Mike Hall is performing tonight in a show of Comedy Wars alumni.

Standing near the MU Columns, Mike Hall still looks like a typical college student. His dirty blond hair is styled to make it look messy. His long-sleeved, purple shirt adorned with white vertical stripes was left unbuttoned at the chest. His sunglasses were pinned to the inside of his collar, despite the bright sun shining over the MU campus.

“Hey Mike, how’s it going? Great to see you!” shouted a female student walking across Francis Quadrangle.

“It’s going great! Nice to see you too,” Hall responded.

The student kept walking, smiling as she walked away. Hall and the woman reacted to each other like they knew each other — like old friends who hadn’t seen each other in years.

“I’ve never met her,” Hall said. “It would have been better if I knew her name.”

That charm and ease in front of strangers is partly what turned Hall from a broadcast journalism major at MU into the winner of ESPN’s first Dream Job competition in the spring of 2004. He is the lead anchor of ESPNU,Napoli shirt, a network that focuses on college sporting events. With football and basketball in their respective offseasons, the network is experiencing a seasonal lull in programming.

“I guess it just goes with the territory,” Hall said.

Because of the relative lack of programming, Hall was able to leave Charlotte, N.C.,Italy football shirt, the heaquarters of ESPNU, to speak this morning with a group of Missouri student athletes who have grade point averages above 3.0. Tonight at 9:30, Hall will be performing in a show of Comedy Wars alumni.

“I think that of all the the things that I’ve done, Comedy Wars is what I’m the most proud of,” Hall said. “It’s something that we had to rebuild when I was a junior.”

After arriving Tuesday afternoon and before his engagements today,Porto shirt, Hall had time to walk around Columbia, reliving his time as a student.

One of his first stops in Columbia was the Columns. There,Sevilla shirt, by chance, he met KOMU anchor Jim Riek, who was shooting a remote in front of the Columns. The two chatted for at least 10 minutes, before Riek’s cameraman whisked him away from his former student.

“There’s nothing like being in Columbia,” Hall said.

The current look of Francis Quadrangle is still disjointing to a student who passes it everyday. For Hall, who hasn’t visited Columbia since November of 2004, the view was jarring.

“At first I thought the new building was going to be there,” Hall said, pointing at the construction. “But if a school is building a lot of things it’s a good sign.”

Hall walked east to Ninth Street to continue his self-guided tour.

“I doubt that anybody will recognize me,” Hall said. “I don’t think that too many people know who I am.”

One woman, driving in a white, four-door car stopped at the corner of Ninth and University and appeared to recognize Hall. Although she didn’t prolong her stop, she looked at Hall and put her hands on her face, appearing starstruck.

Just seconds later, Hall saw that a binder full of papers had blown onto the street in front of Lion’s Choice. With traffic stopped, Hall assisted the male student with his binder, picking up as many stray papers as he could.

“I’ve been in situations like that before,” Hall said.

The student didn’t recognize him. He thanked Hall for his help and went on his way.

Tigers senior Alisha Robinson received the Kansas City Collegiate Athlete of the Year Award Tuesday from the Kansas City Sports Commission.

This year Robinson set a Missouri NCAA Championship record on the vault at 9.900,Porto shirt, beating the previous mark of 9.875. She also set Missouri records in the floor and all-around categories. Robinson’s 9.850 qualified her for the NCAA Individual Championship Final where she placed fifth. It was the third time she competed at the meet.

In her senior year,Bordeaux shirt, Robinson won 18 event titles and was named Big 12 Conference Gymnast of the Week twice.

Children ran around doing cartwheels on the floor of Hearnes Center while a few hundred people waited in line to get autographs from the Missouri volleyball team after its Black and Gold match on Friday.

Allowing fans on the court and signing autographs isn’t a one-time deal for the Missouri volleyball players. They do it for every game. The team prides itself on being fan friendly and reaching out to the community as much as possible. The team and coaches know how much the fan support helps them throughout the season, so the Tigers do whatever it can to give back to the fans and share its passion for the sport.

The free clinic for kids before its scrimmage is an example of this thinking.

“It shows the fans that we really do care,” Jessica Vander Kooi, a junior outside hitter, said. “We’re not out here just to build our fan base, we really do enjoy playing with these kids and helping them out. They come to our games, so we give back to the community.”

Coach Wayne Kreklow said it is important for the team to be active in the community.

“One of the things we try to really impress upon our players is that it isn’t about us all the time,” Kreklow said. “As athletes and coaches in whatever community you happen to be in, we feel we have a responsibility to give something back. I think particularly with these collegiate athletes, it’s good for them to understand the impact they can have.”

The fieldhouse echoed with yells of “Tigers” as about 250 children from kindergarten through eighth-grade rotated through six stations, each overseen by one or two players.

In the middle of the fieldhouse, Vander Kooi instructed her group to serve by repeating “Toss, step, hit.” Senior setter Lindsey Hunter told one young girl to put her elbows out, have her hands on top of her forehead and to only use her fingertips. Seniors Shen Danru and Lisa Boyd flipped little kids in a barrel-roll drill.

“I think it’s important to get them involved and to let them know what volleyball is, because I don’t think a lot of younger kids know,” Abbie Booth, a junior defensive specialist, said. “If they see us teaching them, it gets them more interested in playing and, therefore, they want to play in grade school and they continue in high school.”

Kym Pieper of Columbia brought her children Emily, 11,AS Roma shirt, Andrew, 9,Porto shirt, and Claire, 6, to the clinic and match.

“I think they did a great job of keeping the kids interested and involved,Ajax shirt,” Pieper said. “It was great. They seemed to have a lot of fun and I didn’t see anyone who wasn’t interested.”

“I think it gives our players a lot of satisfaction to know that the efforts they put in pays off too,” Kreklow said. “Doing the clinics is a great way for our girls to give back to the sport that has given them a lot of great opportunities and experiences.”

The team begins its season Friday against Utah in the Tiger Invitational.

Na Yang worked harder this week in practice and in the weight room.

Yang’s extra work paid off for the Missouri volleyball team Sunday in a 30-28, 30-22,Dortmund shirt, 30-28 victory against No. 10 Texas at Hearnes Center. Entering the match, the Tigers were ranked No. 11.

“I think overall Na did really well,” MU coach Wayne Kreklow said. “…We worked her pretty hard this week and I was really glad to see her have a good match.”

Yang tied a career high with 21 kills, but the other two times she reached that mark were in five-game matches.

“I thank coach (Shannon) Turley a lot, because he helped me a lot,” Yang, a sophomore outside hitter, said.

Turley,Sunderland shirt, the team’s strength and conditioning coach, made Yang do extra cardiovascular work when the team lifted weights and worked on conditioning. When practicing on the court, Kreklow said he included more high-intensity drills and competitive situations in practice to get Yang into better shape.

Kreklow said the he realized Yang needed to get into better shape after the Tigers’ (20-4, 14-4) match against No. 1 Nebraska on Nov. 13. Yang normally plays in the front row and then is substituted in the back row for junior defensive specialist Abbie Booth. At Nebraska, Yang played both spots.

She admitted that during the Nebraska match her heart was beating faster than usual and that she needed to improve her conditioning.

Lindsey Hunter, a senior setter,Retro Football Shirts, said she saw an improvement in Yang’s game Sunday.

“She was a lot quicker than she has been in the past,” Hunter said.

Senior middle blocker Lisa Boyd also saw changes.

“Na was doing really well,Porto shirt,” Boyd said. “She was making some really great plays not just hitting, but coming down off the block and really hustling. I think that really helped her, just making little plays that helped her confidence and helped her swing better.”

Yang showed her hustle in Game 2 when she dove into the Tiger’s bench to dig a ball.

Despite tying a career-high in kills, Yang said she needed to block better.

Yang had more than a third of the Tigers’ kills.

Kreklow said the team built some momentum from almost beating Nebraska. Missouri, then ranked No. 12, fell to the Huskers 28-30, 27-30, 30-21, 30-24, 15-3.

“I think our players felt good about how we were able to compete up there,” Kreklow said. “I felt that confidence carried over to the week in practice and out here.”

For some of the Tiger’s, the win had extra significance. The Longhorns (21-4, 15-3) are the only team to sweep MU this season on Oct. 12.

“I would have been overjoyed to simply win in any combination of games,” Kreklow said. “Then to be able to do it in three helps us even more emotionally.”

Attendance for Sunday’s match was 3,050, the third-largest crowd in the team’s history.

COLUMBIA — “Don’t act like you’re not impressed.”

That was the slogan on the back of a shirt a Harrisburg High School fan was wearing during the boys’ basketball team’s Class 2 semifinal against Clever at Mizzou Arena on Friday night.

The team and the game lived up to that billing as the Bulldogs won 73-67 in a high-paced game that featured 26 lead changes.

Harrisburg coach Steve Combs said the teams were practically mirror images of each other. Both teams featured smaller players and relied on an up-tempo game.

“It was just two teams matched evenly,” Combs said in a press conference after the game.

One notable difference between the two teams is that the Blue Jays only have eight players on their roster and usually only play six while Harrisburg had a deeper bench and used an eight-man rotation.

“I thought we could wear them out,” Harrisburg senior guard Josh Taylor said. However, that wasn’t the case.

“It didn’t look like they would ever get tired,” Taylor said.

Combs wasn’t worried about his players getting tired saying his team plays that tempo everyday in practice.

Taylor led the Bulldogs with 21 points and 12 rebounds. However,Villareal shirt, that wasn’t the first thing he looked at when he saw the box score.

“Dang, I didn’t do good,” Taylor said when he saw the man he was guarding,Inter Milan shirt, Clever senior guard Josh Pope, scored 19 points. Taylor’s 12 rebounds were a big part of the 36-21 rebounding edge for the Bulldogs.

“Coach stresses ‘Rebound, rebound, rebound,’” Taylor said.

Harrisburg won the state title in 2006 and finished third last year. This is only the second trip to the finals in school history.

“I never thought we had a chance to be better than Fisher’s team,Birmingham shirt,” senior guard Taylor Perrigo said. Kyle Fisher was a guard on the 2006 championship team and is currently a sophomore on William Jewell’s basketball team.

Clever led by one point after each of the first three quarters, but a late 8-0 run by the Bulldogs put them in position where all they had to do was make free throws to clinch the game. The Bulldogs were up to the task as they made seven out of nine in the last 1:05 of the game.

Clever sophomore guard Jeremy Dresslaer had 11 points in the first quarter, but was held relatively in check after that. He finished with a team-high 21 points and fouled out with 1:05 left.

“We thought Taylor (Perrigo) was as athletic as him,Porto shirt,” Combs said of the matchup against Dresslaer.

Blue Jays senior forward Bryce Huddleston also had 21 points. Harrisburg junior forward Cory Via had 18 and Perrigo added 15.

Harrisburg will play South Iron of Annapolis for the state championship at 6:10 p.m. Saturday at Mizzou Arena. Clever will play for third against West Platte of Weston at 9:30 p.m.

COLUMBIA — It’s the middle of the night, and sergeant Gilad Kaufman, 20 at the time, of the 188th infantry battalion is standing guard in one of the watchtowers, looking out into the waves of grass surrounding the small village and military base in northern Israel.

Kaufman checks his binoculars and sees nothing, merely wooded area and grasslands, a scene he’s been protecting for hours.

Without warning, shots are fired at the base. In the distance Kaufman can see the small flashes coming out of the woodland.

He hears the bullets whiz by his head — enough warning to duck for cover. He finds safety in the watchtower, behind the small wall dividing him from the combatants.

He rises momentarily with his M-16, not knowing where, who or how many and fires instinctively into the distance.

“I didn’t think at all; I just shot. When someone is shooting at you, that’s what you do,” Kaufman said.

SWIMMING AT MU

In the middle of the afternoon, swimming practice is about to begin at the Mizzou Aquatics Center, and junior Gilad Kaufman, now 23, listens intently as coach Brian Hoffer gives instructions for the day and commentary about last weekend’s performance. The meeting ends, and Kaufman begins to congregate and joke with his teammates on the MU swimming and diving team.

Almost every group of players he approaches inevitably ends up laughing — with Kaufman as the instigator.

“He’s got a great sense of humor,” junior Byron Carlisle said.

Eventually, he reaches his swimming lane and dives in for a warm-up session. With a steady and smooth stroke,Ajax shirt, Kaufman works primarily on his freestyle and butterfly techniques, strokes that have brought him serious Big 12 and MU accolades. Kaufman swam the third leg of the 800 free relay team that broke the school record at the 2006 Big 12 Championship for the event.

THE FIREFIGHT ENDS

The combatants flee, and the two- to three-minute firefight comes to a halt. Kaufman and his comrades are sent to a room to be debriefed on the situation. Officers inform Kaufman the next morning that the combatants were most likely terrorists and that their exact numbers were unknown. All they tell him is that there was more than one. Kaufman, though, can only wonder what could have been. He suffers mentally from the crossfire long after the guns stopped firing.

“I had nightmares about the conflict for about a week and a half.”

The firefight in northern Israel is a fluke for Kaufman. His days are not usually that exciting, and his enemies are predominantly bartering landowners instead of camouflaged terrorists.

Kaufman works as a real estate marketer for the military, finding and negotiating for property around Israel. The Israeli Security Forces (ISF) use Kaufman’s skills in land speculation to build housing projects for officers. Kaufman only found himself in the firefight because while his primary job in the military is real estate, he and his battalion were regularly sent on security tours around the country which lasted from a week to a month. That particular tour was for two weeks.

The brief firefight is just one of many experiences for the Kaufman family. Born in Kfar Saba and raised in Netanya, both in central Israel, he grew up in a family with a strong military heritage. His grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, earned a medal of bravery for guiding his troops through a minefield. His father fought in several conflicts, and his older brother was a tank operator, a highly respected position in the Israeli army. Kaufman’s chances of reaching such heights in the military are limited,Werder Bremen shirt, though.

His position in the general infantry rarely puts him in conflict situations, something about his duty he has no choice but to accept.

“Yeah, security was a bit boring, but sometimes you realize where you could be (fighting in combat), and it’s not that bad,” he said.

A “BREAKOUT SEASON”

“His first year was all right. His second was much better, but I think this is the year he really breaks out,” Missouri coach Hoffer said.

The 2007 season started off well for the Tigers with Kaufman performing at a high level. Swimming as the third leg, Kaufman played a crucial part in the first-place finish of the 400 freestyle relay event at the Big 12 Relays.

Performance hasn’t been the issue for Kaufman at MU, though. Life outside of the military complex gave Kaufman a big change. In Israel, Kaufman’s daily routine was regimented: swimming practice before work, work and swimming practice after work. His time at MU is distinctly less crowded. Besides practice and class, Kaufman decides what to do instead of listening to a higher-ranking military officer.

“You’re on your own routine, and it’s much less strict,” he said. “Everything is organized and coaches take care of you.”

A SACRIFICE FOR SWIMMING

He knows he belongs in the Elite Forces — the Israeli equivalent of the Marines. That’s where his friends are. That’s where his family had made its service the stories of heroes,Porto shirt, but that’s exactly where he isn’t. Kaufman’s talent precludes him from doing as such. Because he is an athlete, joining the Elite Forces is not an option for Kaufman.

“The Elite Force is a full-time job, and sometimes you could be away for a week on a mission,” he said. “I would never have found time to swim.”

It would be impossible for Kaufman to continue swimming and competing if he were in the Elite Forces because of the time commitment.

“I could have chosen to (be in the elite unit). I wanted to, and if I wasn’t a swimmer, I would be a soldier,” he said.

Kaufman’s time in the general infantry is a trade-off.

“Swimming was very easy because it distracted me,” he said. “Physical pain is easier than mental pain.”

Swimming is not merely a hobby for Kaufman; it’s a sport in which he has excelled. He had already been named to the Israeli junior national team and netted three separate individual national championships for his country in 2002 and 2003.

“Everyone wants to go to America because of its the land of opportunity, and for me, it was a chance to swim and get an education for a job that would make me much more successful than in Israel,” he said.

Georgia Tech, Kenyon College (Ohio) and Missouri were his suitors. All three offered engineering programs, his desired major, and all three boasted strong swimming programs.

A NEW WORLD

As a junior, Kaufman can still readily see the differences between his old and new lives. No more monthly roadblocks in high-traffic areas. No more military tours in areas such as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and no more firefights.

The only hazardous condition he sees regularly is weather — and even that doesn’t faze him.

“When the tornado came a few years ago, I was walking down the street,” he said. “I mean, it wasn’t a big deal.”

A “FAMILY-LIKE” ATMOSPHERE

A year away from his release from the military, Kaufman decided once more to choose swimming over military service. He wanted to go to America to swim but choosing a college was difficult. Netanya is a city that practices kibbutz, an Israeli collectivism mind-set that emphasizes a form of socialism and community.

Kibbutz stresses family and communal well being, and only one of his three potential schools offered a relatively similar environment.

“Missouri offered a family-like atmosphere, something I was looking for in a school,” he said.

His three-year military almost finished, Kaufman had decided where his new home would be. He had plans to leave for Missouri almost immediately after he was released and start a new life in America. Two weeks after that release, he found himself in Columbia, 6,466 miles away from his home and his battalion. A new world presented itself to Kaufman, a world he was willing to acclimate to.

His choices had taken him this far, and even on retrospection,Kaizer Chiefs shirt, he felt comfortable with them.

“Sometimes I think about what it would have been like (in the army),” he said, “but I feel OK with my choice of coming here.”

COLUMBIA Nebraska fans have a reputation for being polite to visitors, no matter what the situation is on the field. But nicer fans doesnt necessarily mean the playing environment is any easier.

“Its hard to go into a place like that when youve got 85,000 or 90,000 screaming fans,” Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel said. “Even though all of them are really nice, theyre the greatest fans Ive ever (encountered) except ours, its pretty frightening.”

As the Missouri Tigers found out in 2006, the Cornhuskers famed “Sea of Red” is a very intimidating foe and an important ally for its team.

“(We were) not very good,” Missouri defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus said of his defenses 2006 performance against Nebraska. “We didnt play very well, we didnt execute very well, and, obviously, we were very disappointed in our team.”

In that last trip, the Tigers struggled on both sides of the ball in the first half and found themselves down three touchdowns after 30 minutes. Missouri outscored Nebraska in the second half, but it was too late to matter.

Daniel attributed that problem to youth on the 2006 team, and he admitted that he was shaking and scared when he last played in Lincoln.

“Even though I was a sophomore, it was the sixth or seventh game I had started,Benfica shirt,” Daniel said.

Inexperience shouldnt be a problem for Missouri for this trip to Lincoln. Fourteen of the Tigers 22 starters played in the 2006 game at Nebraska and know what to expect from the Cornhuskers crowd.
Eberflus said he hopes that will make a difference.

“You learn from those things, try to focus and get better,” he said. “I think weve hopefully matured from those experiences.”

Safety William Moore,Valencia shirt, who is expected to return after missing two nonconference games, thinks thats exactly the case.

“The players that weve got now (are the difference),” Moore said. “If you look back at the players we had, they werent bad guys, but when it came down to it, sometimes theyd (be) double-guessing themselves. The guys weve got now, theyre fighters. Were competitors, and thats why were where were at right now.”

How much the Tigers have matured has yet to be seen in 2008. Missouris trip to Nebraska will be the first time this season that it has either played a true road game or left its home state.

“Thats true, and I dont know what to tell you,” Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said. “Hopefully, we can handle that. I think you embrace it; I think you like to play it. I think if youre a competitor, you like being in that environment.”

Thats a perfect description of how linebacker Sean Weatherspoon views this trip.

“I think itll be fun,” he said. “We havent been on the road yet this year, so I think itll be a great experience for our team. Itll definitely help us later on down the road, and I think we can go out there, focus and dont worry about the crowd.”

But the crowd could be a big issue for the Tigers defense. Defensive tackle Ziggy Hood said the defense has struggled with communication this season and given up big plays as a result.

“Weve been working on communication ever since it started happening,” Hood said. “(In this game), we (might) use hand signals or getting really close to each other and talking really loud.”

To help prepare for the Sea of Red,Porto shirt, the Tigers will practice this week with the speakers on to simulate crowd noise. Pinkel said that is standard practice procedure before any road game the Tigers play, whether or not the crowd has a reputation.

But the atmosphere isnt the concern for defensive end Stryker Sulak, who was a sophomore in 2006. He said poor execution on the Tigers part, not intimidation, was what cost them the last time they were in Lincoln.

“I think we handled it all right, (but) we made a lot of mistakes,Lazio shirt, especially on the defense,” Sulak said. “I had a lot of mistakes myself. But as a team, were more mature this time around. I think we can handle it this time, I think well play well under pressure.”

ST. LOUIS — Belatedly, the future has arrived for the St. Louis Rams’ running game.

They’ve just got to hope rookie Steven Jackson, a young, fast,Porto shirt, physical alternative to the aging Marshall Faulk,Newcastle United shirt, can stay on the field.

Jackson ran for a career-best 148 yards before bruising his right knee in the fourth quarter of Monday’s 20-7 victory against the Philadelphia Eagles, a game that kept his team’s playoff hopes alive. He can get through holes that close before Faulk gets to them.

Jackson, who was healthy but didn’t play in last week’s loss to the Cardinals, averaged 6.2 yards per carry against the Eagles. Philadelphia went with reserves much of the game, having clinched home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. Still, he was every bit as effective on the game’s first drive when the Eagles starters were in the game, rushing six times for 46 yards.

“He’s terrific,” coach Mike Martz said. “He looks like a great runner to me.”

Jackson’s play helped the Rams (7-8) ease quarterback Marc Bulger back into the mix after he had missed two games with a bruised right shoulder. St. Louis rushed for a season-best 209 yards on 44 carries, with Faulk contributing 54.

While Bulger was out, instead of taking the burden off backup Chris Chandler by emphasizing ball control, the Rams went the other way and totaled 88 yards rushing on 31 attempts in a pair of losses.

Since the move to St. Louis in 1995, the Rams are 39-0 when they have a 100-yard rusher. That includes four games this year.

“I don’t call the plays, so I don’t know,” Bulger said. “But when you’re getting 6, 7, 8 yards a play, why change?”

Against the Eagles, the Rams’ opening 10-play drive was all running. The 11th play was a run, too, before Bulger completed a 12-yard pass to Torry Holt near the end of the first quarter to break the streak.

“You keep completing them,Sevilla shirt, you keep throwing them, you keep moving the chains running you keep handing it off,” Martz said. “It wasn’t that hard to do.”

Jackson said after the game that he should be ready for the season finale against the Jets on Sunday, but he missed a game two weeks ago with a similar injury. He underwent an MRI exam on Tuesday that revealed a soft-tissue bruise, but that also showed what Martz described as “significant healing” of Jackson’s earlier injury.

Martz said Jackson “probably” would be ready for the finale, but he said it was prudent to see how Jackson feels on Thursday when the team resumes practicing.

“This stuff changes over the course of a few days,” Martz said. “So I think it’s better for everybody if we just wait.”

Both injuries are believed to have been caused by the rock-hard artificial turf in the Edward Jones Dome. The Rams have a more forgiving FieldTurf surface at their practice facility and would like to have that type of field installed at the dome.

“It’s just a shame that you have to have guys that make all this kind of money, that are such great athletes, playing on a horrible surface like that,” Martz said. “It’s just awful, It’s disgraceful,AS Roma shirt, really.”

After both injuries, Jackson said it was like taking two hits on the same play, one from the tackler and the second from the field.

“The turf is pretty bad,” Jackson said.

On the season, Jackson has 644 yards rushing and a 5.2-yard average compared with 759 yards and a 4.0-yard average for Faulk.

What makes a great baseball hitter?? Power, speed, stance, coil,Peru football shirt, stride, drive, and more.? Here Coach Joe Brockoff, retired Tulane University baseball head coach and Hall of Fame inductee, shares some of the same batting tips he’s used to send 45 players to the pros using his Super 8 System.

1.????? Set goals and objectives. To succeed, all good hitters must achieve three basic but important goals.? These include:

a.???? Club head accuracy—to gain maximum contact with the baseball.? This means hitting the ball with the percussion area of the bat squarely on the nose of the baseball, such as a sword would cut into an apple producing two equal parts.

b.???? Club head timing—to gain super contract by meeting the ball at the proper time in the contact zone.? This involves good body control with rhythm and proper estimation of when the various types of pitches will arrive in the contact zone.

c.???? Club head velocity—Many times hitters are told to just ‘meet the ball.’? This mindset will make him or her slow down his stroke in an effort to hit the ball in the contact area.? Club head velocity will vary for different types of pitches but should always drive the ball.

2. Eliminate unnecessary action. Most hitters complicate the baseball hitting process, which adversely affects their ability to make contact with power and speed. Yet the process is simple: activity performed consistently and repeatedly, with only necessary steps will dramatically improve hitting proficiency.? Coach Brock off’s simple, easily related, and precise system of eight hitting steps, or actions, tracks your hitting from the beginning of the process to the conclusion,l.a.galaxy shirt, eliminating unnecessary techniques, such as showmanship and bravado—styles that are more of a hindrance than a help.

3.????? Hit through the ball, not to the ball. The good hitter maximizes his or hitting ability by driving the ball, not by slapping at it.? This involves hitting with a controlled explosion, using full body action and generating maximum club head velocity with a good follow through.? This will ensure the bat hitting the ball, not the ball hitting the bat.

4. Commit to being a hitting machine. The body is a hitting machine, one where all parts work together to ensure maximum output or,Inter Milan shirt, in this case, power and contact. Identifying and solidifying the proper position and action for each of the seven body parts in the hitting process will significantly improve your batting average.

a.??????????? Shoulders are the platform, providing support for the hands, and the launching pad for going directly to the ball.

b.??????????? The head serves as the control tower.? It must remain in control of every pitch.? The head ‘hits’ every pitch.? It controls the action of the rest of the body.

c.??????????? Arms serve as our springs as the body turns toward the pitch. They must remain in place on the platform until they actually spring out to hit the baseball.

d.??????????? Legs provide support and stability.? They support the hips and the upper body, standing tall outside of a small crack in the knees.

e.????? Feet are the foundation of a good hitting stance—the base of all operations.? Our feet push against the ground to gain the force necessary to hit the ball.

f.????? Hips are the drivers—the engine that runs and controls the body by creating a rotary action which turns the shoulders and takes the body as whole to the ball.

g.????? Lastly, the dynamite action of the hands.? The body turns the hands into the direction of the ball and they explode!

5.????? Know your assignment.

The head should be vertical, eyes on a horizontal plane, independent of body action. It must not tilt. Keep your chin over the front shoulder.

Backside is the power side, responsible for delivering power to the ball. The backside’s first action is directed toward the ball, with the top hand delivering the knockout punch.

Front side (the side closest to the pitched ball), takes us directly to the ball. It includes the bottom hand on the bat. The front side does not power the ball.? Its responsibility is to take us directly to the ball, in a smooth gliding action, maintaining alignment.

Center mass is where the head lives.? If we place an imaginary line between both legs, the belly button and the head should be in alignment with it throughout the stroke.? The upper body should not tilt forward or backward but should remain stacked.

Want to learn more about how to improve your baseball swing? Coach Brockoff outlines his eight steps in the Super 8 System—a series of videos, guides, and even a bestselling book—that has sent 45 players to the major leagues.? Many of coach’s instructional videos—seen and used by thousands of baseball players,Porto shirt, parents and coaches—are being offered at free to the public.? Visit the Super 8 System today at http://www.learnbaseballhitting.com

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A family of three runs around the open grass next to the soccer fields at Cosmo Park. Three-year-old Aaron Scofield is out on his first kite flying adventure,Villareal shirt, but there’s barely a breeze to lift the large serpent kite off the ground.

“Run, run, high, high!” screams mother Tonya Scofield.

The yellow, pink and blue striped tail makes it up in the air briefly as Aaron’s short legs run across the field. He holds his arms as high as he can,Porto shirt, and turns around to look at his progress as the kite falls back down to the ground.

“We need some wind, buddy,” father Dave Scofield says. He wraps the white string around the handle and tightens it so it doesn’t unwind as Aaron tries again.

A stronger breeze comes through, and his father helps Aaron finally get the kite in the air. It sails, its snake head and tail whipping around in the wind, for about 30 seconds.

“You did it, Aaron!” Tonya Scofield says. “You flew a kite!”

A white mini van pulls into the parking lot, and two kids jump out the sides. Michael Jensen gets a U.S. Navy plane kite out of the back, and he and his kids, Ethan, 5, and Emma, 2, take the grass next to the Scofields and try their luck with the wind.

Jani Jensen watches her family while holding 6-month-old Aaron. She said she enjoys the precious family time that holidays like the Fourth of July bring. She said she intended to participate in the Parley P. Pratt Memorial 1-mile walk early Tuesday morning, while her husband ran, but the rain and somber clouds kept her and their three kids at home.

The dreary weather couldn’t keep Michael Jensen away, though. Running through the rain, he completed the 4-mile Memorial run. It was the first time he participated in the event and he said he hopes to do it again next year.

“We really are celebrating our freedom, it gave it more purpose than just running,” Michael Jensen said of the run.

After the morning race, the family sat down to homemade red, white and

blue waffles that Jani Jensen made using food coloring.

“We’ve been trying to tell our kids all day just how privileged and blessed we are just to live here and have all the freedoms we have,Dortmund shirt,” she said.

Although the wind didn’t seem to cooperate with kite fliers Tuesday, there were a few people at Cosmo Park playing football, tennis and horseshoes. Families like the Jensens were pleasantly surprised to find much of the park oddly uncrowded during a holiday.

“My son has been wanting to fly kites, and I didn’t want to take them out by myself,” Jani Jensen said. “So we’ve been waiting (for Michael to have a day off). But it’s a beautiful day,l.a.galaxy shirt, I just wish there was a little more wind.”

The sun pops out behind the clouds for a few minutes, and both Aaron and Ethan get their kites high in the air. They run around the grass with big grins on their faces, savoring the last run before their families head home to end the day’s festivities with their own fireworks celebrations.