour with some beer tasting involved.

Located in the South Island of New Zealand, Dunedin is the second biggest city there and will have a totally different rugby tournament taking place there at the same time as the Rugby World Cup. This is the eighth Nude Rugby event, which started out as a bit of a laugh and has turned into a media attention grabber that is now an annual event.

For those who prefer nature as opposed to naturism, the protected wood lands, lush green spaces and amazing coastal area of Dunedin is a wonderful treat. It is possible to spot penguins, sea lions and seals, and to explore the scenery on horseback.

Spring Festival time is October so this makes it a very special time to visit. Ireland will play Italy in Dunedin on 2nd October, so the Irish and Italians will be able to enjoy the festivities as well as the rugby in Dunedin.

England and Scotland Rugby World Cup supporters will be in Auckland however for the match between the two countries on 1st October. But don’t worry; Auckland has plenty of spring festivities happening as well. There is the Auckland Heritage Festival, Diwali Festival of Lights, the Kowhai Festival and the Auckland International Boat Show.

Soaking up festivities and culture will not be an issue, but for the rugby supporters who like an adrenalin rush then there is the Sky Tower sky jumping experience, or climbing up the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

To enjoy something a bit more relaxing, check out the village of Parnell which is an historical village with a fine selection of restaurants, or take a wine tour which visits great local wineries.

Last but very certainly not least is the capital city, Wellington, which has been elected one of the top 4 cities worldwide to visit, by the Lonely Planet.

Wellington has a stunning harbour and Botanical Gardens, as well as cable cars and an observatory. One of the big attractions is Zealandia which is an award-winning eco-attraction and well worth a visit. The Te Papa Tongarewa, which is the museum of New Zealand also deserves a visit. It is packed with treasures, history and art.

The highlight for some Rugby World Cup tour travellers will be the Cuba Street District. This is the King of Cool when it comes to the area’s ambience, the trendy boutiques, bars, cafes, great food and entertainment, and generally it has an arty feel about it.

Wales will have its first match against South Africa in Wellington, so Welsh fans can enjoy the fun and festivities of this fabulous city. Let’s see which Rugby World Cup teams will make it through to the Quarter Finals which will take place between Auckland and Wellington; where the festivities will continue throughout the Rugby World Cup tournament. If you’re one of the lucky ones using Rugby World Cup packages to support your team, make sure you have the time of your life, both on and off the pitch.

About the Author

Jackie has put together this concise guide in collaboration with Gullivers Sports Travel, so Rugby World Cup supporters can enjoy their rugby world cup tours even more. For those supporting from back home this concise top Rugby World Cup New Zealand cities guide make you feel like you’re there.

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The fact that you are even anticipating the possibility or potential of winning your tournament indicates that you know that you are good enough to do so.  You have probably had pars or birdies on every single hole on the course, if not eagles or a delightful and slightly lucky hole in one.  You know that you can play good enough golf to win.  You also know that this is equally true of your competitors.

I was chatting to a male golfer the other day about a certain ladies tournament.  He passed the comment that “those ladies get anxious” and so “you probably only need a couple of 85′s to win”.  It was a fair observation.  Upon closer examination, scores in that region had been enough to win that tournament in previous years.  The inference was clearly that the ladies did not and would not play their best golf under the pressures of such an important tournament.

Another different conversation with one previous club champion revealed that she never, ever, competed against the other players; instead she always played the course.  I heartily agree with her strategy, although this would not work for everyone.  We each have our own individual temperament and emotional motivational strategies.  The key is to discover the truth about what works for you.  What is sauce for the goose is not always the best sauce for the gander.

When I want to win, I focus upon the things which I can control.  I like to know where I stand and not to allow my emotions to be blown about like a leaf in the breeze.  If I was competing against others my emotions would be subject to such fluctuations.  If I felt I was going head to head against others, as one golfer got a par or a birdie it would affect me.  If that person got a double bogie it would affect me.

Instead, by playing the course, I am purely dependent upon me.  It is down to me to focus on each and every shot I take, to make wise shot choices and to commit to their execution.  In this way I will play my best golf, irrespective of what is happening in everyone else’s game.  This is my strategy and it works for my temperament and emotional style.

You may be very different to me.  You may love competition and thrive when challenged by your opponent’s birdies.  They may lift your mood and bring out your very best golf. Or, when another golfer hits a bad shot or misses a putt it may trigger off the killer instinct in you and fire you up to win.

Other people don’t like to play with opponents who are having a bad day and find that this destroys their rhythm; if this is the case you have to learn to step back and not become emotionally involved or you will not be able to win.  We each have our own unique temperament and emotional style; it’s up to you to work out what works for you.

What is your best strategy to enable you to control and direct your emotions and hence win your golf tournaments?  Only you can answer this question.  There is no one single universal correct answer. Once you have found your own satisfactory answer to this question you will be in possession of the top tip to get you winning your golf tournaments.

Everyone knows that it is not technical ability which separates the winners from the losers in tournament golf.  It is your mind which makes the difference.

Roseanna Leaton, avid golfer and specialist in golf hypnosis mp3s and author of the golferwithin golf mind training system.

P.S.  Discover how to develop your third eye and putt with confidence.  Grab a free putting mind mp3 from my website now.

About the Author

Grab a free hypnosis mp3 from http://www.RoseannaLeaton.com and check out her golf hypnosis mp3s to help you to have a strong golf mind.

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But, apart from fly choice, I believe that the leader is the next most important component in fooling large trout. The leader has to be small enough as to remain invisible to the fish, yet strong enough to enable the fisherman to land the fish. More importantly though, the leader has to be long enough that your fly lands far enough upstream of the trout that the fly has sufficient drift to drift in to the trouts feeding zone, and at the same time allowing the fly-line to land far enough downstream so as not to disturb or spook the trout. There is no more simple a way to spook a large, wary trout than to cast your fly-line to land within the trouts cone of vision. Also because of the clarity of the water and the size of the trout, it is very easy to be fooled in to thinking the water you are fishing is not that deep. The deeper the water, the greater the trouts cone of vision, the greater the chance of the trout you are fishing to seeing your bulky, possibly bright coloured fly-line.

In my circle of fishing friends, it is usual to fish with leaders in excess of 16ft, sometimes up to 20ft. Many visiting fishermen use much shorter leaders, and for their style of fishing short leaders are probably adequate. But in order to increase the success rate on landing quality fish in demanding conditions we need to start stacking the odds in favour of the fisherman. And second only to fly choice, leader type and length is the next on the list.

The easiest way I find to make up a long leader is to use a readily available 13ft leader, 3 or 4x, and then add sufficient length of appropriate tippet to achieve the length I am after. If you don’t have along leader available, another method is to cut and old leader back to 3 or 4 ft of butt section and then bloodknot a new leader on to that. And then add your tippet. This has an advantage if you are fishing in windy conditions and need a leader with a bit more backbone. Fishing with a long leader is no different that fishing with a shorter leader and so long as you have your casting basic’s right, a long leader is no more difficult to cast than a shorter leader. Having said that, I often meet up with fishermen that are having difficulty casting a long leader or wont even bother to try – severely decreasing their chances of hooking in to a trophy trout.

Make sure you have the basic’s right, strong backcast and subsequent forward cast, use a pistoning action rather than a rolling action for your casting arm, ensuring your rod tip is traveling horizontally rather than in a large arc. I was taught the old English style of casting, stiff upper lip sort of stuff old chap, 10 to 2, don’t bend your wrist etc etc. Over the years I have found this to be a rather stifling style of casting and have added a number of variations to my own casting that make it far more adaptable and enjoyable. I tend to use a lot of wrist action, and for delicate presentations with long leaders you will need to add a some wrist action and snap at the end of your cast.

One of the most common problems I have encountered is fishermen making great false casts and then failing to complete the cast because of an underpowered or limp delivery cast. One way to cure this problem is to ensure that you delivery cast is at least as strong as your false cast’s or stronger. The technique I prefer to teach when I am instructing is to hold the line for the delivery cast, don’t present it as many do, or don’t give the line to the cast. Holding the line, at the length that you have determined from your false casting is appropriate, causes the line to snap out to its full length and subsequently the leader rolls out to its full length, maximum distance from you fly-line.

Another common mistake is to cast to the fish, rather than casting to the horizon. By picking a spot on the horizon you concentrate more on casting horizontal to the water rather than at it. Casting horizontal to the water and allowing the fly-line and full length leader to drop gently to the water gives a delicate presentation and consequently increases your chance of success. If you would like to increase your success rate, particularly on large trophy trout, I would suggest using a long leader as a good starting point. It may take some changes to ensure you are taking advantage of the longer length, but changes that will greatly improve your fishing skill base.

Long leaders are not appropriate for every occasion, particularly in the wind, but that is another whole topic for another article.

About the Author

Sara Leadbetter is a Business Advisor based in Christchurch, New Zealand. This article was written about her work on Guided Fishing with NZ Backcountry Guides, run by Al Kircher, an experienced Fishing and Hunting Guide in the South Island of New Zealand.

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Every sport is different so I won’t get into specifics. The goal is to give you a few tips to use during your exercise programs. The following information should help you develop a proper mindset for any sport you like as you move in and out of its season.

Pre season prep time

Leading into a sports season should be seen as a preparation or warm up time. Just as you do before every game you need to prepare your body for the activity. This is a time when you need to consider your sport and give thought to the areas of your body used during the sport.

Think about how your body moves through the activities of the sport. Whether it is football, soccer, basket ball or Olympic badminton competition (if you didn’t know, yes badminton is an Olympic sport), each sport has specific ways it uses your body that makes it unique. This uniqueness is where you should maintain focus in your pre season workouts. Find ways to exercise your muscle groups that will strengthen and build endurance in them through these specific athletic movements.

Why do we focus on these areas? Simply to help eliminate injuries during season. If you condition your body to handle the specific movements involved in your sport, then during season – when you put full intensity into your sport – you will be less likely to get hurt. In fact, doing this will even minimize the amount of sourness you experience during the season startup.

In season peak development

So, now you’re all warmed up and ready to play – uh, well, you think so. Just because you took the time to do some pre season warm up (by the way, good job) doesn’t mean you are at the top of your game. If you want to make sure you are at your peak for the season you need to really push yourself to the top.

Professional athletes, and those who strive to be the best, don’t just leave there game to preseason warm up and practice; they also include intense exercise programs that bring their physical conditioning to its peak level. It is this conditioning that makes their game that much better than the rest.

Here are some areas that you should focus on during your Sport season.

Rotational Exercise – Make sure you are exercising your whole body not just the areas your sport uses. Many sports have repetitive movements that only exercise your body in one direction, for instance swinging a bat. Make sure you don’t limit yourself on range of motion…find exercises that allow you to condition through all ranges.

Your core – Make sure you are continually developing your core; this area helps stabilize you during much of your body’s movements. Your midsection – Rectus abdominis, Rectus abdominis, Transversus abdominis, Erector spinae – as you can see, has four distinct muscle groups that need your focus. Plan to exercise the midsection of your body in every workout.

Weights – continue to use weights in your exercise but maybe limit to 1 repetition of 15 to failure. Weights are important in muscle development but during your Sport season you may want to make sure that workouts with weights are somewhat limited. This will ensure you are not over fatiguing yourself during your sport’s season; unless, of course, your sport requires more intense weight training.

Cardio conditioning – Outside of the cardiovascular exercise you get from your sport, you should also give three days a week to this area. Your heart and lungs provide the necessary oxygen and nutrition to the muscles of your body. If your cardiovascular system is operating at its peak you will have a better chance of performing at your peak in your sport season.

Off season cool down

Well, the games are over – No more competition to keep you motivated. So what do you do to cool down from your Sport season? The off season of any sport should be considered the phase where you are recovering, both physically and psychologically. Many athletes use this time to evaluate their season and make a determination on where they can focus for improvement in their next season.

One way to look at the off season is to see it as a transitional period; your 4-6 week period between game season and preseason. Never give up your cardiovascular training so that you can maintain your aerobic fitness; keep it light and enjoyable. In additions include resistance training that focuses on stabilization and correcting any imbalances due to repetitive motion. Finally, add in flexibility exercise. Make sure you have plenty of stretching included. This will remove a lot of the stiffness associated with an intense season.

Wrap it all up

As you can see there is no wrap up for exercise; it’s a part of every season. Now you may be wondering, “How do I maintain focus and keep my motivation going during every season”. Well, it’s easy! The best way to make sure you are motivated is to engage a personal trainer for all your sports seasons.

About the Author

Physzique is Spokane’s premier personal fitness training studio for those that want serious results. Owner and head fitness coach Zach Hunt has many years experience as a Spokane Personal Trainer to ensure you get the best results possible. Check it out at: Spokane Personal Trainer for more great fit tips and info on the Physzique services.

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1. Austria: skiing for amateurs – So maybe you’re not the athletic type. You don’t have to be to take advantage of the world’s best sporting havens, particularly if you take a few professional lessons. St. Anton, in the Arlberg region of Austria, is the best place to go for ski instruction-the Arlberg School ski technique originated here and the area’s 300+ instructors are all well-versed in the method. In the hands of these pros, you’ll look like an expert after a few days on the slopes.

2. Chile’s best skiing for mamas’ boys (sorry.we mean “cautious athletic types”) – If you’ve got nothing to prove and just want some sane, safe skiing, La Parva, located just minutes from Santiago, allows you to ski heli ski from your lodge to the lifts. If you’re afraid of getting hurled into a tree, there’s no need to worry here: the mountains are treeless. The slopes also have wind-curled cornices, so snowboarders can afford to try out a few new stunts. This is also a perfect spot to try heli-skiing in a friendly, nurturing environment.

3. Ski Whistler Blackcomb before the next Olympians do! When it comes to skiing and riding, Whistler Blackcomb with its 8,000 plus acres of terrain on both mountains, has variety and then some. Choose from steeps, deeps, chutes, high alpine bowls, glades, superb corduroy, long cruisers and gentle rollers. Riders and skiers will revel in the Parks and Pipes on both mountains plus natural launch pads, hits, wind-lips, cornices, cliff drops and ridges – the place is like a huge, natural terrain park! And the night-life is great too! This is the site of the next Winter Olympics.

4. World-class cat skiing for coupon clippers…in the Italian Alps – Sure, you’d love to go on a ritzy ski holiday but you’re – well, how can we put this? …broke. No worries. We appreciate a good bargain ourselves and have found that the deals in life are often a mere stone’s throw away from the pricey stuff. Such is the case in the Italian Alps: Mount Livata and Pescasseroli are located very near Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy’s most popular resort, but offer affordable accommodation and similar access to facilities. Same goes for Val d’Ayas, which is located near pricey Courmayeur and Cervinia and offers lower lift prices, more challenging runs and fewer crowds.

5. And if that’s not cheap enough, there’s skiing in Spain – You can ski in Spain on a busker’s budget. While there is a certain aura about the Alps resorts in France, Austria, Italy and Switzerland, the Spanish Pyrenees area keeps up with the best of them (and certainly surpasses them with respect to value.) Baquiera-Beret, in Lerida, boasts a lengthy ski season (November through April), numerous slopes of varying difficulty, plenty of chair lifts, professional ski instruction and – this is the best part – far fewer crowds than the pricier resorts. A good place to stay is Hotel Montarto which offers spectacular views and easy access to lifts.

6. If you think you’re a good skiier, try heli-skiing in the Purcells in British Columbia – Rk Heliski in Golden, welcomes you to 1,500 square kilometres/ 930 sq. miles of incredible terrain in the spectacular Purcell Mountains, on the edge of the legendary Bugaboos. Snowcat skiing/boarding tours are led by some of the world’s best mountain guides to access wide open alpine slopes, scenic glaciers and gladed forests dusted with annual snowfalls of up to 1,100 cm/36 feet. Some of this is extreme skiing, definitely not for the novice, but hey, who wants to live forever?

7. Austria’s least-known sport that’ll make you feel like a kid again – Austria’s Lake District boasts excellent ice-skating and skiing during the winter as well as water sports during the summer. The area around Wolfgangsee offers a little-known sport that’ll take you right back to your childhood. Mountain tobogganing involves carting a metal saucer-of-a-thing up a hillside (we recommend the chair lift as opposed to a hike) and descending on a metal track to the bottom. It’ll be the most invigorating five minutes of your life. Next step? Do it again!

8. And after lots of lessons and a stiff drink…Canadian daredevil’s dream – Canada’s ski-jump champs practice in Thunder Bay, Ontario, regarded as the world’s biggest jump. You’ve seen the Bond films – now it’s your turn. Mind you, there are also cross-country trails for beginners if you need to get up your confidence. The area includes four major Alpine areas. Daily flight service can be arranged from Toronto, Winnipeg and Minneapolis. This place can be crowded during peak season–who knew there were so many daredevils around?

The prospect of hitting a golf ball usually creates tension in the hands, arms, legs and neck as our body prepares for impact. This is a perfectly natural reaction, bracing for impact, even though the likelihood of injury is very small in the golf swing. In order to throw an object, you need just enough tension in your body to keep control of the item until it you are ready to RELEASE it. More on this idea later.

Throwing is an instinctual motion. I have yet to come across a person who could NOT throw an object in the general direction of the target.

As we prepare to throw an object, we pick a target and decide when to start the throwing motion. Golf is different from other ball and stick sports that require you to react to the ball with your stick (swing at – don’t swing at – swing high – swing low – etc…). In golf the ball remains stationary prior to contact. This allows us to decide when & how to start the motion. WE are in control!

Try this:

• Take your normal golf stance but remain upright (no bend at the waist). Take a golf ball (or an object that will not break anything indoors) and throw it where you would want the ball to go (across your body) in the golf swing. A “sidearm” (parallel to ground) motion is more similar to the “plane” we want in the golf swing

• Keep your feet planted (as you would in the golf swing). You will notice the weight shifting to your “back” leg / foot as you TURN Your BODY (backswing) then, without thinking about it, we SHIFT Our Weight Forward by ROTATING Our BODY.

This is a natural / instinctual motion when throwing an object. Many of us tend to try and “hit” the ball from our “back” leg (no weight shift forward / towards target) or lean / slide forward to get the weight to shift. If we throw from our “back” leg the object does not go towards the target very well (typically quite high and offline). If we “lean” into the throw the object goes directly into the ground. The WEIGHT Shift by ROTATING the BODY that is so instinctual in throwing, does not translate so easily because of the “hit” mentality.

Now to the RELEASE that was mentioned briefly earlier. Many golfers battle a slice / fade ball flight. This can be caused by many factors but we will address the angle of the clubface at impact here. Tension in the hands, arms, & neck do not allow the club (read arms, hands & body) to RELEASE naturally as they do in the throwing motion causing the clubface to remain “open” at impact.

• From the same “golf stance” as we used above, throw your object again a couple of times and notice the tension level in your arms, hands & neck.

• Take note also of the POINT of RELEASE of the object. It should be slightly ahead of your “body center” (sternum & head).

This again is done instinctually during a throw. When “hitting” a golf ball, we often try to get under / lift / scoop / help the ball into the air (weight on back leg, pulling clubhead “under” the ball) which does not produce the desired results very often. The tension level in the throws you have tried should be similar in your golf swing. With more weight at the end of the club (farthest from the grip), centrifugal force will RELEASE the clubface to a square position if the tension level is similar to that of throwing a ball.

Less tension in the golf swing leads to better mechanics.

Think of “Throwing the Clubhead” Through the Ball Towards the Target. This idea of Swinging the Club and letting the Ball “GET IN THE WAY” will help with tight / tense muscle groups that do not allow the natural SWING & RELEASE to occur.

About the Author

Bruce Baird’s Nationwide Golf Schools , established in 1995, has locations in Palm Springs, San Diego nLas Vegas, Myrtle Beach, and Ft Lauderdale, Florida

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