Base-Ball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between

two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs

by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series

of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot

square, or diamond. Players on one team (the batting team)

take turns hitting against the pitcher of the other team

(the fielding team), which tries to stop them from scoring

runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A

player on the batting team can stop at any of the bases

and later advance via a teammate's hit or other means.



The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team records three outs. One turn at bat for each

team constitutes an inning; nine innings make up a

professional game. The team with the most runs at the end

of the game wins. This game and the related rounders were brought by British

and Irish immigrants to North America, where the modern

version of baseball developed. By the late nineteenth

century, baseball was widely recognized as the national

sport of the United States. Baseball on the professional,

amateur, and youth levels is now popular in North America,

parts of Central and South America and the Caribbean, and

parts of East Asia. The game is sometimes referred to as

hardball, in contrast to the derivative game of softball.

In North America, professional Major League Baseball (MLB)

teams are divided into the National League (NL) and

American League (AL). Each league has three divisions:

East, West, and Central. Every year, the champion of Major

League Baseball is determined by playoffs that culminate

in the World Series.




History:
The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball

games is difficult to trace with precision. A French

manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics

playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to

baseball;other old French games such as théque, la balle

au bâton, and la balle empoisonée also appear to be

related.Consensus once held that today's baseball is a

North American development from the older game rounders,

popular in Great Britain and Ireland.



The earliest known reference to baseball is in a

1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, by

John Newbery. It contains a rhymed description of

"base-ball" and a woodcut that shows a field set-up

somewhat similar to the modern game—though in a triangular

rather than diamond configuration, and with posts instead

of ground-level bases.



The first known American reference to baseball

appears in a 1791 Pittsfield, Massachusetts, town bylaw

prohibiting the playing of the game near the town's new

meeting house.By 1796, a version of the game was

well-known enough to earn a mention in a German scholar's

book on popular pastimes.










By the early 1830s, there were reports of a

variety of uncodified bat-and-ball games recognizable as

early forms of baseball being played around North America.

These games were often referred to locally as "town ball",

though other names such as "round-ball" and "base-ball"

were also used.










In the mid-1850s, a baseball craze hit the New

York metropolitan area.By 1856, local journals were

referring to baseball as the "national pastime" or

"national game".A year later, sixteen area clubs formed

the sport's first governing body, the National Association

of Base Ball Players. In 1863, the organization disallowed

putouts made by catching a fair ball on the first bounce.




Four years later, it barred participation by African

Americans.The game's commercial potential was developing:

in 1869 the first fully professional baseball club, the

Cincinnati Red Stockings, was formed and went undefeated

against a schedule of semipro and amateur teams.The first

professional league, the National Association of

Professional Base Ball Players, lasted from 1871 to 1875;

scholars dispute its status as a major league.




The more formally structured National League was founded

in 1876.A modicum of peace was eventually established,

leading to the National Agreement of 1903.In 1905, the

Giants were National League champions again and team

management relented, leading to the establishment of the

World Series as the major leagues' annual championship

event.
Facing competition as varied as television and football,

baseball attendance at all levels declined; while the

majors rebounded by the mid-1950s, the minor leagues were

gutted and hundreds of semipro and amateur teams

dissolved.Integration proceeded slowly: by 1953, only six

of the sixteen major league teams had a black player on

the roster.The players' union became bolder under the

leadership of former United Steelworkers chief economist

and negotiator Marvin Miller, who was elected executive

director in 1966.In 1977, two more expansion teams joined

the American League. Significant work stoppages occurred

again in 1981 and 1994, the latter forcing the

cancellation of the World Series for the first time in

ninety years.Attendance had been growing steadily since

the mid-1970s and in 1994, before the stoppage, the majors

were setting their all-time record for per-game

attendance.The addition of two more expansion teams after

the 1993 season had facilitated another restructuring of

the major leagues, this time into three divisions each.
In 2001, Barry Bonds established the current record of 73

home runs in a single season. There had long been

suspicions that the dramatic increase in power hitting was

fueled in large part by the abuse of illegal steroids (as

well as by the dilution of pitching talent due to

expansion), but the issue only began attracting

significant media attention in 2002 and there was no

penalty for the use of performance-enhancing drugs before

2004.In 2007, Bonds became MLB's all-time home run

leader, surpassing Hank Aaron, as total major league and

minor league attendance both reched all-time highs.


Rules and gameplay:

A game is played between two teams, each

composed of nine players, that take turns playing offense

(batting or hitting) and defense (fielding or

pitching).The game is played on a field whose primary

boundaries, the foul lines, extend forward from home plate

at 45-degree angles. The 90-degree area within the foul

lines is referred to as fair territory; the 270-degree

area outside them is foul territory. The part of the field

enclosed by the bases and several yards beyond them is the

infield; the area farther beyond the infield is the

outfield.

There are three basic tools of baseball: the ball, the

bat, and the glove or mitt:

* The baseball is about the size of an adult's fist,

around 9 inches (23 centimeters) in circumference. It has

a rubber or cork center, wound in yarn and covered in

white cowhide, with red stitching.
* The bat is a hitting tool, traditionally made of a

single, solid piece of wood; other materials are now

commonly used for nonprofessional games. It is a hard

round stick, about 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) in

diameter at the hitting end, tapering to a narrower handle

and culminating in a knob. Bats used by adults are

typically around 34 inches (86 centimeters) long, and not

longer than 42 inches (106 centimeters).
* The glove or mitt is a fielding tool, made of padded

leather with webbing between the fingers. As an aid in

catching and holding onto the ball, it takes various

shapes to meet the specific needs of different fielding

positions.

Personnel:

Player rosters:

Roster, or squad, sizes differ between

different leagues and different levels of organized play.

Major League Baseball teams maintain twenty-five-player

active rosters. A typical twenty-five-man roster in a

league without the DH rule, such as MLB's National League,


features:



* eight position players—catcher, four infielders,

three outfielders—who play on a regular basis
* five starting pitchers who constitute the team's

pitching rotation or starting rotation
* six relief pitchers, including one specialist

closer, who constitute the team's bullpen (named for the

off-field area where pitchers warm up)
* one backup, or substitute, catcher
* two backup infielders
* two backup outfielders
* one specialist pinch hitter, or a second backup

catcher, or a seventh reliever.

Other personnel:


The manager, or head coach of a team,

oversees the team's major strategic decisions, such as

establishing the starting rotation, setting the lineup, or

batting order, before each game, and making substitutions

during games—in particular, bringing in relief pitchers.

Managers are typically assisted by two or more coaches;

they may have specialized responsibilities, such as

working with players on hitting, fielding, pitching, or

strength and conditioning.Any baseball game involves one

or more umpires, who make rulings on the outcome of each

play. At a minimum, one umpire will stand behind the

catcher, to have a good view of the strike zone, and call

balls and st
rikes.

Pitching and fielding tactics:


The tactical decision that

precedes almost every play in a baseball game involves

pitch selection. Among the wide variety of pitches that

may be thrown, the four basic types are the fastball, the

changeup (or off-speed pitch), and two breaking balls—the

curveball and the slider.Pitchers have different

repertoires of pitches they are skillful at throwing.

Conventionally, before each pitch, the catcher signals the

pitcher what type of pitch to throw, as well as its

general vertical and/or horizontal location.If there is

disagreement on the selection, the pitcher may shake off

the sign and the catcher will call for a different pitch.

With a runner on base and taking a lead, the pitcher may

attempt a pickoff, a quick throw to a fielder covering the

base to keep the runner's lead in check or, optimally,

effect a tag out. If an attempted stolen base is

anticipated, the catcher may call for a pitchout, a ball

thrown deliberately off the plate, allowing the catcher to

catch it while standing and throw quickly to a base.so

attempt to bunt for a hit.)

Statistics:


Organized baseball lends itself to statistics to a

greater degree than many other sports. Each play is

discrete and has a relatively small number of possible

outcomes. In the 1920s, American newspapers began

devoting more and more attention to baseball statistics,

initiating what journalist and historian Alan Schwarz

describes as a "tectonic shift in sports, as intrigue that

once focused mostly on teams began to go to individual

players and their statistics lines."

Certain traditional statistics are familiar to most

baseball fans. The basic batting statistics include:

* At bats: plate appearances, excluding walks and hit

by pitches—where the batter's ability is not fully

tested—and sacrifices and sacrifice flies—where the batter

intentionally makes an out in order to advance one or more

baserunners
* Hits: times reached base because of a batted, fair

ball without fielding error or fielder's choice
* Runs: times circling the bases and reaching home

safely
* Runs batted in (RBIs): number of runners who scored

due to a batter's action (including the batter, in the

case of a home run), except when batter grounded into

double play or reached on an error
* Home runs: hits on which the batter successfully

touched all four bases, without the contribution of a

fielding error
* Batting average: hits divided by at bats—the

traditional measure of batting ability

The basic baserunning statistics include:

* Stolen bases: times advancing to the next base

entirely due to the runner's own efforts, generally while

the pitcher is preparing to deliver or delivering the ball
* Caught stealing: times tagged out while attempting

to steal a base

Cy Young—the holder of many major league career marks,

including wins and innings pitched, as well as losses—in

1908. MLB's annual awards for the best pitcher in each

league are named for Young.

The basic pitching statistics include:

* Wins: games where pitcher was pitching while his

team took a lead that it never relinquished, going on to

win
* Losses: games where pitcher was pitching while the

opposing team took a lead that it never relinquished,

going on to win
* Saves: games where the pitcher enters a game led by

the pitcher's team, finishes the game without surrendering

the lead, is not the winning pitcher, and either (a) the

lead was three runs or less when the pitcher entered the

game; (b) the potential tying run was on base, at bat, or

on deck; or (c) the pitcher pitched three or more innings
* Innings pitched: outs recorded while pitching

divided by three
* Strikeouts: times pitching three strikes to a batter
* Winning percentage: wins divided by decisions (wins

plus losses)
* Earned run average (ERA): runs allowed, excluding

those resulting from fielding errors, per nine innings

pitched

The basic fielding statistics include:

* Putouts: times the fielder catches a fly ball, tags

or forces out a runner, or otherwise directly effects an

out
* Assists: times a putout by another fielder was

recorded following the fielder touching the ball
* Errors: times the fielder fails to make a play that

should have been made with common effort, and the batting

team benefits as a result
* Total chances: putouts plus assists plus errors
* Fielding average: successful chances (putouts plus

assists) divided by total chances.

Baseball in popular culture:


Baseball has had a broad

impact on popular culture, both in the United States and

elsewhere. Dozens of English-language idioms have been

derived from baseball; in particular, the game is the

source of a number of widely used sexual euphemisms. The

first networked radio broadcasts in North America were of

the 1922 World Series: famed sportswriter Grantland Rice

announced play-by-play from New York City's Polo Grounds

on WJZ–Newark, New Jersey, which was connected by wire to

WGY–Schenectady, New York, and WBZ–Springfield,

Massachusetts.The baseball cap has become a ubiquitous

fashion item not only in the United States and Japan, but

also in countries where the sport itself is not

particularly popular, such as the United Kingdom.
The American Tobacco Company's line of baseball cards

featured shortstop Honus Wagner of the Pittsburgh Pirates

from 1909 to 1911. In 2007, the card shown here sold for

$2.8 million.

Baseball has inspired many works of art and entertainment.

One of the first major examples, Ernest Thayer's poem

"Casey at the Bat", appeared in 1888. A wry description of

the failure of a star player in what would now be called a

"clutch situation", the poem became the source of

vaudeville and other staged performances, audio

recordings, film adaptations, and an opera, as well as a

host of sequels and parodies in various media. There have

been many baseball movies, including the Academy

Award–winning The Pride of the Yankees (1942) and the

Oscar nominees The Natural (1984) and Field of Dreams

(1989). The American Film Institute's selection of the ten

best sports movies includes The Pride of the Yankees at

number 3 and Bull Durham (1988) at number 5.[160] Baseball

has provided thematic material for hits on both stage—the

Adler–Ross musical Damn Yankees—and record—George J.

Gaskin's "Slide, Kelly, Slide", Simon and Garfunkel's

"Mrs. Robinson", and John Fogerty's Centerfield.The

baseball-founded comedic sketch "Who's on First",

introduced by Abbot and Costello in 1938, quickly became

famous. Six decades later, Time named it the best comedy

routine of the twentieth century.

Baseball has also inspired the creation of new cultural

forms. Baseball cards were introduced in the late

nineteenth century as trade cards; a typical example would

feature an image of a baseball player on one side and

advertising for a business on the other. In the early

1900s they were produced widely as promotional items by

tobacco and confectionary companies. The 1930s saw the

popularization of the modern style of baseball card, with

a player photograph accompanied on the rear by statistics

and biographical data. Baseball cards—many of which are

now prized collectibles—are the source of the much broader

trading card industry, involving similar products for

different sports and non-sports-related fields.Modern

fantasy sports began in 1980 with the invention of

Rotisserie League Baseball by New York writer Daniel

Okrent and several friends. Participants in a Rotisserie

league draft notional teams from the list of active Major

League Baseball players and play out an entire imaginary

season with game outcomes based on the players' latest

real-world statistics. Rotisserie-style play quickly

became a phenomenon. Now known more generically as fantasy

baseball, it has inspired similar games based on an array

of different sports.The field boomed with increasing

Internet access and new fantasy sports–related websites;

by 2008, 29.9 million people in the United States and

Canada were playing fantasy sports, spending $800 million

on the hobby.The burgeoning popularity of fantasy baseball

is also credited with the increasing attention paid to

sabermetrics—first among fans, only later among baseball

professionals.

Swimming

Swimming has been part of the modern Olympic Games since inception in 1896. Along with the other aquatic disciplines of diving, synchronised swimming and water polo, the sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA).

History:
Competitive swimming in Europe started around 1800, mostly using breaststroke. In 1873 John Arthur Trudgen introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native Americans. Due to a British disregard for splashing, Trudgen employed a scissor kick instead of the front crawl's flutter kick. Swimming was part of the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens. In 1902 Richard Cavill introduced the front crawl to the Western world. In 1908, the world swimming association, Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), was formed. Butterfly was developed in the 1930s and was at first a variant of breaststroke, until it was accepted as a separate style in 1952.



Officials:
There are several types of officials:

* A starter sends the swimmers off the blocks and may call a false start if a swimmer leaves the block before the starter sends them;
* Finish judges determine the order of finish and make sure the swimmers finish in accordance with the rules (two hands simultaneously for breaststroke and butterfly, on the back for backstroke, etc.)
* Turn judges check that the swimmers' turns are within rules;
* Stroke judges check the swimmers' strokes;
* Timekeepers time the swimmers' swims;
* The referee takes overall responsibility for running the race and makes the final decisions as to who wins the competition.

Swimwear:
Competitive swimwear seeks to improve upon bare human skin for a speed advantage. For extra speed a swimmer wears a body suit, which has rubber or plastic bumps that break up the water close to the body and provides a small amount of thrust--just barely enough to help a swimmer swim faster.

Brands include: Arena, Speedo, TYR, Nike, Dolfin

Regular practice and competition-swimwear


Men:

Men's most used practice swimwear include speedos(briefs) and jammers.

Women:


Women wear one piece suits with different backs for competition. Although, there are different style two piece suits that can be worn to compete in as well. Backs vary mainly in strap thickness and in geometric design of the back. Most common different style backs include: racerback, diamondback, butterflyback. There are also different style lengths that include: three quarter length (knee length suit), full body (down to your ankels), regular length (shoulders to hips) and bikini style (2 piece).

Drag suits:


Drag suits are used for increasing the resistance against the swimmer in order to help adjust the swimmer to drag. This way when swimmers switch back normal practice suits they swim faster as a result of feeling less resistance.

Drag shorts:


Drag shorts like drag suits are worn in training and are also used to increase drag so that when taken off in racing it feels easier and you have less reistance.




Records in swimming:

The foundation of FINA in 1908 signalled the commencement of recording the first official world records in swimming. At that time records could be established in any swimming pool of length not less than 25 yards, and records were also accepted for intermediate distance split times from longer distance events. The Danish swimmer Ranghild Hveger established forty-two records between 1936 and 1942 due to these rules.

Records in events such as 300 yd, 300 m, 1000 yd and 1000 m freestyle, 400 m backstroke, 400 m and 500 m breaststroke were no longer ratified from 1948. A further removal of the 500 yd and 500 m freestyle, 150 m backstroke and 3×100 m medley relay from the record listings occurred in 1952.

In 1952 the national federations of the United States and Japan proposed at the FINA Congress the separation of records achieved in long course and short course pools, however it was four more years for action to come into effect with Congress deciding to retain only records held in 50 m pools as the official world record listings.

By 1969 there were thirty-one events in which FINA recognised official world records – 16 for men, 15 for women – closely resembling the event schedule that was in use at the Olympic Games.

The increase in accuracy and reliability of electronic timing equipment led to the introduction of hundredths of a second to the time records from 21 August 1972.

Records in short course (25 m) pools began to be officially approved as "short course world records" from 3 March 1991. Prior to this "record" times were not officially recognised but were regarded a "world best time" (WBT). From 31 October 1994 records in 50 m backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly records were added to the official record listings.

FINA currently recognises world records in the following events for both men and women.

* Freestyle: 50 m, 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m, 1500 m
* Backstroke: 50 m, 100 m, 200 m
* Breaststroke: 50 m, 100 m, 200 m
* Butterfly: 50 m, 100 m, 200 m
* Individual medley: 100 m (short course only), 200 m, 400 m
* Relays: 4×100 m freestyle, 4×200 m freestyle, 4×100 m medley

POLO

Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Riders score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a long-handled mallet. The traditional sport of polo is played at speed on a large grass field up to 300 yards in length, and each polo team consists of four riders and their mounts.

A modern variant is called arena polo which is played indoors or more commonly outdoors on an enclosed all-weather surface (the field of play is much smaller, rarely exceeding 100 yards in length).

Another modern variant is snow polo, which is played on compacted snow on flat ground or a frozen lake. The format of snow polo varies depending on the space available. Each team generally consists of three players and a bright colored light plastic ball is preferred. Other variants include camel polo, elephant polo, bike polo, Segway polo and beach polo.

History:


A game first played in Persia/Iran at dates given from the 6th century BC, or much earlier,to the 1st century AD and originated there.Polo was at first a training game for cavalry units, usually the king's guard or other elite troops. To the warlike tribesmen, who played it with as many as 100 to a side, it was a miniature battle. In time polo became an Iranian national sport played extensively by the nobility. Women as well as men played the game, as indicated by references to the queen and her ladies engaging King Khosrow II Parviz and his courtiers in the 6th century AD. Certainly Persian literature and art give us the richest accounts of polo in antiquity. Ferdowsi, the famed Iranian poet-historian, gives a number of accounts of royal polo tournaments in his 9th century epic, Shahnameh (the Epic of Kings). In the earliest account, Ferdowsi romanticizes an international match between Turanian force and the followers of Siyâvash, a legendary Iranian prince from the earliest centuries of the Empire; the poet is eloquent in his praise of Siyâvash's skills on the polo field. Ferdowsi also tells of Emperor Shapur II of the Sassanid dynasty of the 4th century who learned to play polo when he was only seven years old.

In Manipur, the game was not merely a "rich" game but was played even by commoners who owned a pony.[8] The kings of Manipur had a royal polo ground within the ramparts of their Kangla Fort. Here they played Manung Kangjei Bung (literally, "Inner Polo Ground”). Public games were held, as they are still today, at the Mapan Kangjei Bung (literally "Outer Polo Ground”), a polo ground just outside the Kangla. Weekly games called Hapta Kangjei (Weekly Polo) were also played in a polo ground outside the current Palace.

In 1862 the first polo club, Calcutta Polo Club was established by two British soldiers, Captain Robert Stewart and Major General Joe Shearer.[12] Later they spread the game to their peers in England. The British are credited with spreading polo worldwide in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Military officers imported the game to Britain in the 1860s. The establishment of polo clubs throughout England and western Europe followed after the formal codification of rules.[11] The 10th Hussars at Aldershot, Hants, introduced polo to England in 1869. The game's governing body in the United Kingdom is the Hurlingham Polo Association, which drew up the first set of formal British rules in 1874, many of which are still in existence.

This version of polo played in the 19th century was different from the faster form that was played in Manipur. The game was slow and methodical, with little passing between players and few set plays that required specific movements by participants without the ball. Neither players nor horses were trained to play a fast, nonstop game. This form of polo lacked the aggressive methods and equestrian skills to play. From the 1800s to the 1910s, a host of teams representing Indian principalities dominated the international polo scene.[11]

Polo found popularity in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Pakistan and the United States of America.

The game:

Field polo requires two teams of 4 players. A full-size field is 300 yards long, and either 200 yards or 160 yards wide if there are side boards—these are generally 6" high. There are tall collapsable goalposts at each end of the field spread 8 yards apart. The object of the game is to score the most goals by hitting the ball through the goal. Ends are changed after a goal is scored.

In arena polo, which is popular in the United States and England, the size of the field is ideally 100 yards long by 50 yards wide. The size of arena fields in the United States, where arena polo was first played, is often more variable where indoor armories and riding academies are still occasionally used. The playing boundary is marked by high wooden walls (usually at least 6 feet high). Arena polo requires teams of three riders, and goals are scored by passing the ball into a 10-foot-wide by 12-foot-high goal recessed into the end walls. In arena polo ends are changed at the end of each 6-minute period (chukka or chukker) and not after a goal is scored. Arena polo uses a small leather ball between 12.5 and 15 inches in circumference and looks like a miniature soccer ball.

A polo game has periods of play, known as chukkas (also chukkers). This term originated in 1898 and is derived from Hindi chakkar from Sanskrit chakra "circle, wheel" (compare chakka). Depending on the rules of the particular tournament or league, a game may have 4, 6 or 8 chukkas; 6 chukkas are most common.[2] Usually, each chukka is 7 minutes long, but some games are played in shorter chukkas. Between chukkas, the players switch to fresh ponies. In less competitive polo leagues, players may play only two ponies, alternating between them. For more competitive leagues, and in United States intercollegiate polo, each pony is played in at most two chukkas.

Polo ponies:

The mounts used are called 'polo ponies', although the term pony is purely traditional and the mount is actually a full-sized horse. They range from 14.2 to 16 hands high at the withers (one hand equals four inches or 10.16cm), and weigh between 900-1100 lbs. The polo pony is selected carefully for quick bursts of speed, stamina, agility and maneuverability. Temperament is critical; the horse must remain responsive under pressure and not become excited or difficult to control. Many are Thoroughbreds or Thoroughbred crosses. They are trained to be handled with one hand on the reins, and to be responsive to the rider's leg and weight cues for moving forward, turning and stopping. A well trained horse will carry his rider smoothly and swiftly to the ball and can account for 60 to 75 percent of the player's skill and net worth to his team.

Players:

Each position assigned to a player has certain responsibilities:

* Number One is the most offensive position on the field. The number one position generally covers the opposing team's number four.

* Number Two has an important offensive role of either running through and scoring themself, or passing to the number one and getting in behind them. Defensively they will cover the opposing team's number three--generally the other team's best player. Given the difficulty of this position, it is not uncommon for the best player on the team to play number two so long as another strong player is available to play three.

* Number Three is the tactical leader and must be a long powerful hitter to feed balls to Number Two and Number One as well as maintaining a solid defense. The best player on the team is usually the Number Three player (Usually wielding the highest handicap).

* Number Four is the primary defense player and though they can move anywhere on the field, they often try to prevent scoring. The excessive defense of the number four allows the number three to commit to more offensive plays knowing they will be covered if they lose the ball.

Polo must be played right-handed. Left-handed play was ruled out in 1975 for safety reasons. To date, only 3 players on the world circuit are left-handed.


Equipment:

The basic dress of a player is a protective helmet (usually of a distinctive color, to be distinguished at the considerable distance from which onlookers are watching the game), riding boots to just below the knees, white trousers (often ordinary denim jeans), and a colored shirt bearing the number of the player's position. Optional equipment includes one or two gloves, wristbands, kneepads (mandatory in some clubs), spurs, face mask, and a whip.
Polo player wearing kneepads, "riding off" an opponent

The outdoor polo ball is made of a high-impact plastic, but was formerly made of either bamboo or willow root. The indoor polo ball is leather-covered and inflated, and is about 4½ inches (11.4 cm) in diameter. The outdoor ball is about 3¼ inches (8.3 cm) in diameter and weighs about four ounces (113.4 g).

The field:

The playing field is 300 yards long by 160 yards wide, the approximate area of nine American football fields. The playing field is carefully maintained with closely mowed turf providing a safe, fast playing surface. Goals are posts which are set eight yards apart, centered at each end of the field. The surface of a polo field requires careful and constant grounds maintenance to keep the surface in good playing condition. During half-time of a match, spectators are invited to go onto the field to participate in a polo tradition called "divot stamping", which has developed to not only help replace the mounds of earth (divots) that are torn up by the horses' hooves, but to afford spectators the opportunity to walk about and socialize.

Outdoor Polo:

The game consists of six 7 minute chukkas, between or during which players change mounts. At the end of each 7 minute chukka, play continues for an additional 30 seconds or until a stoppage in play, whichever comes first. There is a four minute interval between chukkas and a ten minute halftime. Play is continuous and is only stopped for penalties, broken tack (equipment) or injury to horse or player.

Polo variants:

Polo is not played exclusively on horseback. Such polo variants are mostly played for recreational or touristic purposes; they include canoe polo, cycle polo, camel polo, elephant polo, golfcart polo, Segway polo, BMX polo, yak polo, water polo, and spongee polo. A recent variant is beach polo, played on sand in Dubai and Miami and most recently in the UK.

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, balance and grace. Artistic gymnastics is the best known and most popular of the gymnastics sports governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG). Gymnastics evolved from exercises used by the ancient Greeks, that included skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and from circus performance skills. Other forms of gymnastics are rhythmic gymnastics, various trampolining sports, and aerobic and acrobatic gymnastics.

History:
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, two pioneer physical educators – Johann Friedrich GutsMuths (1759–1839) and Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778–1852) – created exercises for boys and young men on apparatus they designed that ultimately led to what is considered modern gymnastics. In particular, Jahn crafted early models of the horizontal bar, the parallel bars (from a horizontal ladder with the rungs removed), and the vaulting horse.

By 1954, Olympic Games apparatus and events for both men and women had been standardized in modern format, and uniform grading structures (including a point system from 1 to 10) had been agreed upon.
In 2006, a new points system was put into play. Instead of being marked 1 to 10, the gymnast's start value depends on the difficulty rating of the exercise routine. Also, the deductions became higher: before the new point system developed, the deduction for a fall was 0.5, then it was changed to 0.8, and is now 1.0

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Vault:
In 2001, the traditional vaulting horse was replaced with a new apparatus, sometimes known as a tongue or table. The new apparatus is more stable, wider, and longer than the older vaulting horse—approximately 1m in length and 1m in width—gives gymnasts a larger blocking surface, and is therefore safer than the old vaulting horse. With the addition of this new, safer vaulting table, gymnasts are attempting more difficult and dangerous vaults.

circling:

Male gymnasts also perform on a 12m. by 12m. spring floor. A series of tumbling passes are performed to demonstrate flexibility, strength, and balance. The gymnast must also show strength skills, including circles, scales, and press handstands. Men's floor routines usually have four passes that will total between 60–70 seconds and are performed without music, unlike the women's event. Rules require that gymnasts touch each corner of the floor at least once during their routine.

Trampolining and Tumbling:


Trampolining and tumbling consists of four events, individual, synchronized, double mini and power tumbling. Since 2000 individual trampoline has been included in the Olympic Games. Individual routines in trampolining involve a build-up phase during which the gymnast jumps repeatedly to achieve height, followed by a sequence of ten leaps without pauses during which the gymnast performs a sequence of aerial skills.

TeamGym:

General gymnastics enables people of all ages and abilities to participate in performance groups of 6 to more than 150 athletes. They perform synchronized, choreographed routines. Troupes may be all one gender or mixed. There are no age divisions in general gymnastics. The largest general gymnastics exhibition is the quadrennial World Gymnaestrada which was first held in 1939.

Cautions:

Gymnastics is considered to be a dangerous sport, due in part to the height of the apparatus, the speed of the exercises and the impact on competitors' joints, bones and muscles. In several cases, competitors have suffered serious, lasting injuries and paralysis after severe gymnastics-related accidents. For instance, in 1998, at the Goodwill Games, world-class Chinese artistic gymnast Sang Lan was paralyzed after falling on vault.

Tennis

Tennis is a sport played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt (most of the time Optic Yellow) over a net into the opponent's court.

History:
The modern game of tennis originated in the United Kingdom in the late 19th century as "lawn tennis" which has heavy connections to the ancient game of real tennis. After its creation, tennis spread throughout the upper-class English-speaking population before spreading around the world.

The rules of tennis have changed very little since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that from 1908 to 1960 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and then the adoption of the tie-break in the 1970s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of electronic review technology coupled with a point challenge system, which allows a player to challenge the line (or chair) umpire's call of a point

Tennis as the modern sport can be dated to two separate roots. Between 1859 and 1865, Major Harry Gem and his friend Augurio Perera developed a game that combined elements of rackets and the Basque ball game pelota, which they played on Perera's croquet lawn in Birmingham, United Kingdom.In 1872, along with two local doctors, they founded the world's first tennis club in Leamington Spa.The Courier of July 23, 1884 recorded one of the first tennis tournaments, held in the grounds of Shrubland Hall.

The comprehensive International Lawn Tennis Federation, now known as the International Tennis Federation, rules promulgated in 1924 have remained remarkably stable in the ensuing eighty years, the one major change being the addition of the tie-break system designed by James Van Alen.That same year, tennis withdrew from the Olympics after the 1924 Games but returned 60 years later as a 21-and-under demonstration event in 1984.

The success of the event was overwhelming and the IOC decided to reintroduce tennis as a full medal sport at Seoul in 1988.The Davis Cup, an annual competition between men's national teams, dates to 1900.The analogous competition for women's national teams, the Fed Cup, was founded as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ITF.

The Davis Cup, an annual competition between men's national teams, dates to 1900. The analogous competition for women's national teams, the Fed Cup, was founded as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ITF.

Manner of play:

Court:
Tennis is played on a rectangular, flat surface, usually grass, clay, a hardcourt of concrete and/or asphalt and occasionally carpet (indoor). The court is 78 feet (23.77 m) long, and its width is 27 feet (8.23 m) for singles matches and 36 ft (10.97 m) for doubles matches.

The lines that delineate the width of the court are called the baseline (farthest back) and the service line (middle of the court). The short mark in the center of each baseline is referred to as either the hash mark or the center mark. The outermost lines that make up the length are called the doubles sidelines. These are the boundaries used when doubles is being played. The lines to the inside of the doubles sidelines are the singles sidelines and are used as boundaries in singles play. The area between a doubles sideline and the nearest singles sideline is called the doubles alley, which is considered playable in doubles play.

Play of a single point:

The players (or teams) start on opposite sides of the net. One player is designated the server, and the opposing player, or in doubles one of the opposing players, is the receiver. Service alternates between the two halves of the court. For each point, the server starts behind his baseline, between the center mark and the sideline. The receiver may start anywhere on their side of the net. When the receiver is ready, the server will serve, although the receiver must play to the pace of the server.

A legal service starts a rally, in which the players alternate hitting the ball across the net. A legal return consists of the player or team hitting the ball exactly once before it has bounced twice or hit any fixtures except the net, provided that it still falls in the server's court. The ball then travels back over the net and bounces in the court on the opposite side. The first player or team to fail to make a legal return loses the point.

Scoring:

A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving. A game is won by the first player to have won at least four points in total and at least two points more than the opponent. The running score of each game is described in a manner peculiar to tennis: scores from zero to three points are described as "love", "fifteen", "thirty", and "forty" respectively. (See the main article Tennis score for the origin of these words as used in tennis.) If at least three points have been scored by each player, and the scores are equal, the score is "deuce". If at least three points have been scored by each side and a player has one more point than his opponent, the score of the game is "advantage" for the player in the lead. During informal games, "advantage" can also be called "ad in" or "ad out", depending on whether the serving player or receiving player is ahead, respectively.

A break point occurs if the receiver, not the server, has a game point. Break points are of particular importance in men's professional tennis because serving is generally advantageous. The advantage to the server is much less in the women's game.

Typically, a player wins a set by winning at least six games and at least two games more than the opponent. If one player has won six games and the opponent five, an additional game is played. If the leading player wins that game, the player wins the set 7–5. If the trailing player wins the game, a tie-break is played. A tie-break, played under a separate set of rules, allows one player to win one more game and thus the set, to give a final set score of 7–6. Only in the final sets of matches at the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, the Olympic Games, Davis Cup, and Fed Cup are tie-breaks not played. In these cases, sets are played indefinitely until one player has a two-game lead.

Match play:

A tennis match is intended to be continuous.Because stamina is a relevant factor, arbitrary delays are not permitted. In most cases, service is required to occur no more than 20 seconds after the end of the previous point. This is increased to 90 seconds when the players change ends (after every odd-numbered game), and a 120 second break is permitted between sets. Other than this, breaks are permitted only when forced by events beyond the players' control, such as rain, damaged footwear, damaged racquet, or the need to retrieve an errant ball. Should a player be determined to be stalling repeatedly, the chair umpire may initially give a warning followed by subsequent penalties of "point", "game", and default of the match for the player who is consistently taking longer than the allowed time limit.

Shots:

Serve:

A serve (or, more formally, a "service") in tennis is a shot to start a point. The serve is initiated by tossing the ball into the air and hitting it (usually near the apex of its trajectory) into the diagonally opposite service box without touching the net. The serve may be hit under- or overhand.

Forehand:

For a right-handed player, the forehand is a stroke that begins on the right side of the body, continues across the body as contact is made with the ball, and ends on the left side of the body. There are various grips for executing the forehand, and their popularity has fluctuated over the years. The most important ones are the continental, the eastern, the semi-western, and the western. For a number of years, the small, apparently frail 1920s player Bill Johnston was considered by many to have had the best forehand of all time, a stroke that he hit shoulder-high using a western grip.

Backhand:
For right-handed players, the backhand is a stroke that begins on the left side of their body, continues across their body as contact is made with the ball, and ends on the right side of their body. It can be executed with either one hand or with both and is generally considered more difficult to master than the forehand. For most of the 20th century, the backhand was performed with one hand, using either an eastern or a continental grip. The first notable players to use two hands were the 1930s Australians Vivian McGrath and John Bromwich, but they were lonely exceptions.

Other Shots:

A volley is made in the air before the ball bounces, generally near the net, and is usually made with a stiff-wristed punching motion to hit the ball into an open area of the opponent's court. The half volley is made by hitting the ball on the rise just after it has bounced, once again generally in the vicinity of the net. The swinging volley is hit out of the air as the player approaches the net.

Tennis Tournaments:

Tournaments are often organized by gender and number of players. Common tournament configurations include men's singles, women's singles, and doubles, where two players play on each side of the net. Tournaments may be arranged for specific age groups, with upper age limits for youth and lower age limits for senior players. Example of this include the Orange Bowl and Les Petits As. There are also tournaments for players with disabilities, such as wheelchair tennis and deaf tennis.[38] In the four Grand Slam tournaments, the singles draws are limited to 128 people for each gender.

Players may also be matched by their skill level. According to how well a person does in sanctioned play, a player is given a rating that is adjusted periodically to maintain competitive matches. For example, the United States Tennis Association administers the National Tennis Rating Program, which rates players between 1.0 and 7.0 in 1/2 point increments. Average club players under this system would rate 3.0-4.5 while world class players would be 7.0 on this scale.

Badminton

Badminton:
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players (singles) or two opposing pairs (doubles), who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their opponents' half of the court. A rally ends once the shuttlecock has struck the ground, and each side may only strike the shuttlecock once before it passes over the net.

History and development:
Badminton has been played since ancient times; an early form of the sport was played in ancient Greece. In Japan, the related game Hanetsuki was played as early as the 16th century. In the west, badminton came from a game called battledore and shuttlecock, in which two or more players keep a feathered shuttlecock in the air with small racquets.

The modern form of Badminton however can be traced to India, where British military officers stationed there in the late 19th century became interested in a similar local game which was known to them as Poona (derived from Pune, an Indian garrison town).This game was taken back to England where the rules of badminton were set out.Another early version of the game was recorded in the 1850s in the southern Indian city of Tanjore, called pooppanthu vilayattam (Tamil for flower-ball game) in which balls made of wool and cardboard were used in the place of the modern-day shuttlecock.
Until 1887, the sport was played in England under the rules that prevailed in India. The Bath Badminton Club standardized the rules and made the game applicable to English ideas. The basic regulations were drawn up in 1887.In 1893, the Badminton Association of England published the first set of rules according to these regulations, similar to today's rules, and officially launched badminton in a house called "Dunbar" at 6 Waverley Grove, Portsmouth, England on September 13 of that year.[6] They also started the All England Open Badminton Championships, the first badminton competition in the world, in 1899.

The International Badminton Federation (IBF) (now known as Badminton World Federation) was established in 1934 with Canada, Denmark, England, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales as its founding members. India joined as an affiliate in 1936. The BWF now governs international badminton and develops the sport globally.

Equipment:
Badminton racquets are light, with top quality racquets weighing between 79 and 91 grams including the strings.They are composed of many different materials ranging from carbon fibre composite (graphite reinforced plastic) to solid steel, which may be augmented by a variety of materials. Carbon fibre has an excellent strength to weight ratio, is stiff, and gives excellent kinetic energy transfer. Before the adoption of carbon fibre composite, racquets were made of light metals such as aluminium. Earlier still, racquets were made of wood.
Strings:
Badminton strings are thin, high performing strings in the range of about 0.65 to 0.73 mm thickness. Thicker strings are more durable, but many players prefer the feel of thinner strings. String tension is normally in the range of 80 to 130 N (18 to 36 lbf). Recreational players generally string at lower tensions than professionals, typically between 18 and 25 lbf (110 N). Professionals string between about 25 and 36 lbf (160 N).

Shuttlecock:
A shuttlecock (often abbreviated to shuttle and also commonly known as a bird) is a high-drag projectile, with an open conical shape: the cone is formed from sixteen overlapping goose feathers embedded into a rounded cork base. The cork is covered with thin leather or synthetic material.

Strokes:(Forehand and backhand)
Badminton offers a wide variety of basic strokes, and players require a high level of skill to perform all of them effectively. All strokes can be played either forehand or backhand. A player's forehand side is the same side as his playing hand: for a right-handed player, the forehand side is his right side and the backhand side is his left side. Forehand strokes are hit with the front of the hand leading (like hitting with the palm), whereas backhand strokes are hit with the back of the hand leading (like hitting with the knuckles). Players frequently play certain strokes on the forehand side with a backhand hitting action, and vice versa.

Position of the shuttlecock and receiving player:
The choice of stroke depends on how near the shuttlecock is to the net, whether it is above net height, and where an opponent is currently positioned: players have much better attacking options if they can reach the shuttlecock well above net height, especially if it is also close to the net. In the forecourt, a high shuttlecock will be met with a net kill, hitting it steeply downwards and attempting to win the rally immediately. This is why it is best to drop the shuttlecock just over the net in this situation. In the midcourt, a high shuttlecock will usually be met with a powerful smash, also hitting downwards and hoping for an outright winner or a weak reply. Athletic jump smashes, where players jump upwards for a steeper smash angle, are a common and spectacular element of elite men's doubles play. In the rearcourt, players strive to hit the shuttlecock while it is still above them, rather than allowing it to drop lower. This overhead hitting allows them to play smashes, clears (hitting the shuttlecock high and to the back of the opponents' court), and dropshots (hitting the shuttlecock so that it falls softly downwards into the opponents' forecourt). If the shuttlecock has dropped lower, then a smash is impossible and a full-length, high clear is difficult.

Strategy:
To win in badminton, players need to employ a wide variety of strokes in the right situations. These range from powerful jumping smashes to delicate tumbling net returns. Often rallies finish with a smash, but setting up the smash requires subtler strokes.
Doubles:
Both pairs will try to gain and maintain the attack, smashing downwards when possible. Whenever possible, a pair will adopt an ideal attacking formation with one player hitting down from the rearcourt, and his partner in the midcourt intercepting all smash returns except the lift. If the rearcourt attacker plays a dropshot, his partner will move into the forecourt to threaten the net reply. If a pair cannot hit downwards, they will use flat strokes in an attempt to gain the attack. If a pair is forced to lift or clear the shuttlecock, then they must defend: they will adopt a side-by-side position in the rear midcourt, to cover the full width of their court against the opponents' smashes. In doubles, players generally smash to the middle ground between two players in order to take advantage of confusion and clashes. Both players may hit the shuttlecock before it is hit over the net back to the opposing side.

Singles:
The singles court is narrower than the doubles court, but the same length, with the exception that a serve in the single can reach the end of the court while a serve in the doubles could not. Since one person needs to cover the entire court, singles tactics are based on forcing the opponent to move as much as possible; this means that singles strokes are normally directed to the corners of the court. Players exploit the length of the court by combining lifts and clears with dropshots and netshots. Smashing is less prominent in singles than in doubles because players are rarely in the ideal position to execute a smash, and smashing often leaves the smasher vulnerable if the smash is returned.

Competitions:

A mens doubles match. The blue lines are those for the badminton court. The other coloured lines denote uses for other sports – such complexity being common in multi-use sports halls.

The BWF organizes several international competitions, including the Thomas Cup, the premier men's event, and the Uber Cup, the women's equivalent. The competitions take place once every two years. More than 50 national teams compete in qualifying tournaments within continental confederations for a place in the finals. The final tournament involves 12 teams, following an increase from eight teams in 2004.

The Sudirman Cup, a mixed team event held once every two years, began in 1989.
Individual competition in badminton was a demonstration event in the 1972 and 1988 Summer Olympics. It became a Summer Olympics sport at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.