Rawlings Official Major League Baseballs

You can try practicing the gymnastics tricks in your backyard or even in an empty room inside the house. Make sure that the room is big enough for you two move around to attempt the tricks, and has no furniture. As for the backyard, clear it out as well because you don’t want to bang into something while trying the cartwheel.

Cartwheel
Stand on one side of the area where you are doing the cartwheel and stretch both hands up. Point the right foot forward, keeping it slightly above the ground. Lean forward from your waist, put your weight on the right foot, and keep your back and both legs straight. Lift the left foot off the ground and lean furthermore down so that your right leg bends from the knee. As you go down, bring both hands down as well so you can support your body weight on them. Lift your right leg off the ground as well and stretch both legs as far away from one another as possible. Rotate your body weight from one side to another so you can finish the cartwheel. As you come to the other side, your right foot will land on the ground first and then the left leg. You will reverse the steps on how you started the cartwheel to end it. Stand up straight, point left foot forward and that’s it.

Splits
Place a mat on the ground, kneel on the floor by keeping one foot in the front, bent at knee, and the other foot extended in the back. Push you hips forward, keep your chest up, and back straight. Here, before doing the split, your legs need to be stretched properly. To begin the split, your chest will be facing forward at all times, both legs will be straight but turned slightly outward, and the toes need to be pointed. Stay close to a wall in the beginning, bend your right leg’s knee and support it against the wall. This is done when you are in the split and you need to stretch both legs. If you want, you can even ask a friend to hold your leg instead of supporting it on the wall. Pull your chest upward, lean slightly back from the waist, and look behind as far as you can. And that is how you do a split.

Center Split
To perform the center split, sit on the floor and touch the soles of your feet together. Keep your back straight, chest held high, and lean forward, towards the floor from the waist. Extend both hands forward, keeping them straight as well, and bring your head down, closer to your feet. Place the palms of your hands flat on the floor, look forward with head still down, and open your legs. You need to stretch your legs as wide as you can with the toes pointed at all times. Now bring both legs on either sides and bend the knees at 90º angle with legs (from the knees) stretched behind you. Support the body weight on your elbows and forearms, and bend your waist just a bit; look upward. Now extend the right leg towards your right side, keeping the support on your elbows and forearms, and your left leg in the bent position. Extend the other leg as well and push your upper body upwards with both hands. Face forward with your chest up and back straight. And that is how a center split is done.

Here is a list of skills you must learn or sharpen further, if you already have a talent for them. These are the skills which your school audition panel will be looking out for, so be smart and do not refrain from working hard.

#1- Gesture Acting
You have to learn how to act through gestures. The people around you cannot see your face and do not know the real you. This actually good for those who find their real personalities coming forth, when behind a mask. All that people will see is the gestures you make and how you move in your costume. Your costume has to become you, and you have to be your costume! It’s as simple as that, and yet a very difficult task to accomplish. Pick up tricks by watching how other mascots use their body language in order to communicate with the players and the public. Watch videos and see popular game recordings of your own school too, so that you have more mascot ideas, on how to move in your own school’s mascot costume. Practice makes one perfect, and in this case, you have to get your act perfect. For the final audition, you will need to prepare a skit or a performance ritual, where you will enact different emotions, while using your costume in order to depict these emotions.

#2- Learn to Dance
You cannot be a mascot if you have two left feet! You have to learn how to dance. Which means, you have got to know the latest moves and have to move to the beat. Always remember to choose popular upbeat numbers, which are in trend and are a sure winner with the crowd. Learn modern hip hop steps and moves, and you are sure to get the crowd hooting with joy! What more does a school want from its mascot, if he is at the epitome of greatness!

#3- Gymnastic Moves
If you can manage a back flip and a hand stand, you have half the battle already won. A flexible mascot will be able to perform along with the cheerleaders. Which is very lucky, as some might say! The mascot will be able to make cool moves even while dancing or when the home team has scored. This skill will definitely make you a top qualifier during the auditions, if competition is on high gear. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting from how and where the players are supposed to stand near the air hockey table to keeping score and making sure that players don’t cheat, the rules and regulations are explained below. Go through each of the section and read carefully.

❖ Where to Stand
This indoor recreational game is played between two opponents. When both players are ready, they have to stand on either sides of the table. There is a center line in the middle of the table and keeping this line in check, the players can stand anywhere around the table so as long as they are on their side. Either player cannot cross that center line. While playing, the player’s hands, arms, body, and even clothes can’t touch the table or the puck.

❖ How to Start the Game
Before the game begins, the referee has to decide which players goes first. Similar to other sports, a coin is tossed and whichever player wins the toss, gets the chance to serve first. After the first serve, if let’s say player 2 made the score, he/she will get the chance to serve again. Whichever player makes the last score, begins to serve. If the game is being played in sets (best of 3, 5, or 7), after each set, players will switch sides. The referee has to say “Time In” for the game to begin.

❖ How to Play Air Hockey
Each player is given a mallet (the object to strike the puck with) and the game is played with one puck on the table. Considering the center line on the table, both players have to strike the puck without crossing this line. The player who won the toss begins by serving the puck. What both players have to aim for is to strike the puck in such a way that they can make the goal. The puck has to enter the horizontal plane on each players’ side. Each player gets about 7 seconds to make the shot after the puck has crossed the center line. Once the puck enters this plane, the player gets a point. Read the rest of this entry »

Let us start with some basics like that of the snowboard and the halfpipe. This type of snowboarding is different from regular snowboarding. The equipment required will be more flexible, like the boots, that must be flexible for the twists and turns in the tricks. The board should also be wide and flexible for adequate balance. Now talking about the halfpipe, the dimensions will be as follows: length – 100 to 150 meters, width – 15 to 19 meters, height – 4 to 6 meters. The curvature of the angle of slope of the halfpipe will be around 16-17º, width of the deck (the horizontal flat space on the top of the wall) will be 6 – 7 meters. Now for the rules, let us start with equipments. As mentioned above, boots and skateboards must be flexible and suitable for halfpipe snowboarding. Some other important rules are:

✥ A helmet is a must during this sport even as an activity and in competitions. This will save from any accidents with high falls. The helmet should be a specially designed protective head gear, with quality internal padding.

✥ Only when one rider has finished and is exiting the pipe, should the next one enter. Any hand gesture or any other signal can be made to alert your entry in the halfpipe.

✥ As for the game, it is divided in three rounds. The first one being the qualifier round, that allots every rider with 2 runs to display their skills. With judging each rider, the panel of judges filter the best among the participants for the semi-final round and further for the final round.

✥ The scoring and judging of halfpipe snowboarding is unlike many sports. There are 7 judges that assess the sport. This is not based on time or the exact level of difficulty. The assessment of halfpipe snowboarding is completely based on certain aspects that determine a specific criteria. The most common ones are: ■Execution – this includes all the tactics that are performed, the flips and rotations near the lip of the pipe and aerials, etc.
■Difficulty – that includes the tricks performed and their level of complexity, the twist and flips with grabs or without grabs, etc.
■Amplitude – this makes a relatively simple criteria. It emphasizes on the height of the tactics at the lip and additional scores for maneuvers above the lip of the halfpipe. Read the rest of this entry »

The ladder golf game is an outdoor game played with two or more teams. Ideally most people will play with two teams, but with more than two teams playing the game, it is even more fun. In each team, there is one or more players. The game consists of a setup which has a ladder with 3 rungs, and a rope that has two golf balls or rubber balls attached to it, which is called as a bola. The players have to toss the bola so as to wrap it around the steps or the rungs of the ladder. Each player gets 3 bolas to play, one at each time.

Playing Ladder Golf

Before the game begins, the teams must toss a coin to decide who plays first for the tossing of bolas. After the first round of each team, the team with the maximum number of points plays first in the next round. •The toss line is marked which is the spot from where the players will toss the bola. This is set at about 15 feet distance from the ladder.
•Every player in the team will get one turn to toss the bolas, and all three bolas need to be tossed one after the other by the player. Once the player finishes his / her turn, the next player must toss his set of bolas. The way a player tosses the bolas is an individual choice.
•After each player finishes the turn in both teams, the team with maximum points plays the first turn in the following round.
•The scoring rules for ladder golf are simple. If you hang the bola in the top rung (ladder step) you score 3 points, for the bola on the second or middle rung the player earns 2 points, and for the last rung you score 1 point. In case you wrap all the bolas on one rung only, you score an additional bonus of 1 point. The players can also knock off the opponent’s bolas off the rung, so the points will be deducted from their score, which counts as defensive play.
•The total number of points to win is 21. The team must make 21 points to win, the player should be the only one to make 21 points by the end of the round to win. If the exact total of 21 is achieved and the player goes above this score, all the points scored are considered void. They are not counted for the particular round and the player carries the points to the next round. Check this example to understand better: A player earns 18 points in one round and has 5 points yet to be counted on the ladder, the 5 points are not considered and the player has to carry the 18 points to the next round and earn exact 3 points in that round to make a total of 21. Read the rest of this entry »