Real Madrid

Real Madrid is Spain’s most successful soccer team which the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) named as the best club of the 20^th century in 2000. With the nicknames Los Merengues (The Meringues) and Los Blancos (The Whites), it is also the richest club in the world with a revenue estimate of US$400 million. It is the world’s most popular football team and one of the “winningest,” having a record 31 La Liga titles and nine Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League titles tucked under its sleeves.

Early years to the 20^th Century. The club’s present status is carved out through its checkered history. Founded in 1902 as the Madrid Football Club, it started slow, winning its first Spani8sh championship to beat the Bilbao Athletic Team in 1905. In 1931, it won its first league, followed by a winning streak for a few years. In 1943, it prevailed on FC Barcelona by 11-1 after losing its previous match to the same team 0-3. Seven years after opening its own Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, it again won the league this time against Valencia in 1954. The year 1961 saw the club achieving the feat of being the team with the most league wins at 24 out of 31 games. In the Spanish league in 1995, Real Madrid again prevailed on Barcelona 5-0 before winning the UEFA European Cup in 1998 and being named the best team of the 20^th century by the FIFA in 2000, and celebrating its 30^th league win in the 2006-2007 season.

Current Players and Team Honors. Real Madrid’s current players could not be the best in the world but they are considered as star players for pooling their resources together in making the club win most of its games against equally prestigious teams in football. They include Iker Casillas, Jerry Dudek and Jordi Codina as goalkeepers; Michael Salgado, Pepe and Sergio Ramos as defenders; midfielders Mahamadou Diarra, Fernando Gago, Cristiano Ronaldo, a men’s shampoo endorser, Arjen Robben, who is dubbed as the club’s “flying wing,” Gati, Von der Vaart, Sneijder, and Drenthe; and strikers Raul, team captain, Van Nistelrooy, and Gonzalo Higuain. Along with the club’s early players, they have helped the club achieve the following team honors: (a) 30 Liga titles between 1931 and 2007, (b) 17 Copa del Rey victories 1904 to 2007, (c) Seven Spanish Supercup titles, (d) Two Latin Cup titles, (e) Nine European Cup titles from 1956 to 2002, (f) Three Intercontinental Cup titles, (g) Two UEFA Cup titles, (h) One European Cup victory, (i) Two Pequeñas Copa del Mundo victories in 1952 and 1956; (j) One Copa de la Liga title in 1985, (k) 12 Regional Championship titles from 1904 to 1929, and (l) 14 Santiago Bernabeu trophies. The club also collected trophies for winning the games from 1949 to 2003, with the last two trophies for winning the Naranja championships in 1990 and 2003.

Ownership and Management. Real Madrid is owned by its supporters and members who are called socios, and who elect the club president through an assembly of delegates which they form as the club’s governing authority. Management of the club is entrusted to a management staff consisting of a President, Honorary Life President, First Vice-President, Second Vice-President, Secretary of the Board, Director General, Director for the President’s Office, and Director for the Social Area. The technical staff is composed of the head coach, assistant coach, fitness trainer, goalkeeper coach, technical assistant and match delegate.For more details click here.

                        

Full Contact Karate

If you have seen a Bruce Lee film, especially “Enter the Dragon” in the 1970s, or been to an actual karate training school, you must have known what a full contact karate is.

It is a tough martial arts sport participated by the toughest karate fighters in the world. While karate is the art of striking that uses punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes and liberal techniques, full contact karate differentiates competition formats of karate to allow competitors to spar full contact and those in light contact or semi-contact sparring. Competition formats for full contact karate have been developed simply for the art of karate, a Japanese art of self-defense, at different places and times in the world. These formats include the Full Contact Point Karate, American Full Contact Karate, Knockdown Karate, Glove Karate, Bogu Kumite, and the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)-Inspired Karate.

The Full Contact Point Karate has originated in North America and has a small following in Europe. Its formal is similar to other competition karate, having points scored for clean hits to specified target areas in the body.

The American Full Contact Karate format has been developed in the US from borrowed rules, settings and gloves of Western boxing. Closely related to American kickboxing, it does not allow kicks below the waistline, with point scores summed up at the end of the contest.

The Knockdown Karate was pioneered in 1960 by the Japanese Kyokushinkai Karate Organization founded by Korean-born Masutatsu Oyama. It features bare knuckle fighting in which competitors do not wear gloves, padding or any other body protection, except a groin protective covering.

The Glove Karate formal originates in Japan where it is still a popular amateur sport for those desiring to enter professional kickboxing. Its rules are based on Knockdown Karate but have been modified to allow the use of boxing gloves and punches to the face of an opponent.

Bogu Kumite karate is associated with some traditional karate styles in Okinawa, with a format that uses heavy protective padding to avoid injuries to competitors. In this formal, knockout is a criterion for winning the bout although a knockout is unlikely because of the protective padding.

The MMA-Inspired Karate format allows grappling on the ground in addition to stand-up combat with techniques associated with many traditional forms and variations of karate.

Any of these formats can be trained for in many full contact karate schools and centers in some countries, especially Japan, China, England and the United States. From this training you can gain snap power in both punching and kicking, and acquire knowledge of various karate styles that have been practiced throughout the world since the past. This can also help with the promotion of physical fitness or a strong social aspect in which you can make friendships with many other people.For more details click here.

American Football

What is American Football?

Known in the United States simply as football, this is a sport played between two groups of 11 players each. Each team tries to score points by moving forward the ball into the end zone of the opposing team through some techniques like running with the ball or throwing it to a teammate. In the US, American Football takes the forms of a high school football, college football, and professional football. The high school football is governed by the National Federation of State High School Associations, while the college football by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The professional football, as the American Football, is under the governing authority of the National Football League (NFL).

The origin of American Football can be traced to 1892 during a match between the Alleghemy Athletic Association and the Pittsburg Athletic Club, which the latter won. When Pittsburg became professional, the National Football League was organized in 1902 to become as the first professional football league in the US. Records show that American Football is the result of many changes in the rules governing rugby football, especially those developed by Walter Camp, an American football player, coach and sports writer, who is known today as the Father of American Football.

Using a ball that is pointed on both ends, the sport is played on a flat grassy field measuring 360 feet by 160 feet or 120 by 53.3 yards (109.7 x 48.8m) with boundary lines  and opposite goal lines near each end of the field. Beyond each goal line is the end zone, which is a scoring area that extends 10 yards (9.1m) apart. The field has two goal posts called uprights built at the back of each end zone and connected by a crossbar 10 feet (3.05m) above the ground. The game starts with a coin toss that determines which team kicks off to begin the game or which goal each team will defend. The team that wins the coin toss will have three options, that is, to choose to either kick or receive the opening kickoff, to choose which goal to defend, and choose to defer its first choice or have the choice to start the game’s second half portion. As in the start of the first half, the options to kick, receive or choose a goal to defend are again brought out by the referee with the team captains, one of whom gets the first choice of options if his team did not choose first to start the first half.

It may interest you to know that the players of American Football have highly specialized roles in the game for both the offense and the defense lines. The offense has the offensive line consisting of five players who are tasked to protect the passer and clear the way for its runners by blocking the defense players. Also playing for the offense are the quarterback, running back, a wide receiver and a tiger end. The defense, on the other hand, has the defensive line consisting of three to six players positioned immediately across the offensive line, to try to occupy the offensive linemen in order to clear the way for its linebackers.For more details click here.