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Football Kit: Colours and Superstitions

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Football Kit: Colours and Superstitions – Sports – Soccer

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Football kit is a serious matter. Obviously, kit quality is key – must be breathable, durable, comfortable etc… But, have you considered whether your football kit is the right colour? What you wear and how you wear it can make a difference to your team performance!

Back in the 1863 when the FA was established, players didn’t wear uniforms. Teams were identified simply by wearing distinctive coloured hats and scarves. Uniform kits first appeared in the 1870s and the colours adopted were often those of the university, school or sports club associated with the team. For example, Blackburn Rovers first wore the Cambridge University colours (blue and white) because several of the club’s founders were educated there. So very early on in the history of association football, team colours became more than just a practical way of distinguishing players of one team from players of another – the colour of a team’s football kit took on an emotional meaning.

Studies show that their appearance in their football kit affects player confidence and thus impacts on the performance of a team. Colour is likely to be an important factor in this. Different colours are linked with various psychological attributes. The colour red, for example, is often associated with strength and courage. Manchester United adopted red and white as their team colours in 1902 and is one of the most successful teams in English football history. Perhaps their football kit has been a real factor in their success? It might sound a bit wacky – but remember the infamous grey away strip Manchester United wore in 1995-1996? It was soon abandoned after the team failed to win a single match. Players struggled to pass to each other wearing the all grey strip and claimed that the kit wasn’t visible on the pitch.

Many professional football players confess to having a “comprehensive” pre-match ritual governed by various personal superstitions. These range from always eating the same thing for dinner the night before a match, to listening to the right music in the shower on the day of the match and being the last player on the pitch. A number of superstitions centre around football kit and clothing on the pitch. Former England captain Bobby Moore insisted on being the last to put on his football shorts before kick off. Kevin Pilkington used to always wear the same pants and football socks for a game and would put the left sock on before the right sock.

Uniforms give a sense of identity and unity. The colour of your football kit is likely to be its most instantly striking feature and will affect both team members and opponents as well as supporters and observers. This is as important for a grass roots football team as for professional teams so choosing kit for your team is an important decision.

Soccerkits.com supply team wear to pub, youth and kids football teams in a wide range of colours and provide a full customisation service. Visit Soccerkits.com to choose the right football kit for your team.

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Facing Facts

Article by Mickey Mary

A death gives life to dormant memories, and those that surfaced with the passing of his mother in March caught Hale Irwin off guard. He began thinking instead of his father, Hale Sr., who had succumbed to cancer in 1984, when Irwin was occupied with raising a young family and forging a career, subconsciously allowing him to defer his grief.

Mame Irwin’s death did more than call this marker due. It exposed Irwin to his own mortality, contributing to “an awakening,” his brother Phil says, “that age is catching up with us.” In the Irwin family hierarchy, Hale is now on deck.

Of course, on deck is relative. At 63 and still remarkably fit, Irwin is not old by any reasonable measure. When he takes stock of his life (“I feel good. My health is good.”), death concerns him less than the life left in his listless golf game.

“At a point in time you have to pause and reflect,” he says while discussing his mother’s death, “and I think I’m in that pause-and-reflection mode right now, while still trying to keep my golf game, finding traction with that, and I’m slipping.”

By PGA Tour calculations, Irwin has walked 25,000 miles in his career, the equivalent of circling the globe at its equator. What an odd coincidence that this persistent meandering would transport him back to the place at which it essentially began, the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, site of the 29th U.S. Senior Open July 31-Aug. 3. Forty-one years after he first ventured there in search of an answer, he is returning with the same question: Does he have enough game?

In 1967 he posed it to former PGA Tour star Dow Finsterwald, then Broadmoor’s director of golf, who asked him to hit a few fades and draws. Affirmative, Finsterwald told Irwin, who turned pro the following year and doggedly began proving him right by constructing a Hall of Fame career from 20 PGA Tour victories (including three U.S. Opens) and a record 45 Champions Tour wins (including two U.S. Senior Opens).

This time, there is no easy answer, though(http://www.newgolfcentre.com/) there could be a disturbing one for a famously competitive man who heretofore would not permit himself to fail. Is it possible that his game is finally submitting to the passage of time?

When Irwin was a football star at the University of Colorado, his preseason preparation included 50-yard sprints, 20 of them. “I’d make sure I ran 51 yards,” he says. “I never wanted to let up at that 49th. I wanted to push through 50 and go to 51.”

Time has a way of moving the hash marks, so that the same effort doesn’t deliver the same results. This seems to be where Irwin is in his career. “I know I’m trying just as hard as I ever tried, and I’m not playing very well,” he says. “I’m not seeing the benefits of all this effort.”

It has been 18 months since his last win; his best effort in 12 starts in ’08 is a T-18. A victory at this point would allow him to surpass Mike Fetchick as the oldest winner in Champions Tour history. Suffice it to say about one for whom “tenacious competitor” would be a fitting epitaph for his career, Irwin is disinclined to surrender meekly to the debilitating effects that aging has on golf. “At some stage it’s going to happen,” he says, “but I honestly don’t believe it’s right now. I’m not hitting the panic button. Yes, the game’s (http://www.golfzonejp.com/)been lousy, but do I lose sleep over it? No. Generally, you get what you deserve.”

He acknowledges that he has not putted well (he is ranked 75th in putting average this season), a problem exacerbated by missed tee shots that contribute to wayward iron shots and longer putts. Also, there are peripheral issues that invariably have been distractions, even undermining the importance of a game that his world has revolved around for the better part of his life. At the MasterCard Championship, the first event of the season, Irwin’s wife, Sally, passed out and hit her head. “She’s fine now, but it was scary at the time,” Irwin says. Then Sally’s mother took ill, temporarily. Finally, his own mother died, triggering a range of emotions that included what he called “the mortality issue.”

The article source:http://www.newgolfcentre.com/2012/04/26/facing-facts/

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Best NCAA Football Team in History

Article by Mo Johnson

As the calendar page turns to August, the thoughts of sports fans across the country turn to College Football.

And, why not. With the scandals rocking pretty much every other sport – College Football stands out for its good, clean competition. It’s epitomizes what sports should be all about.

Of course, the various National Polls are coming out with their opinions of who is the Number 1 college football team in the land. And that controversial issue will be debated around thousands of water coolers for the next five months at least.

Before we get into the frenzy of the college football season (I can’t wait), this might be a good time to take a step back and dispassionately explore the topic of which was the best college football team in history.

Certainly, which was the best team ever is a debatable issue. But, as an SEC fan, I have a strong opinion. And, I think the answer is easy: The 1961 Alabama Crimson Tide was the best college football team ever.

The team was led by the legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. Of course the “Bear” ultimately became, perhaps, the best college football coach ever. Among many accomplishments, his teams won fifteen Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships and six National Championships.

But, his 1961 team was the first. Five more National Championship teams would follow in its footsteps. But, the 1961 team blazed the trail for the rest.

The 1961 Alabama Crimson Tide went an undefeated (11-0) and was crowned the undisputed National Champion. With the numerous national polls, at the time, it was very unusual to finish the season as the “undisputed” National Champ. The ’61 Crimson Tide did it.

But, the really amazing thing about that team was its defense. It outscored its opponents 297 – 25! No one scored more than 7 points against the ’61 Crimson Tide defense and, in fact, six opponents failed to score at all. They beat Tennessee 34-3 and ended the season by beating Arkansas 10-3 in the Sugar Bowl.

The team was led by offensive lineman Billy Neighbors and linebacker Lee Roy Jordan (both in the College Football Hall of Fame); as well as QB Pat Trammell (Heisman Trophy finalist). Considering the legend of Bear Bryant; the undefeated record; the undisputed national championship; the amazing defense; the fact they were “the first” in a long line of Alabama champions – it’s easy to see why the 1961 Alabama Crimson Tide was the best team in college football history.

See you at the water cooler.

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