Healthy Diet of Athletes

A diet for those engaged in very active sports activity is one which involves eating for energy and for prevention of injuries which are often due to nutritional deficiencies. Approximately 65% complex carbohydrates, 10 to 15% fat, and 10% protein.

A major cause of fatigue is too much milk and animal protein and fats in the diet. They are difficult to break down and use up a great amount of energy for digestion. People who have been eating a junk food diet or one with poor food choices often have weak enzyme systems, and some proteins and fatty foods may take several days to break down in this case. Too many athletes rely on fast food for the majority of their food intake resulting in 60 to 70% of their calories coming from fats.

Traditional diets for athletes consisted of a high percentage of meat, cheese and milk. Although a steak has a lot of protein it may also contain as much as 80% fat. A fast food hamburger is higher in fat than in protein. High fat items that should not be consumed by athletes are: Red meat, Cheese, Pork Products, Fried foods, Whole milk, and Butter.

These results in: Calories and probable weight gain probable risk factor for injury, arterial disease later in life, and tendonitis. Recovery from energy is achieved much more rapidly on a low protein, high complex carbohydrate diet. The energy need of the injury is usually more important than the protein need, since the protein need is taken care of with relatively small amounts. Excess protein takes away energy in the digestion process that is needed for the putting back together of the parts damaged by injury.

Simple sugars such as white sugar or honey can actually increase the pain of injuries. Cut out the sugar and the pain of injuries that do occur will decrease greatly.

When an injury does occur get a fresh pineapple, cut off the husk, and eat as much of it as you can in one hour. Do this every other day. Pineapple contains the enzyme bromelain, and this enzyme along with other nutrients in the fruit, actually help the healing process by breaking down the injured tissue.

Excess salt also leads to changes in metabolism that increase the potential for injuries and impair wound healing. The average American is consuming 40 times more salt than needed, most of it in processed foods where it is often used as a flavor enhancer and a preservative.

Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor - a substance that reduces blood supply by narrowing blood vessels. Athletes want the blood vessels wide open to carry all the nutrients to all the muscles, so a reduction of coffee and most soft drinks is helpful.

Fast food diets in addition to the fat, salt, and sugar content are deficient in vitamins and minerals. The mineral deficiency can lead to muscle pulls and cramps.

Vitamin C with bioflavonoids are helpful to the athlete for several reasons:

· It helps keep the immune system strong under stress

· It speeds healing. It can cut recovery time by as much as 75% in a number of wound and surgery situations.

· There is much less soft tissue injury

· There are fewer sprains

· There are fewer muscle problems and tendonitis

A zinc supplement greatly speeds up healing and regeneration of damaged connective tissue. Surgical incisions close up cleaner and faster.

A magnesium supplement aids in healing cartilage injuries of the knee, and in the cartilage strains of the shoulder joints.

A calcium supplement helps prevent muscle cramping.

Vitamin E helps reduce inflammation and increases blood flow to injury sites. It also extends the available usage time for the oxygen necessary for healthy cells and increases the amount of energy available.

Omega 3 fatty acids help prevent build up fat in the circulatory system, thin the blood for better transport of nutrients, and protect against various inflammatory problems, including those resulting from injuries.

10 craziest extreme sports

Train Surfing

 Cliff Diving



 Freestyle Powerisers Stilts

Underwater hockey

 Slacklining

 Air Kicking

 Limbo Skating

 Volcano boarding

 Zorbing ball

Crocodile bungee

Three KZN skaters reach SA final of Red Bull Manny Mania

 
by Press Release [June 25, 2011]

Dlamini Dlamini of La Lucia came out on top at Saturday’s qualifier for Red Bull Manny Mania 2011 (the largest international manual skateboarding competition for amateurs) - at Wave House Skate Park in Umhlanga, Durban. He will be heading to Johannesburg on June 26, 2011 to compete against other participants selected from four qualifying events across South Africa as part of the largest international event for amateur manual skaters.

“I’m so stoked to be going to Johannesburg for the final. The level of skating in the final was really high it could have gone to anyone. I’d love to get the trip to New York, but for now I’m focused on the final next week,” says Dlamini.

Second and third place went to Khule Ngubane and George Van Blerk, respectively, among over 35 competitors at the event.

The winner of the national final on June 26 will be flown to New York City on an all expenses paid trip to represent South Africa at the Red Bull Manny Mania World Final for amateurs on August 20, 2011.

The winner of this event will get a chance to step into the big leagues by competing in the invite-only Red Bull Manny Mania Pro Event, on Sunday, August 21 in New York City.

For more information on Red Bull Manny Mania:
· Visit www.redbull.co.za

How to Win the Paintball Battle In Five Easy Tips

by Andrew McNaught [January 29, 2007]

Paintball is listed third in the world in popularity. Paintball is a highly stimulating game that is competitive and helps in team building. 
Paintball is third in popularity, right behind inline skating and skateboarding according to the 2005 statistics of Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association International. 

The love of "extreme sports" is a big reason why paintball is so important. Paintball is popular because it causes an adrenaline rush due to its highly competitive nature. Every player is trying to win the game, so it is important for you to learn any hints possible to give you the competitive edge. 
Here are some hints for you to prevail in battle and play the game as best as possible: 



1. Be positive 

Being positive and confident is a huge advantage in the game of paintball. Paintball is a war game and every player's main goal is to win. Being a good sport is essential in this game, because there is a big chance that you will be a loser at one time or another. 
If you lose the game, then be a good sport about it and try to find the areas where you need some work. There is always another game for you to win. Just try to keep this in mind. 



2. Failure is not bad 

View every failure as a way to learn more about paintball and the game. If you work on the areas that are causing you to fail, then you will be using the failure as a learning experience, rather than a bad experience. 



3. Do not play alone 

It is better to play on a team, rather than playing alone. On a team, you have more people to cover for you, so it will help you to continue in the game for a longer period of time. 



4. Hiding out is not a good idea 

If your game strategy is hiding out to keep from being hit by your opponents, you need to keep in mind that you can not hit your opponents if you are hiding out. You will also not learn strategies that can help you win, unless you come out and play the game rather than hiding. 

5. Surrender, never! 

It is best not surrender, even if the odds of you winning are higher. You want to sty in the game as long as possible so that you get more experience as a "hard target." 

How you play paintball is even more important than winning. If you do your best and still lose, then consider it as a learning experience and play again! 

About the Author 
Andrew McNaught is a successful webmaster and publisher of Paintball World Online where you can find out more about this thrilling sport.

News - Brazil Football

Brazil fail to rediscover winning formula

Tim Vickery | 12:09 UK time, Monday, 15 August 2011

One of my favourite pieces of football writing is by the splendid Argentine coach Angel Cappa, a romantic of the old school, reflecting on his good fortune at being in Spain to watch Brazil’s midfield in the 1982 World Cup.“The ball arrived in this zone [midfield],” he wrote, “and would then disappear to reappear in the form of a rabbit and also a dove and then was hidden again from anguished opponents who would look for it in the most unlikely places without being able to find it…."The crowd, myself included, looked at the watch with the intention of making time stand still because we all wanted the game to last for ever.” Since then, though, no one has really been able to write about Brazil in quite the same terms. Not through any lack of quality - in the last 30 years the production line of great attacking full backs and magnificent strikers has been working overtime.

Brazil's national team have failed to rediscover their past winning formula after World Cup 1982 defeat. PHOTO: GETTY

But the game has never flowed through the midfield with the same magic, because that has not been the objective.

For many Brazilian coaches, the failure of that 1982 side to win the World Cup (they lost to Italy) served as proof for ideas that had been kicking around for a while - starting with a 5-1 massacre at the hands of Belgium in 1963, confirmed by the defeat by Holland in the 1974 World Cup.

The physical development of the game, it was thought, meant that traditional methods had to be revised. Brazilian players had to bulk up - Rubens Minelli, the most successful domestic coach of the 70s, wanted his team to be made up of six footers.

And with less space on the field, the future of football lay in the counter attack, rather than elaborate attempts to pass through midfield.

These thoughts have carried a lot of weight in the Brazilian game. They help explain why a succession of Brazil sides have caught the eye for explosive breaks down the flanks rather than for the succession of midfield triangles that enraptured Cappa and everyone else in 1982.

When former Middlesbrough left-back Branco was in charge of Brazil’s youth sides, he told me that right from the start of the process the search for big, strong youngsters was a priority. Brazilian coaches, meanwhile, became fond of spouting the statistic that the chances of a goal are reduced if the move contains more than seven passes.

And then along came the Barcelona/Spain school, with its little Xavis and Iniestas and its focus on possession of the ball - and its accumulation of trophies. Had not Brazilian football declared such players and such methods obsolete?

Once a star with both Brazil and Barcelona, Rivaldo recently made clear the distance that has grown between the two schools. His old team-mate Pep Guardiola, he said, had built a Barcelona team in his own image, giving his players "the tranquillity to go anywhere, even Real Madrid away, and keep passing the ball, irritating the opponents.

"A time will come when they will be able to slip someone through on goal and score. This is down to him, because he transmits this idea to the players and then trains it, something that you don’t see in Brazil.

"I visited Barcelona and watched a training session. Here [in Brazil] if you try to train retaining possession of the ball, the players don’t like it. I see people talking about the way that Barcelona play the ball around, but here in Brazil everyone wants to get the ball and charge forward."

These are fascinating observations, which perhaps help explain why Brazil are in an awkward moment of transition.

The official line is that Brazil are trying to wean themselves off an excessive dependence on the counter- attack. Coach Mano Menezes declared as such when he took over a year ago, and there is sound thinking behind the attempt to change direction - or perhaps, to turn the clock back.

First, there is the need to gain full advantage from playing at home in the 2014 World Cup. The local crowd will react better to a style of play more in line with the traditional virtues of the Brazilian game.

Second, on home ground no one will offer Brazil the opportunity to counter attack. Something more expansive will be necessary.

But can Brazil currently count on the players with the skills and ideas to put this change of direction into practice? Today’s players, of course, are far too young to have seen the 1982 side.

On Sunday Brazil met Spain in Colombia in the quarter finals of the World Youth Cup. Before the match Brazil boss Ney Franco, hand picked by Menezes to take charge of the Under-20s, paid tribute to the style of the opponents, but added that “Spain are not exactly a reference - it’s enough to remember our team of 82.”

The game that followed was a minor classic because of the clash of styles. Before tiredness muddied the waters, the pattern of the game was clear.

Spain were more like the Brazil of 82, with their carefree passing. Brazil had aspects of that year’s Italy, ruthless on the break. They won on penalties after an exhilarating 2-2 draw.

It was the type of game that made me lament all the more that the senior teams did not meet in either the 2009 Confederations Cup or last year’s World Cup. Puncher versus counter-puncher often makes for a great spectacle.

Should they meet in 2014, Brazil’s idea, as we have seen, is that there shall not be such a clash of styles. That is, assuming that Mano Menezes keeps his job, and that he keeps his nerve.

Losses in recent months to Argentina and France were followed by a disappointing Copa America.

Attempts to play a more elaborate passing game have not been entirely convincing. And so for last week’s friendly away to Germany he surprisingly dropped his playmaker Paulo Henrique Ganso and selected a midfield that left his team with no other option but the counter-attack. It didn’t work and probably did not deserve to.

News - Drug Use

Marion Jones Admits to Steroid Use

By Amy Shipley

Washington Post Staff Writer

Track star Marion Jones has acknowledged using steroids as she prepared for the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and is scheduled to plead guilty today in New York to two counts of lying to federal agents about her drug use and an unrelated financial matter, according to a letter Jones sent to close family and friends. Jones, who won five medals at the Sydney Olympics, said she took the steroid known as "the clear" for two years beginning in 1999, according to the letter. A source familiar with Jones's legal situation who requested anonymity confirmed the relevant facts that were described in the letter.

"I want to apologize to you all for all of this," Jones said. "I am sorry for disappointing you all in so many ways."

Jones's admissions could cost her the three gold and two bronze medals she won in Sydney while enlarging the cloud of doubt hovering over Olympic and professional sports, which have been tarred in recent years with accusations of performance-enhancing drug use, steroids busts and positive drug tests by prominent athletes.

In December 2004, the International Olympic Committee opened an investigation into allegations surrounding steroid use by Jones, once considered the greatest female athlete in the world. In the past, Jones has vehemently denied using steroids or any performance-enhancing drugs.

"This is a shame," World Anti-Doping Agency Chairman Dick Pound said in a telephone interview yesterday. "This was America's darling at the 2000 Summer Olympics. . . . I hope this will have a deterrent effect. It's not merely cheating in sports, but now she has lied her way to exposure to penal sanctions."

In the letter, Jones, who will turn 32 next Friday, said her former coach, Trevor Graham, gave her the substance, telling her it was the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and that she should take it by putting two drops under her tongue. Graham, contacted by telephone yesterday, declined to comment.

Jones said she "trusted [Graham] and never thought for one second" she was using a performance-enhancing drug until after she left Graham's Raleigh, N.C.-based training camp at the end of 2002. "Red flags should have been raised in my head when he told me not to tell anyone about" the supplement program, she said. She also said she noticed changes in how her body felt and how she was able to recover from workouts after she stopped taking the substance in 2001.

The clear, also known as THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone, is a powerful anabolic steroid that was at the center of the federal investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, or Balco. More than a dozen track and field athletes have faced punishments for their use of the clear, which drug-testing authorities were unable to detect until Graham sent a sample of it to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in 2003.  

Baseball players Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi admitted during grand jury testimony to using the clear, according to reports in the San Francisco Chronicle. Outfielder Barry Bonds also admitted using a substance that he said he had been told was flaxseed oil by his personal trainer, the Chronicle reported.

The federal probe surrounding Balco, a nutritional supplements company based in Burlingame, Calif., has resulted in five criminal convictions. Jones, however, would be the first athlete, joining Balco founder Victor Conte Jr. and vice president James Valente; Bonds's personal trainer, Greg Anderson; track coach Remi Korchemny; and chemist Patrick Arnold, who designed the clear.

Jones's coach, Graham, was indicted last November on three counts of lying to federal agents connected to the investigation. He has pleaded not guilty and his trial is scheduled for November.

Jones, who recently married former sprinter Obadele Thompson, said in her letter that she planned to fly from her home in Austin and meet her mother in New York, where she was scheduled to enter the plea today in U.S. District Court. She said she faced up to six months in jail and would be sentenced in three months. Federal sentencing guidelines call for a maximum of five years in prison for one count of lying to federal agents.

Reached at their Austin home, Thompson declined comment on the letter, portions of which were read to him, saying: "The process has to go through before you can make any comments. . . . I'm sure at the appropriate time, all necessary comments will be made." He did not dispute the contents of the letter. He said Jones was unavailable to comment.

When questioned in 2003 by federal agents investigating Balco, Jones lied about using the clear even though agents presented her with a sample of the substance and she immediately recognized it as what she had taken at Graham's behest, Jones said in the letter. She said she lied because she panicked and wanted to protect herself and her coach.

Jones also said in the letter that she lied about a $25,000 check given to her by track athlete Tim Montgomery, the father of her young son who pleaded guilty in New York this year for his part in a multimillion-dollar bank fraud and money-laundering scheme.

Jones said she told investigators she knew nothing about the deposit, even though Montgomery told her it was from the 2005 sale of a refurbished vehicle and was partial payment for $50,000 she had loaned him.

"Once again, I panicked," she wrote. "I did not want my name associated with this mess. I wanted to stay as far away from it as possible."

News - WBA Boxing

WBA 90th ANNIVERSARY 17/08/2011

Anniversary 90^th WBA convention will be held from 6^th till 12^th November, 2011 in Donezk, Ukraine. Initially it was planned to be held in Thailand, but due to many reasons the place was changed to Ukraine. One of the main reasons is the victory of Wladimir Klitschko over David Haye by which he took away the WBA belt. By present time Wladimir Klitschko holds the IBF and WBO heavyweight belts. His brother Vitali is the WBC king. At present time all four belts of heavyweight category are held in Ukraine by Klitschko brothers. After fight on 3^rd July Wladimir Klitschko was given the rank of unified champion. Gilberto Mendoza, the President of the World Boxing Association gave credit merits of brothers and mentioned the importance of the venue of next WBA convention. The visit of 250 delegates from 80 countries is expected.

WBA, one of the oldest boxing federations, was established in 1921 by representatives of 13 American states.

[ Lb.ua; КорреспонденТ.net; iSport.ua; Boxnews.com.ua; BoxingScene.com; ESPN Boxing; Boxing and MMA reviews]

News - Muay Thai

Muay Thai 2011

Muay Thai with no doubt is going from strong to stronger with 2011 marking yet another big milestone year.

Around 100 countries participated in different qualification events in light of the upcoming IFMA World Championships which will be held from the 20^th to the 27^th September in Uzbekistan.

80 countries will be participating at this historical event in which male, female, and junior world champions will be crowned in one event with over 1,000 athletes and officials.

Recently, the General Secretary of IFMA, Stephan Fox, travelled to Uzbekistan to make a final inspection of the venue, hotel and other relevant areas for the upcoming World Championships to be held in the beautiful city of Tashkent from the 20th to the 27th September 2011. 

The World Championship is being organised by the Uzbekistan Amateur and Professional Muaythai Federation, the Government of Uzbekistan and the Centre of Development of Oriental Combat Sports and Martial Arts. After spending three days in Tashkent, Stephan Fox felt able to assure the world that the 2011 IFMA World Championships will be without doubt the best ever.
by World Muay Thai Council.

National News - Football

Robbie Fowler to play in Thailand 7 July 2011

Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler is heading to Thailand to play for Muang Thong United, according to the club, in a surprise move just weeks after the ex-England striker quit Australia's A-League.

"He agreed to play with Muang Thong United as a forward," team manager Ronnarit Suewaja told AFP on Thursday. "I'm confident that Thai football will improve as a famous player like him agreed to join us."

The 36-year-old striker, who scored 183 goals during eight years at Liverpool and won 26 England caps, is due to arrive in Thailand on Friday and undergo a medical check-up, Ronnarit said.

"The contract has already been signed. We just need to work out a few details," said Ronnarit, who declined to reveal the length of the deal.
Fowler would be by far the highest profile player in the Thai Premier League, whose other foreign stars include Christian Kouakou of Ivory Coast, Ney Fabiano of Brazil and Japan's Kazuto Kushida.

The move comes four months after Portuguese coach Henrique Calisto joined Muang Thong following his resignation from the Vietnam national team.
Fowler announced in early June that he would not be returning to Perth Glory for another season for family reasons. He suggested at the time that he planned to return to Britain to complete his coaching badges.

Fowler played two seasons in the A-League after first turning out for the now-defunct North Queensland Fury.

News- Basketball

LeBron still confident NBA season will take place 12 August 2011

Miami Heat star LeBron James remains confident there will be an NBA season. Speaking Friday to reporters in Taiwan, James said "right now I am working toward the NBA season, I believe there will be a season, and hopefully both sides can come together.''

Players have been locked out since July 1 since the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement.

The sides are split over issues including distribution of revenues. Last week, players' union chief Billy Hunter said he was doubtful about the 2011-12 season going ahead.

James is on a two-day promotional tour of Taiwan.