Day… TM
March 1st, 1988 Wayne Gretzky set an NHL record by scoring his 1,050th assist of his Hall of Fame career. Gretzky, an Edmonton Oiler Center, did it in nine seasons while fellow Hall of Famer Gordie Howe 26 seasons to set the record Gretzky broke.
March 6th, 1981 Kris Anderson left Lakeland, Minnesota in a hot air balloon called Knight Hawk and 600 miles later he landed in West Virginia setting a new record for the greatest distance traveled in a hot air balloon.
March 11th, 1892
The first public basketball game was played between students and teachers at the YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts. The students beat the teachers, 5-1. A gym teacher at the school had invented basketball a few months prior to the game.
March 20th, 1948
The first college hockey playoffs were held in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The University of Michigan defeated Dartmouth, 8-4 to win the championship.
March 22nd, 1969 UCLA’s Lew Alcindor (Kareem AbdulJabbar) was named the MVP of the NCAA basketball championship for the third year in a row.
March 27th, 1949 The University of Kentucky became the second team in NCAA basketball history to repeat as tournament champions. They beat the only other team to win it twice, the Oklahoma State University Aggies. The final score was, 46-36 and Kentucky’s Alex Groza was named tournament MVP.
March 29th, 1976
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Indiana University beat the University of Michigan, 86-68 to win the NCAA basketball title and complete a perfect season. The Hoosiers became only the seventh team in history to take the championship without losing a game. VYPEOK.COM
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TRAINERS TABLE Training the Sprinter Many techniques go into training your short distance sprinters. Power and a quick burst are just two essential elements of the sprinter, but much more goes into creating a true sprinter.
Many experts believe it starts with a good posture and stability of the trunk. Some believe this is more important than leg and arm strength. Improved balance is a crucial element of a sprinter. If you are unable to maintain balance while running at top performance levels your speed will decrease and you will never reach your full potential. Jogging can actually serve a good purpose for the sprinter, especially before competing. Having the muscle warm and ready to go is one of the more underrated techniques sprinters use in competition. Many times a sprinter will use this as an opportunity to mentally view the race and go over his or her techniques, but a good sprinter will also use this as a time to focus on their muscles and warming up. That includes all of the muscles from your abs and back to legs and arms.
Practice relaxing while running. A good sprinter can run fast and make it look easy. Most are taught at a young age to relax when running, whether it’s a short distance or a long distance. Relaxing is another important element to becoming an outstanding sprinter. Overall fitness is critical when preparing for events. What you fuel your body with can be the difference between first and second place. Also use different techniques when training. For example a sprinter can use medicine balls, skip jumping, sand boxes, dancing and progressive circuit training to improve his or her numbers. Learning to be flexible and stretching is another aspect of the total package. Every sprinter should have a daily stretching program. Even when you are not preparing for an event, you should still stretch and keep your muscle from tensing up. Muscle elasticity is extremely important and can make the difference in running several events in one day or limiting yourself to one or two.
The main thing is to not create bad habits then continue to practice those habits. Once a sprinter has developed these habits and their muscles are repeating these actions he or she can develop slower than their competitors and subsequently have less than desirable performances.
By Malik Montgomery
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