How to Start Your Own Sports Team

                                      (22/3)Edited by Luigi Di Serio, Arete, Krystle, Eric and 16 others

         Would you like to create and run your own amateur sports team? Most cities and regions have recreational sports teams participating in team sports. Follow this guide, and you will be on your way to running your own amateur sports team.

Steps

1. Choose the sport you wish to participate in. Inexpensive team sports are the best options if you are on a tight budget. Soccer, ball hockey, basketball and beach volleyball all commonly have leagues in each city.

2. Find a league that is at your level of play. Unless you are extremely experienced, join a recreational league that has multiple divisions or levels, such as beginner, intermediate, and competitive/premier, 1, 2, 3, etc.. It is very important to play at your level. Additionally, it is better to start a little lower because if you do well, you can win the title then move up divisions.

3. Find out your total team fees. This will be the sum of the league fees, plus equipment, uniforms, permits, etc. This will determine your team fees.

4. Select your team name. Basing your team name around your region, habitat, culture or a professional team is common. For example, let's say you are from Cambridge and your team is participating in soccer; you can name your team the Cambridge Kickers.

5. Have a team logo made. Based on your team name, have a friend who is good with graphic design make a logo for your team. You can also have your logo designed by an online company for less then $50.00 if you search around. Many logo sites have templates which don't cost much. Your logo should incorporate an image related to your sport and/or name. Make sure to add your logo to letterheads, web sites, blogs, posts and ads. When players looking for teams go through classifieds, they tend to think teams with a logo are a better fit than ones without one.

6. Select your players to be on the team. Hold try outs. Ask everyone you know who is interested in sports if they want to join your team. Additional sources of players could be friends, co-workers, and players you've played with in the past. To find new players, place ads in online classifieds, especially Craigslist and filed under (your city > community > activity partners > your sport). You can also put ads up in local community centers, the town hall, and local businesses.

7. Collect fees from players before the season begins. Normally amateur teams are non-profit, so if your team fees are $2000.00 and you have 10 players, each player should pay $200.00 per season.

Try to get sponsors for your team. Often sports bars have sponsorship programs where they rebate money back to you team that you spend there. Local businesses might consider sponsoring your team if you help advertise for them during their games.

Look for other ways to raise funds for your team. Have a team fundraisers, BBQ, raffles, etc.

8. Create a chain of command. A commonly-used structure is as follows: manager (you), coach (maybe you also), captain, co-captain, players.

9. Selecting a captain is important. The person selected as captain should not always be the "best" player. It could be an above average player that is dedicated to the team, shows up on time and has a firm understanding of the game.

10.Communicate with your players. Start a blog or a web site and make sure everyone is on the same page in terms of set-up, practicing, schedules, etc. You can also use the blog or web site to advertise your team, give advertising space to your sponsors, and recruit new players.

Keep a mailing list and phone number list. Contact players one day prior to game day to confirm they will show up. Much of winning and losing in amateur sports has a lot to do with who shows up.

Reference :

Here

Word Power

1. amateur : a person inexperienced or unskilled in a particular activity.

2. templates : anything that determines or serves as a pattern.

3. incorporate : to form into a legal corporation.

4. dedicated : wholly committed to something, as to an ideal, political cause, or personal                      goal.

5. participating : to take or have a part or share, as with others; partake; share.

Affixes ( Prefix / Suffix ) Available

1. sponsoring (root : sponsor ; suffix : +ing)

2. Inexpensive (root : expense ; affix : in + __ +ive)

3. recreational ( root : create ; affix : re + __ +ional)

4. Additionally (root : addition ; suffix : +ally)

5. letterheads ( root : letter ; suffix : heads)

6. incorporate (root : corporate ; prefix : in+)

The Power of Photography

                                                      (21/3) By Robert Draper

         Photographers use their cameras as tools of exploration, passports to inner sanctums, instruments for change. Their images are proof that photography matters—now more than ever.

         Thirty-four years before the birth of this magazine, the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard sourly prophesied a banal fate for the newly popularized art of photography. “With the daguerreotype,” he observed, “everyone will be able to have their portrait taken—formerly it was only the prominent—and at the same time everything is being done to make us all look exactly the same, so we shall only need one portrait.”

         The National Geographic Society did not set out to test Kierkegaard’s thesis, at least not right away. Its mission was exploration, and the gray pages of its official journal did not exactly constitute a visual orgy. Years would go by before National Geographic’s explorers would begin using the camera as a tool to bring back what is now its chief source of fame: photographic stories that can alter perceptions and, at their best, change lives.

         By wresting a precious particle of the world from time and space and holding it absolutely still, a great photograph can explode the totality of our world, such that we never see it quite the same again. After all, as Kierkegaard also wrote, “the truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught.”

         Today photography has become a global cacophony of freeze-frames. Millions of pictures are uploaded every minute. Correspondingly, everyone is a subject, and knows it—any day now we will be adding the unguarded moment to the endangered species list. It’s on this hyper-egalitarian, quasi-Orwellian, all-too-camera-ready “terra infirma” that National Geographic’s photographers continue to stand out. Why they do so is only partly explained by the innately personal choices (which lens for which lighting for which moment) that help define a photographer’s style. Instead, the very best of their images remind us that a photograph has the power to do infinitely more than document. It can transport us to unseen worlds.

         When I tell people that I work for this magazine, I see their eyes grow wide, and I know what will happen when I add, as I must: “Sorry, I’m just one of the writers.” A National Geographic photographer is the personification of worldliness, the witness to all earthly beauty, the occupant of everybody’s dream job. I’ve seen The Bridges of Madison County—I get it, I’m not bitter. But I have also frequently been thrown into the company of a National Geographic photographer at work, and what I have seen is everything to admire and nothing whatsoever to envy. If what propels them is ferocious determination to tell a story through transcendent images, what encumbers their quest is a daily litany of obstruction (excess baggage fees, inhospitable weather, a Greek chorus of “no”), interrupted now and then by disaster (broken bones, malaria, imprisonment). Away from home for many months at a time—missing birthdays, holidays, school plays—they can find themselves serving as unwelcome ambassadors in countries hostile to the West. Or sitting in a tree for a week. Or eating bugs for dinner. I might add that Einstein, who snarkily referred to photographers as lichtaffen, meaning “monkeys drawn to light,” did not live by 3 a.m. wake-up calls. Let’s not confuse nobility with glamour. What transfixes me, almost as much as their images, is my colleagues’ cheerful capacity for misery.

         Apparently they wouldn’t have it any other way. The lodestone of the camera tugged at each of them from their disparate origins (a small town in Indiana or Azerbaijan, a polio isolation ward, the South African military), and over time their work would reflect differentiated passions: human conflict and vanishing cultures, big cats and tiny insects, the desert and the sea. What do the National Geographic photographers share? A hunger for the unknown, the courage to be ignorant, and the wisdom to recognize that, as one says, “the photograph is never taken—it is always given.”

         In the field I’ve seen some of my lens-toting compatriots sit for days, even weeks, with their subjects, just listening to them, learning what it is they have to teach the world, before at last lifting the camera to the eye. Our photographers have spent literally years immersed in the sequestered worlds of Sami reindeer herders, Japanese geisha, and New Guinea birds of paradise. The fruit of that commitment can be seen in their photographs. What’s not visible is their sense of responsibility toward those who dared to trust the stranger by opening the door to their quiet world. It’s a far riskier and time-consuming proposition to forgo the manipulated shot and instead view photography as a collaborative venture between two souls on either side of the lens.

         Conscience is the other trait that binds these photographers. To experience the beauty of harp seals swimming in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is also to see the frailty of their habitat: scores of seal pups drowning due to the collapse of ice floes, a direct consequence of climate change. To witness the calamity of war in the gold-mining region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is also to envision a glimmer of hope: Show the gold merchants in Switzerland what their profiteering has wrought, and maybe they’ll cease their purchases.

         In the past 125 years, it turns out, Kierkegaard has been proved both wrong and right about photography. The images in National Geographic have revealed a world not of sameness but of wondrous diversity. But they have also, increasingly, documented societies and species and landscapes threatened by our urge for homogenization. The magazine’s latter-day explorers are often tasked with photographing places and creatures that a generation later may live only in these pages. How do you walk away from that? If my colleagues suffer a shared addiction, it’s to using the formidable reach and influence of this iconic magazine to help save the planet. Does that sound vainglorious? Ask the Swiss gold merchants. They saw Marcus Bleasdale’s images at a Geneva exhibit, and their Congolese gold purchases halted almost overnight.

         Of course, every professional photographer hopes for The Epic Shot, the once-in-a-lifetime collision of opportunity and skill that gains a photograph instant entry into the pantheon alongside Joe Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima, Bob Jackson’s encounter with Jack Ruby gunning down Lee Harvey Oswald, and the Apollo 8 astronauts’ color depictions of planet Earth in its beaming entirety. And yet, game-changing photographs are not what National Geographic photographers do. The most iconic photograph ever to grace these pages is not of anyone or anything historic. Rather, it’s of Sharbat Gula, an Afghan girl of maybe 12 when photographer Steve McCurry encountered her in 1984 at a refugee camp in Pakistan. What her intense, sea-green eyes told the world from the cover of National Geographic’s June 1985 issue a thousand diplomats and relief workers could not. The Afghan girl’s stare drilled into our collective subconscious and stopped a heedless Western world dead in its tracks. Here was the snare of truth. We knew her instantly, and we could no longer avoid caring.

         McCurry shot his immortal portrait well before the proliferation of the Internet and the invention of the smartphone. In a world seemingly benumbed by a daily avalanche of images, could those eyes still cut through the clutter and tell us something urgent about ourselves and about the imperiled beauty of the world we inhabit? I think the question answers itself.

Reference:

Here

Word Power

1. sanctums : a sacred or holy place ; an inviolably private place or retreat.

2. banal : devoid of freshness or originality; hackneyed; trite.

3. daguerreotype : an obsolete photographic process, invented in 1839, in which a picture                    made on a silver surface sensitized with iodine was developed by                         exposure to mercury vapor.

4. prominent : standing out so as to be seen easily; conspicuous; particularly noticeable.

5. constitute :  to compose ;to establish

6. cacophony : harsh discordance of sound; dissonance.

7. encumbers : to impede or hinder; hamper; retard.

8. litany : a prolonged or tedious account.

10. transcendent : going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing; exceeding ;superior or                              supreme.

11. vainglorious : filled with or given to vainglory.

12. pantheon : a domed circular temple at Rome.

13. proliferation : a rapid and often excessive spread or increase.

14. imperiled : to put in peril or danger; endanger.

Affixes (Prefix / Suffix) Available

1.  exploration (root : explore ; suffix : +tion)

2.  popularized ( root : popular ; suffix : +ized)

3.  infinitely ( root : finite ; affix : in+ __ + ly)

4.  unguarded ( root : guard ; affix : un + __ +ed)

5.  unseen  ( root : see ; affix : un+ __ + n)

6.  vanishing ( root : vanish ; suffix : +ing)

7.  subconscious ( root : conscious; prefix : sub+)

8.  overnight ( root : night ; prefix : over )

9.  beaming ( root : beam ; suffix : +ing)

10.  formidable (root : able ; prefix : formid+)

Quiz: Are You a Food Addict?
                                           (20/3)By High Voltage from Sugar Savvy (Reader's Digest Association Books)

These eight simple questions will help you zero in on the trigger foods that set you off.

What are your trigger foods?

Some people can have bags of potato chips in the house till they go stale from neglect, but can’t leave ice cream in the freezer without it disappearing in a single sitting. Answer yes or no to the following questions from my new book Sugar Savvy, which teaches you how to detox from sugar and helps you lose weight, and see what kind of trigger foods you should avoid.

If you reach for one cookie or chip, is the bag empty before you know it?

a) Yes

b) No

Can you control your food intake during meals, but lose it when you start to snack, especially on chips and crackers?

a) Yes

b) No

Are you tired all the time? Are there things you’d love to do, but you just don’t have the energy?

a) Yes

b) No

Do you spend the day on a roller coaster of snacking highs and lows, hitting the doughnuts in the morning, the vending machine chips or candy in the afternoon, and the ice cream at night?

a) Yes

b) No

Did you answer Yes to two or more questions?

Your food addiction likely lies with sweets and/or salty snacks—foods like cookies, chips, and cakes—that have been carefully engineered to keep you eating and eating and eating. You’ll need to find snacks and desserts that don’t set you off. Even then, though, avoid keeping them in your house; just enjoy a few occasionally when you go out.

Next: More food triggers you might have »

Can you easily skip dessert, but empty the bread basket—and the pasta platter?

a) Yes

b) No

When you want to lose weight, is it easier to skip meals altogether rather than just eat smaller ones?

a) Yes

b) No

Once you’ve had “just a taste” of bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, pasta, and rice, can you stop? Or do you keep going back for second (or third) helpings?

a) Yes, I can stop

b) No, I go for more

 

Do you eat healthy when around other people, but lose it when you’re alone?

a) Yes

b) No

Did you answer Yes to two or more of these questions?

If so, you are highly susceptible to the addictive powers of white flour (which acts a whole lot like sugar in your system)! Like me and many others, you need to kick all refined foods to the curb, probably permanently. Since desserts and snacks are not always a problem, you may be able to cautiously add back certain “treats” that are not triggers for you. But it may take trial and error. Note: If your food triggers are sweet and salty AND white-flour foods, you, like me, are highly susceptible to food addiction, period! That means you’re in danger of overeating pretty much all “bliss point” types of foods.

Reference:Here

Word Power

1.trigger  : An event that is the cause of a particular action, process, or situation.

2.neglect : Not pay proper attention to; disregard.

3.detox   : A process or period of time which one abstains from or rids the body of toxic;                     unhealthy substances; detoxification.

4.occasionally : At infrequent or irregular intervals; now and then.

5.permanently : In a way that lasts or remains unchanged indefinitely; for all time.

6.susceptible : Likely or liable to be influenced or harmed by a particular thing.

7.bliss           : Perfect happiness; great joy.

8.vending : Offer (small items) for sale, either from a stall or from a slot machine.

Affixes (Prefix / Suffix) Available

1. freezer      (root : freeze; suffix : +r)

2. dissappearing (root : appear; affix : diss+__+ing)

3. sitting       (root : sit; suffix :+ing)

4. especially (root :special; affix : e+__+ly)

5. snacking    (root :snack; suffix : +ing)

6. addiction   (root :addict; suffix :+ion)

7. carefully    (root :care; suffix : +fully)

8. altogether (root :together; prefix : al+)

9. susceptible          (root :suscept; suffix : +ible)

10. cautiously          (root : cautious; suffix : +ly)

11.  overeating (root : eat; affix : over+__+ing)

30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself.

(19/3)written by : Marc &  Angel

#1. Stop spending time with the wrong people. – Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.  If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room for you.  You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot.  Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth.  And remember, it’s not the people that stand by your side when you’re at your best, but the ones who stand beside you when you’re at your worst that are your true friends.

#2. Stop running from your problems. – Face them head on.  No, it won’t be easy.  There is no person in the world capable of flawlessly handling every punch thrown at them.  We aren’t supposed to be able to instantly solve problems.  That’s not how we’re made.  In fact, we’re made to get upset, sad, hurt, stumble and fall.  Because that’s the whole purpose of living – to face problems, learn, adapt, and solve them over the course of time.  This is what ultimately molds us into the person we become.

#3. Stop lying to yourself. – You can lie to anyone else in the world, but you can’t lie to yourself.  Our lives improve only when we take chances, and the first and most difficult chance we can take is to be honest with ourselves.

#4. Stop putting your own needs on the back burner. – The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.  Yes, help others; but help yourself too.  If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.

#5. Stop trying to be someone you’re not. – One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you like everyone else.  Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you.  Don’t change so people will like you.  Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.

#6. Stop trying to hold onto the past. – You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.

#7. Stop being scared to make a mistake. – Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing.  Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success.  You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.

#8. Stop berating yourself for old mistakes. – We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, one thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us.  We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past.  But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future.  Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.

#9. Stop trying to buy happiness. – Many of the things we desire are expensive.  But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free – love, laughter and working on our passions.

#10. Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness. – If you’re not happy with who you are on the inside, you won’t be happy in a long-term relationship with anyone else either.  You have to create stability in your own life first before you can share it with someone else.

#11. Stop being idle. – Don’t think too much or you’ll create a problem that wasn’t even there in the first place.  Evaluate situations and take decisive action.  You cannot change what you refuse to confront.  Making progress involves risk.  Period!  You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.

#12. Stop thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises.  Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.

#13. Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons. – Relationships must be chosen wisely.  It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company.  There’s no need to rush.  If something is meant to be, it will happen – in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason. Fall in love when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely.

#14. Stop rejecting new relationships just because old ones didn’t work. – In life you’ll realize that there is a purpose for everyone you meet.  Some will test you, some will use you and some will teach you.  But most importantly, some will bring out the best in you.

#15. Stop trying to compete against everyone else. – Don’t worry about what others are doing better than you.  Concentrate on beating your own records every day.  Success is a battle between YOU and YOURSELF only.

#16. Stop being jealous of others. – Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own.  Ask yourself this:  “What’s something I have that everyone wants?”

#17. Stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself. – Life’s curveballs are thrown for a reason – to shift your path in a direction that is meant for you.  You may not see or understand everything the moment it happens, and it may be tough.  But reflect back on those negative curveballs thrown at you in the past.  You’ll often see that eventually they led you to a better place, person, state of mind, or situation.  So smile!  Let everyone know that today you are a lot stronger than you were yesterday, and you will be.

#18. Stop holding grudges. – Don’t live your life with hate in your heart.  You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you hate.  Forgiveness is not saying, “What you did to me is okay.”  It is saying, “I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.”  Forgiveness is the answer… let go, find peace, liberate yourself!  And remember, forgiveness is not just for other people, it’s for you too.  If you must, forgive yourself, move on and try to do better next time.

#19. Stop letting others bring you down to their level. – Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.

#20. Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others. – Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway.  Just do what you know in your heart is right.

#21. Stop doing the same things over and over without taking a break. – The time to take a deep breath is when you don’t have time for it.  If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.  Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly.

#22. Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. – Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things.  The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.

#23. Stop trying to make things perfect. – The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done.

#24. Stop following the path of least resistance. – Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile.  Don’t take the easy way out.  Do something extraordinary.

#25. Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn’t. – It’s okay to fall apart for a little while.  You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well.  You shouldn’t be concerned with what other people are thinking either – cry if you need to – it’s healthy to shed your tears.  The sooner you do, the sooner you will be able to smile again.

#26. Stop blaming others for your troubles. – The extent to which you can achieve your dreams depends on the extent to which you take responsibility for your life.  When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility – you give others power over that part of your life.

#27. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. – Doing so is impossible, and trying will only burn you out.  But making one person smile CAN change the world.  Maybe not the whole world, but their world.  So narrow your focus.

#28. Stop worrying so much. – Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy.  One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time?  Three years?  Five years?”  If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.

#29. Stop focusing on what you don’t want to happen. – Focus on what you do want to happen.  Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story.  If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you’ll often find that you’re right.

#30. Stop being ungrateful. – No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life.  Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs.  Instead of thinking about what you’re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

This is such a beautiful list, and we all are guilty of some of these. The best thing to do is just remember each day to appreciate and reflect a bit, even if it's only a few minutes.

#Reference :

http://www.lifebuzz.com/just-stop/

Word Power

1. mulling : to think carefully; consider.

2. portion : a part of any whole, either separated from or integrated with it.

3. berating :  to scold; rebuke.

4.stumble : to make a slip, mistake, or blunder, especially a sinful one.

5.flawlessly : having no defects or faults, especially none that diminish the value

6.forefront : the pos ition of greatest importance or prominence.

7.curveballs : to take (someone) by surprise, especially in a negative way.

8.passion : any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.  

Affixes (Prefix/Suffix) Available

1. happiness (root : happy; suffix : +iness)

2. flawlessly   (root : flawless; suffix : +ly)

3. laughter     (root : laugh; suffix : +ter)

4. overlooks (root : look; affix : over + __+s)

5. something (root: thing ; prefix : some+)

6. comfortable (root : comfort; suffix : +table)

7. capable     (root : able; prefix : cap+)

8. everyone   (root : one; prefix : every+)

9. relationship(root : relation; suffix : +ship)

10.confront   (root : front; prefix: con+)