Physical Strength

When you watch an athlete, you can see the physical strength very clearly. This part of the athlete is very important, but it takes a very long time to acquire the increase in strength, with long hours of practicing and working out certain muscles. As you gain strength overtime, you can easily see a difference in your performance.

Mental Strength

Mental strength is very hard to obtain because you must be able to block out pain and at the same time be able to know what is going on around you. With experience as a runner, I have learned that 90% of all pain that is felt is cause by the brain saying “STOP DO NOT GO FARTHER” and only 10% of the pain is actual pain in your muscles. You must overcome the pain and stop listening to your brain. Your brain thinks that what you are doing is to overwhelming for the body, but you must understand that the body can handle much more then it feels like it can handle. This is why the term “you can do anything, as long as you set your mind to it” is correct, because you can achieve very high standards, as long as you do not let your mind interfere with what your goals are.

At the same time as blocking out the pain, you much know what is going on around you. For instance as a runner, during races, you must know who is in front of you and who is around you, and you much use them to your advantage. If they speed up a hill, speed up with them, if they fall behind, go faster and think to yourself that they are still going up the hill while you are going down.

Concentration

At a race, before a race, and during a race (or game), you must be able to concentrate.

Before a race, in order to be fully ready for it, you should stay very calm, but at the same time know what your teem is doing, and stay as part of what they are doing. This may be taking a nap if you are not playing or racing for a long time, meditating, or quietly sitting away from other people.

During a race, as mentioned above, you must know what is going on around you. While you are doing this, you MUST stay relaxed. If you are tense and your muscles are tight then first of all you are wasting a lot of energy, secondly, you do not have the amount of flexibility, which causes smaller strides and not being able to think straight.

Commitment

Stay committed to what you are doing. You no not have to pick only one sport. In high school it is much better for you to do more then one sport. As long as you stay committed to the team, to the sports you play, and your physical and mental abilities then you should be fine.

Competition

Through out the writing, I have been explaining what you need for competition. In order to become a great athlete though, you must be very accustomed to how competition works. You should be used to pushing your body to the limit during a race or a game, and you should know what it feels like to be in front of a crowd who is cheering for you. As people cheer you should know how it feels to get an adrenaline rush through your body, and you should know how to use people who cheer to your advantage. If you know competition, you are a step closer to becoming a great athlete.

Thank You very much for reading.

When he was seven, he and his family moved to California. The warm climate there allowed Pete to play more tennis. He had idolized Rod Laver, and at age 11 Sampras met and played with his idol. Later, he was spotted by Peter Fischer, a pediatrician and tennis enthusiast. Fischer coached Pete until 1989. During the time he spent coaching Sampras, he managed to convert Sampras’s two-handed backhand to one-handed. This had really improved his game.

He turned professional in 1988, at the age of 16. He reached the fourth round of the 1989 US Open, surprising defending champion Mats Wilander.

Sampras was an all-court player who would often serve-and-volley. His second serve can be just as deadly as his first, measuring 100-120 mph. He used both his first and second serves as opportunities to win the point with one swing.

His forehand was a weapon used to put his opponent on the defensive. He held the racquet with an Eastern grip, allowing him to hit flat, penetrating drives to the corners of the court. His forehand is considered one of the best in the world.

With a one-handed backhand, Sampras could drive the ball flat, slice it, or put topspin on it. Although not the weapon his forehand was, his backhand was still very much effective.

His shot selections are well thought-out, hitting to his opponents’ blind spots. He would come into a match with the mind-set that if he was never behind, he wouldn’t lose. Sampras would force his opponent to catch up in the points when playing at his best. If he got behind in the point, he’d look for a shot that would immediately grab the momentum back.

With these strategies, Pete Sampras had won 64 top-level singles titles and two doubles titles. He announced his retirement in August of 2003, just prior to the US Open. His retirement announcement was timed so that he could say farewell at a special ceremony organized for him at the open. After retirement, Sampras was regarded by many as the greatest player of all time.

Requirements for Airsoft

• Safety Glasses/Goggles - Only place you can get injured seriously. Well there is one other place…
• A gun - You cant walk in with a knife or something.
• .12g or .20g plastic BB's - Metal BB's are dangerous as they can penetrate skin. They hurt if they don't penetrate. The heavier the BB, the slower the BB.
• Camouflage Clothes (optional) - Provides camouflage so the enemy cant see you well, and provides armor so the BB's hurt less.
• Side Weapon (optional) - If you run out of ammo in a firefight, you can switch. Not recommended for beginners.
• Some experience with sports and gun. - Fat couch potatoes wont be able to run away from rapid-firing machine guns.

Desert Eagle .44 Magnum

This airsoft gun packs a punch at 290 FPS (feet per second). It hurts like crazy and it is dead accurate. Use .20 gram BB's to get the most performance. It looks sexy and shoots sexily too. It is spring meaning you have to load it after every shot. It is about 1.5 pounds when loaded. Holds 28 BB's. It is made in china, but spring guns almost never break. I own it and I use it as a secondary. Usually around 26$.

Get at: Dick's Sporting Goods

Price: 24~30$

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Crossman SASR36 Tactical

Wow. This gun is pretty much perfect. Comes with an LED flashlight, a rail system for scopes and lasers, a vertical grip for more comfort and an easy-aim sight. It is around 240~260 FPS and shoots 12 or 20 gram BB's. The flashlight is useful for dark places or for close quarter battles. The sight is easy to use and I believe it is detachable, so you can use the iron I mean, plastic sights to aim if you get tired of the tactical sight. The clip holds 20 rounds and the gun can be used in 3 different positions. I think the one with the grip and the stock is the best. I don't own it, but I know it is great. Range is about 31 yards I think. Not recommended for battles against pros.

Get at: Dick's Sporting Goods

Price: 39.99$

Rating: 4 Stars

Double Eagle M85 (G36C)

This gun is unreliable at times, but is great overall. It has around 240 FPS, which feels like a light punch on armor, and feels like a hard pinch with light or no clothes. (Never airsoft with no clothes. :P ) It is manufactured by Double Eagle and comes with 10 things. This is definitely worth 34.99 (it used to be 100$). It has 1, the gun itself, 2, a clip that holds around 50 BB's, 3, an LAM (Laser Aiming Module), 4, a Flashlight that is “tactical”, 5, A red cross scope, 6, Unjamming rod, 7, The Rechargeable battery, 8, A bag of BB's lasts maybe 1 minute… 9, Safety Glasses and finally, 10, a Fake Silencer (real ones are ILLEGAL!!). Oh yeah, it also has a manual that is poorly translated. If you bought the gun and all the accessories separately, it would be maybe, 30$ for the gun and 62$ for the accessories. I'm just guessing so don't shoot me please. It has a safety, semi and automatic choosing feature. Overall, this gun is OK, but it is perfect for beginners and good to be used in battles/wars.

Get at: Amazon , Amazon 2

Price: 35$

Rating: 3.3 Stars (it is made in china and electrics from china are known to be bad)

Galaxy MP5K-PDW Version

This gun is the best gun ever. It fires at a blazing 340 FPS and has a 200-225 feet range. If you shoot someone with this, it hurts like ********** even with armor. It is compact (portable) so you can carry it easily. It is fast and very unlikely to break when treated carefully. It has an adjustable hop-up. Hop-up is an ability guns have that makes the bullet go up or down more. When adjusted perfectly, it can go very far and can be dead accurate. It has a flash hider, so if you buy a flashlight, then you can attack it to it. It also comes with a vertical grip, a stock and two magazines. The hi-cap mag holds 200rounds and the regular clip has around 45 rounds. It is recommended that you use .20 gram BB's with this gun as it is a good quality electric. It has metal gears that are impervious to most other forces. It can break occasionally, but I've never seen one break all the way. The makers are very trustable and I think this gun is maybe the best SMG (sub-machine gun) on the market. ;)

Get at: AirSplat

Price: 89$

Rating: 4 Stars (5 Stars but price made it go down by 1 star)

Last but not least…

BE Steyr Aug

I own this gun and I have to say one thing about it. It is DA BOM! This gun fires at around 250 FPS on half-battery and 300 FPS on full battery! I think this gun is definitely worth it. The only bad thing is that the handle is wiggly, the gun is larger than scale (I think) and the scope has nothing on it. I had to put crosshairs on the scope with sharpie lol. The gun comes with iron sights too, so if you don't want to make crosshairs, then you can use the sights. The sights are like MP7 and AK47 sights combined, so they are easy to aim with. If you want, you can get an actual zooming scope with crosshairs for extreme pwnage. The manual had horrible translations (wtf does nicety mean?) but it at least told me basics. Since the manual doesn't say how long to charge the battery, ill tell you. The first time should be about 4 hours, and other times should be 1-2.5 hours. You will notice your gun gets slower, and that is when you need to charge. The slower the longer. The mag holds 50 rounds and the gun comes with a speed loader. This gun is probably the best LPEG (Low Powered Electric Gun) in the market.

Get at: Amazon

Price: 24$ (:o)

Rating: 4.9 Stars

Discover Boating is running a funny commercial. I am sure you can check it out on YouTube. The commercial shows people driving in their car and waiving to everyone they see on the streets. The people that are being waived to just ignore them or look at them like they are crazy, as if they are saying, “why in the world would someone be friendly to me on a Tuesday in the middle of the work week?”

The commercial than skips to the same family cruising along in their boat and show them doing the same thing, waiving to people, on the water as they pass by the other boats. Of course the people in the other boats also waive back. If you have ever been on a boat then you already know that this commercial is not sensationalized and is reality.

People on the water respond to others better than they do on land. My theory is because when on the water you are having fun, or at least trying to. With the high cost of gas, congestion, and other factors, driving is not the fun activity it once was, many, and I mean many years ago. Boating however is.

There are a variety of styles and types to choose from and of course that is mainly due to what you intend to use your boat for. Are you going fishing? Want to hit a swimming hole on the river? Maybe you just want to cruise around the big lake. Whatever it is you plan on doing with your boat there is a style out there for you.

First determine what you want to do on the water. For me I love fishing in the Ocean off the Jersey coast in the summer time. Even though they raised the length restrictions on fluke and sea bass, it hasn't deterred me from going. A fishing boat is perfect for me, with some storage; however I have no need for a galley or sleeping quarters so that helps save on cost. I need speed to get to where I am going as I do not want to spend most of my day taking forever to get where the fish are. There are a variety to choose from such as Great White, Boston, and Trophy. I prefer the Trophy boat specifically their walk around models with the T-top center console.

For my mother-in-law she likes to cruise and take the grand kids to a swimming hole along the Chesapeake. She likes to fish, but it is not a priority. She definitely isn't spending anytime sleeping over night on the boat, yet needs the room for all the people she wants to bring. Speed is not a factor, but needs enough of it to get where she is going. She chose a pontoon boat made by Princecraft. It gives her everything that I described above and then some.

If you were thinking about getting a boat, there is no real wrong time or right time, although now is better than any because you can pick up used boats practically dirt cheap, at least in my area anyway.

Before plunging into buying a boat make sure you take some Coast Guard certified courses to familiarize yourself with safety procedures and boating regulations. Knowing them will take you a long way in ensuring a fun, safe and enjoyable experience.

Kristina Egerszegi

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Kristina Egerszegi was born on Aug. 16, 1974 so she is now 24. She started swimming at the age of 4 and has had many years of swimming training. She has competed in 3 separate Olympics and has won 7 medals, 5 of them were gold. She is well known for her backstroke and she holds the world record for the 200m backstroke. She is also an inductee of the International Swimming Hall Of Fame

Johnny Weissmuller

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Johnny Weismuller was born on June 2 1904. He was an American swimmer and actor. He was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920's. He has one five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He has set 67 world records and that is amazing. He also played Tarzan and he played in 12 motion pictures (Just Thought You Would Want To Know)

Ian James Thorpe

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Thorpe has a nickname of “Thorpedo” because of his amazing speed. He has competed in Two Olympic Games and won nine medals, five of these were gold. He holds the record for the 200m and 400m freestyle events. He has also been World Swimmer of The Year Four Times.

Matthew Nicholas Biondi

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Biondi has won a total of 11 Olympic records and 8 of them are gold. In one Olympic games he won 7 medals and 5 of them were gold. He was Swimmer of The Year Two Times.

Mark Spitz

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Spitz has won a total of 11 Olympic medals. He started swimming at the age of 9. He was the holder of 10 world records at one time in his professional career and in one Olympics in 1972 he won 7 gold medals and broke a world record for every gold medal he won!