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December 29, 2022

Shaun White Is Entering a New Era

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: — admin @ 10:09 pm

I still train like I did when I was competing. I talked to a lot of other older athletes when I was deciding to retire, and the one thing they all said was, “Don’t stop working out.” Those gym sessions are going to stay a way of life.

Pick Your Battles

One of the best practices I learned early was self-preservation. I was attempting gnarly tricks as a teenager, and one of the older pros told me to pick my battles. It was a lesson I also learned when I tried to return from my 2004 meniscus injury too early and got a bone bruise on one of my first jumps. I had to stay off the mountain for another three months thanks to that decision, and it was one that stuck with me. I stopped focusing on what sponsors were in the crowd or what cameras were pointed in my direction, and instead focused on whether or not it was a good choice for me.

There have been a number of times I’ve had to walk away from events. For example, when I qualified for the Olympic team for slopestyle. I knew there would be backlash. There were people who commented online or on TV, but in the end, it wasn’t going to be them in a wheelchair if something went wrong. There’s a stereotype of snowboarders and other extreme athletes as being crazy daredevils who take too many risks. I’m the opposite. Everything in my career and beyond has been calculated.

Retain Rituals

I’ve traveled a lot and have learned the importance of rituals on the road—especially at the Olympics on those stressful nights before competition. I got in the habit of bringing my own pillow, and when an event was particularly important, I flew my mattress across the world as well. I have a sound machine that plays rain forest noises that help bring me down. I got in the habit of taking cold-water plunges at the end of the day after training or competing. If there’s a lake nearby, I’ll jump into it, or if the hotel I’m staying at has a bathtub I’ll fill it with ice from the machine. I’ve also learned the value of long soaks in a hot bath with Epsom salt.

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December 20, 2022

Can Playing Blades Make You a Better Golfer?

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: — admin @ 11:03 pm

Charlie Woods inspired me to try blades, irons with a tiny sweet spot, hoping they would improve my game.

Last December golf fans were treated to a new star. Twelve-year-old Charlie Woods dazzled at the PNC Championship, a tournament where major champions tee it up alongside family members. The young Woods outshined his father, Tiger Woods, dropping bombs off the tee, firing darts at pins, and draining tough putts. Team Woods closed with 11 birdies to come in second in the tourney.

But as the drama unfolded, I was taken aback by something the commentators mentioned. The younger Woods was playing blade-style irons and not more forgiving cavity backs. Hmm? Why on Earth would he do that?

As it turns out, I was late to this news. Tiger outfitted his son with blades early on, according to Jack Nicklaus during the 2020 Masters telecast.

“Charlie is starting to play golf, and he’s getting a really good swing,” Nicklaus said. “[Tiger] says, ‘I’ve got blades in his hands so he learns how to play golf instead of learning with all those forgiving golf clubs.’ I think he’s very wise.”

With my interest piqued, I wondered if two of the game’s GOATS felt blades were the correct choice for a beginner. Should I swap out my gamers for something less forgiving? Could blades improve my ball striking?

I put the thought out of my head for the next eight months. But when PXG dropped new 0317 irons at the end of summer, my mind wandered back to Charlie Woods. Perhaps a set of blades could help my ball striking.

Truth be told, I hadn’t been on the golf course much that summer. But when I did play, my over-rotation and ego were getting the best of me. Drunk on the distance and spin my cavity backs were providing, I was simply trying to smash every approach shot, when I should have been focusing on maximizing control.

I asked Brad Schweigert, one of the 0317’s designers and PXG’s chief product officer if he thought blades could help a golfer like me get better.

“Maybe for some people,” he said. “The smaller blade size could increase focus and places a larger penalty on mis-hits.”

I also checked in with my coach, Lee Hunter, to gather her thoughts. “Absolutely! Blades don’t lie!” she said. “I think it’s a wonderful way to learn golf because the ball goes precisely where the energy sends it. They’re refined surgical instruments, and if you use your core efficiently and allow your arms to just swing, tour blades are heaven.”

Ok, why not give it a shot? I bit the bullet and put the 0317s in the bag and took off for the range. In anticipation of a post-Presidents Cup tournament, I started to practice with them and after a few sessions they started to feel good…really good. My swing got tighter. It had to in order to make consistent contact near the tiny sweet spot.

On the course, I’ve been hitting about three more greens in regulation. So far, I’ve shot nearly as many rounds in the 70s as I have in the 80s, which is certainly going to bring down my 11.0 handicap. That’s not to say every shot I’ve hit with the irons has been pure. I’ve certainly scooped more than a few short iron shots and I cold shanked a 6-iron my last round, which led to a double bogey. But a shank with a game improvement iron would have been just as disastrous and I still managed to scratch out a respectable 78 on a narrow course with tiny greens.

As the rather odd golf cliche goes, “It’s not the arrows, it’s the archer.”

Tightening my swing is what has led to more consistent contact. The blades merely forced the change. But that’s the thing about the golf swing: Your mind controls it and sometimes you need a little help in changing the thoughts that run through your head.

“Practicing with them might be the way to go,” Hunter concludes. “Then, you can go back to your perimeter weighted clubs when you’re on a tight golf course.” They won’t be as workable, “but you’ll have more refined skill having practiced on a blade that sends the ball precisely where it’s meant to go.”

She’s probably right. By April, when the golf season starts in earnest again, I’ll likely put my PXG Gen 5 irons back in the bag. Distance is a helluva drug. Hopefully by then, my mind and body will have both fully absorbed the lessons of the blades and maybe I can hit even more greens.

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December 7, 2022

The Best Touchdown Passes of All Time

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: — admin @ 7:01 pm

Most of football is carnage. Every play is a coordinated car wreck in which some of the biggest bodies in the world slam into each other and attempt to bring the opposing side to the ground. But that chaos is sometimes in service of something much more picturesque—the gorgeous touchdown passes that make some of the most memorable plays in football history. Nothing in the game is more beautiful than those connections.

Here’s a collection of 10 of the greatest touchdown passes in football history (listed in no particular order—they’re all excellent). The list includes selections from both the NFL and college football. Some make the list because of their degree of difficulty. Others make it because of the enormous stakes of the moment. And some make it because of both.

The 10 Best Touchdown Passes of All Time

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November 23, 2022

Shaun White Pulls Back the Curtain

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: — admin @ 10:57 pm

Unlikely motivation

In 2017, disaster struck when White misjudged a trick while training for the Olympics in New Zealand. He was coming out of a double backflip when his board clipped the top of the half-pipe. His body buckled, and his head hit the wall’s upper edge, then he fell more than 22 feet. “My lip was busted open, and my nose split through the stem; I cut through my forehead and bit through my tongue,” says White.

At a crossroads, White’s relied on introspective reflection to guide him through the difficult time. “That was a defining moment in my life [because] my heart was saying that this happened for a reason. I needed to make a firm decision,” says White. “I decided to push forward [which] cleared [any] doubt I had going into that Olympic run,” he adds. Four months after undergoing several surgeries and receiving 62 stitches, snowboarding’s most prominent star not only competed in the Games. He took home gold.

Pulling back the curtain

The public has long been fascinated with extraordinary people, and documentaries give them an inside look at what life is like for these individuals. The award-winning docuseries The Last Dance tells the story of basketball great Michael Jordan. The creative team behind it worked hard to approach his story honestly and objectively, even when that meant showing the retired NBA superstar in a less-than-flattering light.

Like many great athletes, White has lived an extraordinary life. That’s why those behind The Last Dance are producing a documentary about him. Soon, we’ll get an inside look at his career and find out what he thought and felt during the highs and lows. “My life story isn’t something I’ve told [before], but I want to pull the curtain back…because it’s not what you’d [expect],” says White.

Whether following his dreams at 6 or coming back from an accident at 31, White understands that success is about taking risks and managing fear. “I feel like everything I’ve done has [been] a calculated risk,” says White. “Fear is something I’ve learned to manage,” he adds. While snowboarding certainly involves risk, the vulnerability required to share your story with the world is far riskier. Then again, if the lesser risk led to Olympic gold, imagine what the other brings.

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May 25, 2022

College Football Offseason 2022: NIL Mania, Coaching Beefs, and More

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: , — admin @ 7:30 pm

In most sports, player movement defines the offseason. A free agent signs with a new team. A team makes a big trade. A new draft pick shows promise. College football is different. In recent years, the offseason has been less about players moving around and more about the suits that run the sport pontificating on how the whole enterprise should operate.

They have never done more arguing than they’re doing right now. There is a wrinkle, though: Once you get past the bureaucracy, this sport’s offseason is starting to look a bit more like those in other major U.S. leagues.

Let me explain. From new recruiting rules to NIL deals and more, here’s what to track between now and the next college football season’s kickoff at the start of September.

College Football Offseason 2022: The Top Stories That’ll Shape Next Season

1. The sport is in a moral panic over player compensation.

If you follow college football even a little bit, you have undoubtedly noticed a lot of hand-wringing over two recent rule changes.

In April 2021, the NCAA reversed decades of policy by allowing athletes to transfer schools without sitting out a season, as had been custom from the beginning of college sports. The association made the move under heavy pressure. It had drawn a lot of criticism over the years for subjecting unpaid athletes to tighter movement restrictions than well-paid coaches and administrators, who had no such requirement to sit out after a move.

Three months after that change came an even bigger one. After more than a dozen states had passed laws forcing it to do so, the NCAA dropped another ban that had lasted for all of college sports history: a prohibition on athletes receiving money from third parties for the use of their name, image, or likeness.

Since then, “NIL” has become shorthand for a new era. At many schools, boosters set up “collective” organizations that have sought to pay players (under the guise of advertising and charity deals) to attend their schools. The NCAA has tried to make clear the practice is not allowed, but it ultimately hasn’t been able to do much about it; the organization is worried that aggressive action to rein in player deals will lead to antitrust lawsuits that it could lose.

The early-May transfer announcement of Pitt receiver Jordan Addison, who won the Biletnikoff Award as the country’s top pass-catcher last year, seemed like an unofficial starting gun for a fresh round of worry. The confluence of free transfers and a lightly regulated third-party payment system for players still falls way short of the true free agency that exists in pro sports. Even so, it represents a big departure from the previous college football status quo.

Addison picked USC last Friday. That same day, Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban got into the highest-profile coaching beef the sport has ever seen, and it was sparked in part by NIL deals and collective recruiting.

Nobody knows how this will all settle. The NCAA wants Congress to pass a national NIL law that would supersede the patchwork of state laws currently in effect, but Congress has yet to play ball, and it’s a midterm election year. For the time being, expect more and more transfers. Your school’s college football roster today will likely not be the same on Labor Day.

Jordan Addison runs the ball downfield during a Pitt football game.
Pittsburgh wide receiver Jordan Addison transferred to USC this offseason. Adrian Kraus / AP / Shutterstock

2. The NCAA is lifting initial counter limits.

One of college football’s foundational rules is that teams can only add 25 new scholarship players per year (with some exceptions and the ability to frontload and backload signing classes). The limit of 25 “initial counters” is important because it reduces the incentive for coaches to “over-sign”—to bring in too many players—and then run them out of their programs when they’ve decided they’re not good enough.

But that rule is on its way out, as the NCAA’s DI Council announced on May 18. It’s a direct response to the rising number of players entering the transfer portal, as teams have risked losing players at a higher rate than they’re able to replace them while still offering scholarships to high school recruits. For now, it’s being presented as a two-year rule waiver, but college football experts think it will become permanent. It sounds like a minute rule change, but it could result in the best recruiting programs (like Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State) loading up with larger, more elite signing classes in certain years.

3. Conference championship games might look different this year.

In addition, the NCAA also announced on May 18 that it will relax its regulation of conference championship games. That’ll give each conference more freedom to sort out how it selects title game participants. The Pac-12 took advantage immediately and announced that rather than the winners of its two divisions meeting in its championship game, the teams with the two best records, regardless of division, will get the nod.

The NCAA’s change opens the door for other conferences to do the same. There’s a good chance some will; it would help them maximize their chances of their best team getting picked for the College Football Playoff. The Big Ten and ACC, for example, have lopsided division structures with all of the potential Playoff teams on one side, and either conference might decide to do exactly what the Pac-12 has done.

4. Will the FBS go rogue and leave the NCAA?

Finally, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith seems to want the FBS, the top teams in the college football rankings, to break away from the NCAA altogether. It is not clear what that would accomplish, given that those schools already govern themselves within the NCAA. But a working idea is that, years down the line, a non-NCAA college football division would give schools the flexibility to run the sport more like a business, without the regulatory requirements of other NCAA sports. This story won’t be settled in the 2022 offseason, but keep an eye on it.

Texas A&M quarterback Haynes King holds the ball ready to pass during a college football game
Texas A&M quarterback Haynes King Sam Craft / AP / Shutterstock

5. Oh, and there’s an actual college football season to prepare for, too.

The endless debate over governing NCAA football has taken up almost all of the spotlight lately. Even so, actual football questions are lurking in the background:

Does Texas A&M have a QB? This might not get resolved until the season’s actually started, but it’s one of the most important questions facing any single position group at one program. The Aggies had a nearly title-caliber team in 2021 (and even beat Alabama), but an injury in September to QB Haynes King doomed them. If King stays healthy this year, will that be enough for them to go all the way?

Is the QB carousel done spinning for a bit? Probably. But once fall camp rolls around and certain passers fail to win starting jobs, expect it to fire up again.

Actual football starts in just over three months. Now begins the ultimate offseason workout: Finding things to talk about until conference media days provide more catnip.

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May 9, 2022

The Best Formula 1 Drivers to Watch in 2022

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: , , — admin @ 6:00 pm

If you haven’t already gotten caught up in it, you might feel whiplash over how quickly Formula 1 racing entered the mainstream in the American sports world. Buoyed by a Netflix docuseries that doubled as a commercial for the sport, and bolstered by more and more people following their friends into the fray, F1 has become mega-popular here, mega-quickly.

This past weekend was another step on that journey. The series debuted its Miami Grand Prix, the second of what will soon be three American races alongside the existing U.S. Grand Prix in Austin and a forthcoming race in Las Vegas. The Miami race was a huge event, with hilariously expensive prices and, apparently, plenty of people willing to pay to watch in person.

F1 has 10 teams with two drivers apiece. In case you’re just getting acquainted, let’s meet some of the most notable racers making their way around the tracks in 2022.

The Best Formula 1 Drivers to Watch in 2022

1. Max Verstappen, Red Bull

What to know about him: Well, he’s fast. F1 has two ongoing championships: one for drivers (based on who gets the most points over the season’s couple dozen races) and the Constructors’ Championship for teams (based on the combined performances of each team’s two drivers). Verstappen won the Drivers’ Championship in 2021, unseating seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in a wildly controversial last race of the season. The Dutch driver has remained on top this season, and right now, nobody is operating at a higher level.

How’s he looking coming out of Miami? Still great. Verstappen won this race by finishing 3.786 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Verstappen has had to retire from two of five races this year due to various mechanical issues. But car trouble aside, he has won every grand prix he has finished—a good indicator that, if Red Bull keeps its car reliable, he’ll finish on top when the season ends in December.

2. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

What to know about him: The 24-year-old from Monaco has been a rising star for a long time. He has raced for Ferrari, the most historic team in motorsport, since 2019. He won a couple of races that year, but didn’t win anything in 2020 or ‘21, when Ferrari put together a slow car. But this year, everything has clicked. Leclerc won two of the year’s first three races in March, and he has run near the front of the pack in every race to date.

How’s he looking coming out of Miami? He didn’t nab first place, but Leclerc is in a good position—still leading Verstappen atop the drivers’ standings, still driving a fast car, and set for what looks likely to be a season-defining duel between himself and Red Bull’s top driver.

3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

What to know about him: He is the gold standard for excellence in Formula 1. Hamilton won seven titles in a row before Verstappen finally bested him last year. He has 103 career race wins, and in 2020, he passed the German legend Michael Schumacher (whose son, Mick, now races for Haas F1 Team) to set the all-time victories record.

But this year has been a harsh reminder that nothing lasts forever. The introduction of a new F1 car has stirred things up, and Mercedes’ development team has not provided Hamilton the best-in-class machine he is used to driving.

How’s he looking coming out of Miami? Still not nearly as good as he’d like. Hamilton finished sixth, and Mercedes was once again in the same position it has been all season: the third best team on the grid behind Ferrari and Red Bull. Hamilton let teammate George Russell get past him in the last few laps for fifth place, which did not make the seven-time champ any happier. Also, Hamilton’s body piercings might be a problem for his career, thanks to some new F1 underwear regulations. No, really.

4. Lando Norris, McLaren

What to know about him: At just 22 years old, he’s a grizzled Formula 1 veteran. Norris has had an F1 seat since 2019 and hasn’t won a race yet, but he is in the “matter of time” zone to reach the top step of a podium. Since they paired up in 2021, Norris has usually out-driven his McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

How’s he looking coming out of Miami? Short term: Bad. Long term: Fine, but McLaren’s car has been inconsistent this year, which means it might take a while longer for Norris to win a race. In Miami, though, Norris experienced a disaster. He was in seventh place when he went in for a pit stop on the 19th lap. That pit stop lasted for what felt like an eternity, and Norris fell back in the pack. He was in 15th position a few laps later. Then, on the 41st lap, he crashed out of the race in a collision with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly. It was an ugly wreck, but Norris walked away unscathed.

5. Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo

What to know about him: From 2017 through ‘21, the Finnish driver was in the unique role of being Hamilton’s teammate at Mercedes. On the one hand, that was great for Bottas: He had a fast car, and Mercedes won the Constructors’ Championship every year he was there. On the other hand, it was hard: He was inevitably compared to Hamilton, the greatest driver ever and the only one in the field driving the same car as Bottas. And he sometimes had to sacrifice his own success to let Hamilton gain as much speed as possible. Mercedes replaced Bottas with young Brit George Russell before this season, but Bottas seems to have taken things in stride. He has pushed his much slower Alfa Romeo car into the top 10, the threshold to earn standings points, in several early races—a testament to his skill behind the wheel.

How’s he looking coming out of Miami? Still pretty good. On a day that saw a couple of collisions and close tangles between drivers, Bottas had a quiet race and finished in seventh place. His Alfa Romeo teammate, Zhou Guanyu, retired from the race not even eight laps in. Beating your teammate is one measure of F1 success, but Bottas continues to outpace plenty of drivers who are steering better cars.

6. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari

What to know about him: “Chaotic” might be the best way to describe him. Sainz is the No. 2 driver for Ferrari, a clear second fiddle to Leclerc, but he’s pretty good in his own right—when he finishes races. In the third race of the year, the Australian Grand Prix, he spun out on the second lap and ended his race sitting in the gravel. In the next race, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Italy, he didn’t even last that long: Ricciardo crashed into him and ended his race on the first lap. He also crashed in a practice drive in Miami on Friday, raising questions about how his weekend would go.

How’s he looking coming out of Miami? Pretty good. He finished third, good for a podium finish and “best of the rest” status after Verstappen and Leclerc. Sainz is not going to win the drivers’ title this year, but he’s an important piece of Ferrari’s attempt for its first Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship since 2008, when Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa were at the wheel.

7. Kevin Magnussen, Haas

What to know about him: He’s likable! The best driver for F1’s only American-owned team, Magnussen wasn’t supposed to drive in F1 this year, but geopolitics put him in the driver’s seat right before the season started. Magnussen previously drove for Haas, but the team dropped him at the end of the 2020 season for the most quintessentially F1 of reasons: Haas needed money, and a Russian fertilizer oligarch forked it over under the condition that his son, Nikita Mazepin, drive for Haas. Mazepin did not score a single point in 2021. Then Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Haas dissolved its partnership with Mazepin’s dad’s company, and Magnussen came back to his old team to drive a Haas car in 2022. What a journey.

How’s he looking coming out of Miami? Haas in general looks much, much better this season, and Magnussen has been its most effective driver. But neither Magnussen nor Schumacher got points on Sunday, despite both sitting in the top 10 at one point late in the race. Magnussen got a five-second penalty at the end of the race for weaving on a straight, though it didn’t change anything given that he’d already fallen to 15th.

The next F1 race is in Spain on May 22. Now you’ll know a bit more about who you’re watching as the world’s fastest cars zip their way around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya—and for the rest of the Formula 1 season, too

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May 4, 2022

NBA Playoffs 2022: A Casual Fan’s Guide to the Postseason

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: , , — admin @ 5:32 pm

A fundamental problem for any sports fan: There are more leagues than you could ever have time to watch. You may adore 14 different sports—my own number is closer to eight or nine—but unless you’re the right mix of un-busy and deranged, it’s impossible to keep up with more than a few of them at once. One approach to alleviating the backlog is to accept that not every sport is going to be your sport, and sometimes it’s OK to skip the regular season and tune in at playoff time. I dabble with this approach for both hockey and baseball, but my white whale in this arena is the NBA. It’s the greatest basketball league in the world, and it also doesn’t put a big emphasis on the regular season. Now that the NBA playoffs 2022 have begun, it’s time to pay attention.

In the NBA, star players frequently sit out regular season games to rest. But with hundreds of NBA games stretching from October to June, pacing is important for fans, too. Since the NBA playoffs began in April, my attention to the league went from glancing to somewhat more serious. Should you be contemplating a similar step in your basketball journey, this guide will get you up to speed. Here are three key storylines to know as the playoffs move through the second round, which just got underway.

NBA Playoffs 2022: A Casual Fan’s Guide to the Postseason

1. The “assemble a bunch of superstars” approach cratered spectacularly this year.

The Lakers and Nets had the best preseason odds to win the 2022 NBA Finals. As a passive NBA watcher, I figured these teams would at some point stop being mediocre (or worse) and figure it out.

The Lakers had LeBron James, who does not, as a general practice, miss the playoffs when healthy, plus Anthony Davis and some supposedly decent role players. It seemed obvious that Los Angeles would be in the discussion at the end of the year. But LeBron only played in 56 games, Davis only played in 40, and an aging Russell Westbrook was hilariously inefficient. The entire enterprise collapsed, and the team fired coach Frank Vogel at the end of the season. Tough!

The Nets lined up a trio that was more superteam-ish than anything since Kevin Durant played with the Warriors in the late 2000s. They had Durant in Brooklyn, and they benefited from all-time elite scorer James Harden and the odd-but-incredible Kyrie Irving joining him in the backcourt. It looked great on paper.

But Harden, who’d forced a trade to the Nets in January 2021, forced a trade off the Nets, and the guy Brooklyn got in return, Ben Simmons, played as many games for the Nets as he had all season for the 76ers: none. Irving refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, so he couldn’t play in home games until late March and the Nets’ chemistry suffered as a result (even Irving himself admitted it). So much for a superteam trio.

2. While the superteams burned, the top of the league found other ways to be fun.

Everyone watched the Bucks win the NBA championship in 2021. Everyone, tangential viewer or not, is aware of the supernatural gifts and drive of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Nearly his entire supporting cast was back this year, too. But the Bucks weren’t even the Eastern Conference betting favorites entering the season (that was the Nets) and were a quiet enough elite team that you and I (because we were not watching the NBA) barely noticed their continued shine.

Yet here the Bucks are, doing their thing again in the NBA playoffs. Shockingly little has changed. Giannis scores 30 points per game. Khris Middleton scores 20, while Jrue Holiday, Bobby Portis, and Brook Lopez all average double-digit figures. The only notable change is that Grayson Allen is here. He’s productive, but his on-court antics are annoying and make the Bucks less likable defending champions. In a way, that’s for the best: Things are more fun when the champ is a heel.

The Suns, who lost to the Bucks in six games in last year’s NBA playoffs, are still grinding away as the best team in the West. Chris Paul is now 36 years old (more like 100 in NBA years) but somehow remains dependable. Devin Booker continues to make baskets at high rates (26.8 points per game this year, a career best).

The other frontline contenders are fun to watch as well. The Warriors have reconstituted an excellent team around the still-brilliant Steph Curry, and the way they’ve done it is delightful. After missing more than two years due to injuries, Klay Thompson is back and scoring a lot. Andrew Wiggins, the one-time No. 1 overall pick who was lackluster for years with the Timberwolves, has finally hit his stride. Wiggins apparently learned to shoot when he got to the Bay Area and is now genuinely effective rather than just a bouncy disappointment.

The Celtics might beat the Bucks in the East. (Their second-round series is currently tied, 1–1.) Even after losing Irving to the Nets a few years ago, Boston improved: They hung onto their young players, developed them, and won a ton of games. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown do the offensive heavy lifting, and Marcus Smart won Defensive Player of the Year this season. And after years of throwing up bricks, Smart has even upped his shooting game—which may be jarring if you’re just tuning in.

The Heat are the East’s No. 1 seed. This one is a minor mystery to me, but I deduce that Erik Spoelstra may be the best coach in the NBA at this point. Between old-but-still-solid players Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry and athletic young fellas Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo, there’s enough going on here to take the Heat seriously despite their lack of starpower.

3. Some young players have morphed into bona-fide superstars.

This realization mainly set in for me when Ja Morant, the Grizzlies point guard in his third year in the league, committed this heinous crime against the Timberwolves’ Malik Beasley:

Morant proceeded to finish that game with 30 points, 13 rebounds, and nine assists, and then he celebrated courtside with his dad and Usher. I knew he was very good but didn’t realize he was that good and had the cultural cachet to make Usher so excited. Morant is a mega-star, and he upped his game considerably this year to set career highs in points (27.4 per game), rebounds (5.7), and effective shooting percentage (49.3).

“A youngish guy going from promising to a full-on star” also sums up Jayson Tatum’s rise with the Celtics. Tatum has made that leap over the last few years, but this season he set career highs in points (26.9), rebounds (8), and assists (4.4). Most importantly, he did all that while taking up more and more of the Celtics’ responsibilities. When I’ve watched them the last few weeks, it frequently seemed like Tatum was taking every other shot. That’s not quite true, but his 32.1 percent possession usage rate is a career high and illustrates a trend of him absorbing more of the Celtics’ possessions every year since he arrived in the league in 2017.

It’s fun to watch rising players fully come into their own, especially in the postseason.

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April 29, 2022

American League MVP Shohei Ohtani: Myth in the Making

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: — admin @ 5:41 pm

An All-Star at the plate and on the mound, American League MVP Shohei Ohtani was the biggest story in sports in 2021 (sorry, Brady), claiming AP Male Athlete of the Year and doing things on the diamond no one’s seen since Babe Ruth. Here’s why the Japanese phenom’s two-way domination is just getting started.

Those 46 Hours Weren’t Flukes

There are 30 MLB teams, with a total of 780 players active on Opening Day. Ohtani is one of just six to manage a 119-mph exit velocity for a home run, powering moonshots as far as 470 feet. Although eliminated in the first round in the 2021 Home Run Derby, he blasted six dingers over 500 feet, the most ever in a Derby.

Neither Were the 156 KS

As a pitcher, Ohtani averaged 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings thanks to a fastball that tops 101 mph and what might be baseball’s nastiest pitch, a splitter that opponents hit .087 against, going 11 for 127 while striking out 77 times in 2021. That’s a large enough sample size from which to draw conclusions of continued dominance.

Baseball player batting
TONY GUTIERREZ/AP (left); ASHLEY LANDIS/AP (right) / Shutterstock

Slump-Busting Speed

On the base paths Ohtani averages 28.8 ft/ sec., but accelerates to 30 ft/sec. to beat out infield hits, turn doubles into triples (he tied for the Major League lead in 2021) and even steal home. Meaning he’s one of baseball’s most powerful and quickest players.

Shohei Ohtani Is Built to Last

Ohtani has recently added muscle to improve durability. This led to Instagram videos of him deadlifting 495 pounds and Hall of Famer Chipper Jones declaring Ohtani has “one of the best baseball bodies I’ve ever seen.” “He’s Adonis,” Chipper added, before moaning and losing consciousness.

Trout’s Return

Why did anyone pitch to Babe Ruth when he hit 60 HRs in 1927? Because Lou Gehrig was behind him. In 2021, Ohtani lacked an Iron Horse. That’s about to change. After only 36 games in 2021, three-time MVP Mike Trout returns, meaning opponents might suddenly see Shohei as the lesser of two evils.

It’s Been Done Before

Negro League legend Wilber “Bullet Joe” Rogan’s stats are incomplete, but what we know is nuts. In 1922, Rogan reached double figures in wins (14), HRs (15) and steals (16) in 74 games while hitting .369 and posting a 2.83 ERA. Six seasons later he was still killing it at 10-2 on the mound and batting .348.

Ohtani Hitting 2021

Plate Appearances: 639
Batting Average: .257
On-Base Percentage: .372
Slugging: .592

Ohtani Pitching 2021

Batters Faced: 533
Batting Average Allowed: .207
On-Base Allowed: .286
Slugging Allowed: .351

Baseball player throwing pitch
ALBERT PENA/CSM / Shutterstock

Both Ways Broke Babe

Babe Ruth was a great pitcher and better hitter, just not simultaneously. In 1916, he led the AL with a 1.75 ERA but hit just three HRs. In 1919, the last season he regularly pitched, he drilled 29 homers, but his strikeouts dropped from 4.7 per nine innings to just 2 and he went from holding batters to a .201 average to .294. Where even the Bambino is overwhelmed, proceed with caution.

Injury Bug

In 2021, Ohtani made 23 starts as a pitcher. He managed only 17 his previous four seasons combined, including just five in his last season in Japan in 2017. In addition to Tommy John, he had surgeries on his right ankle and left knee. It may be a struggle just staying in the rotation.

Pitchers Will Avoid Him

At the 2021 All-Star break, Ohtani had 33 home runs. After: 13. Why? If a guy leads the Angels in homers and slugging percentage … maybe avoid pitching to him? That’s exactly what opposing pitchers did, with Ohtani tying an MLB record by walking 11 times in one three-game stretch.

Lack of Support for Shohei Ohtani

Ohtani led his team in HRs, RBIs, runs, total bases and walks as a batter, plus wins, innings pitched and strikeouts pitching. From this we conclude: 1. Ohtani had a helluva season. 2. Less so every other Angel. This team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2014. This should be helped by Trout’s return, except…

Trout Outs

Mike Trout has been the greatest player of his generation. His one weakness? Health. He played 36 games in 2021, knocked out by a calf strain. He hasn’t played over 140 games since 2016. He’s only 30, but injuries are increasingly a pattern for a guy who didn’t appear on the DL until his seventh season.

Losing Limitations

Ohtani stayed healthy in 2021 but the Angels shut down his pitching anyway. Why? Same reason Trout didn’t rush back to the lineup: no shot at the postseason, so no reason to take a risk. It’s not just about finally seeing Ohtani on baseball’s biggest stage; if the Angels don’t contend, he may not go on-stage at all.

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April 14, 2022

NFL Draft 2022: 11 Predictions and Questions for Every Position Group

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: , , — admin @ 11:30 pm

The NFL Draft 2022 starts with the first round on Thursday, April 28, continues with two more rounds the following night, and wraps with the last four rounds on Saturday, April 30. That much is certain, as is the fact that it will be broadcast on ESPN and take place in Las Vegas, where the league now has a franchise and a whole bunch of gambling partners.

Beyond those details, things get murkier. Every NFL Draft is subject to a lot of guesswork, but that’s especially true in 2022. There is no consensus best quarterback and therefore no consensus No. 1 overall pick. It’s likely that this will be the first year since 2017, when the Browns took defensive end Myles Garrett, in which a QB isn’t the first player off the board. The lack of QB certainty means a broader lack of clarity around the draft, as it’s not clear which teams are most smitten with which players and who might pull off an audacious trade in order to draft a key prospect.

In that spirit, here’s one big question around every position group in the draft. The answers to these questions will go a long way toward deciding how the 2022 NFL Draft unfolds for the league’s 32 teams.

Malik Willis, wearing a black shirt and a gold necklace, gets ready to throw a football. NFL Draft 2022
Malik Willis Kendall Warner/AP / Shutterstock

1. Quarterback: Is someone going to bet the franchise on a big trade up to draft a QB?

The short answer: Probably.

The longer answer: Probably, but it’s not clear which team will do it, or which quarterback they’ll go after. This draft has five quarterbacks who could plausibly be first-round picks. Most analysts have either Pitt’s Kenny Pickett or Liberty’s Malik Willis as the first one to go, and Willis has been the subject of some speculation that teams might jockey to take him early on. The Panthers have a lousy QB situation and pick sixth, and could perhaps get Willis by standing pat. The Seahawks (who just traded Russell Wilson) pick ninth and might do the same. The Steelers (who just saw Ben Roethlisberger retire after fading late in his career) would probably need to trade up.

Any team that trades up in the first round to get a quarterback will be making a franchise-altering investment. It will cost a lot in draft picks, probably, as well as signal that the team is ready to put multiple years into making that player the cornerstone of their team. It’s one of the few things in the NFL that a team really cannot afford to get wrong.

2. Running Back: Is Breece Hall good enough to overturn the “running backs don’t matter” dogma?

There’s a school of thought in football that insists running backs are increasingly irrelevant in the modern game. The reason? Football has become more passing-oriented, and ball-carriers are products of context (like the caliber of their offensive lines) rather than game-changers in their own right.

It’s an overly simplistic way of viewing the sport, but it does track with how NFL teams seem to view the NFL Draft nowadays. Only one or two running backs become first-rounders each year, and the position has similarly suffered in free agency over the years.

The media consensus is that only one running back, Iowa State’s Breece Hall, has a chance to slip into the first round in 2022. Hall was awesome in Ames, and I’d like to see an NFL team spend an early pick on his power and speed. I’m not sure if any actually will, however.

Jameson Williams runs down the field with the ball NFL Draft 2022
Jameson Williams Courtesy Image

3. Receiver: Teams won’t let an injury scare them away from receiver Jameson Williams. Right?

I hope not. Williams was the most dominant receiver in college football last year until he tore an ACL in the national championship game between his Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs. In an illustration of his value, Williams’ absence torpedoed the Bama passing game. He had more than 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns before that, and his over-the-top speed was a problem that defenses in the SEC, the country’s best conference, could not solve.

Williams is reportedly doing well in his recovery. Given his obvious game-breaking ability, it would be pretty silly if he fell to even the bottom of the first round. Williams transferred to Alabama from Ohio State, where he had been teammates with fellow first-round wideout candidates Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave.

4. Tight End: Is the league going to generally ignore tight ends in this draft?

It seems unlikely that one will get picked in the first round, and it could even take until well into the second before a team plucks a tight end. Colorado State’s Trey McBride seems like the consensus No. 1 option, but it’s not hard to find people who prefer Ohio State’s Jeremy Ruckert or Coastal Carolina’s Isaiah Likely. On the other hand, maybe a team will see one of these players as a value opportunity and they’ll become a star rookie, like last year’s Steelers second-rounder Pat Freiermuth did.

NFL Draft 2022: Ikem Ekwonu lines up at the line of scrimmage during a football game.
Ikem Ekwonu Karl B DeBlaker/AP / Shutterstock

5. Offensive Line: Will this be the best offensive tackle draft ever?

It’s worth discussing. Three potential blind-side protectors (Alabama’s Evan Neal, NC State’s Ikem Ekwonu, and Mississippi State’s Charles Cross) are poised to be top-10 picks. Going by Sports Reference’s positional classifications, that hasn’t happened since 1968, when eventual Hall of Famer Ron Yary headlined the class out of USC.

Neal and Ekwonu have both received a bit of No. 1 overall pick buzz; Neal showed up first overall in some mock drafts. The league’s shift toward aerial offense has put a premium on both edge rushers and giant men who can block them, and Neal, Ekwonu, and Cross are part of that answer. Northern Iowa’s Trevor Penning and Central Michigan’s Bernhard Raimann could also hear their names called before the first round is up. In fact, Penning probably will.

6. Defensive Line: How does the NFL see Georgia’s Jordan Davis?

It looks likely that Davis will be a first-round pick. He is an interesting case, though, because there’s an argument for picking Davis in the top five and another that he could fall a long way down in the first round and maybe even push the second, though that probably won’t happen.

Davis is about 6’6” and 340 pounds. He is a massive man even by the standards of NFL defensive linemen. At Georgia, he often mimicked a one-man wrecking crew. He’s big enough to plug gaps on either side of the center at once and fast enough to chase down much smaller players in wide open spaces. When he’s playing well, he’s a marvel to watch.

But the NFL’s shift toward spread offense isn’t ideal for his draft value. It’s now common for teams to line up on third downs with just two down linemen as edge rushers, three or four linebackers, and five or six defensive backs, leaving no place for a player like Davis. Georgia frequently took him off the field on third downs, and his size has raised some conditioning and durability questions among the draft intelligentsia. That said, Davis has tested through the roof athletically and done nothing to suggest he’s not an all-around great NFL prospect.

I’m not only interested to see who picks Davis and when. I’m interested in how he’ll be deployed in the current iteration of the NFL—and if he’s good enough to buck a trend.

NFL Draft 2022: Michigan defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson runs around a blue cylindrical barrier during the NFL football scouting combine.
Aidan Hutchinson Darron Cummings/AP / Shutterstock

7. Edge Rusher: Is it Aidan, Kayvon, or Travon?

I don’t think any positional battle in the 2022 NFL Draft has generated as many passionate takes as the one over whether Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson and Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux will be the first edge rusher picked. On top of that, one of them could quite possibly be the first player picked. In recent months, Georgia’s Travon Walker, a dominant force in the Bulldogs’ run to a national championship, has also worked his way into this discussion.

Hutchinson lacks the straight-ahead speed of Walker and Thibodeaux, but he has incredible short-area agility, which is more important for getting around offensive tackles. Walker is hilariously fast for a 275-pound guy, but Georgia didn’t use him as a conventional edge rusher and thus denied him the chance to pile up a lot of sacks in his college career. Thibodeaux has seemed destined for the top of this draft since he was a high school senior in 2018, but his production at Oregon was more “great” than “absolutely incredible, first-overall-pick level.” The choice between them is a tough one, and it likely comes down to personal preference.

NFL Draft 2022: Nakobe Dean running on a football field.
Nakobe Dean Phelan M Ebenhack/AP / Shutterstock

8. Linebacker: What does the NFL have in mind for Nakobe Dean?

Another Georgia product, another elite player whose future role in the NFL is up for some debate. Dean is similar to recent first-rounders like Isaiah Simmons and Zaven Collins; he’s a college linebacker who was good at so many things and was asked to do so much that an NFL team will need to figure out what to hone in on. It’s a good problem to have, and I think any defensive coordinator who can’t figure out what to do with Dean should find a new line of work. Even so, he’s not big (5’11’’ and 229 pounds) and it’s hard to pin down how he’ll fare in the draft.

9. Cornerback: Will this draft be as cornerback-heavy as it looks?

Cincinnati’s Ahmad Gardner, LSU’s Derek Stingley Jr., Washington’s Trent McDuffie, Clemson’s Andrew Booth, and Florida’s Kaiir Elam are all frequently mocked up as first-round picks. Auburn’s Roger McCreary sometimes shows up in analysts’ first rounds, too. That would be a ton of first-round corners—at least five, maybe six—in this NFL Draft, but it would fit with something we’ve already talked about here: This is a passing league, and teams need a loaded pass defense

10. Safety: Does the NFL care that Kyle Hamilton is slow in tights?

He’s not slow in pads. The Notre Dame safety is probably the surest bet for the first player taken at his position. He had a brilliant career in South Bend, has an immaculate frame (6’4” and 220 pounds), plays the ball with controlled aggression, and covers ground quickly. That’s a lot to love, and Hamilton will be an early first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.

But he posted a 4.59-second 40-yard dash time at the NFL Scouting Combine, and that might cause him to fall out of the top five or 10 picks. I find this silly; there’s plenty of game tape that shows Hamilton moves like the wind when it counts. But NFL teams have their own preferences, and it’s possible that some of them will get scared away.

2022 NFL Draft: Matt Araiza in black workout clothes about to kick a football on a football field.
Matt Araiza Steve Luciano/AP / Shutterstock

11. Special Teams: How soon is too soon to pick a punter?

San Diego State’s Matt Araiza, who just finished an utterly historic season, would like to know. The most powerful punter in college football history is bringing his skill to the NFL. No team has picked a punter before the fourth round since 2012. Araiza probably won’t go that high, but could a team spring for him in the fourth or fifth round? Well, I would.

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April 1, 2022

Best Recreational Sports for Adults

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: — admin @ 4:13 pm

If your football days are long over—or never were—and you’re hesitant to join a hockey team without a pair of skates, you can still get in the game—or at least some kind of game. Here’s our list of the best recreational sports  for adults that will quench your thirst for playful competition this year. You might even meet a few new friends or drinking buddies in the process.

Man lunging on court with racket in hand
Venti Views/Unsplash

Pickleball

Pickleball is a sport that’s been growing in popularity in recent years due to its simple setup and low-key equipment, but it’s actually been around since the 1960s. The game itself is easy to pick up and can be a bit engrossing. It’s like a combination of ping pong and tennis, but without the overhead smashes and crazy running back and forth all over the court—but don’t worry, you’ll still get in a great workout.

You can play it with two or four people; all you’ll need are paddles, balls, and a net to get a game going. The paddles are similar in shape to ping pong paddles, but about twice the size, while the balls have holes in them like whiffle balls, making each stroke lower impact compared to regular tennis. The badminton-style court should be around 20 feet across and 44 feet long, while the net should be between 34 to 36 inches high. Many parks, rec centers, and health clubs now have pickleball courts to play on, so if you’re looking to play, search in your local area or check in with your gym/club to see if they have a court to use. But if you don’t have access to one, don’t worry. You can order a pickleball set and play in your driveway, backyard, or park.

Games are usually played to 11, with a team needing to win by 2. Points are scored only by the serving team. The serving player must hit the ball underhand and contact with the ball has to be from waist level or below. Following a serve, the other team must let the ball bounce once before returning it, and same the serving team when it’s hit back, but after those two bounces, players can then hit the ball for a return before it hits the ground. The area within the first seven feet on each side of the net is considered a “no-volley zone” so that players don’t smash the ball like in regular tennis. For the full official rules, you can check out this explainer from USA Pickelball. Need a place to play? You can search here for options nationwide. The website will give you all the available pickleball courts in your local area, as well as the schedule, cost to play, and any relevant contact information. You also can search by location and find information on leagues, tournaments, courts, lessons and events from the Global Pickleball Network.

Man in white T-shirt throwing frisbee
John Kofi/Unsplash

Ultimate Frisbee

It’s more than just the game you saw people playing on the quad at college. Ultimate Frisbee—or as many players call it, “ultimate”—is a non-contact sport that has some pretty straightforward rules. Similar to American football, you have two teams, and points are scored when one team catches the frisbee in the opposing end zone. At the start of the game, the teams start on opposite sides of the field, with one team throwing the disc to the other team, similar to a kickoff in football. The offensive team can’t run with the frisbee—players can pass it to teammates from either a standing position (and one pivot step), or within three steps after catching the frisbee if they don’t come to a complete stop. The offensive team loses possession of the frisbee if the disc is caught by a defender, it hits the ground, or if it goes out of bounds.

Field measurements from USA Ultimate are 70 yards long, 40 yards wide, with end zones 20 yards deep, but not everywhere you play may have space like that. If you’re playing with friends or in a social league, you can make your own measurements with markers on the field for the bound lines and end zones at the distance you’d like to play. Looking for places to play or leagues to join? The USA Ultimate website has a map with links to all 50 states, providing websites for local leagues. PickupUltimate.com also has links and information for pickup/social games happening around the country. You also can try searching for local clubs or competitions in your area and games that may be organized by Community Center or Parks Departments in your town or city. There are also semi-professional leagues like the American Ultimate Disc League and the Premier Ultimate League, highly competitive local leagues, national competitions, and college teams—and in 2028, it’ll even be eligible to become an Olympic sport.

A man carrying the ball runs away from a defender in a recreational flag football game
BluIz60 / Shutterstock

Flag Football

Miss your pee wee or high school football days? With flag football you can get back in on the action without having to worry about getting smashed over the middle by an oncoming linebacker. There’s no need for tons of equipment or even helmets. All you need to play is a football, a flag belt, and maybe some cleats—or at least some solid running sneakers. The rules are basically the same as regular football, but instead of tackling or making contact with players, you pull the flag off the opposing players’ belt to make the tackle. You also can decide to play full no-contact or with some contact, meaning light blocking when plays are in action, but that’s something you can decide with your crew of players before starting a game. Another advantage of flag football is you don’t need as many players as you do with traditional football. Many leagues do 7-on-7 or 8-on-8 games, but even if you have less players, you still can play a fun, competitive game with just four or five people per side.

Most teams are made up of a quarterback, receivers, a running back and lineman on offense; the defense will usually match up 1-on-1 with each receiver, while one or two players stays close to the quarterback, depending on how you set your “rushing” rules. In some flag football leagues, quarterbacks are not allowed to run and can only either pass the ball forward or hand it off to a running back, but those rules can be tweaked based on your preference. Some people will set a “rushing clock” between 5-10 seconds, meaning that until that time is up, the quarterback can’t run past the line of scrimmage, but the defense also can’t go after the quarterback. But once that timer is up, the defense can try and snatch the quarterback’s flag for a sack.

Organized leagues and clubs for flag football have been growing in recent years, with ones in New York City like NYC Flag Football, which has multiple league options, local ZogSports leagues, as well as games, clinics and tournaments run by the NYC Parks department. If you’re located in LA, the Department of Recreation and Parks has an adult flag football league. Another great resource is GotFlagFootball.com, which provides a database nationwide where you can search by state to find flag football league options in your area. The NFL itself has been investing in the sport, creating leagues for kids around the country, but they also have resources you can use on their NFL Flag website if you want to start your own league; it’s got gear you can order, official rules, and playbooks. If you want to take a step up and try your hand at being a professional, there’s the American Flag Football League, which started in 2017 and has a men’s and women’s division.

Ball Hockey
Shutterstock

Ball Hockey

If you’re into hockey, but don’t want to deal with getting skates and having to actually find an ice rink to play on, ball hockey is for you. Instead of playing on ice, all you need is a stick, ball, and some protective gear, since you can play on foot without any skates. You’ll need a little bit more equipment than some of the other sports here, but much less compared to traditional ice hockey or street hockey. Usually, players will have hand gloves/covers, shin guards, and a helmet, with goalies wearing a full set of protective gear. You can find leagues and organized clubs around the country like Ball Hockey League in North Hollywood, which offers tournaments and pickup games, New York Street Hockey group, which holds weekly games in Queens, and a ZogSports weekly floor hockey league in NYC. There’s also a national organization in USA Ball Hockey, which has resources, events around the country, tournaments and much more that can help you get involved. If you aren’t joining a league and just want to play with friends, you can order a ball hockey set yourself on websites like Amazon that usually come with a collapsible net, multiple balls, and multiple sticks you can play with.

Shirtless man hitting volleyball off forearms at beach
Courtesy Image

Volleyball

Whether it’s on the beach, in the park, or indoors, volleyball is one of the most fun and social sports you can pick up. Gear is minimal: You just need a net and volleyball. It’s a great workout, as volleyball has quick spurts of jumping, lateral movements, and cardio. It takes teamwork to help set up a shot and there isn’t a better feeling on the court than when you time your jump perfectly and block your opponent’s shot right back into them. The best way to get started is to just go out and play. Look up whether your gym, local park, or community center has a league you can join and, in many cities, you can search for fields or courts that are available. Through sites like ZogSports, you can search for volleyball leagues in multiple cities, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. In most cities, with a few clicks, you’ll be able to find yourself a game, and maybe a new weekly hobby. For example, in New York City you can find a full list of all the volleyball facilities on the NYC Parks website. Some leagues also host tournaments and other season-long groups that are a bit more competitive than just a weekly pickup game. The New York Urban Volleyball League hosts clinics and takes participants of all skill levels, while Big City Volleyball offers indoor and outdoor games, leagues, and clinics all around the city. If you’re looking for something a bit more competitive, you can find a wide range of indoor competitions and beach volleyball events taking place around the country through USA Volleyball.

Men standing on court playing dodgeball
Wan San Yip;Unsplash

Dodgeball

If any of these sports will make you feel like a kid again, it’s dodgeball. It also might be the easiest one to get started, as all you need to play is a dodgeball and a few other people to compete with. Playing can help you build agility and upper body strength, and before you know it you’ll be able to pinpoint your throws with perfect accuracy. To find leagues or games to play in, search for events in your community; check out local parks or rec centers; or seek out organized leagues like ZogSports in New York City and the World Dodgeball Society in Los Angeles. No matter where you live, you’ll likely be able to find a league, similar to ones like FXA Dodgeball in Virginia, the Chicago Sport & Social Club, and Miami Dodgeball. If you want to take things up another level like Vince Vaughn and his Average Joe’s team in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, there’s the National Dodgeball League, which has teams around the country, as well as USA Dodgeball.

Nighttime soccer
Courtesy Image

Soccer

Soccer has been a growing sport in the U.S. for over a decade and that’s also extended to pickup leagues around the country. Joining a soccer league in your city or area is a great way to meet people and stay active if you’re itching to play an organized sport. The equipment is minimal, too; all you’ll need are some shin guards, cleats, and a soccer ball. Most parks have a soccer field you can play on and many leagues offer night and weekend games so you can fit things into your busy schedule. If you’re in New York City, there are a bunch of places you can find pickup games and casual leagues, including at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 5, which has an incredible view of the Manhattan skyline while you play. You can find information about availability of the field on the park website here. There’s also Pickup Soccer NYC, which is all-season and NYC Footy, which offers 5-on-5, 6-on-6, and 7-on-7 leagues all around the city. You can also search for games and leagues around the country through websites like Meetup, which has a searchable list based on city and region. The United States Adult Soccer Association also holds local, regional and national competitions during the year and offers rules and resources as the official governing body of adult soccer in the country.

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