A Few New Year Tennis Resolutions for 2008

The Dos and the Don'ts in competitive tennis

Winning tennis matches at ATP, WTA, professional or at amateur level is the consequence of proper careful preparation.

Preparation the week previous to tournament play Training;

Do - Taper the work load if you were training a combined tennis/conditioning/mental/regeneration of 5/6 hours a day reduce it to 2.5 to 3 hours a day.

Don't - Raise the workload or keep the same training load as the previous week.

Do - Focus on creativity, point play, game play, tie-breakers and match play.

Don't - Get into long grueling training drills or mechanical practices

Eating and Diet

Don't - eat burgers, excessive red meat, high fat meals and too many sugar based food and drinks.

Do - Eat jams and fibre rich breakfasts. Eat balanced meals from all food groups, plenty of fruits and vegetables, you can carbon load in the last 3 days by eating more pasta based meals. And drink plenty of good clean fresh water.

Nearing competition day - The Draw

Don't - Look at the draw and start making plans for your next round or even the final!

Do - Look at the draw as a whole and focus on the first round opponent.

Don't - Ever think this tournament is in the bag.

Do - Always remember no matter how good you are, tennis matches are won, one point at a time, match by match.

Don't - Ever assume you already know your opponent and ignore scouting him.

Do - Scout your opponent even in practice if you can or let your coach to do it for you. Opponents improve on a weekly basis, someone you beat a week ago may very well beat you this week.

Don't - Ever let the thought enter your mind, that you as a better ranked player will win the match.

Do - Be humble, respect all opponents and be ready for a real battle at all times.

About yourself

Do - Be consistent at all times.

Enjoy the game!

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Donkey is Going to Win the Tennis Australian Open 2008 Title!

No! No! Just kidding. Of course a donkey could not ever win the Australian Open in tennis, or the Kentucky Derby! I am just trying to get your attention ! (smile).

This is about the eternal question "Are Champions born or made"? And the answer is "Champions are born not made"! A champion will be a champion because of his/her genetical make up and not because someone made them.

Sure, some of you are saying, ney, ney, you do not know what you are talking about! Ok, I respect your opinion but, please give me a chance and continue reading.

To make it easier to understand. Just consider the brain and ask yourself can everyone that has been born man or woman be a Nuclear Scientist or Einstein? Most of you will agree that the answer is, no. The same applies to tennis and everything else. Another example is this rehtorical question, did anyone ever see a donkey winning the Kentucky Derby?

This leads to your question, what about you bragging that you Coached Jim Courier and gave on court instruction to players like: Pete Sampras, Cedric Pioline, Tim Mayotte, David Wheaton, Brad Gilbert, Mark Knowles, Doug Flach, Bonnie Gaduzek, David Nankin, Julie Halard, Mary Pierce and many others? Yes, you are right it is just an ego trip! In all humbleness we coaches need the knowledge and the implementation know how, but without Champions with a special set of genetic qualities, Coaches are just nothing!

Are you trying to say that all those entourages of experts, psycologists, masseurs, coaches, guru coaches, strengh and speed coaches, papa coaches, mama coaches, physiotherapists, could all stay at home and the players would still, play the same? Yep! Go ask Roger Federer, or Ken Rosewall or Rod Laver and a horde of other great players! Why do you think Paul Anacone read the newspaper while Pete Sampras was playing? (This is no joke look at TV match tapes). Do you think Pete cared? Of course not, the job was done outside the court, during the match it was up to Pete to perform and win.

Do you also mean that all those "Big Name Tennis Academies" in Florida and around the world can not make Champions? You got it, they cannot! They have a good function and that is to get very rich kids who can afford a tennis and school tuition in the tens of thousands of dollars a year, a chance to prepare for a college team and if they are good enough, to get a college coach to recruit some of them.

The true champions that go to those academies and later on become professional players, are already champions when they get there. If those academies could really make champions, there would be hundreds of thousands of tennis champions, if you consider that some of those academies are visited by over 400 youngsters per week throughout the summer months and hundreds if not thousands sprinkled in the year, not to mention that in a low estimate there are about 60 million tennis players world wide and from such a great pool of tennis players there are just about 30 something real top class men and women in the ATP/WTA professional circuits while the rest are just mere participants.

Here are the Men and Women 2007 Tournament winners. (Mind you that the amount of winners would be reduced to a handful on either tour if the top five ranked players played low tier tournaments):

ATP Men

- Djokovic, Novak 5 - Ljubicic, Ivan 2 - Malisse, Xavier 2 - Ferrer, David 3 - Blake, James 2 - Federer, Roger 7 + Masters - Luis Horna 1 - Baghdatis, Marcos 1 - Andy Murray 2 - Simon, Gilles 2 - Canas, Guillermo 1 - Haas, Tommy 1 - Youzhny, Mikhail 1 - Monaco, Juan 3 - Chela, Juan Ignacio 1 - Hewitt, Lleyton 1 - Nadal, Rafael 5 - Almagro, Nicolas 1 - Karlovic, Ivo 2 - Mathieu, Paul-Henri 2 - Kohlschreiber, Philipp 1 - Roddick, Andy 2 - Berdych, Tomas 1 - Santoro, Fabrice 2 - Darcis, Steve 1 - Stepanek, Radek 1 - Tursunov, Dmitry 2 - Moya, Carlos 1 - Robredo, Tommy 2 - Gonzalez, Fernando 1 - Gasquet, Richard 1 - Davydenko, Nikolay 1 - Nalbandian, David 2 - Grosjean, Sebastien 1

WTA Women

Dinara Safina 1 - Jelena Jankovic 4 - Kim Clijsters 1 - Anna Chakvetadze 4 - Serena Williams 2 - Martina Hingis 1 - Nadia Petrova 1 - Sybille Bammer 1 - Amelie Mauresmo 1 - Yaroslava Shvedova 1 - Justine Henin 10 - Venus Williams 3 - Roberta Vinci 1 - Emilie Loit 1 - Daniela Hantuchova 1 - Tatiana Golovin 2 - Gisela Dulko 2 - Greta Arn 1 - Ana Ivanovic 3 - Akiko Morigami 1 - Milagros Sequera 1 - Anabel Medina Garrigues 1 - Elena Dementieva 2 - Meghann Shaughnessy 1 - Agnes Szavay 2 - Francesca Schiavone 1 - Maria Sharapova 1 - Agnieszka Radwanska 1 - Svetlana Kuznetsova 1 - Lindsay Davenport 2 - Maria Kirilenko 1 - Virginie Razzano 2 - Pauline Parmentier 1 - Flavia Pennetta 1 - Daniela Hantuchova 1 -

Why are then Champions indeed born? I will answer this question in depth in my next article.

In the meantime remember speed and strength are very important in tennis and how fast you are is genetically predetermined at birth by the fast twitching muscle fibbers your forefathers gave you and the balanced strength of your overall body. So to reap the benefits of "your" maximum natural inborn speed you need to develop the following good habits:

- Go to a track and field and watch carefully all the routines of track and field 100 meter runners, they do all the right things. Copy their exercises even the stretches and cool down exercises.

- If you are lucky enough to be attending a college or in an area were sprinters abound and you are good enough, ask the Coach if you could participate in their speed training program. Its an enlightening experience, I can vouch for that!

- Then develop excellent starting technique (similar to the 50 meter dash sprinters)

- Explosivity (Age appropriate exercises include use of weights, elastics, force-resistence etc..)

- Learn to release the tennis racket from supporting hand and pump like any sprinter in large distances (up to 10 meters a cross the court - to drop shots, angle shots)

- Parallel acceleration by leading your baseline starts always with big powerful FIRST step towards the incoming wide ball, right foot forehand, left foot backhand - lefties, right foot backhand, left foot forehand, while strongly pushing off with the opposite foot on the same direction (the ball).

- Use these techniques on the practice court first, then on point play and finally on match play.

You must feel comfortable with what is your maximum 100 meter speed, be it 11'', 10,30'', 10 seconds, (or the 50, 20, 10 meter or start reaction time) whatever it is, once you achieved it in power and technique it will be "your" maximum speed for the rest of your life with very little fluctuations from day to day. The important thing is that you fought and worked hard to achieve that goal and you should be immensely proud of yourself and your tennis will greatly benefit from it. Never compare yourself to others or feel bad about not being as good as so and so, measure yourself against yourself and the clock and you will always be happy with your achievements.

Finally, keep in mind that maintaining a high level of excellence requires rigorous discipline and unabated work ethic for a life time.

All the best improving your tennis.

Feel free to visit www.tenniscruz.com to see the video related to this article.

Sérgio Cruz

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Guide on the Toughest USB Memory Sticks Available

USB thumb drives-from relatively humble beginnings-have become an essential PC component for both student and road warrior alike.

Ubiquitous and ever cheaper, its success lies in its small size, ever-increasing capacity, and flexibility; they are perfect for quick backups but can boot smaller operating systems as well. Best of all, USB drives are solid state, with no moving parts to break when thrown in a backpack - or a back-pocket. With prices diminishing as capacity grows, a specialized sub-market continues to grow for discerning consumers who desire capacity, throughput and rugged build quality.

This niche market is well served by the following rugged USB drives released over the last few months.

First up is the Verbatim TUFF-CLIP. Featuring 8GB of storage, the TUFF-CLIP, as its name implies, boasts a clasp on one end - perfect for belt or laptop bag loops. Considering that the size of USB thumb drives can sometimes be a mixed blessing-easy to carry, but likewise also easy to misplace-its closable clasp is a minor but nonetheless needed innovation. This plastic also sheathes the rest of the drive without sacrificing portability. The drive itself is optimized for ready-boost speed for Vista and Windows 7 users and features the now standard security software onboard. The Verbatim TUFF-CLIP comes in at a competitive price point compared to its more vanilla competitors. The clasp is well integrated with the rest of its casing.

Priced similarly, but featuring a tougher exterior is a new player in the market: the ATP ToughDrive. ATP advertises SIP technology in a drive that is shockproof, waterproof and dust-proof. Such claims might well cover all but the cheapest USB thumb drives; when picking up at a recent computer trade show, I immediately understood the market ATP is looking to snare. Like the TUFF-CLIP, the ToughDrive features a tough shell encasement, but with a dense rubber as opposed to the more common plastic. Unlike some its competitors, it seemed welded onto the drive. While its design does not include a clip, the ATP felt light in the palm while undeniably tough. Ridges on both sides of the drive, including a removable tip, were a nice touch; they added heft while not detracting from overall portability. The ToughDrive ships in 4GB and 8GB and the drive itself includes the ready-boost and security options now standard for higher-end thumb drives. The drive itself, as will all of these featured here, is sturdy and well embedded in its casing.

One would think that the military is one step ahead of the rest of us in thumb drive innovation. They probably are. But other professions with truly mission critical needs have developed a market with a new twist on tough. Meet the TAC drive. Eschewing industrial-grade plastic or rubber, the TAC drive is encased in light-weight metal that nonetheless meets-and exceeds-military field regulations. Weighing less than an ounce, rural and suburban fires led physician Dr. Anthony DuBose to conceive of a tough, but lightweight thumb drive that could withstand extreme conditions while saving important medical information of the firefighters engaged in fighting the flames. The result is a thumb drive capable of withstanding freezing in dry ice, submersion in a hundred feet of water, when not heated to degrees exceeding 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

The price is competitive with the other drives listed here, but the capacity is indeed smaller at 1GB. Still, this is an attractively priced, and truly archival quality drive, ready to bear the brunt of extreme elements. A drive tested in a forest fire seems well worth trusting irreplaceable information with; overlook its unsexy, Swiss knife design and it becomes a portable, and fireproof safe - ready on the go.

Rugged, tough USB drives should not resemble a Hummer in miniature; consider instead the materials and intelligent design that go into a high-end, tough USB drive. Form factor, design and on board software are all features to consider when shopping for a tough USB drive designed to withstand the tests of time, circumstance and environment.

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The Best Of Future Star Yuliya Kalabina - Biella 2010

This mini-Golovin will be snatching your favourites' wigs in no time!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWDzfrQtuXQ&hl=en

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Resveratrol Pills As an Anti Aging Supplement

What can a Resveratrol pill really do for you? The supplement is being promoted as an anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, blood-sugar lowering, life extending miracle. But, what they fail to tell you is that the latest research proves that the nutrient has a very low bio-availability.

Stomach acid converts the active form of the nutrient to an inactive form that does not have the same activity. Basically, it causes twisting of the molecule. If it remains unchanged as it passes through the stomach, the untwisted molecule is small enough to pass through the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream directly. This occurs with some proteins and other nutrients, as well.

In order to protect delicate nutrients from stomach acid, some manufacturers use an enteric coating. But, the coatings are more expensive and the cheap supplements don't include them. So, the first thing that a Resveratrol pill must include is an enteric coating.

The second thing is that the formulation should be standardized to have high trans-Resveratrol content, 50% is best. It is the trans-Resveratrol type that has been used in laboratory studies. It is basically the "untwisted" form of the molecule.

The third thing to look for is a combination of other ingredients that enhance and work with the trans-Resveratrol to provide the greatest results. On its own a Resveratrol pill can only do so much. The activity that it has is not well understood, but assuming that the research theories are correct, it is not active against all types of free radicals. Basic antioxidants must be included or the other free radicals will damage the cells, even if trans-Resveratrol is present.

Some of the latest claims have been about weight loss, in particular fat loss, that supplementation can cause. These claims are based on studies conducted using animal models. There are no clinical trials to show the effectiveness or safety of this type of supplement for weight loss.

If you need to lose weight, a multi-nutritional supplement that contains chromium, green tea extract, gingko biloba, SAM-e and ATP can help, because they are compounds that have proven fat-burning activity. Other nutrients are important, as well. Just because you are overweight does not mean that you are well nourished. In fact, in all likelihood, you are suffering from mal-absorption, an inability to absorb nutrients from the foods that you eat. Supplementation can be highly beneficial.

Basically, a single-ingredient Resveratrol pill will do very little to improve your overall health. As an ingredient in a totally balanced formula, it's great. Alone, it's not going to do much.

It was believed to be the solution to the puzzle of the French paradox, a lower than expected incidence of heart disease in the South of France, despite a diet that is high in fat. Researchers have since proven that it could not possibly be the explanation for that puzzle. The amount that is present in red wine is too low.

The amount that is present in a Resveratrol pill may be too high or too low. 20-50mg per day is sufficient, higher than that could cause unwanted side effects. Look for a formula that includes that amount and lots of other different ingredients, if you want the best results.

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Elena Dementieva At The 2010 Rogers Cup

We caught up with Elena Dementieva ahead of the 2010 Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVQZMzq5LgU&hl=en

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The Importance Of Creatine In Building Lean Muscle

Creatine monohydrate can rightly lay claim to being the most popular and arguably most effective bodybuilding supplement currently available. The beauty of creatine is that it is 100% natural and occurs in many foods so it's unlikely to be banned from any sports or competitions.
Let's first establish what creatine actually is. In brief, creatine is produced naturally in our bodies to help supply energy to the muscles. It is produced in the liver, pancreas and kidneys before being transported in the blood to our muscles. It is then converted into phosphocreatine which is a powerful metabolite used to regenerate the muscles' ATP source of energy.
From a bodybuilder's perspective, creatine can significantly increase lean muscle mass quickly, improve performance in high intensity exercise, raise energy levels and speed up recovery rates. Creatine's ability to raise energy in muscles is due to its muscle protein synthesizing action whilst reducing the breakdown of protein. This happens because creatine has the effect of super-hydrating muscle cells with water. It also improves muscle growth adding size and strength to muscle fibers.
Creatine is normally taken in two ways. The first involves loading the muscles with 20 to 30 grams of creatine per day for four to seven days. At the end of this phase maintenance involves a regular intake of 5 to 15 grams per day. The other method is more gradual in that it skips out the loading phase and simply involves supplementing with 5 to 15 grams per day for an extended period.
Two questions remain to be answered - does it work and is it safe? Creatine has undoubtedly been proven effective in recent years - over twenty scientific studies have concluded that creatine can increase energy levels and result in enhanced strength, endurance levels and recovery rates. As a training aid it therefore has many merits. In terms of safety, no study to date has shown creatine to be anything other than safe, provided manufacturers' instructions are followed.
There is a bewildering range of creatine supplements on the market so subsequent articles in this series will examine the relative merits of the most popular and effective forms. In the meantime, you can find out more by visiting the site listed below.

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