Sports Blog

Unfortunately I was on a road trip last Sunday for week one of NFL.  I then almost completely missed the famous Monday Night Football.  Luckily, I found the Denver Broncos versus Oakland Raiders game on ESPN at the beginning of the second half.  At this point in the game, the Broncos had a pretty strong lead over the Raiders that it was pretty obvious who would win the game.  However, I haven’t watched a game for a while so I decided to watch it out til the end.  I was very surprised at what I saw.

Growing up in Colorado, I have pretty much always had a little bit of Broncos fan in me.  Yet, since the the retirement of John Elway, the Broncos have struggled a lot.  But I think this year they might have something going for them.  They started out the season with a big win, although it doesn’t say much since Oakland is perhaps the worst team in the league, and a very impressive performance.  I think that they have an offense that should definitely not be taken lightly.

Jay Cutler has been the quarterback for the the Broncos for a few year now.  While he is definitely not a veteran by any means, it appears that he has the experience needed to lead his team. 

The Broncos also some less experienced guys that I will be keeping a close eye on.  Eddie Royal is one of the rookies that really impressed me.  From Virginia Tech, Royal showed the NFL just how good of a wide receiver he is.  He ended the game with 9 catches for a total of 146 yards and 1 touchdown.  Selvin Young was also a very impressive younger running back.  With 7 carries, he put up 36 yards and 1 touchdown. 

With the win over Oakland, Denver leads their conference.  Over the next few weeks they will play some of the better teams in their conference and have a chance to prove that they can be the winning team in the AFC West conference.

Wade Boden is the artwork director of Robbins Sports, an online vendor of Football Uniforms and other Sporting Goods.

Last Saturday I witnessed the worst coverage of college football I’ve seen in a long time.  After not finding the BYU-Washington game on my local Versus or The Mountain channels, I checked my TV guide to find that FSN was covering the game as part of their PAC-10 package.  Recognizing that the commentary would likely have a Washington slant to it, I was still amazed at the bias I heard throughout the game.  Constant jabs at the Mountain West and BYU got very annoying.  It came as no surprise then that the blame for Washington’s loss was placed singly on the referee who threw a flag on Jake Locker for unsportsmanlike conduct after a last second touchdown.  What really surprised me was the reporting that followed on ESPN and among the college football world generally.

Immediately after the game, FSN’s postgame coverage had a banner across the bottom of the screen that read “Bad Celebration Call” and had a picture of Jake Locker next to it.  One of the analysts was obviously furious, admitting that he was “steaming” over the call.  I have a better idea for the producers there at FSN.  Why not have your graphics guys draw up and post an image of the extra point being blocked after BYU’s defensive front surged through the line?

I have to admit, I hate celebration penalties just as much as the next college football fan.  I think they should be taken from the game except in extreme cases.  However, I can’t even hear the argument for the pouting that came from Mark May and the other cry babies who somehow saw a different angle as Locker simply “flipped” the ball over his shoulder.  Wow!  I’ve never seen a “flipped” ball get 2.5 seconds of hang time.  Mark May’s and Lou Holtz’s evaluation of what happened can’t be explained any other way than by speculating that they must have nephews on the Husky team.

The reaction to one simple (and correct according to the rules) call leads me to think that somehow BYU wasn’t supposed to win this game.  Leading up to the touchdown, I was already frustrated at an obvious hold (one of BYU’s defensive ends was dragged down from behind while Locker hit a receiver with a 20-yard completion) and the dreamed-up “intentional grounding” interpretation of Locker’s fumble a few plays before.  Even if the officials had gotten the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty wrong, which they didn’t, they obviously kept Washington in the game to make it a close one.

Maybe the experts need to shown the numbers.  BYU had 138 yards more offense than Washington.  Expect for an official signalling a touchback before checking to see who recovered a fumble in the end zone, BYU should have been ahead by two touchdowns in the final seconds of the game.

The outcry over one little (correctly called, I should emphasize again) penalty seems pretty dubious.  What does the press have against the humble Cougs?  Maybe the angst is generated from the awful realization that a team full of mostly white, Eagle Scout, former LDS missionaries could come into Seattle and knock of a PAC-10 team.  I don’t really get all the wrath.  Washington hasn’t been any good in a long time, and it’s not BYU’s nor the officials chore to give them a win just because Ty Willingham’s coaching staff is on the bubble.  Get a load of this statement, reported in a Seattle newspaper by a fellow named Steve Kelley:
    “This is a make-or-break season for this coaching staff, and a call that bad can affect the long-term future of the program.”
    I’m sure the guy who made the call had that perspective rolling through his head while he watched to see if and when the “flipped” ball was going to land.  Maybe the Huskies should initiate a lawsuit against the ref and seek punitive damages.  If they had a PAC-10 jury, I’m sure they’d be able to collect something, maybe even overturn the score.

     At least this scandal might take some of the heat off of Sarah Palin.  It seems like maybe the same group of people are behind both investigations.  I’m just interested in hearing what Steve Young has to say…about BYU’s win.

When it comes to impressing the crowd, having an absolutely amazing looking uniform for your team can be helpful.  However, there are many thing to consider when ordering your uniforms for your team.  There are many different styles, budgets, and other things that must be considered.  Here are some suggestions to help you when deciding what uniform to order.

First, decide exactly what you need.  Is it just the top or a complete uniform with top, shorts, shoes, etc.  Many teams opt to just order the tops and have the player provide a pair of black shorts to go along with the uniform.  This is a good idea if you are on a tight budget, but if it is possible, it is much better to go with at least the top and shorts.

Second, it is important to consider if you will be using 2 sets of uniforms, one for the home games and a different one for away games.  In most city leagues, you will only be required to supply one color jersey. However in more formal game play, for example, high school leagues, you will be required to supply a colored jersey for away games and a white jersey for home games.  Be sure to check your league rules before placing your order.  Also, if you must have a colored and a white jersey, consider using a reversible jersey.

Third decide what material you would like for your jersey.  The two main materials used for basketball jerseys are mesh and dazzle.  There are advantages and disadvantage to each style.  Mesh is good because it is light weight and keeps the body cooler.  The disadvantages to mesh is that the artwork on the jersey typically does not look as good, especially of the mesh holes in the jersey are big.  Dazzle uniforms weigh slightly more than mesh uniforms and a a little more expensive.  However, they look much better.  The usually come in more styles with different trim.  Overall, I think that dazzle uniforms are much better.

The last thing to consider is the artwork that will be placed on the uniform.  Typically a basketball uniform has the team name on the front chest with the number below.  The number is also placed on the back in a larger size.  Many people also choose to place the player’s last name on the back of the uniform.  If you decide to complete the uniform with the shorts, often times people will have the team logo placed on the shorts right above one of the knees. 

Wade Boden is the Artwork Director of Robbins Sports, an online vendor of Basketball Uniforms, Portable Basketball Goals, and much more.

Lets face it, exercise can be very difficult especially if you are not really sure what you should be doing at the gym.  There are many different kinds of exercises and machines, each with its own benefits.  Creating a good balance of exercise is important to have a great workout and feel better.  Exercise can be broken down into two main categories, aerobic and anaerobic.

Aerobic exercises are any form of exercise that makes the body use excessive amounts of oxygen over a long period of time.  During aerobic exercise, you should try to run your heartbeat between 70% to 80% of your maximum heartbeat rate.  To determine what your max is, take 220 and subtract your age.   Some examples of aerobic exercise are running, riding a bicycle, dancing, swimming, and playing sports that require long periods of steady movement such as tennis, racquetball, soccer, and basketball.

Anaerobic exercises require quick, powerful movements requiring large amount of oxygen intake for a very short period of time.  The most commonly used method of anaerobic exercise is weight lifting with free weights or machines.  Another form of anaerobic exercise is stretching.

Whether your goal is to lose weight or gain muscle, it is important to implement both kinds of exercise into your workout.  Doing aerobic exercise will burn calories if your goal is to lose weight or warm up your muscles if your goal is to gain weight.  Anaerobic exercise will burn fat cells quicker than aerobic exercise if your goal is to lose weight or tear your muscles which will make them bigger if your goal is to build more strength.

Wade Boden is the Artwork Director at Robbins Sports, an online vendor of Tanita Body Composition Scales, Basketball Uniforms, and more Sporting Goods Equipment.

Basketball practice can get kind of boring when all you do is run plays and scrimmage.  Sometimes, you need to just bring in something to help practice and focus on a specific weakness that the team, or an individual player, has.  There are many products available that can help improve a basketball player.  Here are my top three picks for basketball training products:

1. The “Rebound” Ring - The Rebound Ring is a metal ring that sits inside the basketball goal. Since the ring is so small, it completely prevents the ball from going into the hoop, thus giving your players a chance to practice their rebounding.  Rebound is essential on both the offensive and defensive end of basketball.  While defensive rebounds are a lot more common than offensive rebounds, a team that can master rebounding on both ends is given a much greater advantage come game time.
2. The Toss Back Training Aid - The Toss Back Training Aid is a net that is attached to a metal frame with elastic bands.  Because of the elastic, the net has a springy toss back feature.  This training aid is great for developing quickness and accuracy in passing.  Quickness in passing is crucial for a team that is trying to break through that difficult zone defense.  That is why the Toss Back Trainer is a great tool because players will learn to pass and be ready to receive a pass without hesitation. 
3. The Heavy Ball - The Heavy Ball is a great training tool for the big guys.  Centers and power forwards can use this ball while training to get used to going up strong.  Playing the low post can be a ruthless place, but a player that knows how to use his upper body to make a push towards the rim will definitely be able to handle the competition.

These are just my favorites.  There are many other basketball training tools available.  The more that you use, the better your training will be.  Use these tools along with scrimmages to improve your practices and your team.

Wade Boden is the Artwork Director of Robbins Sports, an online resource for Basketball Uniforms and Basketball Training Equipment.

The next week will be an exciting and very important one for basketball players in many countries of the world.  That is because it is time to decide who the last 3 teams are that will participate in the Men’s Basketball tournament in the Beijing Olympics. 

The remaining teams that will be completing for sports over the next week at the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men in Athens Greece are Cameroon, Cape Verde, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Canada, Lebanon, Korea, Greece, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, and New Zealand.  The tournament will go as follows:

The teams are divided into 4 groups with 3 teams in each group.  Group A contains Brazil, Greece, and Lebanon.  Group B contains New Zealand, Cape Verde, and Germany.  Group C contains Slovenia, Korea, and Canada.  Group D contains Cameroon, Croatia, and Puerto Rico.  Each team will play both of the other teams in its group.  The winning team will be awarded 2 points while the losing team is awarded 1 point.  The top 2 teams in each group will then advance to a single elimination tournament.

The two teams that win the semifinals of the tournament advance to the Olympics.  The two teams that lose in the semifinals will play each other and the winner will fill the last spot in the Olympics. 

The three teams that advance in the qualifying tournament will join Angola, USA, Argentina, Iran, Russia, Lithuania, Australia, Spain, and China for the Mens Basketball tournament in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Best of luck to all of the participating teams.  May the best teams advance.

!!UPDATE: The teams that advanced in the tournament are Greece, Croatia, and Germany.  !!

Wade Boden is the Artwork Director of Robbins Sports, an Online Vendor of Basketball Uniforms and Portable Scoreboards.

After years of struggles, PBC Chairman Clay Bennett and the City of Seattle have come to an agreement which will move the Seattle Supersonic to Oklahoma City for the 2008-2009 season.  Ever since Bennett has had his influence in the Seattle SuperSonic in 2006, he has wanted to move the team to Oklahoma City.  Now, his dream is coming true.  Seattle will no longer be able to host an NBA team due to failure to meet NBA regulations in the Key Arena.  Thus, it is official that Seattle will lose it’s NBA Franchise to Oklahoma City next season.

During last season, Seattle had a horrible season.  They lost a lot of games and it seems that they lost a lot of fan support as well.  During the end of the season, there were many rumors that Seattle would lose their team because they were not selling enough tickets.  But now, it is official that they will lose their team and must improve Key Arena if they want to get a team back within the next 5 years.

The Seattle SuperSonics franchise will be moving to Oklahoma City.  This will be the first time that Oklahoma City owns a NBA franchise.  After hurricane Katrina in Oklahoma City offered their support by hosting the New Orleans Hornets for the 2006-2007 season, however they did not have ownership of the franchise.  Apparently, basketball has a big success in Oklahoma City.  Almost half of the games played at the Ford Arena in Oklahoma City were sold out, while the rest sold almost full capacity.

Now, Oklahoma City will have ownership to a franchise that they will not have to return after one season.  The Sonics franchise now belongs to investors in Oklahoma City.  It has been agreed that they will, however, leave the name, logo, and team colors in Seattle.  This means, that Oklahoma City will have their own logo, team name, and colors.  At this point the team name and colors is not known, but should be announced shortly.  Basketball fans of Oklahoma can now purchase season tickets for the 2008-2009 season.

Wade Boden is the Artwork Director of Robbins Sports, an online resource offering Basketball Uniforms, Basketball Standards, and Portable Scoreboards.

Arm wrestling is perhaps one of the most popular sports among youth aged men.  It is extremely popular because it is a test of pure raw power.  In an arm wrestling match, the two contestants sit at a table facing each other.  They grasp hands hands and when the match starts, try to push their opponents hand to the table.  The contestant whose backside of the hand touches the table first looses while his opponent boast and brags about how much stronger he is.   This is a test of pure raw power.  For the looser, it is a humiliation, whereas for the winner it means that he is the stronger and better of the two.  While strength does play a big role in who will win the match, technique also plays an important role.  Here are a few tips and tricks that will help while competing in an arm wrestling match.

First, pull your arm into your body.  Rather than trying to force your opponents arm to the table by pushing it down to the side, bring his hand close to your chest and pus.h down.  When doing this, try to position your upper arm and shoulder as close to directly above your elbow as possible.    By doing this, you stretch out your opponents arm, making it harder for him or her to fight back against you.  You will also increase your leverage, thus making it easier for you to win. 

Second, curl your wrist.  While some consider this to be a form of cheating, curling your wrist allows you to have more leverage.  Many people try to did this as a method to avoid letting their hand touch the table.  This is not the way that this move should be used.  The curl should be used from the beginning of the match as a means to get leverage, not at the end of the match as a means to increase the length of your loss.

Third, use a strong grip of the hand.  Focus on applying a lot of pressure on your opponents hand.  This will cause him or her to open up the hand, thus allowing you to gain more leverage.  Once they open the hand, move the pressure up until you are pushing on their fingers.  Their fingers will stand no chance against your hand in the match.

Last, move quickly.  The first millisecond of the arm wrestling match is important.  If you start slowly, you allow your opponent to gain leverage that will be nearly impossible to regain.  You must act quickly to pull your arm in, curl your wrist, and put the pressure on if you want to win.

While these techniques will help you win, don’t rely completely on them if you plan on doing a lot of arm wrestling matches.  In the end, the strength and raw power will be crucial to your success as both will be trying to do the techniques quickly than the other.  Focus on training your shoulders, biceps, forearms, and hand strength to be successful as an arm wrestler.

Wade Boden is the Artwork Director of Robbins Sports, an online vendor of Hand Grip Dynamometers, Hand Exercise Equiment, and Gym Bags.

Having a nice strong grip is great for everyone.  Whether you use your hand in a corporate job to shake others or while working with your hands, a nice strong hand grip is definitely a tool to impress.  There are many exercises and products available to help you improve your hand strength. 

Hand grip strength can be broken down into 3 main categories: crushing strength, pinch strength, and support strength.  Each one has different benefits and different ways of training.

Crush Grip  Crush grip is the raw power that you feel while shaking someone’s hand.  This strength is good for using your hands to grasp something tightly or, as the name says, crush something in your hand.  This strength can be increased by mashing putty or foam balls in your hand or also using a crush gripper. 

Pinch Grip  A strong pinching grip is the strength that allow you to hold something between your thumb and another finger.  Pinching grip can be strengthening by pinching a weight plate between the thumb and the finger that you want to make stronger.  You can also train pinching strength by wrapping a towel over a bar and doing pull ups with the towel.  Another good training method for pinch grip is to use a Digi-Flex Finger Exerciser.  A great exercise that you can do without having to use any special equipment to increase grip strength is to do fingertip pushups.  This is done by doing a pushup but making sure the palm of your hand is off of the ground.

Support Strength  Support strength is important for increasing the length that you can grip something heavy.  Support strength can be increased by carrying buckets full of water or anything that is heavy for long periods of time.  You can also improve this strength by holding a barball in front of you with your arms at a 90 degree angle.

As you train your grip strength, a great way to see improvement is to use a hand dynamometer.  You can also just try crushing things, such as soda cans, to see if it is easier or ripping apart phone books. 

Wade Boden is the Artwork Director of Robbins Sports, and online vendor of Hand Grip Dynamometers and Digi-Flex Finger Exercisers.

When I was in school, I remember in my physical education class one day when we did hand strength testing.  We had this little machine that looked like a gun with a gauge on it.  I later learned that this machine is called a Hand Dynamometer.  The machine worked by gripping the trigger as hard as possible to see how strong my hand grip was.  This is totally pointless I thought to myself.  Who cares about hand grip strength anyways?  That is what people going through rehab test, but I am fine.  Well, to my surprise, I have learned that hand grip training is more that just a rehab training.

Hand strength is very important for wrestlers.  Being quick and powerful with their hands is an important strength for a wrestler.  With their hand strength, they can overpower their opponent.  This also falls over into other fighting athletics such as boxing, martial arts, etc.

For a rock climber, hand strength is also very important.  Rock climbers have to continually be gripping rocks at places that are not very easy to grip.  While upper body strength seems to be the key focus of rock climbers because of the need to pull ones body up, hand strength should not be over looked for climbing athletics.

Aside from athletics, hand strength is important for many other purposes.  Typing on a keyboard for the computer can be very tough on the hands.  Ever notice how many people who work in an office play with one of those stress balls?  That is actually a form of doing hand strength exercise to relieve the stress put on the hands.  Eventually, the hand will become stronger and the need to play with the little squishy ball goes away.

Guitar players also find comfort in hand grip strength.  Guitar players must grip the neck of the guitar at various positions.  After playing the guitar for a while, the hands may begin to hurt due to the awkward positions and stretches that the hand must make.  A good strong hand grip can help guitar players to play longer without feeling discomfort in the hands.

There are many other uses not mentioned here for hand grip training.  It turns out that hand strength is very important.  There are many exercises available to improve hand grip strength.  Some can be as easy as playing with stress balls whiles others can be more difficult, like doing pushups without using the palm of the hand.

Wade Boden is the Artwork Director of Robbins Sports, an online vendor of Hand Dynamometers and Digi-Flex Finger Exercisers.