Ankle Injury Prevention

Recently the Detroit Pistons banned a shoe from being worn by team members. They had numerous ankle injuries in players wearing the Nike Hyperize shoe. It's advertised as a super light weight basketball shoe. I looked at the shoe and it's stylish and see how many would like to wear it. Light weight design may attract players to wear it. The strength training coach at the Pistons suggested the ban because it has no ankle support on the sides of ankle or no padding as some shoes offer.  
I decided to investigate by reading forums and discussions on ankle injury prevention in shoes. The strength training coaches had some great ideas on how to pick a proper shoe for playing basketball. Playing the game involves side motion and cutting. Landing sometimes involves injury especially when on top of another players foot. That injury may be unavoidable in what any shoe has to offer. But the cutting effect requires not only good shoes but good healthy ankles aswell.
The best discussion about the shoe came from a strength and conditioning coach who said to put on the shoe your interested in and bear weight on the heel. Move your heel outward and if your heel goes outward and the bottom of the shoe stays or bends inward toward the other leg it will be cause for injury. That made sense to me.
Others discussed the training efforts by teams. One in particular noted to train the ankle without shoes for a short period after practice. The basketball shoe hinders the full movement while training to avoid injury. Take off shoes and perform forward lunges, reverse lunges and side lunges. Most players put their ballin shoes away after practice anyway and makes for a perfect time to build strength in that area.
I know at Humboldt State University they demand every player on the floor wear ankle braces during all games and practice. This has cut down on ankle injuries since they implemented that idea.
One should always lace up properly. Buy a pair that fits well. The foot should not float around. It will also avoid blisters on the forward and reverse motion during landing and performing jump-stops.

Student Athlete's on the web

A picture of Jordan in his junior year.
Some market themselves by sending a short bio and some game film to different campuses to generate interest to play further in sports. Some join NCAA search groups to help them. Some charge a fee to get your name out.
A local high school player at Arcata High in northern California has produced a fine website to get his name out. This may be the way of the future to get recruited at the college level. I've watched Jordan Semple play and grow since he played middle school ball. I believe his work ethics on the court and in the classroom will help him move on to the next level. Here's his link:
www.jordansemple.net

A Work in WHAT !!!

This past few years the media has come up with some dandies to express themselves so the audience would respond with "Gotta listen to this " or Gotta read that". I try to leave the rants I have off my writings but can't get this off my mind.
In the late 90's they came up with everything being an event. I've attended many gatherings that would be considered an event. The media decided an event was anything that happened. A windy day, car wrecks, copy machine ran out of ink, stuff like that. But when they called a full moon an event, I about lost it. They not only made a big deal of having a full moon, they called it a LUNAR EVENT. Holy cow, shut er down, we gotta see this. From the ground looking up we see 12 to 13 full moons a year. Hardly a big deal when ya add them up thru life. They are beautiful though.
Another word that was abused this past decade was MENTOR. Growing up it came to me that someone really special only deserved that honor. All of a sudden, everyone's a mentor. Sure it's nice to donate time and teach, take a person under their wing but to call them all a mentor is out of line. It took the true meaning out of something very special.
This is a lead up to one phrase that creeped up the last couple years.
"A WORK IN PROGRESS"
I've noticed if a team losses by 7 runs, 30 points or 3 touchdowns, you recieve the title of being a work in progress. That's sad. What happened to the reasons why they may have lost. A coach may say this while being interviewed not wanting to ellaborate on the teams effort. Could be a nice way to tell the reporter get away from me. As often as it is used now, I don't continue reading the article or pay attention to the tube. Maybe I enjoy what future plans a coach might have to improve the team. Every team will lose sometime or another. Some play against tough competition or entered a league beyond skill level. I just like that everyone at the middle school or high school is trying their best to play to their full potential. That's all any coach or anyone should ask for.