Sports you probably never heard of!

So everyone knows soccer, basket ball, baseball, tennis, swimming etc right?

But the sports world is much more broader and fun than you think. So today, I’ll tell you about some very UNIQUE sports!

1.Underwater Hockey

Underwater Hockey is literally hockey played underwater haha(: Look at the video below!

 

2.Kaiju Big Battle

Kaiju Big battle is a series of performances which are actually parodies of both professional wrestling and the tokusatsu kaiju movies in Japan!

3. Boss ball

Different odd sports (18 pics)

Bossaball is a sport invented in Belgium. It is similar to volleyball, but also includes elements of football (soccer), gymnastics and capoeira.

3.Pig-N-ford Racing!

Different odd sports (18 pics)

In Tillamook, Oregon, pigs are carried on old Ford Model T cars while racing around a horse track at the Tillamook County Fair. While the driver is riding he has no right to let go of a pig, if so, he loses.

4.Pillow fight Leauges!

Different odd sports (18 pics)

Who doesn’t like pillow fights? haha I used to always do pillow fights when I was a child (:.This sport  is a Toronto-based semi-professional sports league centered around public pillow fights. The tongue in cheek women’s sport is hosted in a fighting arena, much like a boxing or wrestling match.

So are you surprised at these unique sports? haha You might as well go off exploring them. who knows, you might have a great talent in one of these, even though your not as good at basketball, soccer etc. (:

Genes? Athletic abilities?

So I saw news that scientists developed a  “Sports test” where you can find what ability you will have in each sport. haha

This test works by looking at what kind of protein your body produces, and based on this a professional can determine which sports you will have a great ability at!

I personally thought that athletic abilities are 99% from effort, and this was big news for me.

However I found out that Genetics shape us in many ways, including our potential to excel in sports. Of course it’s not ALL about genes, as training, diet and other factors also play a large role in one’s athletic ability. You may have the genetic potential for being a champion athlete, but if you don’t make the effort it is useless.

Genetics have a large influence over strength, muscle size and muscle fiber composition, anaerobic thershold, lung capacity, endurance, flexibility. One Major limitation for endurance athletes is cardiac capacity, or the heart’s ability to deliver enough oxygen to the working skeletal muscles. This, too, is largely determined by genetics.

 

Wilson vs Babolat

So.. I bought a new racquet for the upcoming tennis season!

I researched a LOT just to buy the right racquet, and I’m very satisfied with my choice. So today, I would like to share the information I researched! I hope it helps if your planning to buy a new racket!

The two rackets I really struggled through were the Wilson BLX 6.1 95, and Babolat Aero Storm. (Wilson- Red, Babolat- Yellow)

Wilson BLX 6.1 95

Everyone knows Wilson right? Wilson is the classic tennis racket brand which has a variety of options. The Wilson BLX 6.1 95, also known as Rodger Federer’s new racket is a popular racket for both women & men. This was my coach’s racket and I had a chance to use it. This racket is known for it’s light weight and soft hit,(less vibration).

In contrast

Babolat Aero Storm

Probably one of the uprising tennis brand would be Babolat. Among all of the Babolat rackets, Babolat Aero Storm is the most popular. This racket was also used by a well known player Rafael Nadal, and is known for it’s level of control and safe, comfortable hits. I had a chance to use this racket as well, and I was impressed by the solid feel at impact. This racket was significantly heavier than the Wilson racket , and this made me struggle a lot more for disicion.

So, leading to another question…

Heavy rackets vs Light rackets

Light rackets(Wilson BLX 6.1 95)

The racket I used before was a very old, female racket which was really light. Light raquets are good for beginners and are usually the larger head sized ones too like 105 square inches or more. However once you start to hit the ball harder, than you do NOT want to have a light racket. Light rackets are good for you to get used to playing easy tennis, but when you hit the ball harder, it loses control and vibrates to the point where it is likely to go out.

Heavy rackets(Babolat Aero Storm)

Heavier rackets are usually smaller than lighter rackets. It is safe for a player who has a strong hit, because with less vibration the ball will still sometimes go in and give you another chance(Something a light racket will not do). Also this might sound weird but heavy rackets are better for your elbows because the raquet weight will change the direction of the ball rather than putting stress on your elbow when you are making a power shot. Proof that heavier rackets for better hitters is the pros. Almost (very close to every) all of them use heavy rackets.Rodger Federer uses a raquet which weighs 12.6 ounces. It may be heavy but gives him a LOT of control and really, once you get used to the racket it doesn’t feel heavy.

I chose to buy the Babolat Aero Storm model. Although I was really attracted by the brand Wilson(haha) and the slim design of Wilson BLX 6.1 95, as my weakness is consistency of hitting safe balls I decided to purchase Babolat Aero Storm. By researching all of this information I also learned a lot about tennis, and that it’s not all about the player, but actually the racket can make a difference.  I hope my blog post helped, if your finding just the right racket for you(:

Left-Wilson BLX 6.1 95   Right-Babolat Aero Storm

Water vs Sports drinks

Gatorade, Powerade, Pocari Sweat..

All of these drinks are loved by sports players. But why? and are they better than water?

Sports Drinks

In comparison to water, Sports drinks do not hydrate better than water. But people are more likely to drink in larger volumes and therefore this leads to better hydration. The typical taste of Sports drinks, sweet-tart taste combination doesn’t quench thirst, so you will keep drinking a sports drink long after water has lost its appeal. You can get a carbohydrate boost from sports drinks, in addition to electrolytes which my be lost from perspiration, but these drinks tend to offer lower calories than juice or soft drinks. A lot of people who exercise for weight loss tend to avoid Sports drinks because of the calories. However Sports drinks help to complement the loss of Natrium and other neautritions you lose while you are exercising.

Water

So nothing can go wrong with water right?Water hydrates better than any other liquid, both before AND during exercise. Water is less expensive and more available than any other drink. You need to drink 4-6 ounces of water for every 15-20 minutes of exercise. However during intense work outs, water may not be the best choice,as water does not support any nutritions that you lose while working out. In America one women passed away, because of lack of Natrum while she was on a diet.

Personally I prefer water just because I do not like the funny taste and color of Sports drinks. However, I must admit that their a reason why they are called “Sports” drinks.

Wii sports!

Today, I’m going to talk about a very interesting sport. Well.. It’s more like a game, but consumes a lot of energy. Watch the video below!

Are you guys all familiar with these characters and voices? haha . Yes, today I’m gonna talk about what is known as Wii sports! As technology is developing every day, now we can play tennis, ping pong, wrestling, basket ball, soccer, bowling with a game system. Isn’t that amazing?

Some people may think that Wii sports are only for fun but not for actual exercising. However this is NOT True. Wii games consume 125 calories in 15 minutes of Boxing, 92 calories in 15 minutes of Tennis, 77 calories in 15 minutes of bowling. Sports like tennis and boxing burn the most calories among the other Wii games.

Computer programmer Mickey DeLorenzo did an experiment with the Wii games. DeLorenzo put himself on a Wii fitness regimen for six weeks in December 2006. The results were that he lost 9 pounds (4 kilograms) and 3 inches from his waist just by integrating a half hour of Wii activity every day. He did not change his diet or did not exercise additionally. DeLorenzo emphasizes that he swung or punched, depending on the game, as hard as possible to maximize his results.

I have a Wii machine in my house my self. It actually looks hilarious when your playing, but after about half an hour, you’ll realize that your sweating a LOT. I personally think it’s a good way to exercise while having fun.(:

Beautiful feet

Korea has a lot of outstanding sports players such as Taehwan Park, Miran Jang, Jisung Park. Today, I’m going to talk about a beautiful young lady who every Korean is proud of. Her name is… Yun Ah Kim. In case you don’t know her, she’s the Korean national figure skater.

I was watching the sports news on the internet, and I clicked on an article “Yun Ah Kim’s feet”. The picture below was what grabbed my attention, and the article definitely came to my heart.

Yun Ah Kim started figure skating when she was six years old. Her mom wanted her to start skating, and whenever Yun Ah wanted to give up, she strongly pushed her and convinced her to stand back up. Yun Ah Kim, now thanks her mother for not letting her stop, as today she stands as the number one figure skater in Korea, making billions of money, and being acknowledged by the world.

Life of a tennis player

I was looking at my elementary album yesterday, which has all of my writings, pictures while I was  an elementary student. And there was an assignment about your future dream job. “Tennis player” that’s what I wrote.

Becoming a professional tennis player was my dream job until I was a sixth grader. I wrote down “Because  I am good at it and I enjoy it and it has a high income”. At that time it sounded so realistic haha. But when I went into middle school, I realized that becoming a tennis player, and living as a tennis player is not that ideal as I thought it would be.

The life of a tennis player is like a celebrity but who is a part of one of the most difficult professional sports that is being played these days. People will be astonished on how well professional tennis players get payed. HOWEVER, when you think about tennis players how many do you think in your mind? Mostly probably 20?10? Those players are the players who get highly paid. Only the top elite players get a fancy big pay check, while the other players do not.

However every tennis player has to pay a certain amount of money to even compete in games. Certain expenses are traveling expenses as well as their coaches. With about 20 tournaments a year, this is quite a heavy amount.  Some players do not expect more than a cut even through their tours and hardly make extra money. Beyond that, this applies to every professional sports player, but you have to practice hours and hours everyday, in order to survive in the industry.

Like this, being a tennis player is not easy at all. I was naive and young to think that it is an easy highly payed job, haha.

A goalie who shoots?

Today, I’m gonna be talking about a different sport for the first time. I thought as a “sports blog” I should post stuff about some other sports too! haha

So I’ve decided to post about… a Korean Soccer player today(: I’m not a huge fan of soccer, but I’m HUGE fan of this player. To be honest I didn’t even watch the world cup till last year, and that’s when I’ve became a big fan of this player. And this player, is the goalie of the national Korean soccer team.. which is JungSung Ryong!

I not only like him because he’s good looking, tall (cough cough), but there was this one game that really blew me away. It was the 27/July/2008 game with Côte d’Ivoire. (The video below is part of this match)

So not only does he block well, but he also can shoot haha. This goal actually gave him a Guinness record of “Worlds longest shooting distance”. He’s only 25 years old, and is doing an amazing job for our country. He’s my favorite player, and a hero in Korean soccer history!

Ball boys

So today I’m not really gonna talk about tennis.

If you watched a tennis match before, you probably have seen the people who run and get the balls the players hit, and roll them to the other side. These people are called ball boys.

Many people think that this is an easy job that anyone can do, but IN FACT people actually get trained to do this. And they also have a lot of requirements. You’ll be surprised!!

The ball boys/girls have to be able to give priority to training during the training period. They also have to be physically fit. They must have a good knowledge about the tennis rules. And they must be available to start training at 4pm. Ball boys/girls are teenagers normally in 9-10 grades. They must be available on Sundays. The students also have to pass a written test on the rules and scoring of tennis, and they must be able to complete a circuit and than stand still for 3 minutes!

Some interesting facts about ball boys/girls are that ball girls were first introduced in the 1977. And in 1980’s the first mixed team of Ball boys, girls were introduced:)

Like this, even though what ball boys/ girls do seem easy it’s really not:)

Clay courts or hard courts?

If you watch tennis games on TV sometimes, you would know the two different types of tennis courts. One is a clay court,( it looks like it’s made with sand and it has a reddish color), and the other one the more common one is a hard court, it is green and has white outlines.

So you might be questioning, “does it make a big deal?“. Surprisingly it really does, they both have their unique characteristics, and he/she could maybe play like a professional tennis player on a clay court, but play like a beginner on hard court. I’ll tell you about both courts and the unique characteristics.

Clay court

So I’ll start off clarifying one COMMON misconception about clay courts. The majority of people think that the court is covered with sand, however it is actually crushed brick set to make the court. This type of court may be the CHEAPEST court to construct, however it takes a LOT of work(and money) to maintain the court. Clay courts are less likely to bring injuries, because the surface of the floor is soft comparing to hard courts. So people who are old tend to prefer clay courts instead of hard courts. A very BIG characteristic about clay courts is that the ball bounces lower and slower, comparing to hard courts. This is why players who only play on clay courts have a hard time playing on hard courts. The video below, is a video of  Rafael Nadal the player who is known as “The King of Clay”.

Hard Court

So hard courts are the courts that you guys are mostly familiar with. They are more often used in professional games than  clay courts. The biggest difference between hard courts and clay courts is the speed of the bounce, and how high the ball bounces. Comparing to clay courts, a ball will bounce 1.5 times faster than it would on a clay court. People who have an advantage on hard courts are the people who hit hard, rather than look at the courses and hit angles. The US open and the Australian open are both played on hard courts. This video below is a video of the US open.