Have Fun With Nature: How To Play Conkers
In an age where children spend a huge percentage of their free time playing with expensive computer games, it's nice to know that some old-fashioned games are still being played outdoors and cost absolutely nothing.
During the fall, wherever you find horse chestnut trees you'll find children playing conkers. It's a game that was enjoyed by their parents, their grandparents, and even their great grandparents and, hopefully, their own children will one day enjoy it, too.
What is A Conker?
A conker is a hard brown nut that's encapsulated in a green, prickly case produced by the Horse Chestnut tree. The cases fall from trees when they're ripe and can easily be collected from the ground.
In contrast to the nuts produced by the Sweet Chestnut tree, conkers are NOT to be eaten by humans.
Choosing A Conker
If you're serious about your game, choose your conkers carefully. The best ones are symmetrical in form, firm to the touch and should be uncracked.
Use the water test. If a conker is damaged inside it will float in water so this is a good way of testing the density of your nut. Floaters should be discarded while those that sink to the bottom will be the hardest and the best.
Preparing A conker for play
Make a hole through the middle of your conker, going from the dull area at the top and down through the bottom. A thin skewer or hand-drill is useful for this.
Choose string that doesn't break easily and thread a length about 12 inches long through the hole and tie a knot at one end to stop it from pulling through.
There are several ways to make your conkers harder, including:
Bake the conker in the oven on a low heat for 30 minutes Soak the conker in vinegar overnight put conkers away to use the following year (they harden with age).How To play Conkers
Two players are needed, each with a conker of his own. Each player holds his conker from the string and attempts to hit the opposing conker.
If your conker is the one being hit, you should let it hang down with the string wrapped around two or three fingers to secure it - you don't want your conker flying off when it's hit! It's up to your opponent to decide how high your conker should be held and it's important it's held still.
If you're the striker, you should wrap the string around your hand in the same way as you would if your conker was being hit. You should then take the conker in your other hand and draw it back, ready to strike. As you release the conker, you should swing it down and try to hit your opponent's conker. If you're successful, this is called a strike. If you miss, you're allowed two more goes before swapping positions.
If, when making a shot, the strings tangle together, the first player to call "strings" is awarded an extra shot.
If a player drops his conker or has it knocked out of his hand, the opposing player can call "stamps" and jump on it. End of one conker! However, if the owner calls "no stamps" first, the conker is safe (unless it smashed when it hit the ground, of course).
The game continues until one conker is completely destroyed; the one with the remaining conker is the winner.
Good luck!
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Improve Your Golf Swing by Improving Your Tempo
We have all heard the word tempo in relation to the golf swing. Announcers on television speak of the great tempo Ernie els has in his golf swing. What does tempo mean to the amateur and their golf swing?
tempo in the Golf Swing
tempo in the golf swing is a combination of many parts. tempo is part timing in all aspects of the golf swing. It is part sequencing of each position within the golf swing, and it is part feel. Putting all these golf swing parts together creates tempo in your own golf swing.
Interconnecting each phase of the golf swing; address, take-away, backswing, transition, downswing, impact, and follow through is one part of tempo, Performing each of these phases with the correct timing is also tempo. And finally feel for the clubhead is part of tempo.
We can probably say tempo is the end goal of all our practice and time spent on our golf swing. Once we have developed tempo in the golf swing, there is definitely a level of mastery within it.
How Do We Develop tempo in the Golf Swing?
A great question that does not have a simple answer: Developing tempo in the golf swing is a task that requires patience, practice, and time. There really are no short cuts to developing it within your golf swing. One practice session at the driving range will not do it. The use of a single training aide will not get you there. The implementation of a golf fitness program will not achieve this task on its own.
I say this because developing a PGA Tour type golf swing requires a basket of tools in your arsenal. Developing tempo and a silky smooth golf swing requires you to:
* Receive proper instruction on the fundamentals of the golf swing
* Maintain a consistent practice schedule with your golf swing
* Use swing drills to develop every as of your golf swing
* The possible implementation of training aides into your practice sessions
* Implementing of golf fitness program to develop your body around the golf swing.
The basket of tools listed above put together can lead you to developing great tempo in your golf swing. It requires a comprehensive approach in which no short cuts can be made. Lets take a look at the bullet points above to get a better understanding of how to go about this process.
Proper instruction in the Mechanics of the Golf Swing
learning the fundamentals of the golf swing is key to developing tempo. This can be achieved through quality instruction. This will allow your body to learn the nuances of the swing. This is the first step in developing tempo.
Consistent practice of the Golf Swing
As they say practice makes perfect. In order for your body to learn and be able to repeat to proper mechanics of the golf swing, you must practice on a consistent basis. The body learns biomechanical movements through repetition. The golf swing is no different. Repetition through proper practice session is the second key to developing tempo.
Swing Drills to Develop the Golf Swing
The golf swing as a whole is one of the most intricate athletic movements to perform. In its entirety, it is a very difficult movement to perform and master. It is best when learning the golf swing to break it down into parts. Breaking the golf swing down into segments allows you more easily to master each phase of the swing. This is accomplished through the implementation of golf swing drills. Swing drills break the swing down into manageable parts.
Training Aides in Association with Your Golf Swing Drills
Training aides assist the body in developing the golf swing. Think of training aides as training wheels on a bicycle. They simply help your body learn certain movements and positions associated with the golf swing.
Implementing a Golf Fitness Program
Your body swings the golf club and performs the biomechanics of the golf swing. In order to perform the biomechanics of the golf swing correctly. It is necessary for your body to have certain levels of flexibility, balance, endurance, strength, and power. If your body is lacking any of this aforementioned list learning the biomechanics of the golf swing correctly will be very difficult. A golf fitness program is the final key to developing tempo in your golf swing.
Summary
To summarize the development of tempo in your golf swing requires a basket of tools. tempo requires; proper instruction on the golf swing, consistent practice of your golf swing mechanics, the utilization of swing drills, training aides, and a golf fitness program. Put all of these aspects together and a golf swing with tempo will be yours.
About the Author
Sean Cochran is one of the most recognized golf fitness instructors in the world today. He travels the PGA Tour regularly with 2005 PGA & 2004 Masters Champion Phil Mickelson. To learn more about Sean and his golf fitness programs go to http://www.seancochran.com
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Hardware Inside Xbox3 Reviewed and Explained
Gaming has reached new levels with newer and meaner machines coming into the market. The xbox 360, PSP3, and Wii are all set to fulfill gaming dreams. What makes a console powerful and state-of-art is its hardware.
The xbox 360 has a 20GB hard drive; wireless controllers; headset; dvd remote; ethernet cable; AV cables; and external power supply.
Inside the mean gaming machine, the xbox 360 is a powerful computer. The xbox 360 harbors a customized IBM Power PC CPU with three processing cores with 3.2 GHz power. The system has a 3.2 GHz tri-core PowerPC based CPU and a 500 MHZ GPU.
The ATI graphics processor has a capacity of 500 million triangles per second. It has a chip, Xenos, designed by ATI. This raises the 3D effects and graphics to astounding levels of clarity and definition. The X box 360 is said to have a 16 giga samples p/s fill rate along with 4X antialiasing and 48 billion shader operations per second and a9 billion dot product operations per second. The specifications are breathtaking and according to the CNET editors review, it is hard to compare or comment on a machine with futuristic capabilities and one that is yet to have a comparison. What the xbox 360 will have is realistic graphics.
The memory system is GenX and has a 512 MB of 700 megahertz GDDR3 RAM on a 128-bit bus. The system has a unified memory architecture which is shared by the CPU and GPU.
The bandwidth is high and is utilized for z-buffering, alpha blending, and antialiasing. The system is designed to be efficient and save time and space on the GPU die.
The xbox 360 has a six channel Dolby Digital surround sound. The sound files are encoded and an MPEG-2 decoder is included in the dvd video playback. The voice communication is handled by the console and allows cross-game communications. The system is sophisticated and has no voice echo.
The CNET Editors review has awarded the xbox 360 a rating of 8.4 /10. According to the reviewers the Xbox360 will support high definition gaming. The xbox 360, a gaming console developed by Microsoft is user-friendly and sturdy in design. The system offers downloads, communications, and excellent gaming opportunities. A GenX media hub the Xbox 360 allows playing of DVDs, CDs, TV shows, and games. It has the power and performance of a high-end gaming console which includes great networking. What is negative about the X box 360 is that it has a few design flaws that need ironing out. The power supply is oversized, the fan noisy, there is no inbuilt wireless networking, no DVI or HDMI output, a substandard dvd player, and no suitable storage for high definition content.
Opinions on the xbox 360 are widely divided. A firm consensus can only be reached twelve months or so after the release when gamers and developers world wide begin using the console and discover the flaws and hidden facets.
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