Free Court Articles

The popularity of youth hockey is exploding, especially in the U.S. and international countries. Today, more than ever before, youth hockey is being played by more kids than anyone would have imagined a few decades ago. One of the reasons for this is the availability, year round, of local ice rinks. In the past, if the weather outside did not cooperate, you didn?t skate. It was as simple as that. However, with new technology skating can easily be accomplished year round an...

Earvin Johnson Jr., known simply as ?Magic? to millions of basketball fans all over the world, has been one of the NBA?s best players and biggest winners. Standing 6-9, Johnson revolutionized the point guard position with his pure passing and all-around versatility. Johnson was a winner at every level of his career, starting in high school and including college, professional and international. At Michigan State University, he injected a much-needed dose of enthusiasm and p...

Although she is no longer the number one tennis player in the world, Maria Sharapova is still absolutely the most famous and most watched female tennis superstar as well as the world?s highest paid female athlete. Her parents were originally from Gomel, Belarus but they moved to the infamous Siberia in Russia in 1986 after the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. Sharapova herself was born in Nyagan, Russia on April 19, 1987. She now resides in the United States but has retained...

Although he has been retired for several years now, Michael Jordan is still widely regarded as the greatest basketball player to ever play the game. His influence was felt not only in the way the game was played, but also in how it was perceived around the world. Ultimately, his excellence at his sport was instrumental in catapulting the popularity of basketball and the National Basketball Association all over the world during the eighties and nineties. Beyond all this, Jorda...

One of the biggest disasters in all of sports in recent history, the Knicks have to prove that their enormous payroll can win games or face a not-so-good future. With most of their money locked up with selfish swing men new head coach Isiah Thomas will have his hands full trying to fulfill New York fan expectations. The most talented player on the Knicks is point guard Stephon Marbury. The problem with Marbury is that he is often too selfish for a point guard and usually f...

So you wanna develop a killer offense? Well, before you start wearing out your chalk, take some time to critically evaluate your team. Sit down with yourself and honestly, truthfully evaluate your team. What are their strengths; what are their weaknesses? This is the first step to concocting your unstoppable offense. Without this evaluation process, you?ll be completely lost when it comes to optimizing and maximizing your team?s offensive production. Let?s take a qui...

As we start to look ahead to the rest of the 2006 season and decide which baseball tickets are going to be the ones to get for contending teams as they push towards the finish line, we?d also like to look beyond October. Certain teams are building a young nucleus of players that will put them on many fans? ?watch list? in 2007. Although none of these teams have been mathematically eliminated yet this season, they are all realistically out of time to make up the ground necessa...

There are so many rules in tennis that it can be tough to accurately determine who is at fault when certain situations come up. The more that you know about the sport, the better the chance you have at being able to avoid any controversy should one of the less-common situations in tennis come up. Q: When can I call a foot foul on my opponent? A: In a match that is not being judged by a referee, it can be difficult to determine whether or not you should call out a foot fou...

If you manage to get your hands on Phoenix Suns tickets, you need to be ready to move your head back and forth as the ball zooms up and down the court for 48 frenetic minutes. The Suns make no apologies for their style of play, even though their offensive game tends to ruffle the feathers of basketball purists. The Suns have seemingly been in contention for the NBA title for years, and below we?ll take a look at their prospects for the upcoming season. Additions The...

Thinking of starting to play tennis? Tennis is a great sport that requires mental preparation and physical agility. The first part of being able to play the game properly is understanding the rules, and in this article, we'll be discussing what are commonly agreed upon as the official rules of tennis. The rules that we will discuss are based on the provided courtesy of the International Tennis Federation. THE COURT - Tennis should be played on a court that is built to cert...

University of Maryland basketball tickets were ?the? tickets to have at the beginning of the 21st Century, as the Terrapins were truly a part of the elite of college basketball. They hit their apex in 2002 when they won the national championship, and it appeared that Coach Gary Williams had the program prepared to dominate into the foreseeable future. However, something happened on the Terrapins? way to a dynasty, and they have not even qualified for the last two NCAA Tournam...

There are many things that people must do, despite what is currently going on in their personal life. The person may be dealing with divorce, illness, or even the death of a family member, yet they still have to go to work or take care of children. There is a former NBA player that most fans consider to be the best player ever in professional basketball. The former player?s name is Michael Jordan, and he was excellent on offense and defense. Michael Jordan played for the Chic...

Kentucky basketball tickets have been cherished for generations in the Bluegrass State, and the team has long been rewarding its rabid fan base with victories in bushels. The Wildcats have won more Division I basketball games than any other school in the United States, and everything about Rupp Arena reeks of tradition and legendary figures. However, the team, at least by Kentucky?s nearly unmatched standards, has struggled in recent years, and the heat is being turned ...

The National Basketball League tips off another season Oct. 31 with both bet makers and bet takers sifting through the debris of last year's results in hopes of finding NBA betting clues to the upcoming campaign. From a wagering standpoint, the most important thing to know is that oddsmakers approach the NBA a bit differently than they do most other major sports, relying far less on Power Ratings, the numbers that form the price-making building blocks. There are several un...

It would seem that Basketball has been with us forever. Yet it was only in 1881 that Dr. James Naismith created the game that now is one of the most popular games in the United States. What you may not also realise is that Naismith was actually born in Canada, and some wonder if the sport would be so popular in the US had he not been living in Massachusetts at the time he invented it.

Number 2 Notre Dame squeaked by the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Saturday 14-10. At one point in the game, the Fighting Irish were down 10-0. Scores in the 2nd and 3rd quarter helped Notre Dame take a 14-10 lead, which was the final score. Was this really the number two team in the country? This win over unranked Georgia Tech was very unimpressive. After all the touting of Notre Dame in the offseason, I expect much more out of them. Next up for Notre Dame is ranked Penn ...

While many are familiar with the basic aspects of the game of tennis, few realize exactly how much difference a type of course can have on their game. In this article, we'll help you learn to identify the differences of different playing surfaces and allow you to be able to efficiently adjust your game to make up for the changes a court makes. - One commonly used surface for tennis courts is one that is known as Rebound Ace. This substance is hard, and it is found in may ...

Anyone who is considering tennis training will be happy to know that there are plenty of ways to learn how to play the game. Every way from the tennis court to the internet, the video store and even the classroom will prove to be beneficial for those wanting to learn how to play the great game of tennis. Prices will vary depending on the type of training method that is chosen, but can often be quite affordable. This is especially true of those who opt for learning at home thr...

Los Angeles Clippers tickets were, at best, an afterthought for decades in the city. The Clippers had one of the worst records in the NBA over a period of several years, and the team never went anywhere in the postseason on the rare occasions that they actually got there. The team was a mess, and perhaps no franchise in American professional sports had less hope in the big picture than the Clippers. My, how times have changed. The Clippers had a wildly-successful 2005-06 s...

It is one of the sportswriter's favorite tricks before every NBA finals to pick one leading player of each finalist team and call the series a duel between those players. This trick has been always really effective in the promotion of the game and of the NBA. NBA funs have watched a lot of those duels in the past: Bird vs. Magic, Jordan vs. Drexler, Olajuwon vs. Ewing or Robinson etc. The similarities and the differences between the duelers made the games even greater to watc...

If you want to make real money in sports betting, then you want to engage in basketball betting. It's one of the biggest sports?betting wise?for a reason. The basketball season is coming up soon and I wanted to create a simple guide to understanding the basketball lines. If have never bet on basketball or have, but are slightly confused, this is the article for you. Let's get into it. Spreads The majority of people bet on basketball via the spread. The spread is the num...

Martina Navratilova is widely regarded as the greatest female tennis player in the history of the game. She captured 18 Grand Slam singles titles and 40 Grand Slam doubles titles. She was born in Czechoslovakia on October 18, 1956 and at age 18 defected to the United States in 1975. She was granted US citizenship in 1981. Her given name was Martna Subertova but her parents divorced when she was three and her mother remarried a man named Miroslav Navratil, who would later o...

Arguably one of the most recognizable figures in the world of professional tennis, player Andre Agassi has announced that he will be retiring from the sport after the 2006 U.S. Open. Currently aged 36, Andre's tennis career has spanned 20 years. His career was a long-lasting one that saw him play on while other players of his age range retired. He was a true master of the sport, held in regards with Pete Sampras and Jim Courier. Andre's career saw its first speck of glory ...

Bob Sapp, an athlete born September 22, 1972 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is an accomplished kick boxer and martial arts fighter. He is known as "The Beast" and is most famous in Japan and Korea where he has appeared in television commercials and has even released a music CD called "Its Sapp Time". People almost always ask Bob Sapp if he is related to the Oakland Raiders defensive tackle, Warren Sapp, but he is not related in any way. He did, however, begin his athletic ...

My son has gained an edge on me after he became a staunch fan of Federer. Kids will learn from example, whether we?re talking matrices in precalc during highschool, picking their nose as a toddler, or in our case, the basics of mental tennis. Federer vs. Safin, a short compare and contrast. Actually, just a contrast. Well, fine, both of them happen to be tennis players. Changeovers (Federer)- Sits down in his chair, meditates, clears his mind, visualizes victory. Cha...

The National Basketball League has some excellent players on its teams. They train well, play well, and interact well. The players not only do these things well, but they also give to the community. NBACARES is a wonderful program that allows youths in need of role models and other types of assistance to receive this help directly from the professional basketball players. The players go out into communities and seek out young people in need. They hand-deliver gifts to childre...

At the start of the 2006 Wimbledon Championships last June, tennis great Andre Agassi announced that he was retiring from professional tennis. The curtain was about to come down on one of the most successful and popular careers the sport had ever seen, a career that spanned two decades, eight Grand Slam championships and a host of unforgettable moments on the tennis court. The 36-year-old Agassi said that after Wimbledon, he would play just one more major tournament, the U...

Tennis is a sport with numerous rules and regulations, and getting them all in your head can take a while. In this article, we'll examine some commonly occurring issues regarding the game so that you can have a clearer outlook on exactly what should happen should these questions come up in a game. Q: What should I do if a ball from another court rolls onto my court during the middle of a match? A: The rules laid out by the International Tennis Federation state that a re...

Basketball is a favorite pastime of kids and adults alike. American kids grow up with dreams of earning scholarships and reaching fame in the college league. Basketball owes its origin to Dr. James Naismith, who invented the sport in 1892. Before long, the popularity of the game caught on and it was being played in American colleges. The first official game involving a college team was played between Geneva College and the New Brighton YMCA in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania on...

I remember a time when hockey was awesome. You know, before the strike and the fall from popular demand and interest? It wasn't just Canada then either--the NHL was chock full of talented players and dominating teams. Sadly, I fear those days are over. It used to be about respect for the players and the team coordination, but recently it has been more about the hockey fights. Everyone loves a good hockey fight. Usually they are provoked, but you still never quite expect th...