Sports include many games structured in threes. In baseball, there are three strikes and you are out, three outs to an inning, and a trinity of trinities (3X3), in other words, 9 innings. Do you know about "Tinker to Evers to Chance?" Pictured to the right is none other than Joe Dimaggio.
There are three special names for NCAA College Championship rounds (March Madness).
The tournament starts with sixty-four teams. After the 1st round thirty-two teams remain.
The names begin on the 2nd round:
Sweet Sixteen (round 2)
Elite Eight (round 3)
Final Four (round 4)
At this stage the final two teams play for the NCAA Championship. It’s March Madness!
Basketball History
James Naismith
Dr. James Naismith is known world-wide as the inventor of basketball. He was born in 1861 in Ramsay township, near Almonte, Ontario, Canada. The concept of basketball was born from Naismith’s school days in the area where he played a simple child’s game known as duck-on-a-rock outside his one-room schoolhouse. The game involved attempting to knock a “duck” off the top of a large rock by tossing another rock at it. Naismith went on to attend McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Duck on the Rock
After serving as McGill’s Athletic Director, James Naismith moved on to the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA in 1891, where the sport of basketball was born. In Springfield, Naismith was faced with the problem of finding a sport that was suitable for play inside during the Massachusetts winter for the students at the School for Christian Workers.
December 21, 1891 First Game of Basketball Played in Springfield
Naismith wanted to create a game of skill for the students instead of one that relied solely on strength. He needed a game that could be played indoors in a relatively small space. The first game was played with a soccer ball and two peach baskets used as goals. Naismith joined the University of Kansas faculty in 1898, teaching physical education and being a chaplain.
The original 1891 Basket Ball court in Springfield College
There is the 2-move checkmate, or Fool’s Mate, and the 4-move checkmate, or Scholar’s Mate, but do you know the 3-move checkmate? Grab a friend, play white, and your next game of chess will take longer to set up than to play. You can achieve checkmate in three moves with capturing, or without capturing. For either of these methods to work requires some pretty bad play from your opponent, but maybe you can catch her cold at the start.
One way to do this:
1. Move your King Pawn forward to e4. In both of these methods the key piece for you is your Queen. The Queen is the piece that you are going to use to achieve the checkmate, so your first move should be to open up space for the Queen to move diagonally. Moving the King Pawn forward two spaces to square e4 achieves this (e4).
2. Capture your opponent’s Pawn at f5. Now use your Pawn to capture your opponent’s advanced Pawn by attacking on the diagonal. Notated, that’s e4xf5. Here you are trying to encourage your opponent to move their Knight Pawn forward two spaces to g5, so it is alongside your Pawn.
3. Move your White Queen to h5 (Qh5). Checkmate! Now you can move your Queen on the diagonal to h5 and you have your opponents King pinned. That’s game over! You’ll notice that if your opponent hadn’t moved their Pawn forward two in their last turn they could have blocked off your Queen by putting a pawn in her way by g6.
Call out checkmate! Now you can take the King with your Queen on the diagonal and celebrate a very swift victory. If your opponent has fallen into the trap they will likely be a bit annoyed, so don’t gloat too much!
See the video for a good explanation:
How to Achieve Checkmate in 3 Moves-Chess
Source: Youtube and https://www.wikihow.com/Checkmate-in-3-Moves-in-Chess
Here’s a quick breakdown of these three major types of speed workouts.
By Jenny Hadfield
Fartleks, That’s fun to say. Elf.
Hi Jenny, I just read your article,‘What Should I Do During the Off Season?’. Very helpful, thanks! Could you briefly explain to me the difference between fartlek, tempo, and interval runs? Thanks! Mary
Hi, Mary. Thanks for the kudos. Ask and you shall receive: Here is a brief 411 onfartlek,tempo, andinterval workouts.
Fartlek Workoutsare not only fun to say out loud, but they’re fun to run. Fartlek is Swedish for “speed play,” and that is exactly what it’s all about. Unlike tempo and interval work, fartlek is unstructured and alternates moderate-to-hard efforts with easy throughout. After a warmup, you play with speed by running at faster efforts for short periods of time (to that tree, to the sign) followed by easy-effort running to recover. It’s fun in a group setting as you can alternate the leader and mix up the pace and time. And in doing so, you reap the mental benefits of being pushed by your buddies through an unpredictable workout. The goal is to keep it free-flowing so you’re untethered to the watch or a plan, and to run at harder efforts but not a specific pace.
Benefits: Stress-free workout that improves mind-body awareness, mental strength, and stamina.
TempoWorkoutsare like an Oreo cookie, with the warmup and cooldown as the cookie, and a run at an effort at or slightly above your anaerobic threshold (the place where your body shifts to using more glycogen for energy) as the filling. This is the effort level just outside your comfort zone—you can hear your breathing, but you’re not gasping for air. If you can talk easily, you’re not in the tempo zone, and if you can’t talk at all, you’re above the zone. It should be at an effort somewhere in the middle, so you can talk in broken words. Pace is not an effective means for running a tempo workout, as there are many variables that can affect pace including heat, wind, fatigue, and terrain. Learn how to find your threshold and run a tempo workout that is spot on every timehere.
Benefits:Increased lactate threshold to run faster at easier effort levels. Improves focus, race simulation, and mental strength.
Interval Workoutsare short, intense efforts followed by equal or slightly longer recovery time. For example, after a warmup, run two minutes at a hard effort, followed by two to three minutes of easy jogging or walking to catch your breath. Unlike tempo workouts, you’re running above your red line and at an effort where you are reaching hard for air and counting the seconds until you can stop—a controlled fast effort followed by a truly easy jog. The secret is in the recovery as patience and discipline while you’re running easy allows you to run the next interval strong and finish the entire workout fatigued but not completely spent. Just like rest, your body adapts and gets stronger in the recovery mode.
Benefits:Improved running form and economy, endurance, mind-body coordination, motivation, and fat-burning.
