Olympics Tennis

If you’re an avid tennis player, perhaps you’ve enjoyed the privilege of playing on red clay courts. This is an old surface with a deep rooted history of tradition that dates back to the origins of the sport in parts of Europe like Spain and France.

While these courts are common in other parts of the world, they’re far more rare in America. Still, they do exist, and you should consider yourself lucky if you have the opportunity to play a match on this surface.

Many people wonder about the differences between clay courts and other surfaces like hard and grass courts. If you’re wondering the same thing, you’re about to learn the key characteristics of these courts and how they may impact your strategy.

The biggest thing you should know about clay courts is that someone who hits ground strokes from the baseline is most likely to succeed in a match. When you look at the tennis greats who’ve won multiple French Opens, this is how they got there.

If you’re a serve and volleyer or a net player, the impact of your game will most likely take a hit. Unfortunately, players with this strategy don’t seem to fare as well on clay.

You might be wondering why it would matter, but there’s a good reason for this. The makeup of the clay lends itself to a ball that bounces high and slowly off the ground, giving your opponent a lot of time to get to it.

Unlike hard courts, you’ll seldom see the ball skipping off the surface and bouncing up at an increased speed. In fact, you’ll see just the opposite.

The ball bounces very slowly off the ground on a clay court, as the surface literally slows down its speed. This is a good thing if you’re a baseline player, as you’ll have more time to prepare for each shot.

This results in very long rallies, since balls that ordinarily couldn’t be returned are gotten to on this surface. This makes things interesting, but they’re also more challenging.

As a result, anyone who moves quickly during the course of a match will definitely have an edge.

After having performed thousands of sports physicals over the years, I have seen an ever increasing trend in poor posture. Often, the posture is compromised before a sport is undertaken, and frequently the posture is affected by repetitive motions of a particular sport.

You can easily perform an assessment of your own posture by having someone observe you from your back (six feet directly behind you). Does one shoulder look higher than the other? Does one hip look higher? Check to see if your feet are equal, is one flaring out more than the other? The knees should be in alignment as well, facing the same direction. Your head should be equally balanced, not tilting to one side. If some differences are noticed, you may have a biomechanical problem that is affecting your sports performance.

I like to use the analogy of your car being out of alignment. If your car is misaligned, your tires will wear out unevenly, you will not get optimum fuel efficiency in your car, and it will not run like it should. The same principle applies to the human body. Do you believe that your body would be more or less susceptible to injury if you were a runner and you had one hip higher than the other, which caused one leg to be an inch shorter? Running day-after-day, mile-after-mile?

The body will respond to the misalignment with its innate ability to compensate for its differences and will adapt to the change. However, there is an insidious process, disease starts, and so the person will not have symptoms for many years before they experience other health issues. One of the most common conditions that occur is degenerate joint disease of the spine and pelvis. The fact of the matter is, if your biomechanics were in proper working order, you would be a better, more efficient runner.

One of the most common comments I hear when a new patient visits the office is “I can golf fine if I take two anti inflammatories or pain pills before I golf, but after I’m done I have a lot of pain”. Do you see the point that I am trying to make? If our bodies are giving us pain or it has restricted our range of motion in some way, it is trying to tell us that something is wrong. Like your car oil light coming on to warn you that the oil is low, do you turn the light off?

We often treat our cars better than our bodies. We can thank the pharmaceutical companies and medical establishment for constant bombardment in radio, print, and television advertisements. Billions of dollars are spent yearly to convince you to take that little miracle pill or potion for instant relief. They advise us to get rid of that symptom quick, ignore what the cause is. We need to take responsibility for our own health. Listen to your body; no one knows it better than yourself.

A pre-exercise warm up is imperative, but often disregarded. Most people want to “get right into their workout” and therefore begin their exercise regime before their muscles and ligaments have warmed up sufficiently. Without this precaution, one pre-exposes themselves to abnormal strain on their ligaments and muscular system.

It is even more urgent that we take a serious look at this with the proposed changes in our Healthcare System. The quality will not be as good. We should open our eyes, and look to the future. Say to yourself, what if 10, 20 or 30 years from now I have (fill in the blank). What could I have done to prevent that, should I have done this or that? The time for action is now!

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Buying a home in Piper’s Landing Yacht & Country Club has its advantages. Located in along the banks of the St. Lucie Waterway in Palm City, this gated equity share golf community features many luxury amenities to offer its residents. This brief article will outline some on these benefits and amenities.

With 24/7 security, this gated community is secure and safe. The officers that protect the community, routinely patrol the 600 acres and are trained to respond to medical emergencies. All the officers undergo annual First Aid training, are certified in CPR and are trained to operate defibrillators. In addition the security officers check on vacant homes and allow service professionals to work on homes in the owners absence.

The championship caliber golf course was redesigned in 2007 to offer a better overall golf experience. The architect of the renovation was Gene Bates who won the 2005 Course Architect of the Year award. The local assistant golf professional is Mike Eye. This Florida State alum graduated with honors and completed his PGA Class A Certification in an amazing 18 months.

Pipers Landing is more than just a golf community. They also tailor to the tennis enthusiasts as well. The community has five tennis courts, one of which is lighted, with a popular Har-Tru playing surface. The community has a local USPTA certified teaching pro named Cullen DeWindt who many know from his 2007 USPTA Clay Court Doubles National Championship.

Pipers Landing also provides a variety of activities and social events which are available online for viewing 24 hours a day. The community clubhouse has a golf pro shop fully equipped with the best gear and golf apparel, male and female locker rooms, and formal and casual dining options.

Boaters will find that the Sheltered Harbor and Marina provides easy access to both the St. Lucie Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean. This deep water marina can accommodate yachts that are up to 100 feet long. Whether you are looking to go deep sea fishing or just cruise the waterway, you’ll enjoy all the marina has to offer.

Final Thoughts

So when vacationing in the Palm City area check out all the amenities Piper’s Landing Yacht & Country Club has to offer. You may find that why many people now call Piper’s Landing home.

As one of the world’s emerging superpowers, China was placed in the limelight as she hosted the Beijing Summer Olympics last year. The Olympics, which is held once every four years, is participated by about 120 nations, when athletes compete in various sports, from basketball to soccer, from track-and-field to javelin throwing, from swimming to diving, you name it.

Beijing did not waste time in finding the venues after being chosen to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. The city and the national government worked hand-in-hand to gather the best team of engineers, architects and landscape designers to jumpstart this most important project because they knew that big investments will be pouring in. In addition to this, more Beijing hotels were built in anticipation of the visitor surge during the games.

The government chose an area that would accommodate various stadiums and complexes. This would increase productivity of the players and at the same time reduce travel time from one venue to another. The Olympic Green, as it is called, is located at the north end of the central axis of Beijing. Thirty-one sporting venues can be seen at the site.

Most of the hotels in Beijing are accessible from the Olympic Green because they are located near the city’s cultural and business districts. A number of important sporting venues are located within the Green. The most notable of these is the Beijing National Stadium. Inspired by the beauty and intricacy of Chinese ceramics, the designers were finally able to construct it. Known as the ‘Bird’s Nest,’ it was the venue for the football and athletics finals as well as in the opening and closing ceremonies where 91,000 people attended.

Another unique structure is the Beijing National Aquatics Center, better known as the ‘Water Cube.’ Its design is based on the structure of soap bubbles, which are air-filled pockets of translucent plastic. At night, the structure illuminates with colors which change from time to time. This was where swimming, diving and synchronized swimming competitions were held.

The Beijing National Indoor Stadium, dubbed ‘The Fan’ due to its design similar to a traditional Chinese holding fan, hosted Artistic Gymnastics, Handball events and Tramp lining. The Convention Center, a 270,000 square-meter structure, used for Fencing and the Modern Pentathlon, can also be found within the Green. It was also the International Broadcast Center where the press covered the entire games.

The Beijing Olympic Village was the temporary residence of the athletes. Made up of twenty-two six-storey buildings and twenty nine-storey buildings, it resembles some of the hotels in Beijing.

Beijing hotels were at sky-high during the games since they had good occupancy rates continuing for months. The city and the country were the stars of the show. The 2008 Summer Olympics was indeed the coming-out-party for China and its constituents. For a nation once known as the Sleeping Dragon, she has now finally awakened!