Why are Women Sports Important?

Historically, women are often depicted as damsels in distress. They are in need of a knight in shinning armour to captivate them, to save them from dreadful boredom and to take care of them. Today, a little of that is still in us. However, we can empower ourselves to break the stereotype. One way is through competitive and non-competitive sports.

Sports can be classified in two ways, team sports and individual sports. Team sports such as, basketball, volleyball and soccer are in need of people to play. These are the typical numbers; five on a basketball team, two or six on a volleyball team and a soccer team needs eleven players. Team sports instills many positive character traits in individuals. These traits can be good sportsmanship, getting along with others, dependency on others to do their part or play their position, trust building and group dynamics just to name a few. Individual sports is just you. You have to be the one to go the distance. A few good individual sports are; jogging, bicycling, swimming, golf, dance and weight training. They instill self-motivation, self-sacrifice, self-determination to stay active and to continue.

Being active in any sport is good. The benefits are many.

Ill list a few: better oxygen volume, toned muscles, maintenance or a better ideal weight, induce sleep, release of feel good hormones, prevention of disease, better focus and vision. So what ever you decide make play apart of your day.

Karen Sargent is the creator and designer of a web site for women's sport apparel. She's a physical educator and health teacher in a public school system in Illinois. http://www.womensportapparel.com

Explanation Of The Offside Rule

Offside Rule - Usually, soccer rules are easy to grasp even by someone that's watching the game for the first time in his life. You foul someone, you get penalized. You hit him in the box, his team gets a penalty. The ball goes beyond the marked area, it's an out throw. Everything is really basic, except the soccer offside rules. This is one tricky rule and although it's not in the original soccer cookbook (as in, it was added over the course of time) it's a much needed one, so that's why I'll try to explain it a bit.

The offside trap rule only applies to attackers and it is meant to regulate both team's positions on the pitch. Without an offside rule, an attacker could simply stay in the other team's penalty box, receive balls and try to score. This would pin down the defenders and they would virtually be unable to play anywhere else outside their own penalty box, since their main job would be marking the striker that is lazying off in there.

It's also a known fact that attackers generally don't have the same effort requirements on the pitch, since they only need to participate in one phase of the game (the offense), unlike defenders and midfielders who have to participate in both the offense and defense, thus having to run more. So now that you know WHY the soccer offside rule is there, let's see WHAT it is anyway.

There are two phases of the offside soccer rule: the offside position and the offside trap sanction. If an attacker is in an offside position, he will only be sanctioned if the ball is heading towards him and he has an intention to play it. Otherwise, if he skips the game, he will not be called, despite having a clear offside position.

An attacker is in an offside position if he is closer to the other team's goal line than the ball and the second last opponent. You'll often hear people say "he was in offside, because he was further towards the goal than the LAST defender". This is actually not a correct statement, since this doesn't take the goalkeeper into account, so the LAST defender is actually the second last, as the above mentioned offside rule shows.

So let's say that team "Yellow" is attacking and "Red" is defending. The ball is at the feet of Yellow's midfielder and the Yellow attacker is a few meters further to the Red team's goal line, than the last Red defender. Then the Yellow attacker is in an offside position, but the referee will only call an offside sanction if the Yellow midfielder passes the ball to the Yellow attacker while the latter is in the offside position.

If you're new to soccer, the offside rule might need a bit of getting used to, but you'll soon be able to spot exactly how and why someone was called offside if you watch a few matches. Note that sometimes, the position of the attacker and the other team's defender are so close together, that the referee will have hard time deciding whether or not an offside should be called.

Niv Orlian is the author and the owner of http://www.soccer-fans-info.com a website that provides information on various topics related to soccer such as the history of soccer, rules, famous soccer players, real time news, statistics, and training guides.

Housebreaking 101

Remember that dog who just knew you didn't want her piddling in the house? Some dogs just need a slight sense of disapproval from you, and they virtually housebreak themselves.

But you dont have one of those dogsor you wouldnt be reading this!

So how do we house train the dog who just doesnt seem to get it? Believe it or not, its simple.

I have two key words for you:

Confine and Observe.

While there is a great deal to know about food and water scheduling, timing can vary from dog to dog. So well just concentrate here on the main concept which is to confine your dog to an appropriately sized crate when you cannot observe her.

A properly sized crate is large enough for your dog to stand up and turn around, but hardly bigger than that. If you have a puppy in a large crate, shell think shes got a bedroom with a bathroom built in. Shell wee in one corner and sleep in the other.

The correctly sized crate consists of bedroom only with no bathroom. So if your crate is too large, go to the pet store and purchase a crate divider so you can temporarily reduce the accessible area.

Fido should be in her crate unless you can observe her 100%. This means that when the dog is loose, she has your undivided attention. Consider attaching a 6 foot light cord to the collar so you can more easily locate the dog, and prevent her from leaving the room without you. Simply step on the cord to stop her.

At the first sign your dog needs to go, whisk her outside. Those signs include circling, sniffing, anxiousness, whining among other symptoms.

When youre not observing your dog with full attention, you confine her to the crate. That being said, you do need to ensure your dog has liberty periodically so shes not all day in the crate. By being diligent now, youll be able to give Fido years of liberty with no worries. So its well worth the investment in time at this stage.

Be sure you spend time playing with your dog, and also let her wander outside the crate. Avoid tossing her in the crate as punishment. Alleviate your guilt feelings by placing bones smeared with peanut butter in with her.

This method makes it impossible for your dog to have an accident. Youre either right there to take her out, or shes in the crate where she wont want to go. When youve had a month with no accidents, you can begin to let the dog earn a little more liberty, five or ten minutes at a time.

That means she can be out of your sight for a few moments at a time. But only a few. You want to build slowly on a record of success until your dog literally forgets that the house ever contained a bathroom.

For each week with no accident, you can give Fido a few more moments of liberty at a time. However, if there is an accident, go back a step, and reduce that liberty. One accident in the house erases progress made for the several previous days.

Confine and Observe your way to house breaking success. In the course of just two or three months, youll have a dog you can trust in the home. Its going to be worth the effort!

Marc Goldberg is a dog trainer specializing in the rehabilitation of difficult dogs and improving relationships. He is Vice President of the International Association of Canine Professionals (IACP) and Editor of SafeHands Journal. The author also educates professional dog trainers in his techniques. Visit him on the web at http://www.chicagodogtrainer.com or http://www.dogtraininginchicago.com.