Archive for October, 2008

Choosing A Paintball Marker

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

So, you’ve decided to take up the exciting sport of paintball. Good choice. Paintball is great fun, but you’ll need to buy a lot of gear. To get started, you'll need to get a marker, a mask, clothes, a loader, an air tank, and many other random accessories. For now, let’s just focus on the gun.

In the past, choosing your gun was easy. If you were a beginner, you got yourself a basic gas blowback gun like a Tippmann or something. If you were feeling fancy, you might have sprung for something like an Autococker. This can still work, but the technology of recent years has changed many things. High tech electropnuematic markers have come down greatly in price. Back in the old days, a fast electronic gun like an WDP Angel would have cost you dearly. These days, there are great, affordable electropnuematic guns that make it easy to get into a high performance marker right away.

However, just because you have the power doesn't mean you should use it. Basic blow back style paintball guns are very reliable, and a snap to repair if they happen to break. Not so with the cheaper electro-pnuematics. Also, to really get the most out of an electric marker, you’ll need to get some sort of compressed air system. Air tanks are more expensive than the basic CO2 tanks blowbacks often use.

Really, it all depends on your style. If you’re doing a lot of woodsball/scenario type games, symplicity and reliability are paramount. However, if you’re playing speedball games, having a nice, fast marker can be invaluable. You need to understand your playing style so you can make the right decision. No single marker is right for everyone, but with the proper research, you can find something that works for you. Now, stop reading and start playing some paintball!

Sports Injuries Such As a Sprained Ankle Can Leave You Out Of Action

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Massage Therapy for Sprains

The best advice for any major injury should come from your doctor, however there are a few things that you can do on your own to help heal your sprained ankle and lessen the pain involved.

This kinds of injury normally occurs whenever a persons ankle is rolled to far in one direction or the other and the persons tendons as well as their ligaments which provide support and keep it upright are stretched too far. The result is a painful injury that can lead to swelling and immobility. As with any injury, you should immediately ice the ankle. The ice constricts the blood vessels in the affected area, thus restricting blood flow. This restriction in blood flow help to control the swelling. The ice also helps to numb the pain. You should continue to ice the injury for 20 minutes several times a day.

Should the injury show no improvement and is causing enough pain that it prevents you from walking then you may have to visit the doctor for x-rays. Over the counter pain killers are good only if the injury is causing minor discomfort, more pain is a sign that not all is well. Ibuprofen is the best product to take as it will alleviate some of the swelling and inflammation that may be causing the stiffness and it will help to dull the discomfort.

While your tendons as well as your ligaments function to repair as well as strengthen themselves, you might look to take it easy for a period of time. Because they have been over stretched beyond their normal capability, they will not be as strong and the likelyhood that you might injure yourself again is increased when your body is regaining its strength. One of the ways to assist your body to have a quicker recovery is to give the injured ankle some added support. You can by supportive ankle braces over the counter at many pharmacies or sporting goods stores. These fit tightly over the foot and ankle and offer some support to supplement the natural strength of your ankle, which may be diminished because of the injury. While it is ok to use these supports during the recovery phase, you may want to consult a doctor about prolonged use, as your body can grow to depend on the brace for support and never truly regain its own strength.

If you do try to treat the injury at home and you are still not seeing any improvement after a few days, you should see a doctor. If you tore a ligament or tendon and don’t get it taken care of promptly and properly, you can do permanent damage to your future mobility and stability. Sometimes small fractures can also occur which obviously need to be treated by a doctor. It’s ok to take a little time to asses the severity of the injury, but if it doesn’t get better with ice and ibuprofen, it’s time to go see a doctor.

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Simple Golf Tips To Help Improve Your Swing

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

There are about as many tips for golf swings as there are golfers. Your friends, family, and even golfers that you just met on the course will offer you tips. The fact is, that there is a lot of disagreement even among pros, so then how can you improve your swing? Well there are three basics that are standard tips from professional golfers. Keep them in mind and you will likely see improvement in your game.

Keep Your Head Stationary

It sounds simple enough, but one of the most common problems with amateurs and thus a common tip for golf is keeping the head still. With all of the other movements going on with a golf swing, it can be easy to let your head move around. Keeping it still will keep you looking at the same part of the ball without changing perspective.

Relax Your Muscles!

By relaxing your muscles, you can achieve one of the most important parts of your golf swing, namely balance. Stand so that you are comfortable and relaxed while addressing the ball, by making sure that you can reach it easily. Remember, it dose not matter which club or what distance you are swinging, what will make your swing strong and fluid is balance. Of all the tips for golf swings that you might learn, relaxing and maintaining good balance is one of the most important.

Keep the Head of the Club Moving Straight Through the Ball

Again, this seems like a simple idea. Most people, in principle, realize that the club head must travel straight through the ball, but they don’t give it any thought when they are playing. Once you have balance and your head still, the only tip for your golf swing left is to keep the head straight. By striking the ball straight, you can get rid of that nasty slice so many beginners have.

Golf can be a difficult game, which is why there are many tips for golf instruction online, in books, from friends, and anywhere you might look. While opinions may vary on swing theory, these three tips are universal and should help you to get going in the right direction.

Good golf aids can be a great tool on their own. However, if you already take lessons, and you should, they will enhance the experience. You can use the aids you pick up or read to add on to the information you get form you lessons. You will be amazed at how fast a few lessons and some well selected golf aids will improve your game.

Custom Golf Clubs: How To

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Every golfer’s physical capability and swing is distinctive. Many of today’s best golf clubs can be custom fit for lie angle, shaft type and length, grip type and size. Custom fitting golf clubs involves several easy measurements and a quick self-assessment of your game. This custom golf club has become more than a fad that even not so professional golfers test its waters. You might think that going out and buying some new, fancy, utility golf clubs will fix your game, but that won’t help as much as having your clubs custom fitted.

The purpose of a custom golf club us is to make sure that the club is nice and square when you strike the ball, given a proper swing.

To custom fit your golf club set, you need to know: your gender (male or female); your height in your stockings or socks; the distance from your wrist (where it bends) to the floor with your shoes off; your age; your handicap or skill level; how fast you swing a golf club; what club you use at the 150 yard marker.

Gender is used to put you into the correct fitting scale for custom golf clubs. The golf industry uses different definitions of “standard length” for men and women.

Your height and the distance in inches from your wrist to the floor are used together to determine the length of a custom golf club that is appropriate for you. The starting point for club length can vary up to 3 Ω-inch ranging from ladies to men plus 1 Ω-inch. A tall person with long arms can very easily require shorter clubs than an average height person with short arms. Only 20 percent of golfers out there fall outside the standard length.

Your age, handicap (if you happen to have one), self-assessed skill level, estimated golf swing speed and club you use at the 150 yard marker are all combined to determined the custom golf club’s shaft flex that is appropriate for you.

If you want to fix a slice, custom fitting can help. If you slice the ball it means that the toe of the club is leading into the ball which opens the face of the club. That may be down to a swing fault, but it could be because the club is too flat. So as part of the custom fitting process you can make the custom golf club more upright to help with this. This will mean that the toe of the club will be slightly off the ground at address to compensate.

There are different methods of fitting according to custom golf club manufacturers but ultimately they are all trying to improve your game. To begin with simple measurements such as wrist-to-floor, height and hand size are taken and will point you to the right size club and at what angle it should be to the ground. Then you will take a club and hit some balls. One way of doing this is to put impact tape on the bottom of the club, with an impact board on the floor.

As you hit the ball the board will leave a mark on the tape showing whether the heel or the toe of the custom golf club is striking the floor first. The resulting mark will show whether the club face needs to be flatter or more upright. After this, things get trickier. Analysis equipment can measure everything from your club speed to the side spin of the ball so that you can get maximum distance from your shot. You can measure such things as the angle the ball is being launched, the amount of backspin generated, and the efficiency of the impact. The angle in which the custom golf club approaches the ball and the sidespin of it can help fix your game too.

Rather than bringing down your old clubs, it might be better to start from scratch. It is a huge mistake to think that custom fit clubs are only for those special, good golfers. All can gain. That said, if you plan to upgrade a new set of clubs with the same manufacturer they may be able to adjust your old set to become custom golf clubs.

Lastly, custom fitting is often free of charge. But it is usually on the condition that you buy some clubs once you’ve been fitted. So it really depends on what your budget is. If you’re prepared to buy a new set of clubs it’s definitely worth getting fitted.

Aldila VS - The Shaft Setting a New Standard

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

The Aldila VS Proto By You shaft has been classified as an NV on steroids. That may be true.  Even though the NV shaft has enjoyed popularity seen by few shafts, the VS by all counts, seems to be well on its way to matching the glory that the NV has seen.  Why has this shaft literally come out of nowhere to achieve greatness at such an early age?

Well, there are probably a number of reasons that make the VS Proto popular. In addition to the obvious performance improvements which culminated from 2 years of research. Continued improvements were made to the already successful Micro-Laminate Technology. Lastly, Aldila cleverly marketed the VS Proto adding “By You” to the name. The marketing seemed to work — the VS made a big splash onto the scene, one that it continues to enjoy today.

The shaft features Aldila’s exclusive Next-Generation Micro Laminate Technology (MLT), Carbon Nano Tubes combined with a propriety A65 performance resin system. In addition, the straight tapered tooling of the VS eliminates “dead zones” found in the majority of shafts today. The patented features allows for an unparalleled performance and power. Because of the high modulus graphite fibers found in the shaft, the responsiveness and feel is unmatched.

Aldila introduced the VS in 2006′ and has steadily gaining in popularity.  Of course, having many top tour players commend the shaft doesn’t hurt.While in its early stages, Aldila claimed the new VS shaft to be their best to-date.  This comment certainly got attention since the shaft maker already had a one of the most popular lines in the the NV, NVS and DVS models.

The Aldila VS shaft is designed for the higher skilled player that can generate adequate club head speed. The VS will have a slightly higher launch angle than the NV and is designed for the larger club heads.  All around, this shaft is considered a premier shaft if you have the game for it.