Dr Naismith and College Basketball

Since the early days of the basketball century, people have enjoyed playing the game of basketball. Indeed, basketball the United States, college basketball has gained quite a following nationwide. Now, with the immense popularity of the NBA and its superstars, many students are looking to get noticed in college basketball recruiting, to play in college teams and even perhaps in the NBA.

Dr. James Naismith is recognized as the inventor of basketball. Naismith was born in 1861 in Ramsay, located near Almonte in Ontario, Canada. The concept of basketball was derived from a child's game known as duck-on-a-rock, which he played during his school days outside his schoolhouse. The game involved attempting to dislodge what was called a "duck" off the top of a large rock by tossing another rock at it.

Naismith served in McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, as its Athletic Director. He then moved on to the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA in 1891, which is where basketball eventually was born. During his stay in Springfield, Naismith became immersed in finding a sport for the students at the School for Christian Workers that was suitable to play indoors during the winter. He wanted to create a game that relied on skill as opposed to one that depended exclusively on strength.

In addition to the creation of the sport, Naismith graduated as a medical doctor, focusing himself on sports physiology and (which would later be known as) sports science. He was also a Presbyterian minister, with a deep curiosity in philosophy. The first basketball game was played using a soccer ball and two peach baskets as the goals.

Naismith was able to witness basketball being brought into in many nations through the YMCA movement, which began as early as 1893. In 1936, basketball was introduced at the Berlin Olympics. Today, college basketball is played in campuses throughout the Unite States, and basketball has come to be known as one of the world's most popular sports.

The Internet has proven to be a useful venue for both students in college basketball and coaches involved in the process of college basketball recruiting. There are many websites and online forums wherein students and scouts can come together and interact. D1Athletes is an online community wherein high school athletes and coaches alike can share and exchange information they need during college basketball recruiting. D1Athletes offers them a place to build an online presence and gain important public exposure.

To learn more, visit D1Athletes.com or just click college basketball recruiting.

Vertical Jump Workouts - Increase Vertical Jump

There are plenty of basketball that can basketball people get faster and stronger. People usually look for these workouts so that they can gain an advantage in whatever it is that they want to do. Whether that is running, swimming, basketball or football, it is important. Vertical jump workouts are usually very important to many of these sports.

These are the best vertical jump workouts to increase vertical jump:

Side Box Jump

What you need for this workout is a box or some type of obstacle for you to jump over. This box or obstacle needs to be high enough to give you some type of challenge, but also not too high so that you can't jump over it. Place the box to your side and jump over it to one side, then back to the other side. Do 20 repetitions of this workout and as you get better, increase the repetitions to make it more challenging.

Weighted Box Jump

This is basically the same workout as the Side Box jumps but more effective. This is one of the more effective vertical jump workouts. This time, instead of placing the box to your side, place the box in front of you. Now in addition to jumping over the box and back, you need to hold a pair of weights while doing this. Holding the weights forces your body to become conditioned to you jumping with added weight. This increases your explosiveness for when you are not wearing weights. This is called a power workout.

Weighted Squats

The most important part of this workout is consistency. What you are basically doing is holding weights in your hands or wearing some type of weight vest and performing squats. Be sure to perform the squats correctly because doing them wrong will not get you what you're looking for. Squats just might be one of the most important vertical jump workouts to help you increase your vertical. That is why it is essential that you perform this workout correctly.

Is it really possible to add 6 inches to your vertical jump in the next 60 days? Check out my reviews of the top Vertical Jump Programs on the market.

Cuba - A Nation Of Olympic Slaves

Dieudonn Lamothe, who was a sports person from Haiti, finished lost basketball the 5000-meter race at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984.He lose the Olympic competition, but Lamothe was not assassinated by president Jean-Claude Duvalier, the dictator who became known throughout the world as Baby Doc Duvalier. Over the next years, Lamothe revealed that Jean-Claude Duvalier had threatened to kill him if he failed to finish the raceAmnesty International reports secret police,known as Tonton Macoutes, practice torture, assassinations and disappearances including killings of prominent opposition leaders.

Like Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (Cuban dictator) and Idi Amin Dada (Ugandan dictador), Jean-Claude Duvalier loves sports.Certainly, he popularized the sport of soccer, or football, in Haiti, an ex-French colony in the Caribbean. Under his leadership,Haiti qualified for the 1974 FIFA World Cup tournament in Munich (West Germany). It also won the Junior World Soccer Championships in 1975 in Mexico City, Mexico.Soccer is now the national sport of the country.
Between October 12 and October 26, 1975, the Haitian delegation participated in the Seventh Pan American Games held in Mexico City. The national delegation had 12 athletes competing in three sports: track and field (7), boxing (2) and tennis(3).Furthermore, Haiti sent a national team to the 1976 Olympic Games, which were held in Montreal (Canada).Haitian athletes also competed in several events sponsored by international sports organizations, including basketball, golf, judo, volleyball and boxing.

Indisputably one of the worst dictatorships of all time, Fidel Castro Ruz enjoys all types of Olympic sports, including basketball and baseball, and his proudest moment was when his country hosted the Pan American Games in 1991. The people that dont know Cuba very much think that Cuba is an olympic paradise.

Like Iran, Sudan, Syria and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (or North Korea), Cuba is a terrorist state in the 21st century. Fidel Castro Ruz is not Pol Pot (Maoist dictator) and Enver Hoxha (anti-Soviet dictator), but he is a dictator in the Third World. The country has never known a period free of tyranny, repression and political conflict.

A revolution in 1959 transformed Cuba into Latin Americas first socialist republic. From 1962 to 1989, Cuba was a Soviet colony. In 1962, Cuba looked to the USSR (currently Russia,Ukraine, Belarus,etc) to help it consolidate its sport.Sporting projects were strongly emphasized during this decade. The Soviet Union sent Olympic advisers to La Havana and agreed to provide sporting aid to Cuban dictatorship. Recognized the importance of sport to Cubas dictatorship, the Soviets construted several sports schools, best known as Escuelas de Iniciacin Deportiva Escolar (EIDE, Schools for the Initiation into Scholastic Sport), modernized gymnasiums, and built stadiums. This invaluable sporting support continued through the 1970s and 1980s.

Sport in Cuba continues to be strictly centered in the hands of Fidel Castro Ruz. Castro has instilled a mental toughness in the Cuban athletes. The athletes are forced to deny to the United States, Czech Republic, Hungary, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, South Korea and other countries.

Ongoing violence has forced more than 300 athletes to flee to neighboring countries including Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, and the United States.

From the outside, the Lenin Sport School is certainly impressive. No all the dictatorships have the same situation. Under the dictatorship of Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Zimbabwes sport is a disaster. Yoel Lpez always arrives at Lenin Sport School early.He says: I usually go to sport school by car but sometimes I walk. In Cuba the sports schools usually open 7.30 in the morning. Yoel never watches television. He sleeps seven hours a night. He works very hard. Like many Cuban children, he is a new slave of the Cuban Revolution.Certainly, Yoel Lpez is a volleyball player.

Cuba won the baseball Pan American gold medal in Santo Domingo 2003. Hundreds of Cubans watched TV coverage of the Pan American Games. During the final baseball game, soldiers in camouflage stood around the Cuban dugout and guarded much of the section where Cubas delegation was seated. Even credentialed media were kept off the field and guards with loaded assault rifles protected the Cuban national bus. One soldier told a journalist he estimated there were around 400 security workers at the stadium and said if any Cuban got away it would mean jail time for the Dominican patrol. Our mission tonight is to ensure that no Cuban defects, he said on condition of anonymity. If one defects, theyve threatened us with jail, and said they would dismiss us from the army.

Alejandro Guevara Onofre: He is a basketball writer.Alejandro is of Italian, African and Peruvian ancestry. He studied political science and journalism. He has published more than seventy-five research paper in English, and more than twenty in Spanish, concerning the world issues, Olympic sports, countries, and tourism. His next essay is called "The Dictator and Alicia Alonso". He is an expert on foreign affairs. Furthermore, Alejandro is the first author who has published a world-book encyclopedia in Latina America.

He admires Frida Kahlo (Mexican painter), Hillary Clinton (ex-First Lady of the USA), and Jimmy Carter (former President of the USA). His favorite film is "Gorillas in the Mist". Some of his favorite books are The Return of Eva Peron and the Killings in Trinidad (by V.S.Naipaul), "Las Mujeres de los Dictadores" (by Juan Gasparini) and Murder of a Gentle Land (by John Barron and Anthony Paul).His personal motto is "The future is for those people who believe in the beauty o f their dreams" by Eleanor Roosevelt.

Increase Vertical Leap Get A Monster Vertical Leap!

Wouldnt you want basketball increase basketball vertical leap by 12 inches or more? Have you always wanted those extra 4 inches to your jump that would allow you to carry out one of Lebron Jamess trademark breakaway dunks? As you read this article youll begin to get certain feelings of excitement as you realize that you can now increase vertical leap that will simply explode your basketball game. Better still, youll learn how to use the 7 free exercises. Thats right! FREE! Think about it. You can use these specialized techniques in your training today!

What do you think you can do to magnify your vertical leap today? In a nutshell, youve to work out every bit of muscle in your legs, core (abdomen) and arms even. You can catch an entire power-packed training program at my website, but first here are 7 simple yet devastatingly powerful exercises you can use immediately:

1. Leapups - Stand with your feet shoulder width appart, and jump up looking
straight ahead. Come down about 1/4 of the way and jump right back up. This completes one leapup. Leapups train muscles to remember how to jump, thus drastically helping to increase vertical leap.

2. Calf raises - Stand on something so that your heels are not touching anything,
stairs, a book etc. Go all the way up and come slowly down. Do one leg, then the other, this completes one set.

3. Step ups - Get a sturdy chair or bench, put one lleg on the chair, and push
yourself off the chair with your one leg. While in the air, switch legs, put the leg that was on the ground on the bench, the leg that was on the bench on the ground. Do the specified number of reps on each leg.

4. Thrust ups - Stand with your feet shoulder width appart, and lock your knees.
Then jump up just by using your calves, only bending at the ankles. As soon as your land, go right back up. This completes one thrust ups. You can use your arms if you want.

5. Burnouts - Stand in the same position as thrust uups, and go up as high as your
can on your toes. Then jump up only using the sides of your thighs and your toes - you must stay as high on your toes as possible throughout the exercise. You can use your arms too.

6. Squats These are the King of leg exercises and a must to increase vertical leap. They work out almost every muscle in your legs and will allow you to max up your quads in no time. Stand shoulder-width apart and bend your knees to go down, keeping your back straight. Stop when the back of your knees form a 90 degree angle. Come back up explosively. To increase power, try doing squats with weights.

7. Sit ups Sit ups are an excellent way to strengthen your abdominal core which is essential for explosiveness and stability in your vertical leap. Lie down flat on your back with your knees bent. Bring up your torso fast and hold momentarily before lowering your torso down slowly.

These are training methods used by college and even NBA basketball players to dramatically increase vertical leap and explode your all-around game. From rebounds, to blocks, to jumpshots, to dunks, your leap determines it all. Think about it.

Damien Ng played for Aramis Taylor that clinched the state championships in Malaysia in 2002. He now plays for the Cambridge University Lions. Visit http://www.leaplikelebron.info for a complete training program to increase vertical leap. Think about what you'll be able to achieve.

Increase Vertical Leap