Basic Tennis for Women

Tennis is an excellent sport for women. Tennis is a sport that combines exercise, social activity, and fun. Tennis provides a cardiovascular workout to burn calories and increase your metabolism. Yet, it is also fun to learn if you are a beginner, especially if you are learning the game from a person who has at least a little more experience than you do. Tennis gives you the social contact you are looking for because you can play as singles (two people) or doubles (four people). 

Clothes 

Tennis-wear can be expensive, but wearing regular clothing can keep you from moving the way you need to move. A top and shorts are perfectly alright and probably fit into your budget. Put the majority of you tennis-wear budget into an excellent pair of shoes. 

Equipment 

The best investment you can make is in your tennis racquet. Pay the most amount of money you can afford for your racquet. The more you spend on your racquet, the longer it will last. A graphite racquet will give you more power when hitting the ball. Make sure the grip is right for your hand and the weight and balance feels good to you. Your racquet will be an extension of your arm. 

Tennis balls are also important to your tennis game. You will need several balls that have a good bounce. 

Watch Other Players 

It is a good idea to watch other players, especially pro players, in order to get a good idea of how the game should be played. It is best to watch players in a live match, but if that is not possible, watching TV matches is the next best thing. Watching others play gives you a new perspective. 

Private Lessons 

If it is in your budget, take lessons. Nothing beats one-on-one instruction. The individual attention an instructor gives you would prove invaluable to your overall game. She can point out your strong points while making sure you do not learn any bad habits. Even if your progress seems slow, do not give up on your lessons. You will soon see many improvements in your game that you never thought possible. 

Concentration 

The game of tennis is as much a mind game as it is a physical game. Good concentration is the skill that is crucial to playing tennis well. If you master the skills of concentration, it will help you keep your eyes on the ball at all times and move across the court from side to side, while keeping your feet moving and hitting the ball over the net within bounds. You will be able to do all of these things at once because you are so focused on the game. 

Concentration also keeps your emotions in check when you lose a point or a set. You must be able to master your emotions, and good concentration will help you do that. 

If you decide after reading this article to look into making tennis a part of your life, you will find that tennis can give you the exercise you need, a fun pastime, and the socialization you crave.

All about Netball

When watching a game of netball, you might recognize many characteristics that relate to the sport of basketball. This is due to the fact that basketball was the first form of women’s netball. Netball continues to be a very popular sport, especially in Australia. Both males and females participate, but women are seen more often playing in a netball match.

The overall concept of the sport is to get the ball to the other end of the court so that the ball can be shot into the goal. Each position that is being played has a different set of approved actions. Therefore, each team-mate is taking different routes, but their main goal is to get the ball in the net.  

The sport of netball first became popular in 1990, and during this time period, there were around 105,930 sports enthusiasts playing the game. However, the sport was actually invented in 1891 by a man named James Naismith.  

Naismith organized the game for his students at the School for Christian Workers. This later became known as the famous YMCA. Many of the female teachers at the school became curious and made their own versions for girls to play. The new movements for girls had to have some minor tweaking due to the fact that the outfits required for girls to play kept them from executing moves such as running or dribbling.

There are a total of seven positions for each player that include the goal shooter, the wing attack, the goal attack, wing defence, goal defence, centre, and goal keeper. There are also three quarters or sections on the court. In the centre of the middle quarter is a circle that the centre player has to step into before they can pass the ball. The centre can also move anywhere in the court except for the semi circle. 

The rules for netball are just as specific as they would be for any other sport. For example, when a player has the ball, they are not allowed to take a step. Once again, this sounds very familiar to basketball. Another rule that is similar to basketball is the fact that if you have the ball, then you have to pass it to another team-mate within 3 seconds. However, one rule that is different is the fact that you cannot bounce or dribble the ball. This might be due to the fact that the sport was designed for women who were unable to run or dribble in the earlier stages of the sport.

In addition to the basic guidelines, there are also etiquette rules by which all netball players have to abide. These include no taking the ball from another person, refraining from getting into arguments with the umpire or other players, no foul play such as pushing, and no rude comments to other players. In most cases, if a team-mate on one team breaks one of the rules, a free pass throw will be given to the other team. Also, many umpires will send you off the court if you argue with them.   

Aerobics that Work for You

Over the years hundreds of exercises programmes, routines, and plans have been created in order to help people obtain the results they want. However, not every person is created the same way, and as a result, not every exercise plan is going to be effective. It is important to make sure that you find a plan that is going to work for you and provide you with the workout you need. There are a number of ways to go about putting together a workout that is going to provide you with the exercise you need and will target the areas you want to target.

The first thing to do is sit down, determine what it is you want to accomplish with your workouts, and what you want the routine to do for you. Some individuals may want to lose weight; others may want to create a particular toning on part of their body, while others still may want to increase flexibility and endurance. It is important to know exactly what you want to do before you begin an exercise programme. This will allow you to adapt a programme to suit your personal needs.

Many people have a strength training routine. They walk or run, have an aerobics programme, and often have a stretching or warm up and cool down routine. This can take a considerable amount of time, and you could still end up with results that are less than you want or expect. This is why it is a good idea to know what you want to accomplish.

Once you have this information, do a bit of research into the various aspects of exercises that are going to provide you with what you need to accomplish your goal. Consider putting together exercises that can provide you with a routine that is smooth and comfortable. The movements should allow you to flow from one style or part to another. For example, begin with Tai chi. This stretches out the muscles, making it easier for you to be able to execute exercises with a minimal amount of negative strain on your body.

Using this style of stretching also provides you with a great way to tone and strengthen the core muscles of the body, those of the back and stomach. The muscles will be relaxed and loose, and that creates a number of benefits for you. The first is that it minimizes the chances of an injury during a routine. From the stretches, you can move into the aerobic part of the routine. This should get your heart pumping and should be upbeat and should keep you moving. This is going to help to remove toxins from the body and at the same time will help you to lose weight and tone muscles.

This can be a dance routine, step routine, or even hitting a treadmill or elliptical machine. Once you have gone through the aerobics, do a short cool down to allow your muscles to rest. Then do whatever strength training you want to do, and then do another cool down to complete your workout. 

Aerobics and Dance

Many people would love to dance the way their favourite stars do these days, so dance-based classes are becoming the rage in fitness training. Whether you prefer urban funk, bodyjam, WiiFit, the Rockstar workout (by Nike), or workout DVDs by former boy-band choreographers, there’s a workout out there with your name on it. Working out with your favourite songs is not only fun, but one of the best ways to keep yourself motivated. Even if you have two left feet, you can still try good old classic aerobics or step training, with their easier, more repetitive movements.

While all aerobics have some impact, those referred to as high impact are exercises or moves with a greater impact due to both feet being off the floor at the same time, such as in jumps. Aerobics that are low impact have one foot always contacting the floor. Marching in place is an example. There are also classes combining the two called hi/lo. Another popular take on aerobics includes regimes such as boxing or Tai Bo, which is based on kickboxing.

All aerobic classes have two things in common: they begin with a warm-up routine to loosen your muscles before you begin, and they wind down slowly, ending with a stretch or a series of stretches.

These days, most gyms and leisure centres offer whole ranges of various classes and allow you to watch a class (or two) that you are considering signing up for before you actually take part in it. Some facilities also offer you the opportunity to take one free class to see if the workout is something to which you are willing to commit.

Nowadays, dressing for your aerobics class is much less formal than it used to be. While some things, like a decent pair of cross-trainers are absolutely essential, others, such as legwarmers and leotards, are optional! Comfort is the rule.

There are some basics to consider to make your workout successful. Sports Development Officer Mari Wyn-Jones, who is also an aerobics instructor, has the following suggestions:

Work out to music that you’ll really enjoy moving to.

Don’t give up if your muscles ache after you finish your first session; this is your muscles getting used to being in action. Just remind yourself why you want to try aerobics to begin with.

Indulge yourself with some healthy, trendy gadgets. A pedometer or a monitor for your heart-rate, which lets you tally those steps and will remind you just how hard you’re working and how much you are accomplishing.

Find something you love. There are so many different styles and types of aerobics, including the ones mentioned above, that there is bound to be one you can live with. Look for the ones that allow you to work at your current fitness level and then move to the next one.

Don’t assume that everyone there will be in better shape than you. People of all shapes, ages, and sizes will be participating.

If you can’t go in the morning, try to find a class that meets right after work; if you begin past 8pm, your body is too tired for a proper workout.

Don’t worry about a class being too hard. A good aerobics class will be able to accommodate different intensity levels within one workout; choose a workout pace that challenges you but allows you to breathe.

A Brief History of Women in Golf

Before grabbing your bag of clubs and heading to your local links, you might think about some of the great contributions that women have made to golf throughout history. These pioneers not only made major contributions to the game itself but also made contributions concerning your right to participate in a great sport that was once open only to men.

First, we should thank Mary Queen of Scots. She was, in spite of being a woman, permitted to play golf whenever she felt like it (it’s good to be the queen). She is believed to have coined the term “caddy,” derived from her pet name for those indispensable golf assistants – “Cadets.” Furthermore, although women would not be allowed to play there for almost four hundred years, her reign saw the construction of St. Andrews, the world’s most celebrated golf course.

The earliest known mixed-gender foursome hit the links in 1890. This was a banner event for women golfers and included Carrie Low and John Reid versus Mrs. John Reid and John Upham (Low and Reid won). This new way of arranging a foursome created major interest among women, and a year later Long Island’s Shinnecock Hills Golf Club was the first to welcome the female duffers. There was such an overwhelming response that two years later the course’s management built a 9-hole course specifically for women. Around the end of 1893, the first of an ongoing series of British Ladies’ championships was sponsored by the British Ladies Golf Union, where the winner Lady Mary Scott represented the Royal House.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, the United States held the first golf tournament for women in Morristown, NJ, on a course of seven holes in 1894. Hollard A. Ford won the event, beating her nearest opponent by 14 strokes, with a score of 97. The year 1894 also saw the creation of the Women’s National Golf Championship in Australia.

By 1895, women were a common site on the links almost everywhere. Courses in most of the so-called civilized nations had started allowing women to play. Even in Hempstead, NY, the stuffy Meadow Brook Club got into the act and sponsored the first Women’s Amateur Championship, in which 13 women golfers competed for a trophy, which Mrs. Charles S. Brown won by finishing with a score of 132.

Moving to the present, it’s unlikely that any woman golfer can remember back far enough to the days when “No Women Allowed” signs were the norm at their local greens. These days, younger girls are active in the sport, which is a great way to keep fit and develop coordination. As a matter of fact, if you are a woman and want a role model in golf, you don’t have to look any further than 19-year-old Michelle Wie, who turned pro when she was 16 and has been going great guns ever since. From the ability she’s shown to date, Michelle has already become a major entry in women’s golf records.

6 Reasons Why Sports Should be Important to Women and Girls

Women and girls have traditionally participated in sports a lot less than their male counterparts. Although there are still barriers in place that many groups and governments are trying to break down to allow more women and girls to participate, there remain some barriers that women themselves have erected to keep themselves out. However, sport and physical activity remain just as important for females as it is for males. We will explore six reasons why sports are important to women and girls. 

·        Statistics have proven that female secondary school students who play sports on a school team are less likely to experience an unwanted pregnancy. They are also more likely to achieve better scores in academics and are also more likely to graduate from secondary school than female students who do not participate in a sport.

 

·        As few as four hours of physical activity per week can reduce a teenage female’s risk of developing breast cancer by almost 60%.

 

·        Of women who are over the age of 50, 40% suffer from osteoporosis or brittle bones. It is a fact that women who participate in sports are the least likely to develop osteoporosis. Mothers and grandmothers suffer from this dreaded disease because women were discouraged from participating in sports. Young women and girls should be encouraged to participate in physical activity to reduce the risk of osteoporosis later in life.

 

·        Women and girls who participate in sports experience higher levels of self confidence and self esteem. They are less likely to suffer from depression.

 

·        Women and girls who play sports possess a positive body image and are more psychologically healthy than those who do not play sports.

 

·        A sport teaches many skills that a young woman will need to compete in the workplace. She must know several things in order to have a competitive edge. Skills such as performance excellence, goal setting, and team work are essential skills that men have learned from sports over the centuries. It has become critical that young ladies learn these skills also. It is not surprising that nearly 80% of Fortune 500 companies with female executives describe themselves as having been “tomboys” while growing up. These women were active in sport.

 

Our focus is not only to equalize the right for women and girls to participate in sports, but we should realise that sports can give our young girls and women the chance to benefit from the physical, psychological, and sociological attributes of the world of sports. Over the centuries, we have recognized the benefits of sports for our boys but have discouraged our girls from playing sports, and thus they miss out on some valuable opportunities for growth. Statistics tell us that a high percentage of our girls will never marry. They will be in the world alone fending for themselves. They will need the skills and abilities to become successful in the marketplace. What better way to learn these skills which will put them ahead and will help them stay healthy than having them participate in sports.

 

5 Mental Exercises to Improve Your Tennis Game

Your tennis game can improve with more practice, but if a woman adds these five mental exercises to her routine, the improvement will be significant. Tennis is clearly a very physical sport, but the tennis game begins in the mind. 

Here are 5 mental exercises that will help your tennis game improve. 

1.      Control your thinking

Negative thinking has more effect on tennis players than they might realize. Negative thinking affects the body in two ways: being overly aware of your abilities (feeling tension) and being unaware of your abilities. Negative thinking creates negative emotions that can cloud judgment and thus affect one’s abilities. 

By becoming alert to what she is thinking, a player can change her thinking to more positive thoughts and to thinking of solutions. Becoming aware of thoughts is challenging but necessary in playing tennis well. 

2.      Build confidence

Self confidence enables a female athlete to play her best. Confidence in her ability to play tennis gives her an edge over the competition that may not be as confident as she. When a tennis player is not confident, she will hesitate before making critical decisions. She will also be afraid of taking any risks. She will usually miss a shot by a fraction of an inch. Her doubt in her abilities will show up as small misses that happen too often. 

Confidence always leaves a player with hope even when a big challenge shows up. 

3.      Find and conquer limiting beliefs

Limiting beliefs are the hardest things to find in a woman and the hardest things to conquer. That is because they reside deep in the psyche. They are such a part of the woman’s thinking that she does not realize they are limiting her abilities in some way. 

An example of a limiting belief is a tennis player who believes she never wins a tie-breaker, so she makes sure every time she is in a tie-breaker that she does not win. She will sabotage herself every time. 

If a woman has no limiting beliefs, she then totally accepts anything and everything that happens as not having anything to do with her abilities. Events have absolutely no meaning for her. She is better able to cope and deal with circumstances.  

4.      Improve concentration

Even though a player can start out a game with good concentration, she sometimes loses her concentration because of events that can happen during a normal game. She may feel pressured by the close score or because she is a little intimidated by her opponent. She may have an emotional reaction to an unfair call or because she missed an easy shot. 

A player needs the ability to shake off anything that may distract her and make her lose her concentration. Emotions should be kept in check as much as possible. 

5.      Use visualization

Visualization, or the ability to use imagery, is a key ability to use in all aspects of tennis. Visualization can help a player improve her technique, physical abilities, and strategies in the game of tennis. She can use visualization when she makes a mistake by missing a shot and then immediately sees in her mind how to hit the ball correctly the next time. 

 

Your Tennis Game Improved in Five Easy Steps

There is no sport more difficult to master and physically demanding than the game of tennis. Two of the reasons why not many people are very good at tennis is there are not many places to practice and most people do not have the money to pay for tennis lessons. It is no fun to spend more time chasing balls than hitting them. Here is a plan to use five easy steps that will help you improve your tennis game. 

Get the Right Equipment 

How long have you had your tennis racquet? Is it made of wood? If you have a wooden tennis racquet, it is time to retire it, because you definitely need a graphite racquet. Why? The professional tennis players use graphite racquets because they give them more power when they hit the ball. The graphite racquets also have a larger hitting area so you will hit more balls. They can be very inexpensive at around $20, so you won’t be shelling out a lot of money. 

Find a Practice Area 

Where is the best place to practice tennis? Most public tennis courts have a hitting wall or board where you can practice hitting balls. If your tennis courts do not have a hitting wall, you can construct one at home or find an area on your house, garage, or barn to hit balls. If you construct a hitting wall, make sure that it is limited in size to keep you hitting the ball at a smaller area. This keeps you accurate. When you are able to hit the ball eight to ten times consistently, it is time to find a partner and go to the court. 

Get Moving 

Your feet should never be still while playing tennis. Constantly moving your feet from side to side prepares you to move quickly in response to the opponent’s shot. Your entire area should be covered, so you need to be ready to sprint to wherever the ball lands. As a beginner, you need to learn to be wherever the ball is so that your returns are not inaccurate and weak. After hitting the ball, return to the centre of the court as quickly as possible. 

Tennis Strokes 

What about your backhand stroke?  Should you use one hand or two? This debate over whether it is better to use a one hand backstroke or two hands will probably always be with us because everyone has a preference. The suggestion here is to use the one hand backstroke as a beginning tennis player. You save time by getting into position quicker with the one hand backstroke. Also, the one hand backstroke gives you more variety of angles. 

Emotional State 

The best way to become a good tennis player begins with your emotional state. It is frustrating at times to learn to be a good tennis player. If you can learn at the very beginning of your training to keep your emotions intact, you will become a good competitive player. Frustration and anger makes a tennis player hit the ball too hard, too long, or into the net. You can lose a match because you have lost control of your emotions. You need to stay cool over any lost points.

Your Success at Golf Begins with Your Thoughts

The biggest obstacle to overcome when playing golf is self-doubt. If you can learn to think differently about your golf game, you will see a difference in your scores. A round of golf can be compared to life. Both are a journey that you feel compelled to see through to the end. Is it frustrating? Yes. Is it disappointing sometimes? Yes. But is it worth it? Yes. Yes. 

No matter how badly or how well you played the last hole, the next hole presents a brand new opportunity to win. So it is with life. Every morning that you get out of bed is another brand new opportunity to get it right. If you can adopt the attitude that the last hole was a fiasco but this one does not have to be that way, you can end up with a great score. If you watch Tiger Woods play golf, you may see him get really upset with himself when he misses his target, but you will also see him recover and move on to the next hole and look forward to it. 

Life presents itself the same way. We cannot seem to get over some things and put them behind us. We carry them to the next phase in life, and now that phase is no longer a brand-new opportunity, but a place to bring old baggage and mistakes from the past. We never get to live in the moment when the moment is all we really have. 

Hanging on to the last bad hole reduces your self-confidence. You start thinking to yourself that you are going to mess up this hole just as you did the last one. It is not that you want to repeat the last hole; you just cannot see how this one is going to be any better. Isn’t that what most of us do with life? We get up every morning grumpy and grouchy, expecting our day to be just like it was yesterday and the day before and the day before that. We have no expectations that today is going to be different, and unless a miracle happens, we get what we expect. 

In our golf game and in our lives, we lose the one main objective to playing the game: to have fun! If you are not a pro golfer making a living at playing golf, what do you care if you are a lousy player? Your only objective for playing golf should be TO HAVE FUN! Nothing else really matters. 

Now you are probably thinking that the main objective in life cannot be to have fun. You have too many responsibilities just to have fun. The bills need to be paid. There is no way you can afford to live your life to have fun, but that depends on what your definition of fun happens to be. When you look it up in a thesaurus, you will find synonyms such as pleasure, play, amusement, sport, relaxation, and so forth. We have been taught that you cannot have fun and take care of your responsibilities, but don’t you see that you can change your paradigm and realize that you can see your responsibilities as fun? It’s all in how you look at it. 

You Can Improve Your Game While Warming Up for Volleyball

Warming up before volleyball practice or a game is critically important. The usual warm-up includes a light jog and stretching sessions. Not only do players need to warm up their muscles to prevent injuries, but they can also use volleyball drills to reawaken their muscles’ memories to perform the basics of volleyball, such as serving and setting. We will discuss some volleyball warm-up drills that can kill two birds with one stone. 

Peppering Does Help 

Peppering is without a doubt the most useful volleyball warm-up drill because it covers so many of the skills needed in volleyball and it is fast-paced to warm up the muscles. There are various versions of this warm-up drill. There is the Pepper that involves four players, in which the team is divided into groups of four.  Player one is the hitter, player two is the setter, and players three and four are both diggers. The players stand in a circle facing each other. 

Player one has the ball at the beginning of the drill. Player one tosses the ball into the air and hits it towards one of the diggers (players three and four). The digger hits the ball back to the setter, who hits the ball back to the hitter. The hitter then hits the ball to the other digger, who hits it back to the setter, who then returns it to the hitter. This drill continues until the coach blows the whistle and the players change positions. 

If one of the players drops the ball and it hits the ground, each member of the team must do 10 pushups or run back and forth to the nearest line three times. This promotes accuracy in hits, digs, and sets and motivates the players to reach for the more difficult shots. Each hit should be accurately hit to prevent the receiver from moving more than one step toward the ball. 

Serving Drills 

A good serve is one of the most important skills to have. Since serving is a key skill in volleyball, it is important to include one or two serving drills in the warm-up. The following serving drill develops accuracy. 

The team stands in a line behind the serving area. The first player starts with a bucket of balls. The player then serves the ball into the six designated areas on the opponent’s side of the court. Area one is the area at the back right of the court. Area two is in the front of area one. Area three is front centre court, while area four is front left. Area five is the back left part of the court, while area six is the back central area. 

The player keeps track of how many serves she had to make in order to complete the circuit by serving to all six areas. If it is decided to run this drill as a competition, the player with the lowest score is the winner.