Article by William Crow – Former Professional Basketball Player – Chairman Springbak Inc.

Great footwork skills are necessary to beat a defender on a drive to the basket. Why? This ability is extremely important because the more the ability the offensive player has to drive past a defender, the more a footwork skills come into play. Great footwork skills will cause the defender to play further off the offensive player making it easier to get off a jump shot.

How do I beat a defender on a drive to the basket?

Step one: Create a driving alley either left or right.
Step two: The first movement if driving to the left is to first (as quickly as possible) plant your right foot onto the floor for a quick push off to the left. The entire inside length of your right shoe should hot the floor at the same time (to take any stress off your ankle).

As soon as the shoe hits the floor, spring to the left. If you are wearing Springbak Springsoles in your shoes, the spring effect of the Springsoles will quicken your push off to the left. Your cut to the left is in effect a low lateral jump to the left, to move your body into that driving lane before the defender can react and get there before you do. If you get there at the same time and collide, the foul is on the defender. If you get to the alley before the defender, you have a drive to the basket.

As you spring off your right foot, you should simultaneously step out with your left leg and lean your shoulder to the left. When you left ankle hits, push off hard towards the basket. To drive to the right, (and you need a move in both directions) just reverse the move to the left instructions.

Have fun and practice great footwork to improve your game tremendously.

William Crow – Chairman Springbak Inc.

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For more tips and information:

Visit the Official Springbak® Website at www.springbak.net
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Why Endurance Athletes Need Strength:

Clearly marathon running is an endurance event, and not necessarily a strength sport. But for a marathoner, the ability to lift more weight offers a significant advantage and benefit.

For example, if two runners are equal in every respect except for muscular strength, the stronger athlete will be faster over any distance. If one runner can squat 10% more weight than another, his muscles will not have to work as hard to move the body forward, maximizing his endurance gains. And when muscles don’t need to work as hard, they also don’t require as much oxygen or circulating blood, putting less demand on the heart, lowering one’s heart rate and improving endurance significantly. Greater strength equals greater endurance!

What Body Parts to Train:

While you would expect the focus for runners and cyclists to be the legs, muscle gains and upper-body strength can offer a significant performance advantage.

Using your arms and upper body improves the muscle function in those areas. Each time muscles contract, oxygen levels and nutrients in the blood are needed. As with the legs, your arms will draw upon the heart to deliver oxygen and nutrition and remove waste products (lactate) so that they can continue moving fluently. Therefore, it makes sense to increase your upper-body strength as well so that it doesn’t become too much of an oxygen draw on your system and increase your heart rate.

Training Fuel:

Nutrition is a vital part of physical training. Of course, what you eat becomes the building blocks used to reconstruct the muscle tissue that your training has broken down. Make sure to consume a nutrient-packed smoothie after each workout. Quick and efficient recovery from each workout is key. The faster you can recover, the sooner you can train again. This is what leads to true gains and will improve your performance more than any other single principal. Visit Brendan’s site at www.brendanbrazier.com

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For more tips and information:

Visit the Official Springbak® Website at www.springbak.net
Peak Performance Springsoles / Insoles – Run Faster, Jump Higher, Lessen Fatigue

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SUPER BOWL XLIV – COLTS vs. SAINTS – CHANCE TO WIN 1 Pair of Springbak Springsoles / Insoles and a Springbak T-Shirt from Springbak, Inc!

QUESTION:

WHO WILL WIN & BY HOW MANY POINTS?
Submit your guess by commenting below!

Winner will be chosen from those who comment with the closest guess posted on this blog post.
(Direct Link: http://www.springbak.net/springbak-inc-wants-to-know-who-will-win-the-super-bowl-xliv)

All guesses will initially be private/hidden and publicized after the deadline has passed.

Deadline for submissions:
Kick-Off!  February 7, 2010 at 6PM EST

Thanks for playing along and GOOD LUCK!

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Springbak Staff
http://www.springbak.net

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Faster How?
There is a time honored formula for improving running speed: shorten foot plant time and increase stride length. Running on a resilient surface such as a rubberized track will accomplish both. NFL combine scouts know this as a fact and will deduct .15 of a second off a 40 yard dash times on an artificial turf vs. rubberized track. Unless your sport is track and field you do not play on a rubberized surface. There is a way however to make your playing surface like a rubberized track. You can put material far more resilient than a rubberized track inside your athletic shoes. Whether your playing surface is dirt, grass, concrete, a wooden floor or an artificial turf field; you will have the same speed (or jumping ability) benefits of playing on a rubberized track.

How is this possible?
* Springbak Springsoles are made from the two most resilient material in the world. Butadiene and Natural Rubber. In fact, butadiene rubber has 15% more resilience or bounce than any material in the world. Futhermore, Springbak holds exclusive patent rights to use butadiene rubber in footwear.

Springbak currently holds four separate USA patents (and one foreign patent) under the category of “performance enhancing” shoe components, which are the result of 12 long years of research and development. Springbak Springsoles are really a patented platform, manufactured in the shape of an insole made from a blend of patented space age materials.

When inserted, Springbak’s patented Springsoles always increase core body strength immediately, by raising the Vibration Frequency of the human body, thus increasing the speed of the body’s electromagnetic system. This in turn speeds up your body’s electrical currents which are the vehicles that send messages to the brain & back to the muscles, thus allowing you to pull more energy from your own power plant-the human body.

This well known and validated scientific process is called Vibration Frequency, which has been taught in the USA medical schools, kinesiology, bio-mechanical, and physical therapy classes for well over 100 years. The Japanese and Chinese have been applying this process by hand manipulation in massage therapy and acupuncture for over a thousand years.

Springbak is indeed the world leader, with it’s cutting edge scientific progress for athletes. The 1/16th of an inch patented platforms are designed to fit any athletic shoe. When the Springsoles are inserted, the proven scientific fact(s) are; they enable an athlete to draw more energy from their own body, thus allowing the athlete to maximize their own muscle potential for training and competition. Another marvelous feature of the Springsole is Springbak’s patented “recoil process”, which totally eliminates shin splints (forever) while reducing fatigue and recovery time.

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For more information:

Visit the Official Springbak® Website at www.springbak.net
Peak Performance Springsoles / Insoles – Run Faster, Jump Higher, Lessen Fatigue

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The best basketball shooters all have an extremely quick release with no more than two motions. Here are tips you need to incorporate into your shot.

1) Straight up to the shooting stroke position off a pass reception or a dribble.

2) Never take the ball down to start a release, this just creates extra motion that slows the release

How long should the power stroke be? Only 3 to 4 inches max. Why?

3) This short quick explosion of the arm: upward push of the shoulder, quick extension of the forearm, all done at the same time

4) A quick release activates the elastic whipping action of the wrist and fingers.

How does a shooter get proper backspin on the basketball?

5 ) Backspin comes from the basketball rolling up the fingers at release.

The ball should be released off the middle finger. Why?

6) This allows the wrist to break directly at the rim

Should my elbow be in when I shoot the basketball? No. Why?

7) If your elbow is in when you shoot the basketball, this causes the wrist to be out of line with the basket.

Article written by William Crow – Former NBA Basketball Player * Chairman, Springbak Inc.

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For more tips like these:

Visit the Official Springbak® Website at www.springbak.net
Peak Performance Springsoles / Insoles – Run Faster, Jump Higher, Lessen Fatigue

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