Swimming

Hey guys! This post will be about swimming

Swimming is a water sport and you can do it by individual or in a group. Normally, you can swim in the sea or in a swimming poor. However, if you are beginner, I will recommend you go to swim in the swimming poor. Due to the undercurrent of the sea, it will exhaust body and increase the difficultly of swim.

Swimming is an aerobic sports and it have many benefits to human body. Basically, it can reduce the probability of the swimmers to get the heart attack and help them to loss weight.  

After we have introduced the benefits of swimming, we will start to talk about the technique of swimming. In the long term history, human have developed four different swimming styles, which include Front crawl, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly stroke.

- Front crawl

The Front crawl is a swimming style that the swimmer keeps a face-down position. This style requires the swimmers move their arm as circle and use their feet stroke to provide the force to move forward.

-Backstroke

The Backstroke is a swimming style that the swimmer keeps a face-up position. This style is normally same as the front crawl, but it is more require the swimmers to relax their body.

-Breaststroke

The Breaststroke is a swimming style that imitates the frog swim. The main feature of this style is the frog kick, which the legs of the swimmers move like the frog leg movement.

-Butterfly stroke

Butterfly stroke is also a swimming style which have a face-down position. However, unlike the front crawl, the swimmer needs to synchronous pull and push with both arms. Also, the main point of the leg movement is depending on their waist movement.

If you want to have health body and keep fit, I highly start swimming today. Hope to see u guys in the next post!

Written by Ricky Law

Volleyball

Welcome back! Today's topic is Volleyball!

Volleyball is an predominantly indoor team sport played on a court with a net down the middle and a ball. The game consists of two teams with teams of 6-12 players but 6 players on court at a time. There are 5 positions in volleyball: Outside Hitter, Middle Blocker, Setter and
Libero. The aim of the game is to hit the ball over the net and win points. Points can be won if:
- the opposition player touches any part of the net
- the opposition players steps over the centre line
- the ball touches the floor of the opposing team
- the ball is touched last by the opposition team before going out.

There are three main movements/actions that volleyball players use. These are spike, set and dig.

Spiking

Spiking is the most attacking form of movement. It involves slamming the ball with a downward motion aggressively in an attempt to win the rally.  It is usually the last touch out of the three touches that are allowed in each play.

Setting is predominantly performed by the setter. Setting involves spreading your fingers in the shape of the ball above the head like your about to catch the ball. Instead of catching the ball, you should use your fingers to propel the ball up in an inverted-U angle to set up the ball for the attacking players (uni, outside, middle). Setting can also be used when passing a serve to the setter.

Setting

Digging/Passing is the defensive motion used in volleyball. In order to execute a dig properly, you should place your forearms together to form a platform for the ball to land on. The dig is then executed with a swinging motion upwards so the ball falls near the setter to set. The dig is used mainly to defend spikes and to pass serves.

Digging

Volleyball is a hard sport to learn as the actions that are performed in the sport are not similar to any other sport and therefore a transferal of similar skills are not applicable. However it is a great team sport and can be enjoyed by a large majority of people. I enjoy it because it is challenging for short players due to the net height.



(written by Nathan Lam)

Touch Football

Hey Athletes!

In today's post, I'll be talking about Touch Football. Touch Football is a modified version of rugby league, in which touching is used instead of tackling. It follows a similar format to oz tag and rugby league as the rules and structure of the game is similar. The game is played on a grass field around the size of half a football field. In competitive competitions, each team generally consists of 12 players maximum on each team and 6 on the field. The aim of the game is to score tries by placing the ball over the try line without being touched.

I think touch footy is a very hard sport to enjoy and that's what I like about it. While there are not a whole heap of rules, there are a lot of terms and plays that the best players learn, practice and execute their plays to score tries. The game is also super quick and is very cardio endurance based, therefore, those who play on a competitive level must have a high level of fitness.

Other important skill attributes that will benefit your experience are:
- Speed: This helps you get around players, run past players, run from dummy half quickly.
- Stepping/agility: This helps you wrong foot or unbalance your opponents or weave and dodge their touches.
- Passing: Passing is important as it is the main action used in the sport, having a long torpedo pass allows you to throw long cut-out passes to the wingers to score when they are unmarked.
- Hand eye coordination: This is important for catching balls because some passes can be difficult to catch when you are running at top speeds and attempting to catch the ball as well.
- Reaction speed: This is needed when you are under pressure in certain situations. When you are rushed to by the opposition, reaction speed can assist you in quickly catching and passing.
- Diving: Diving is a hard skill to master. However it is critical if you want to score tries against tough defensive teams. Diving allows you to slide under your opponents hands and slide the ball over the line before they touch you.

Diving

I do not recommend this sport beginners who are trying a new sport that can improve their fitness levels. I believe this sport is a highly competitive hard sport to learn. When beginners play with experienced players, it can ruin the dynamics of the team and therefore it is very difficult to integrate both types of players into the same team. An alternate similar sport that may be more enjoyable for amateurs would be oz tag.

If you want to learn the terminology and rules of the game click here.

Here is a video of some touch footy highlights from Dylan Hennessy.






(Written by Nathan Lam)

Introduction

Hello!
Welcome to our Blog.
This blog is created by four Macquarie university students studying unit ISYS100. The blog is about different types of sports, some factual information and also our opinions, thoughts and ideas about these sports. Hope you enjoy reading our blog.

Bye.