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By Owen Jones, August 24, 2011 8:54 am

I expect that this, my first dissertation on the fundamentals of tennis, will be found useful by both novices and experts alike in the tennis world. I am striving to arouse interest in the student of the game of tennis by a somewhat prolonged discussion of match play, which I trust will cast a new light on the game of tennis.

I will turn to the novice in my opening and write of certain matters which are second nature to the skilled player. The best tennis equipment is not a lot of good for the beginner even if he really is trying to succeed. However, one has to buy good quality; it is a saving in the end, as good quality material far outlasts poor quality gear.

It is important to always dress in tennis attire when playing tennis. The question of choosing a tennis racquet is a much more serious matter. I do not advocate forcing a certain make of racquet upon any player, since all the famous makes are excellent. However, it is on the weight, balance, and size of handle that the real value of a racquet frame depends, while good stringing is essential to obtain the best results.

After having acquired your racquet, make a firm resolve to buy only good tennis balls, as a regular bounce is a great aid to advancement, while a “dead” ball is of no use at all. If you really desire to advance at the game and progress rapidly, I strongly urge you to watch all the good tennis you can. Study the play of the leading players and try to copy their strokes. Read all the tennis instruction books you can find. They are a great assistance.

More tennis can be picked up off the court, in the study of theory, and in watching the top players in action, than can ever be learned in actual play. I do not advise miss opportunities to play tennis. Far from it. Play whenever possible, but strive when playing to put in practice the theories you have read or the strokes you have seen.

Never let yourself become discouraged by lack of progress. The trick of playing some stroke you have worked on over weeks unsuccessfully, will suddenly come to you when least expected. Good tennis players are the product of very hard work. Very few players are born geniuses at the game. Tennis is a game that pays you dividends all your life. A tennis racquet is a letter of introduction in any city.

The brotherhood of tennis is universal, for none but a good sportsman can succeed in the game for any lengthy period of time. Tennis provides relaxation, excitement, exercise, and pure enjoyment to the person who is tied hard and fast to his job until late in the afternoon.

The following is the order of development that produces the quickest and most lasting results: i. Concentration on the game. ii. Keep the eye on the ball. iii. Foot-work and weight-control. iv. Strokes. v. Court position. vi. Court generalship or match play. vii. Tennis psychology.

Concentration. Tennis is played primarily with the mind. The most perfect racquet technique invented will not suffice if the playing mind is wandering. There are many causes of a distracted mind in a tennis match. The main one is lack of interest in the game. No one should play tennis with any expectation of real success unless he cares enough about the game to be willing to do the practice necessary to learn the game correctly.

Jack it in right now if you are not willing to work very hard. The weather, conditions of play or the noises in the gallery usually bewilder even very experienced match-players playing in new surroundings. Complete and utter concentration on the game is the only cure for an erring mind, and the quicker that lesson is learned the quicker the improvement of the player.

The surest way to keep a game in mind is to play for every set, every game in the set, every point in the game and, finally, every shot in the point. A set is merely a collection of made and missed shots, and the man who misses the least is the final winner.

If you are a novice tennis player or want to know more about tennis apparel, please go to our site entitled Tennis Tips for Beginners. This article, Tennis Fundamentals is released under a creative commons attribution license.

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By Owen Jones, August 14, 2011 9:04 am

A tennis ball is very distinctive and are used by millions of children and adults all over the world for playing tennis, naturally, but many, many other less formal games as well. They are not only the right size for tennis, presumably anyway at 2.7 inches or 6.7 centimetres in diameter, but they also fit neatly into a hand or a dog’s mouth. Consequently people use them for playing catch, for various games of softball like rounders and for throwing for the dog to retrieve.

When I was a youngster, all tennis balls were white, but now you would be very hard pushed indeed to find a white one if, if indeed it is at all possible. Nowadays, all tennis balls are day-glow colours like yellow, green and orange. Presumably this modification was made for the purpose of visibility on the TV screen.

The word ‘tennis’ comes from the French – ‘Tenez’ (pronounced ‘teney’), which meant ‘Take up Position’ or simply ‘Start’. The origins of tennis were almost certainly well over a thousand years ago, when it was played by monks. The racquet or racket was the flat of the hand and the ball was wooden.

No-one is really certain whether the next innovation was to wear leather mitts or to modify the ball to leather, but whichever it was, there was obviously a move to make the game less painful. When the ball changed from being wooden, it was manufactured of animal skin, most often leather, sewn up with sinews and stuffed with anything that came to hand, such as straw, wool and hair – animal and human.

The thing is that these early wooden and leather balls did not bounce, so the game was very different back then. In due course, the monks started using ‘racquets’, but they looked more like bats than contemporary day tennis racquets.

In Disraeli’s book, “Sybil” (1845), the story line reveals how Lord Eugene De Vere was to go to Hampton Court to play tennis, so the game was a recognized sport then, but it took until the late Nineteen Century for the game that we know today to be formalized by a set of rules. In 1874, Major Walter Wingfield was granted the patent for the rules and equipment of ‘lawn tennis’ and not much has altered since.

The next year tennis courts were set up in the USA and then the game of tennis spread like wildfire. Wingfield set down the rules of the game and the type of equipment to be used. The game has not changed much since then in essence, but it has changed a great deal nevertheless. The shape of the court is different now and science has been applied to the apparatus to improve it.

The original ball in the late Nineteenth Century was manufactured of solid rubber and so would have been quite weighty, but at least it did bounce which instantly made the game more interesting and more lively. A bouncing ball made tennis into a more interesting game to play and a more interesting game to watch. The rubber ball allowed tennis to be a spectator sport that crowds would pay to watch.

Contemporary tennis balls have a rubberized skin, which is about eighty percent rubber, filled with air and covered by a layer of ‘hairy’ felt. The felt is important because it gives the surface of the ball more grip and can standardize the bounce too. It also gives the ball a more foreseeable flight path even in the presence of wind.

The last aspect of modern tennis balls is the air inside. This can either be pressurized or non-pressurized. Pressurized balls give a better bounce whilst new, but they lose pressure with time and so are less reliable, whereas non-pressurized balls actually improve slightly with use, which is considered a benefit.

If you are a beginner tennis player or are interested in tennis balls and other tennis equipment, just go along to our website entitled Tennis Tips for Beginners

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By Owen Jones, August 13, 2011 7:46 am

Every parent is aware how quickly children grow up and how frequently you have to replace their clothing. This is an awfully expensive operation. Children are a lot more fashion conscious now and much more aware than ever before about what they dress in. They ask for designer this and designer that and that just adds to the cost of the items of children’s clothing that you have to buy.

Children also need clothing for school. The question of a school uniform is controversial, but wearing a school uniform does take some of the strain out of buying children’s clothing. School uniforms are not really designer wear (although every school has a unique uniform) and they are normally hard-wearing. A big family can pass clothing down, but sometimes the younger children take exception to this. Luckily, there are some other means of reducing the cost of buying children’s clothing.

One way of saving money on children’s clothing is to take advantage of ‘two for the price of one’ or ‘buy two get one free’ offers. That is fairly obvious advice, but the twist is to ask if you can stagger the sizes, so that you have two or three successive sizes, which will allow your child to grow into the larger sizes and give you a breathing space.

Try to buy children’s clothing out of season, so that you buy swim wear in the winter and jumpers and coats in the summer. You will find massive discounts on out-of-season children’s clothing. Discounts of 75% are not unusual. if you are buying in advance like this, it is essential to remember to buy a size or two larger to take into account your child’s growth before it needs them.

Sweaters and jumpers offer great chances for saving money. Purchase a handful of jumpers at a time when they are on discount, perhaps in the summer. Again, buy a variety of sizes. One word of warning here, do not buy seasonal or high-fashion colours that may seem out of place in a year’s time. Choose fairly traditional, neutral colours.

When you have a clean-out of clothing that is too small or never worn, take them to the local charity shop. While you are there, see if you can pick up a handful of bargains. Charity shops are brilliant places from which to acquire children’s clothing at hugely discounted prices. The clothing is clean and blemish free, they are fantastic bargains.

Jumble Sales and bazaars are another good source of children’s clothing. Jumble sales and bazaars are often put on by well-intentioned institutions such as The Women’s Institute, The Guides, The Scouts, local churches and local schools. The clothing on sale is given by parents from the institution and it is sold to raise funds for that institution. It is usually of high quality and some of it is even new, purchased purposely to donate to the charity for fund-raising purposes.

A good way of customizing children’s clothing is embroidery. You could embroider or sew on a picture of the child’s favourite animal or pet. The child’s name, the name of a favourite band or a slogan is also very popular.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on quite a few topics, but is at present involvedd with thinking about women’s panties. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Personalised Knickers.

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By James Blunt, July 29, 2011 12:56 pm

For those who do not know, black socks on an athlete mean trouble. In the world of sports, there are many ways to express individuality. From touchdown dances to slam dunk contests, athletes the world over have found creative and entertaining ways to highlight their own personal style. In this realm, more than any other, creativity and individual flair are often embraced and celebrated.

One for of expression, however, has grown to mean something completely different. In most sports, footwear is a matter of necessity and function, with little thought being given to what is worn beneath it. On a few occasions, however, athletes have used black socks as a method of protest and defiance.

In a famous English tennis tournament, for example, a young American once took to wearing completely black outfits as shot at the sports establishment. This act extended beyond his footwear, however it was the color choice that made all of the difference. Traditionally, players at this particular tournament had always worn white. This seemingly small act marked a turning point in the sport which still resonated today. Some consider it the beginning of the modern era of tennis.

In American college basketball, a group of five ambitious young players once changed their sock color as a statement against the commercialization of their success. They felt that the companies who sponsored their university were unfairly benefitting from their achievements while they collected nothing.

Funny enough, it was the sponsorship company which gained most directly from this act, as darker colors became the newest trend in socks. They began to sell in great quantities as youth tried to emulate their athletic heroes.

A simple pair of black socks may not seem like much, but this small gesture has had a resonating effect in sports, even today. It is often not what is worn that counts, but rather how it worn and for what reasons that can make all of the difference.

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By Mile Nikolic, June 23, 2011 7:37 am

Zeljko Mitrovic’s, a rare yacht named “El Bosco” was seized by the Croatian Customs Service. The owner of TV Pink has to pay the debt of two million, but he believes that it is only pressure on him and that he did not break the law, as written in the Croatian press.

Customs authorities in September seized a yacht owned by Zeljko Mitrovic, which is 32 meters long, says “Jutarnji List”. They state that the owner of Pink made two misdemeanors. The first is that as the majority owner of the yacht “El Bosco” was not present when entering the Croatian territorial waters. Thus, the alleged violation of the law, according to Croatian press.

- Is this is how they thank me for hire workers from Croatia? I live in Croatia and the ship is registered in Gibraltar. It was also done by Bernie Ecclestone, but it no one will seize his yacht. Really, it is not fair – said Mitrovic and announced that he would instruct his lawyers appealed to the account of the Croatian customs and everything that happened.

- When the yacht “El Bosco” sailed into the Croatian territorial waters, on it they did not find the owner of Pink Zeljko Mitrovic. He was present only with unnamed co-owner of Gibraltar – said the “pink”television, in a statement. Listed are a lawyer Nobilo, who said it was wrong that the yacht was released from Montenegro to Croatia and then only there seized and punished.

Zeljko Mitrovic yacht has purchased the 2007th At the fair in Split. For it he has payed ten million euros. Luxury yacht has six sleeping cabins and two decks. Croatian Customs has announced that the case against the company “El Bosco Split” is before making such decisions is permitted and that they expect to win on appeal.

All the most interesting news of this show can be found on the website Dvor , and you can watch live on the Dvor Uzivo