John Wall's Workout to get ready for the League

John Wall, aka No.1 selection, is now playing for my hometown Wizards.... at least until his rookie contract is up. Why do I think Wall is only in D.C. for a couple of years? Because he plays in the hardest division in basketball and maybe will never make the playoffs. Hopefully my prediction doesn't come true:

Steve Young Teaches you How to Negotiate with Teammates

Steve Young has become quite the successful businessman after he let the field, but many of the skills that he uses today he gives credit to his experience as quarterback. In this podcast, Young explains everything, from gaining the confidence of his teammates, to putting confidence in a young Terrell Owens of all people. Take a listen:

[ Stanford Podcast ]

Ronaldinho teaches Dribbling Tricks and Drills

In the last post, we showed how Zidane, performs his magic on the pitch. Now my favorite player of all time, Ronaldinho, takes his turn at explaining how the beautiful game is actually won. The vids are in Portuguese but you don't need to understand to follow the movements.

Leadership Lessons from Lebron's "The Decision"

Absent from the discussion of Lebron's one hour me special is just how bad judgement the entire episode was. I'm the same age as Lebron and I've rationalized the episode itself, but its execution was horrible. Clearly, he should have informed Cleveland that he was leaving and then had his me-show. The Washington Post's Leadership Blog has a good post on the subject.

[ Post's Leadership Blog ]

Zidane teaches How to Control the Ball

Zidane is arguably my favorite player of all time. He combined a mastery of the game with a killer instinct to take the game over and win. Its something that's a common denominator in all sports but never that often achieved. Zidane was able to lead France to a World Cup win and another World Cup final where of course "it" happened. But without Zidane, France became nothing. Zidane's control on the pitch is what enabled him to be so effective. Here he is teaching its importance and ways in which you can control both the ball and the game.

Futbol Drills from Yakubu

The World Cup maybe over, but getting ready for the next one isn't. Here's Nigerian Superstar and Premier League Player, Yakubu, teaching various skills such as dribbling and scoring off of headers:

Steven Ireland does MMA

First it was football, then basketball, and now everyone is incorporating MMA into their workout regime. No matter what how much flopping around you saw at this World Cup, futbol/football/soccer players are pretty tough. Now they too have been stricken with the MMA bug. Here's Steven Ireland doing some MMA to get ready for the upcoming season:

Meet Stevie's fitness guru - Manchester City FC

Derrick Rose & Tyreke Evans Training Drills

...O.J. Mayo too. The next generation is practicing for the days Lebron and Kobe are no longer in the league. The best part is that these three players are still young enough to make training drills matter. These drills can actually train the player's subconscious so that in the fourth quarter with two minutes remaining they'll be able to rely on moves that they learned, instead of their previous nature.

Dieting, the Washington Capitals Way

My hometown's favorite blogger, Dan Steinberg, has a great piece on how the Washington Capitals address the dietary nutrition of their players:

"Finley said he added 15 pounds to his frame while actually decreasing his body fat while he was out. He was eating up to 12 eggs a day, six raw in his protein shakes, until someone pointed out "you don't have to be Rocky." And he significantly upped his fiber intake, which teammates have noticed, since he's been "lighting up the weight room, kind of stinking 'em out a little bit," Finley joked."

[More @DCSportsBog]

Lebron James: A Smart Decision, but not a Skillful One.

I'm not going to get all angry sports reporter, or Mr.Holier than though, but last night we were robbed. Lebron took away a picture in our head. A picture of the ultimate player. See what's missing from the debate about the "Extreme Heat," is that Lebron's abilities, his talent level, has peaked and he would never get better as a player. He simply has no need too.

Sure Lebron, didn't have the teammates necessary to win a championship. Although they were the number one team in the East, I can accept that one man can lead a team to regular season victory, but in the end his team can come up short. But let's not kid ourselves into believing that he was missing only a strong number two.

Lebron was missing:

A mid-range game,
Low-post moves,
A consistent jumper,
Dribbling that isn't borderline traveling the Atlantic.

So how did Lebron cure his woes. Not by spending time with Hakeem, or taking thousands of shots, but instead by filling those roles with Bosh's mid-range game, and D-Wade's more consistent jumper that doesn't need a pick. This is the easiest way out. Option B was to go to Chicago and work within a team, in a gym, and become not only the most valuable, or the most effective, but the most skillful.

And that is where Lebron cheated everyone.

1964 Chelsea Youth Training Video

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an article that I proclaimed was one of the best I've ever read on futbol/football/soccer (whatever) which featured Ajax and their training methods. Well here we have a video explaining how Chelsea trained kids, but in the 1960's. Not that much information here, but it is cool to watch. [ Guardian ]

Kobe Bryant learning Hakeem Olajuwon's moves

Lebron James maybe running an hour long special on where he'll try to win a championship next year, and while he's doing that Kobe will be grinning from ear to ear. He knows like many others that Lebron is fairly one dimensional and unless he adds to his game, he'll be stuck at zero rings. Kobe reinvents himself all the time. Since the explosion in his legs have gone, Kobe has added a shake and bake that only could have come from Hakeem Olajuwon, and guess who gave Kobe the one on one training he needed: