Month: November 2024

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Writing – Is it Your Passion?

Maybe you love to write, but you’re wondering how far you should go with it. Should you quit your job to pursue it or give up on your dream because you think you’ll never be a New York Times Bestseller? I believe the answer to that lies somewhere in between.

We’ve all heard the saying that everyone has a book in them. I believe this to be true, but not everyone has a desire to write a book. Before we read books on writing or even take classes on writing, there are usually some pretty strong character traits of authors that overshadow even the mechanics of writing. When you think of authors, they’re usually thinking about their book constantly – especially if there in the process of finishing it. What would their characters do in this situation? And even when not writing, they’re observing. And then when the story is complete, what next? The book – their baby – is revised and then re-revised over and over. Onlookers may think it’s a fanatical time-consuming activity with no guarantees. But it’s the passion – the process – that drives the pen or the tapping on a keyboard.

What kind of writer are you?

Do you like to write informative articles, short stories, non-fiction or fiction? Maybe a mix. In writing fiction, it seems there are two kinds of writers: Those who prepare an outline – decide exactly who their characters are, what their personalities are and where the story will take place – and then there are those who write, in the moment, straight from their head/heart. But it varies for each author and the way they’re inspired may differ from one project to another. If you have this desire to write, what steps can you take to improve your writing skills? Maybe you have the passion for it, but now you need to make sure that the fervent writer has the mechanical know-how to tweak and express the story in the most concise, yet engaging, way.

  1. Be Committed. Write in whatever way you’re motivated – whether by an outline or at-the-moment – but commit to consistently spend some time to write. This is the first step. If we want to improve our skills, we need something to start with. Pick a time – an hour at night – turn off the television, the phone and just do it.
  2. Review your Basic Writing Skills. You can do this by pulling out your old books from English class or buying books on writing. There are numerous books out there on writing and the mechanics of it. There are also books on specific writing genres – writing for fiction etc.
  3. Take a Class. Community colleges often offer creative writing courses. This can also be used to help motivate and sharpen your skills.
  4. Join a Writing Group. This may not be for everyone. Some prefer to work on their own and then have their editors review it. But a writing group can provide support and feedback and is a valuable tool for many.

So were in a mode now. We’ve refreshed our skills, maybe taken a class and we write an hour or two a day. We’re happily writing away, but we wonder how long it will take to finish. This varies for everyone. Some it may take months and others a number of years. It took me about 6 months to write my first book, but much longer to then revise and really learn the techniques of writing. From pen to actual book, it took me about 5 years. The key is to keep persevering. It’s easy to give up but if you have something to say, don’t stop now.

Now my final point: Is writing a career or a hobby for you? This can be the kicker. If we’re writing to be the next bestseller, motivation may fall away. It’s tough to get noticed – after all we write to express and hopefully be heard. If it’s a hobby, perhaps it’s more personal. Nobody is telling us what to write and we don’t even have to be heard. Nor is it the sole financial source that puts food on our table. I’m somewhere in between. Bottom line, when it’s a hobby there’s far less pressure, but it’s also perhaps harder to stay motivated. Find your happy medium and enjoy the journey.

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Home Photography Course – Why You Should Take One

Lower Cost of Courses

OK so lets not beat about the bush here, in general taking classroom based photography courses is not a cheap way to learn. I have attended several courses recently where the cost has run to several hundred dollars a day. The main reason classroom courses are much more expensive is because the person running the course has a huge number of expenses that can include the following: rent of a classroom, travel expenses, labor costs for both them and possible any assistants.

The reason why on line photography courses (that you can take in your own home) are so much cheaper is because none of these costs exist to the person providing the course. As soon as the tutor has created the course materials they can keep selling them in the future with no such expenses such as rent. The net result is the home photography courses are much cheaper for you and I.

Convenience

If you have ever tried to find a decent photography course in your local area you probably ended up doing what I have done. Initially I became frustrated and gave up as it seemed there were no photography courses that appealed ion my area. The only courses that appealed to me were a long way from home and the couple that i eventually took ended up costing me much more than usual as I had to pay traveling costs. In fact for one of them I also had to stray overnight as it was a two day course!

Your Pace of Learning

I (like many people) am not the most confident of person. When I learn I like to read, consider what I have just read and let it sink in slowly. I have often found in the past that in a classroom environment I soon become left behind by the pace of learning and as a result, do not get the most out of the courses that I take.

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The Real Functional Training

Functional training is one of the sexy phrases in the business these days when it comes to training basketball players or any athlete from any sport. Functional training should be done in a way that it improves strength as it relates to the activities that the person is trying to perform. Misinformed trainers often try to achieve this through various arrays of circus tricks such as standing on a bosu ball while doing biceps curls. I assure you that, that example serves no function in any sport that I have ever played. Furthermore, traditional exercises that are performed on machines or benches fall on the lower end of functionality as well because they are done in a controlled way that isolates the muscles. That does not mean that you should not do these traditional exercises, they serve great purpose in building up deficiencies in certain muscles, but that is another topic for another article. So, if these types of traditional exercises serve limited purpose in the realm of functionality, which ones do? The answer is quite simple odd-object or strongman training is a great way to gain strength in a way that is applicable to sports, thus making them great functional exercises.

We have all been there, late at night flipping through the channels trying to find anything to watch when we come across the world’s strongest man competition on Espn 2. We sit on the couch enamored to see some guy named Magnus flipping a tractor tire or pulling a bus attached to a rope only to think that this type of “stuff” has little real world application. This could not be less accurate. Strongman training is becoming an increasingly popular method of training athletes and for good reason. Adding strongman exercises like the tire flip, the farmer’s walk, sandbag loading, or the sled drag to an athlete’s workout will increase strength in the posterior chain, explosiveness, and core strength.

The posterior chain includes your calves, glutes, hamstrings, and lower back. The posterior chain is often overlooked when it comes to training, but it should be an integral part of any basketball player’s training regimen. Why? Simply stated, these muscles make you faster, and speed is something all basketball players could use more of. Along with being faster, every basketball player wants to be more explosive and strongman training is an excellent way to achieve explosive power. The increase in explosiveness comes from the triple extension of the ankles, knees, and hips that is required to perform many of these lifts (for more information on triple extension see my article on “Olympic Weightlifting for Basketball”).

Most importantly, an increase in core strength takes place due to the nature of lifting odd objects. Core training involves many different muscles that stabilize the spine and pelvis and run the entire length of the torso, and provides a solid foundation for movement in the extremities. It is for this reason that core training is vital to being a successful athlete. The body is capable of a diverse range of activities that include walking, jogging, sprinting, jumping, starting, stopping, etc. and each one of these movements begins in the core of the body and radiates outward. The instability of an object like a Sandbag allows the weight to move and an athlete must adjust to this constant motion, consequently activating the core muscles.

So, now that you know why strongman training works, how does a coach or athlete implement this type of training into their workouts? Strongman training can be integrated directly into the workout by using each exercise along with traditional training methods. For example, sandbags can be used to do cleans or presses instead of using a bar. You can also use the tire flip or the sled drag as a maximum effort leg exercise on your leg days. Strongman training can also be used at the end of workouts as finishing circuits. For basketball players, having them do several sprints the length of the basketball court while carrying a sand bag different ways (overhead, bear hug, on your shoulders) is an extremely effective way of getting them in great condition.

Finally, you can also implement a strongman day once a week where you put the players through an assortment of strongman exercises. This type of addition to a weekly workout is not only valuable from a strength and conditioning aspect but it can also be really fun. Divide the team up into smaller groups and organize your own strongman competition that includes the tug-of-war, sled drag races, tire flipping for time or whatever else you can think of. The element of competition is sure to get the players excited about training that day and will carry over into other parts of their training.

Basketball players should always be looking for new, innovative, and effective ways to train our bodies. Their training should be functional or focus on improving strength as it relates to their sport. Strongman training is an increasingly popular form of functional training. This is a direct result of these exercise’s ability to increase speed and explosive power through strength gains in the posterior chain and the core. Aside from all of that, it is a change of pace from traditional training methods that can lose their luster after a while, and it is fun. So next time you are flipping through the channels and see Magnus carrying a 300lb stone, do not change the channel, figure out a way to incorporate it into your training and your success will speak for itself.