A fit player and, more importantly, a fit team can play at a faster pace for a longer period of time. Fitness and player stamina is what sets apart professional and part-time teams, especially when they play in “all or nothing” matches such as the FA Cup where there is no middle ground for a draw. Stamina training in soccer is just a party of getting and remaining fit for the entire season. A player requires strength to keep the ball and win the match and this means the player must be able to sprint, accelerate and move quickly around the field for 90 minutes.

The warm-up is an essential part of injury prevention, vital when your star player is earning 70,000 a week and will pick this up whether he plays or is sitting out injured. To improve your fitness and agility, start off with five minutes of jogging on the spot followed by high knees, heel flicks, jumping jacks and then five minutes of stretching. You can also perform press ups, squat thrusts, lateral raises by using dumbbells or resistance bands, crunches, dips and sit to stand using the dumbbells. Instead of running at a continuous pace, mix up the routine with running, jogging and sprinting in a random manner.

You can start by jogging for five minutes, then sprint for 20 yards, slow jog for 100 yards, cruise for 200 yards, backward running for 20 yards, turn and sprint for 30 yards, walk for 50 yards and then jog again for 300 yards more. When you finish your training session, stretch the hamstrings, groins, quads, calves and lower back for between 20 to 30 seconds to allow your muscles to recuperate properly.

Soccer demands a high level of stamina, thus endurance training is an essential part of any professional soccer training programme. It serves as a great confidence booster when you can see your opponent fading during the later stages of a match and you have reserves to use and take advantage of. Endurance training is a must that requires a solid aerobic base so that you remain active in the playing field for a long period of time.

Stamina fitness training for soccer players include activities like jogging, hill running, cycling and shuttle runs. It requires certain exercise equipments like cross-trainer, stair climbers and treadmills. Sprint training includes shuttle runs, relay runs, and the pattern of sprint-walk-jog. For sprinting, a strong drive is required. The upper body should be relaxed. Strength training includes circuit training and weight training.

You can easily perform some of the activities for improving your overall stamina:

A full squat with bodyweight
Clean and press seven-tenths of their weight overhead
Curl six-tenths of their weights
Hop 25km distance in 10 hops on each leg (if you are feeling especially masochistic!)
40 press-ups in one minute
40 bent-knee abdominals in one minute
40 squat thrusts in one minute
Eight chins (male) and three chins (female).

Stamina is developed by completing rounds of continuous activity at moderate intensities, performed for longer than three minutes. The general-endurance component of run-play training has a middle distance event where you carry out a cool run of 2000-3000 metres at around 70 to 75 per cent of maximal heart rate.

Stamina training also includes a distance events where you have to to try a cool run of 3000-5000 metres at about 70 to 75 per cent of maximal heart rate.

David Walker runs a free soccer bets website. It is also possible to watch live football online.

Hair style is such an important part of life for a lot of people around the world that even World Soccer Cup stars are rated these days according to the way their cut, curl, color and part their hair.

Beckham�s hair styling for example is apparently very popular with the soccer fans in India. There is much talk about Beckham’s hairdo in the Indian press. Chalk up one for the contribution of both the soccer and cosmetics to the globalization process.

In Germany, soccer fans are reportedly taken in by the way Michael Ballack coifs his top.

The Brazilian sensation Ronaldinho is another soccer super-star who rules the hearts and minds of his millions of fans with his long mane.

Hair also becomes an explosive expression of fan loyalties when it is dyed in the most impossible colors one one�s team colors. Wherever Brazil plays, for example, the stadium seats undulate like a sea of yellow-green tresses.

Another way hair is marched into the service of soccer is the infinite variety of ways in which British soccer fans have long been shaving their heads, to leave behind only those skillfully sculpted wisps of hair that spell the name of the best team every to set a foot on the greens.

Keep an eye on the upcoming World Soccer Cup 2006. The next new male hair style might emerge not from the coiffeur salons but the lush green of the World Soccer Cup fields.

Ugur Akinci, Ph.D. is a Creative Copywriter, Editor, an experienced and award-winning Technical Communicator specializing in fundraising packages, direct sales copy, web content, press releases, movie reviews and hi-tech documentation.

He has worked as a Technical Writer for Fortune 100 companies for the last 7 years.

In addition to being an Ezine Articles Expert Author, he is also a Senior Member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), and a Member of American Writers and Artists Institute (AWAI).

You can reach him at writer111@gmail.com for a FREE consultation on all your copywriting needs.

You are most welcomed to visit his official web site http://www.writer111.com for more information on his multidisciplinary background, writing career, and client testimonials.

While at it, you might also want to check the latest book he has edited:http://www.lulu.com/content/263630

It has been an issue which has baffled me for years now, how the American nation took the name of the sacred game for their dressed up rugby and lumbered the rest of us with that horrible s-word, soccer.

With the World Cup about to launch a deluge of sicknotes around the world as billions of people dedicate their life to the great game for a month, here I am writing an article under the category of recreation and sport : soccer! Why? because the internet has become an honorary US citizen.

Everyone else in the world uses the word FOOTBALL. It’s the FIFA World Cup (F�d�ration Internationale de Football Association) after all, and you’ll notice that even in French the word football is quite clear! So how did we let this happen? Did we let this happen?

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not being anti-American. I just want our word back, you call your thing Gridiron right? So you don’t need our immortal phrase. But this does show how the internet has globalised all of us, and our language. I mean try a search for football on google.com and you’ll get a load of this nancy-rugby sport, but do the same on google.co.uk (and you may have to select the ‘pages from the UK’ option) and none of such rubbish.

Football is the same the world over, just with a few different accents here and there.

• In Brazil they say ‘Football’
• In Germany they say ‘Football’, or fussball or something
• In Argentina they say ‘Football’
• In Italy they say ‘Football’
• In Uruguay they say ‘Football’
• In France they say ‘Football’
• In England we say ‘Football’

…so that’s all the countries that have won the World Cup then, all united in the fact that the greatest game on earth is called FOOTBALL.

Duncan Rice, that’s me, is the owner of pagesurfer.co.uk a simple website design and hosting site.

Footballs used in association football or soccer have a circumference of 27 to 28 inches. It weighs around 410 to 450 grams and is inflated to a pressure of 60 to 10 kPa. Footballs are usually covered with leather. But, today different types of materials are used to cover it. The footballs used in modern day games are stitched from 32 panels of leather or plastic. Leather and plastic used in football should have waterproof property. It is also stitched from 2 regular pentagons and 20 regular hexagons. Truncated icosahedron is the name given to the 32 panel. It is quite similar to the polyhedron but is more spherical. The spherical shape is due to the pressure of the air inside the football.

Footballs have a long history. It is the product of the pleasure that we get by kicking something. Earlier footballs were anything that was suitable for kicking. Stitched plant leaves filled with soft materials, skulls, animal bladders and similar objects were used as footballs. Ancient cultures around the world is said to have used objects similar to present day football. Pig bladders were used as football during the medieval period. Rubber was used during the 18th century. The first vulcanized football was designed and built in 1855. Inflatable rubber bladders were developed in 1862. Soon the English Football Association brought in the rules regarding footballs which were changed several times. The 20th century saw the evolution of football into its present day characteristics. High tech designs and materials are used in the present day footballs.

The design of black pentagon and white hexagon in 32 panel was the official ball of 1970 Mexico world cup. It is the most widely accepted design mainly due to its visibility. But several companies have now brought out premium branded balls with elaborate designs. The standard football size is 5. The other sizes that are available are 4 and 3. In indoor competitions the size of football used is 4. The material used in the football varies according to the manufacturer. Most of the important brands still manufacture leather football, which is popular with football fans. Attractive logos and designs feature in most of the latest footballs.

The ideal place to search for footballs is the Internet. Most of the manufacturers offer their products online. Information regarding the product, picture, size and price are displayed by most of the websites. Before buying a product, you should check out the reviews about the product in other sites. Bloggers give very good product reviews. Details regarding stitching and leather paneling should be given priority while looking for the quality of the product.

World Cup Football i http://www.worldcupfootballi.com/ offers information about the soccer world cup.

The 2006 FIFA World Cup is upon us; it’s all over the radio, the television, and the newspapers. Everywhere you go, everyone seems to have a soccer t-shirt – some even have the matching shorts! Now soccer is an actual sport; there are two teams, a ball, two nets, and involves dribbling, passing, shooting and some pretty neat tricks (just like basketball). One of the best qualities of soccer, which isn’t always present, is the sportsmanship displayed between the two teams. They help each other up, chat it up, and really remind viewers that in the end, it is just a game.

Despite being around for ages, soccer is still behind in development and isn’t adapting quickly enough to the changing times. Here are a few suggestions to improve the game.

• Time accurately:

Technology today has given us the amazing power to accurately time. So when the game isn’t actually being played – stop the damn game clock. This way you won’t have to estimate how much time was lost while the referee was scribbling down penalties, substitutions were made, injured players were rolling in the grass or being taken off the field. By stopping and starting the game clock, everyone (players, coaches, referees, spectators) can know how much time is actually left in a half, instead of trying to guess how much time will be added.

• Count down:

People are actually interested in how much time is LEFT in a half, or in a game. The main reason anyone would want to know how much time has passed, is to figure out how much time is left!

• Quarters, not halves:

Break the game up into quarters instead of halves – even if it’s a little 2 minute break in between 1st and 2nd, and 3rd and 4th quarters. This would create a large amount of advertising revenue for the game, as well as greatly promote it. More importantly though, people don’t want to wait 45 minutes to get a drink or some food, nor would they want to hold it in for that long .

- shockie

blog.ShockieNet.com