US OPEN TENNIS

Why would the knee be such a trouble maker? The basic anatomy of the knee is fairly complex. This is no simple ball-and-socket structure! The knee involves several bones, ligaments, tendons and cartilage. Knees are made to do more than just bend and straighten; they also rotate and twist, creating more ways for them to become injured. There are four bones, four main ligaments, two main tendons, cartilage, and bursae (fluid-filled sacs) all involved in the knee joint. Activities that are popular among the busy people of our society, like running, jogging, basketball, tennis and even golf, are hard on the knee joint. For the most part, knee pain begins with an injury, which leads to joint inflammation. All that repetitive activity puts stress on the knee joint and increases the chances of knee joint injury and inflammation. There are many ways to treat an inflamed knee before calling for a doctor’s appointment. One of the most basic and common principals to follow is the PRICE system: P …

The knee is an amazingly complex joint in the body. Just as the nursery school song tells us, we are all made of hinges! The knee just so happens to be the one prompting us to spend some time with our doctor. Why would the knee be such a trouble maker? The basic anatomy of the knee is fairly complex. This is no simple ball-and-socket structure! The knee involves several bones, ligaments, tendons and cartilage. Knees are made to do more than just bend and straighten; they also rotate and twist, creating more ways for them to become injured. There are four bones, four main ligaments, two main tendons, cartilage, and bursae (fluid-filled sacs) all involved in the knee joint. Activities that are popular among the busy people of our society, like running, jogging, basketball, tennis and even golf, are hard on the knee joint. For the most part, knee pain begins with an injury, which leads to joint inflammation. All that repetitive activity puts stress on the knee joint and increases the cha …

The phrase “cross training” implies engaging in activities that draw from a variety of different sports. Originally, to cross train meant an athlete would train in a sport or activity that was very different from the one he or she primarily specialized in. A good example would be running. Almost every sport and every athlete runs as part of his or her training. If your sport is tennis, then become technically proficient at running would be a from of cross training. Nowadays, cross trainers or cross training sneakers are a type of footwear that bear the characteristics of many different types of shoes. They may have the heel cushioning of a running shoe, the the lateral stability of a tennis shoe or basketball sneaker, and the forefoot cushioning of a volleyball shoe. They may be made of all leather type materials, or may have flexible materials like a running shoe around the toe or sides. Cross trainers are also a popular style now, in a certain sense replacing the tennis shoe as the …

Passion for some is that something which they truly love with supreme sincerity, that something which allows them to wake up in the morning with something to look forward to, and above all, that something which gives them genuine happiness in their lives. Passion is defined by many things to many people. In the next few paragraphs though, I will try to show how passion is something which we cannot completely define. Instead, passion is something which defines. “You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing.” - Dale Carnegie A tennis player may consider tennis as the best sport in the world; however Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Mike Tyson may very much disagree. For Michael Jordan, life is about dribbling, passing, shooting, and dunking the basketball with tremendous grace. For Tiger Woods, life is about coordinating with the wind to hit a hole-in-one. For Mike Tyson, life is about striking his arms to the fullest of his strength that he may bring his opponent down a …

A tennis player might tell us she could see the spin of the ball and could anticipate exactly where her opponent was going to hit it. A bowler might say he was in the groove. What is this zone that these athletes describe and how do we get into it? Before we talk about getting into this zone let s talk about the realities of athletics. Most likely you are not a professional athlete. You are probably a regular person that has lots of interests besides bowling, basketball or whatever your chosen sport(s) happen to be. So if you aren t a professional athlete, spending hundreds of hours a year at your profession, you probably aren t going to hit scratch golf every time you go out or become a karate champion, but you may become your club champion and you may win a local tournament or two. In other words you can become the best athlete possible depending on the time you choose to invest in your sport. So get over trying to be a pro, unless you have the time to invest to play at that level, …