Sports Coach » Basketball

Are foreign athletes taking over collegiate sports?

admin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 03:15:02 +0000

Not long ago, American athletes dominated the collegiate sports landscape, but an influx of foreign athletes is taking away scholarships from American students and changing the games within the games.
A recent sports report suggested more than 50 percent of collegiate baseball players are now foreign. A similar report shows that 42 percent of Major League baseball players are now foreign. That Major league number is expected to continue to shift in the favor of acquiring more foreigners playing the United States national pastime.
As the worldwide presence in basketball continues to gain momentum, more foreign players are coming to the United States to gain an education and further their sports prospects. It is evident from international basketball that the rest of the world has gained on the United States in basketball prowess, and the number for foreign born college players continues to grow.
In college sports, events like track & field and cross-country have been inundated with an influx of foreign athletes. In particular, a number of Kenyans, long thought to be superior in long-distance running, have come to the United States to further their sports careers.
Is this a good thing?
As technology and other internet media have made the world smaller, sports also, has taken a worldwide turn. Foreign athletes that once came to the states only to play professional sports, have now come to gain an education while improving their professional sports prospects.
American athletes that once received college scholarships are now finding their window of education impeded by an athlete from another country that received their scholarship.
While foreign sports stars are coming to the United States, the same can’t be said for American athletes going to other countries to further their education. About the only sport that offers a similar preparatory background for Americans in a foreign country is soccer, and even the world’s most popular sport sees plenty of foreign athletes coming the states to improve their prospects.

Is football the most physical of all sports?

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:00:00 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

With the National Football League resuming play recently, some of the sports worlds biggest, strongest and fastest athletes will once again take center stage in one of the worlds most physical of sports.
Sports enthusiasts would be hard pressed to find any other activity that boasts 300 pound men, that bench-press 400 pounds and run a sub, 5.0 forty yard dash.
Basketball is not even considered among the “contact-sports”, yet boasts 7 feet tall men weighing 270 pounds that battle for position under the hoop. Basketball could hardly be considered one of the most physical sports as participants rarely engage in hand-to-hand combat during competition.
Football is unique among all the contact sports as contact takes place on every single play. As the ball is snapped, offensive and defensive lineman rush violently into one another to gain an advantage. As a receiver crosses the middle, despite thinking of catching the ball, this player must be thinking of the violent collision that could take place. A running back who is attempting to cross the goal line during short-yardage situations can expect to be run into by 300 pound men willing to do anything and everything to stop the rushing attempt. Event the quarterback who attempts to avoid contact at all cost, fears the hit from a defensive lineman or linebacker as he attempts to complete a pass down field.
About the only other sports that boast a similar amount of contact are rugby and sumo-wrestling. While rugby boasts players nearly as large as NFL lineman, the severity of impact is not the same on each and every play. Sumo wrestlers who have an initial violent collision, often find themselves grappling for the clothing of their counterpart in a non-violent act that concludes their match.
As the NFL season commences, watch the collisions of the interior lineman on every play. Pay attention to the big hits in the secondary. Watch the running back collide with the linebacker on a goal line stand, and then decide if football is the most physical of all contact-sports.

Bet On Your Favorite Teams

admin — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 09:26:06 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

One of the things that many people have come to enjoy is online sports betting. Why is this becoming so popular? Mainly because there are so many people who are already avid sports fans and they love to follow their favorite teams, and even follow other teams. They know a lot about the game, whether it is soccer, tennis, golf, football, baseball, basketball, or what have you, and they feel an investment in what happens to the sport, the teams, and the players. It’s only natural that these avid fans might want to make a financial investment in what they have already invested in in terms of time and emotion.

When you bet money on your favorite team or any team, for that matter, the interest and excitement in watching them play, in monitoring their progress, in following their ups and downs tends to matter even more. If you want to get involved in sports betting, you’ll want to get some tips before you begin. To get you started consider the following tip, try betting on longshots. This is often the best way to make the greatest gains for your dollar. The reasons are not complicated. In fact, whoever is favored to win is where most people put their money, so that means there is a large part of money heading in that direction, and thus the odds get shortened on the favorites. To keep from losing money, sportsbooks will offer odds that sound astronomical when really the odds are not that great against the underdog. For example, they might list the odds as 70 to 1, when in actuality the odds are closer to 20 to 1. When you bet longshots, you usually lose some money, but when one of the bets does come through, you win so big that it can more than cover all the previous losing bets.