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Game Speed! We often hear that term. Kent Hrbek Twins Jersey . What is it and why is it different? Coaches, for all of time, have asked their respective players and teams to practice fast. Why? Well they are trying to mimic the tempo and flow of an actual game and/or contest. No matter the sport, when the lights go on and the bullets are flying for real, things change and game speed is different than practice. My entire career, every time I took to the practice field, I busted my tail to simulate actual game speed. This stems from growing up in Texas. Not to say that Texas has cornered the market on practicing fast, but I was fortunate to have some unbelievably intense and quality coaches in my earlier football days in Dallas. Every drill was the same for me, whether it be taking drops with the other quarterbacks, working with the big boys and running backs during inside run, skelly or team period. The mindset was to push to get better, dont waste a rep, prove yourself and practice fast. Why? All in hopes of making the actual game slow down. Pushing yourself in these situations is only part of the challenge. Getting your teammates to go 100 per cent all the time to help duplicate actual game speed is critical. Executing at game speed during practice is a total commitment to excellence, by everyone. This mindset has to be shared not only by your offensive teammates but equally important, the "Look Team". The Look Team is comprised mostly of back-up defensive players, developmental squad members and in some cases, defensive starters. Having the Look Team dialed in and flying around giving you and your teammates exact replication of the anticipated defensive fronts, stunts and coverages, is paramount. If not, you are just fooling yourself and wasting time, which is otherwise known as going through the motions! When you have not been under the lights executing at game speed for a period of time your tempo, rhythm and timing are altered drastically. This period of time away for game action does not have to be very long before the gap starts to develop and execution wanes. Im talking a week or two and BAM, you can be behind...this is very frustrating. Now theres also something else, something very big you have to take into account. Athletes who are away from game action for any length of time are typically recovering from some type of injury. When this happens, athletes have to get over the mental hurdle of being injury free. Believe me, this is a beast in and of itself! When overcoming an injury, no matter how hard you work in practice to try and convince yourself that all is good, its in the real game conditions when the truth is discovered. Why is this? Well in todays game with contact during practice being monitored and certainly limited on so many fronts, actual game conditions from this standpoint are difficult to duplicate. Once back into the the fray and you are convinced mentally that you are one hundred percent, now you can concentrate on dealing with the tempo, rhythm and timing of game speed. We see many examples of this every week in sport. On Monday Night Football this week, we saw the likes of Johnny "Football" Manziel adapting to game speed at a completely different level. It almost looked like he had never played the game before. His timing was horrendous and thats game speed coming into play, rearing its completely different, sometimes ugly head, or in Johnnys case, finger. Take for instance 2011 CFL Most Outstanding Player Travis Lulay in his three brief appearances in this past weeks game versus the Argos. Travis looked like he was having a few problems adjusting to game speed, and thats putting it nicely! Perfect example of a player first having to overcome the mental hurdle of injury and secondly trying to adjust to the speed of the game. We know Lulay can do it, as hes done it before. With Manziel, thats a different story! Ill give you an example of all this coming together. When there is an all out focus coupled with a consistent effort and will to prepare to win, good things will happen. Theres nothing like being on top of your game, knowing that you have put in the time and have done everything humanely possible to have success when the lights go on. All that preparation, video study, conditioning, rehab, practicing at full speed, effort and training does pay off. Theres stepping into the huddle with your teammates, looking them in the eye and confidently calling a play anticipating a certain defensive front, stunt and coverage. Telling them this is money, a touchdown if we all do our jobs. After a few coaching points and reminders to the guys, you break the huddle and cruise up to the line of scrimmage. Watch the defence react to your formation, connect the dots and already know, BANG, you got em! Your guys go into motion, which gives you even more indicators that the right play is called and now its just a matter of going through your cadence, taking the snap, looking a defender off opening up more room for your target and delivering a strike that puts six points on the board! Thats what its all about! Being in control and executing at the highest level. Ex-players often say that they miss the guys in the locker room the most after they retire, thats definitely part of it, but for me its also the precise execution with those same guys on the field, due to all the hard work and sacrifices made together. Thats what I miss the most! If Ive said it once, Ive said it a hundred times. You have to play the game to learn the game and so much of this is adjusting to the speed of the game at all levels. Now go out there and earn that opportunity to play by practicing fast, and make sure its at game speed! Ready Break!!! Ervin Santana Twins Jersey . "I cant say much, we agreed not to say much, but talks are ongoing and Andrei wants to stay in Montreal," agent and former NHL player Sergei Berezin told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun on ESPN.com on Friday. "Well see where it goes. Hes played 13 seasons with Montreal. Ozzie Smith Cardinals Jersey . Richards tossed a five-hitter over seven sharp innings and the Los Angeles Angels beat the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 on Wednesday to sweep a two-game interleague series.NEW YORK -- It wasnt a marquee matchup of freshmen, although both of the young stars showed how bright their futures can be. Instead, No. 4 Arizonas 72-66 victory over No. 6 Duke on Friday night in the championship game of the NIT Season Tip-Off was a chance for two junior guards to take the spotlight. Nick Johnson scored all but two of his 15 points in the second half and T.J. McConnell had 10 points and eight assists to lead the Wildcats to the win that showed just how versatile a team they are. "Were an all-around team. Really you could see it in the box score. It was pretty even all the way around," Johnson, the tournaments MVP, said, referring to the five starters scoring in double figures. "Were a good team and we can play with anybody." The game was expected to be a matchup of two of the best freshmen in the country and, although Aaron Gordon of Arizona and Jabari Parker of Duke didnt spend a lot of time covering each other or supplying highlight clips, they were both key factors in the outcome. Gordon, the quiet forward, finished with 10 points and seven rebounds and came up big late with a dunk on an alley-oop pass and then fed fellow freshman Rondae Hollis-Jefferson for a dunk less than a minute later to give the Wildcats (7-0) a 61-51 lead with 3:59 to play. "He stayed patient, which is one of the qualities that he has as a player," Arizona coach Sean Miller said of Gordon, who had two points in 11 minutes in the first half. "I chose not to play him a lot in the first half, because he was in foul trouble. ... He played 20 minutes in the second half so he was out there more. But we as a group have to find ways to use his offensive talent even more, and hes such a unique player." Parker, who had 19 points for his first game with fewer than 20 points this season, struggled against Arizonas physical defence and was 7 of 21 from the field. He came into the game shooting 60 per cent from the field. "Jabari gets a lot of attention and it was a good physical game," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "His shots just didnt go down." Parker, who came into the game shooting 61 per cent from beyond the arc, missed all five of his 3-point attempts. &quoot;I need to get experience against big guys," said the 6-foot-8 Parker, who faced an Arizona frontline that goes 6-9, 6-8, 7-foot. Freddie Freeman Braves Jersey. "Two things you cant practice against are quickness and length," Krzyzewski said. "We have quickness. We dont have length. They have great length on their team." The victory gave Arizona its fourth NIT Season Tip-Off title, tying Duke (6-2) for the most ever. "I tell you, Im really ecstatic that we were able to win this tournament here in the Garden," Miller said. "Everybody here knows what a special place this is. We talk to our players a lot about it. ... So everybody embraced where we were because they knew it was a big stage and for us to get on a plane and travel about 15 hours tonight, its going to be a nice plane ride home because I think we feel good about how hard we played and what we were able to accomplish." Johnson, the Wildcats leading scorer at 17.3 per game, shook off a quiet first half to become the focal point of Arizonas offence. His 3-pointer with 11:07 to play tied the game at 45. He hit another 3 with 6:22 left to give Arizona a 57-48 lead. Brandon Ashley had 13 points and Kalen Tarczewski added 10 points and nine rebounds for the Wildcats, who finished with a 36-28 rebound advantage. Rodney Hood led Duke with 21 points and eight rebounds. The Blue Devils other loss was to No. 2 Kansas. "We talked all year about we dont have a centre, and we have good players, and we have to figure out how to be good with the players we have," Krzyzewski said. "So I thought those kids played really well. I mean, I thought they played their hearts out." Gordon, who came in averaging 12.5 points and 9.7 rebounds, had a big block of Rasheed Sulaimon with 45 seconds left and the Wildcats leading 65-59. Duke had won 15 straight games in the NIT Season Tip-Off and had won 15 of its last 17 games played at Madison Square Garden. The Blue Devils, who came into the game shooting 53.4 per cent from the field, finished 25 of 58 from the field, including 4 of 14 from 3-point range, where they came in shooting 44.7 per cent. They were held 24 points below their scoring average for the season.wholesale nfl jerseys cheap jerseys from china ' ' ' |
