June 2008
Monthly Archive
Monday 30 Jun 2008
Why Cheerleading is the Most Dangerous Women’s Sport
Lack of Fully Equipped Training Facilities and Equipment
A simple comparison of the average gymnastics and the average cheerleading training facility shows how poorly the average cheerleading training facility is equipped. Many cheer programs have no specialized training facility at all and many have no or minimal equipment. This makes learning cheerleading skills more difficult, dangerous and creates inconsistent skill performance.
Untrained Coaches
Perhaps the number one reason for the high injury level is the prevalence of untrained and inexperienced coaches. It is not that uncommon for school cheerleading programs to only be required to have a faculty advisor, with no requirement for that faculty member to have any cheerleading experience at all. This results in jr. high and high school age athletes being completely responsible for their own training - obviously an unsafe situation. Often school programs have cheer “sponsors” not cheer coaches, a verbal recognition that the program leader has no cheer coaching expertise.
Coaching Inexperience
Even former cheerleaders may not have enough experience to safely coach the new level of difficult skills that are being performed in cheerleading. Former cheerleaders who only performed simple to moderately difficult sideline and half-time skills are not experienced in teaching the high level competitive cheerleading skills now being done.
Poor Pay
One of the primary reasons for the prevalence of both untrained cheer coaches and more widely experienced coaches is the sometimes ridiculously low pay remunerating cheer coaches or sponsors. There is no financial incentive for coaches to spend their own money for training when they know they will never be able to recoup their investment.
Poor Spotting
Inherent in certain aspects of cheerleading is that cheerleaders spot other cheerleaders. They do so in basket tosses, stunting and pyramids. One of the basic tenets of gymnastics coaching is that only professional coaches are qualified, mature and experienced enough to spot gymnasts. Cheerleading depends on athletes of the same age and experience level to take responsibility for the lives of their cheerleading teammates. This is certainly dangerous to at least some degree and that danger must be recognized. Spotting requires deep concentration, commitment and taking personal responsibility for the safety of the cheerleader being spotted. Simply assigning an increasing number of youthful spotters does not solve the problem.
Lack of Necessary Conditioning and Strength Training
The need for adequate strength training and physical conditioning is recognized in most sports programs. It is also understood that practicing most sports does not provide sufficient strength training and physical conditioning. Too many cheer programs contribute and compound an already unsafe situation by not adequately building the strength and fitness levels of their athletes.
Not Using Proper Skill Progression
Proper skill progression is a tenet of gymnastics training programs. It is only logical that basic skills be learned and mastered in safe small steps. Too many cheer programs rush through progressions or skip them entirely. Many cheerleading coaches and cheerleaders are even unaware of the progressive training steps they should be following. There are safety and skill progressions for tumbling, stunting, pyramids and basket tossing. This is definitely an area where ignorance contributes to the danger.
Competing Skills That Have Not Been Mastered
The emergence of the new competitive aspects of cheerleading and the increasing numbers and importance of cheer competition hve placed pressure on cheerleaders and cheer coaches to increase the difficulty of the skills they are performing. Under the guidance (?) of inexperienced and untrained coaches/sponsors, safely learning to perform these more difficult and more dangerous skills is not surprisingly inconsistent.
Summary
Cheerleading has many factors that contribute to its danger factor. Some dangers are inherent in the sport as it exists. Some have to do with coaching and some have to do with the structure (or lack of it) cheer programs from the school/team level to the national association level.
For More Information
For even more of the type of in-depth information about cheerleading in this article and other interesting and informative products, see our Cheer Zone web site at: http://gymnasticszone.com/CheerZon.htm
15 Books and Counting
John Howard is the author of 15 books and e-Books about cheerleading, gymnastics, gym design, and gymnastics humor. More books are already on the way. He has 25 years experience and has coached State, Regional and National champion gymnasts, international competitors and cheerleaders at the National level in NCAA Division I.
Enter the Gymnastics Zone
GymnasticsZone.com is a highly informative gymnastics information web site for gymnasts, cheerleaders, coaches and parents with numerous FREE articles and information, fun pages and activities all available for viewing at: http://GymnasticsZone.com
Sunday 29 Jun 2008
Ness Notes (May 17)
The NBA treated us to two thrilling finishes last night, as the Heat edged the Nets 106-105 and in double-overtime, the Suns outlasted the Clippers 125-118. The Heat win eliminates the Nets (4-1) and the win by the Suns gives them a 3-2 lead in their series with the Clippers (resumes Thursday night in LA).
My free play for Wednesday is on the Min Twins over the Det Tigers at 7:05 ET. I got a gift from the “gambling gods” last night with the Suns, extending my playoff run to 5-1 83% since last Weds. Im ‘firing’ on Wednesday with an exclusive LEGEND Play (4-0 in this year’s postseason) plus another 15* Game 5 Showdown. My MLB for Weds will be available by 1:00 ET.
Both home teams won giving home teams a five-game winning streak since Sunday night’s Suns/Clippers game. They are now 12-6 SU in the second round, going 8-10 ATS. Both games went ‘over’, as the high scoring continued in this year’s postseason. The first round saw nine of its final 10 games go over the total and the second has seen 13 of the 18 games go over. Over bettors are now plus-15.4 games, cashing 78.6 percent of their ‘tickets’ over the last 28 playoff contests.
‘Players’ following the “Zig-Zag” theory have had a successful run to-date in the second round, as playing ‘on’ the SU loser of the previous game has them up 5.6 games with a 10-4 record (71.4 percent). However, this can change quickly, as we saw in the first round. The “Zig Zag” theory opened the first round at 19-8-2 ATS but finished the round on an 0-8 ATS run, barely showing a profit (plus 1.4 games) for the effort.
In last night’s NJ/Mia game, the Nets’ trio of Carter, Jefferson and Kidd combined for 86 points (Carter and Jefferson both had 33) but it wasn’t enough to lead the Nets past the Heat, who had six players score in double figures (Walker led the way with 23). Miami, after losing Game 1 100-88, won four straight games. Teams that have fallen behind 3-1 in a seven-game series are now just 8-156 all-time. Are the Mavs and Spurs listening?
In Phoenix, the Suns blew a 19-point third quarter lead and Cassell sent the game into OT with a three-pointer for the Clippers. It was then the Suns’ Bell who nailed a three-pointer at the end of the first OT period, before the Suns outscored the Clippers by seven points in the second OT (for the cover!). Three Clippers played 50 minutes or more (Brand, Cassell and Mobley), while two Suns did (Bell and Marion).
Teams that win Game 5 of a seven-game series when tied at 2-all, have gone on to win 165 of 183 times in NBA playoff history. That’s an .855 winning percentage. Breaking those numbers down further reveals that teams that have won Game 5 at home are 118-10 (.922) while teams that won Game 5 on the road have gone 47-18 (.723). Are the Cavs and Pistons listening?
Wednesday’s games
The Cavs and Pistons start things off tonight in Detroit at 7:05 ET on TNT. The Mavs and Spurs will follow from San Antonio at 9:35 ET. The Pistons are favored by 11 points with a total of 179, while the Spurs are favored by five points with a total of 191 1/2.
The Pistons couldn’t score in the two losses at Cleveland, getting just 77 and 72 points while shooting 39.4 percent and 33.3 percent. Detroit was completely stifled in the second halves of both games, scoring 35 points and 34 points, while being outscored in the fourth quarter of Game 3 (33-21) and Game 4 (21-13). Will a return home make a difference? The Pistons have averaged 106.6 PPG in five playoff home games, shooting 48 percent.
As for the Cavs, James has played all 48 minutes in each of the last three games of this series and neither Ilgauskas (7.0-6.5) nor Gooden (7.0-5.5) were much help in the two Cleveland wins. Hughes is likely to miss his third straight game (maybe no big deal as he was shooting just 31 percent in the playoffs). Can Cleveland players like Marshall, Murray, Snow and Varejao play as well in Detroit as they did in Cleveland?
The Mavs have won three straight games over the Spurs (averaged 113.3 PPG) after losing Game 1, 87-85. Devin Harris has been a major reason, averaging 20.7 PPG while shooting 58.3 percent in the three games (was inserted as a starter for Game 2). Nowitzki scored just 10 baskets in the two wins in Dallas but made 35-of-39 FTs, leading the way for the Mavs who have shot 125 FTs in the three wins, making 102 (.816).
The Spurs have been one of the league’s best defensive teams for years (ranked second in PPG allowed this year with an average of 88.8) but they haven’t been able to stop the Mavs from being aggressive (leading to the high number of FT attempts) nor have they been able to force turnovers (Dallas has just 32 in the three wins). As mentioned yesterday, San Antonio is 0-5 all-time when trailing this late in a series (since 1997).
MLB notes
The Cleveland Indians ended the longest active losing streak in MLB last night (had lost six straight), when Travis Hafner’s two-run HR capped a three-run ninth, giving the Indians a 6-4 win over the Royals. However, I’ll have to check the official record book, as I’m not sure beating the Royals, who own MLB’s worst record at 10-26 (including a pathetic 2-18 mark on the road), really counts!
San Francisco beat the Astros in Houston last night 14-3, following up a 10-1 win in Houston on Monday. Despite his team scoring 24 runs in two days, Barry Bonds extended his homerless streak to 26 at-bats. Also worthy of note in this game was the fact that Jamey Wright got the win. Why the big deal? Wright entered the game 0-12 with an ERA of 7.35 in 17 previous appearances against the Astros. Last night he was staked to a 5-0 lead before taking the mound and pitched seven innings, allowing six hits and three runs.
The Rangers jumped on the Yankees early last night, taking leads of 9-0 (2nd) and 10-1 (3rd). However, the Yanks won 14-13, matching the club’s biggest comeback ever. It marked the fourth time in team history that the Yankees had won after trailing by nine runs. The last time they did it was against the Red Sox (6/26/87), when Roger Clemens was Boston’s starting pitcher in that game! The two teams combined for 33 hits and 27 runs last night.
The Tigers own the longest active winning streak at five games (Tigers are also the league’s best “moneymaker” at plus-$1270) and host the Twins tonight. The pitching matchup is worthy of note, as Johan Santana faces Detroit phenom, Justin Verlander. The Reds, who have lost four straight (longest active losing streak) are in Pittsburgh, which owns the NL’s worst record at 12-27, as well as being MLB’s worst “moneyburners” (minus-$1468).
All 30 teams are again in action tonight (15 games), with the season’s first interleague games just two days away.
Ness Notes is available by 1:00 ET Monday through Friday.
Larry Ness is a documented member of the Professional Handicappers League.
Read all of his articles at http://www.procappers.com/Larry_Ness.htm
Saturday 28 Jun 2008
Why a Meucci Power Piston
For those of you that understand the term “Power Piston” to mean a specific design in the Meucci line of cues, you already know what I am referring to. For those of you that do not know, a Power Piston refers to a combination of the Black Dot Bullseye shaft, but more importantly, a specific technology built into the butt section. The Power Piston butt is recognizable by the fact that the forearm (the area just below the joint and just above the wrap) is either going to be an ivory color or solid black. This area of the cue is a thin sleeve of high-impact plastic material over a maple dowel.
What this sleeve does for the player is to enhance the performance in two ways:
1) More power with less effort. This power being demonstrated by either more forward motion velocity, English velocity when using side, or a combination of the two.
2) The second thing that the power piston does for you the player is that it reduces the deflection of the cue ball (not to be confused with shaft deflection) even more than all other Meucci cues by 7-10%. This may not seem like a very large number to an amateur player, however, when you consider in the game of nine ball, one ball being 11% of the balls that need to be pocketed, it clarifies just how important that advantage can be.
What exactly happens when the cue ball is struck with a Black Dot Bullseye shaft with a Power Piston butt? Simply put, more compression of the pool cue at impact. To fully explain how the human arm, when swinging its arch to strike a ball, is only capable of a limited amount of speed and power. Therefore the cue design, in order to gain any advantage, must be balanced to that speed when the cue ball is struck. In other words, when the cue ball is struck, the cue then begins to compress for shortening the overall length of the cue, loading the cue with additional power that will be added to the stroke that you’ve put on the ball when the loaded cue releases. All of this happens in a mere .140 inches (one hundred and forty thousands of an inch!). That .140 of the inch that I’ve referred to is the total distance that the cue ball travels from the first impact of the tip until the cue ball leaves the tip. So the job of the cue maker is obviously one that has to be measured precisely to achieve this amazing advantage, and he must also take into consideration the weight of the cue ball.
This article has become fairly technical, and I hope that it is sufficiently understandable to those of you who care to know just what the advantage of having a Meucci Power Piston is.
Robert J Meucci is the CEO of Meucci Originals, Inc. Meucci Originals is well-known in the billiard industry for manufacturing pool cues.
If you’re interested in viewing or buying a power piston head on over to: Meucci Cues Discount.
