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A Triathlon Training

The real key to successful training is to start slowly and to work your way up to an event. Join a gym with a pool and exercise equipment so that you can swim, bike and run in one visit and time yourself as you do. Keep track of your endurance and when you seem to run out of steam. Many who start out training for a triathlon find that they need to either bulk up their calf muscles for the biking and running or improve their upper body for the swimming. Some however find that they need to simply lose weight overall so that they can increase their aerobic activity and endurance. For either of these goals, you need to start small and increase your weight lifting or aerobic activity slowly. If you push yourself too hard when training for a triathlon, you can get discouraged quickly and even hurt yourself. As with any other weight training, you need to challenge yourself but slow and steady is also important. Perhaps one of the most important things in triathlon to consider is pacing - if you can't pace yourself properly between the three legs of the race, you'll find it pretty difficult to finish! The swim should literally be a warm-up to the bike ride and the ride a fairly hard effort leading into the run - where you will give it everything you got. Of course, this depends if you're doing a sprint distance, Olympic distance, or up to the full ironman distance.

If your training for a triathlon seems like slow going, consider aiming for competing in a mini triathlon, or a Sprint competition. These are much less distance in all three events and are a great way for new competitors to get started.

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2 Techniques For Dribbling a Soccer Ball

It's just you, the sweeper and the goalie. Your approaching the sweeper thinking of what move you'll use to slip past him and then it happens. You trip and the ball continues to roll heading right for the sweeper like a present on his birthday. How could this have been avoided? By mastering the art of dribbling. Read on to learn 2 techniques that will assure this scenario never happens to you.

We all have seen how great the Brazilians are at ball control. But how do they do it? Rhythm. They are in tune with the ball like a seductive dance. Their upper bodies are relaxed which enables them to adjust their body and the ball to any situation that arises. If your upper body is stiff then so will your dribbling style and it's effectiveness.

The first technique as over viewed above is to keep your upper body loose and flexible. When you dribble you need to keep a low center of gravity, kind of like a running back in pro football. This can be achieved with a loose upper torso allowing the flexibility to propagate throughout your body. To train yourself to have a loose upper body, practice dribbling with your soccer balls having your palms facing forward. It sounds crazy but it works and allows your upper body to be more flexible and mobile.

The second technique involves your legs, more specifically your knees. To obtain optimum ball control keep your knees slightly bent. This, like the first technique will give you a better lower center of gravity. It enables you, the player, the ability to maneuver better with sudden and precise moves leaving your opposition dead in their tracks. A good drill to practice this is to dribble the ball and every 10 seconds or so, if you don't have a coach to blow the whistle, is to stop the ball with one of your knees. This will teach your body to dribble with the knees bent and also forces upper body movement as explained in the first technique.

Be sure to practice these two techniques often. They'll greatly increase your dribbling ability and improve your juking ability. With a lot of practice you won't have to worry about ever tripping over the ball a blowing a perfect opportunity at a goal.

Kicking Your Soccer Ball

If you really want to learn to kick a soccer ball, you need to determined, persistent and patient. Most importantly, you need practice. To get yourself started, you will need a soccer ball, cleats, and large clear area so that you can practice. Now let's quickly take a look at some tips to start off.

1) Kicking with your toe should be strictly avoided. It may seriously injure your toe and you'd surely lose control over the ball.
2) To avoid slipping and tripping, soccer cleats are recommended.
3) The ball should only be sufficiently pumped, over pumping would only make it difficult to kick.
4) You can give additional lift to the ball by leaning over it while kicking. Also make sure that the ball is under your foot.
5) If you want to kick the ball further, do not stand directly over it. Instead, lean back while kicking to give the ball more height and more power to your kick.

The above tips will certainly give your kicks more strength. Now we shall take a look at how to kick a soccer ball CORRECTLY. Following the easy steps below should definitely help.

Step 1: Your equipment is the most important, a soccer ball (real one!) and soccer shoes. Playing without soccer shoes is not recommended and playing barefoot should be strictly avoided.

Step 2: Now while kicking, take a few steps backward and a step to the side (to the left if kicking with your right foot and vice versa if you are kicking with your left). This way you are using your hips to kick the ball with excess power.

Step 3: Run towards the ball, using your foot which you are not using for the kicks to direct the ball by placing it about six inches from the ball ground level in the direction that you aim to kick it.

Step 4: Always bring your leg back and then push it forward, with your toe pointing towards the ground. Your foot should strike the ball at the point where your shoe laces are.

Step 5: Having your body lean forward in order to push your weight ahead of the body makes the soccer kick more powerful. Leaning back after you kick will help you keep your balance.

Follow these basic steps of soccer and you might just turn out to be a soccer star some day.

Improve Your Moves - Skills & Drills

If you’ve learned anything on this site, it’s that your success as a soccer player depends on much more than how well you can kick the ball. The fate of the game rests on strategy, teamwork, and decision-making. That being said, there are several skills and techniques that’s you’ll want to have developed, if not perfected, so that you can tap into them when you need to.

The Main Soccer Positions?

The positions of soccer players are often misunderstand, especially by people new to soccer. In this article we will take look at the most common positions in soccer. Lets start...

The Sweeper

The position of sweeper requires good understanding for the game. As a sweeper you will be the one that controls your defense. You need also to have good heading abilities.

Center Fullback

Your main task as the center fullback is to stop forwards from scoring. You need also to start offensive attacks by playing the ball safely to your midfielder.

Left or Right Fullback

If you want to play right or left fullback you will need to be fast, react quickly and pose good technique abilities

Left or Right Midfielder

You need to have good passing abilities to perform well on this position. As the left/right midfielder you will have more time and room comparing to your center midfielder. This gives you opportunity to receive the ball without big pressure.

Defensive Midfielder

As a defensive midfielder your mission is to act in front of your defenders. Having good passing abilities is a must on this position. You need always to play safe and to provide your defenders with support.

Central midfielder

If you want to play as central midfielder you will need to pose good skills with the ball. Beside that you need to support your defensive midfielder during your opponent's attacks.

Forward and Striker

The forward and striker are two similar positions where scoring is only thing that matters. Your job is simply to score and you must try to do it on every chance you get in front of your opponents goal.

The Soccer Goalkeeper

Your main mission as soccer goalkeeper is to prevent your opponents from scoring. Beside that you will also need to encourage your teammates.