When coming to the challenge of how to make a million dollars in a year, not a lot of deep-seeded insight is in need and you don’t have to invent anything new, create a cash-cow asset that everybody wants a piece of or become a famous movie star or sports star.

You can make a million dollars, in a year, by simply looking around you and making use of the access points already available to you.

It does not even require hours and hours of hard work and while it will need some physical work in the beginning, it can turn into a completely automated money spinner for you.

If you want to make a million dollars in one year, you already know that you will have to have some sort of income structure that brings in money much faster than you can spend it and you will learn a brand new way of simply looking at existing structures and stationing yourself right in the middle, so that all the money comes through you.

If you are to make a million dollars by the time a period of twelve months elapses, think of your approach to it as being a dam. Water flows one way, at a constant rate, but if you build a wall right in the middle of everything, you can account for the water piling up and collecting. Then you can let it all go at the same time to achieve greater rates of water flow, which you can then harness for things like hydro-electric power.

All of that is just the figurative explanation for what you will be doing in the skills trade industry, preferably taking your exploits online as that is where things happen faster than the speed of sound. If your bank account can be growing at that rate, it doesn’t really matter if each of the profits you make on each transaction are even less than 10 cents.

If you have even $0.01 coming in each and every second of each and every day, even while you sleep, making amounts of up to a million in one year will be very easy to do, since you can redirect some of that money that constantly comes in and use it to get into other investments.

Going back to the dam figure of speech, your dam in this case will be a middle man website, or middle man office.

What is this “middle man” business though?

The middle man income system, as the name might do well to suggest, is simply the act of playing the middle man in absolutely everything you can get into.

Labor brokerage, skills brokerage, insurance and finances, automobiles etc, there are so many different ways through which you can become the middle man and take a tiny fraction of the proceeds in the transaction.

The best way to do this, in that it is very quick and automated, is to do it online as an affiliate marketer of sorts. You don’t have to physically sign up to an affiliate marketing program, but you can simply source products and services and add a very small mark up price and re-list them somewhere else.

You step up to the three-point line. The pressure is on as the other team tries to block, but you effortlessly avoid them. The world narrows until all you see is the hoop. You take the shot. The ball floats through the air and drops into the basket…all net.

It’s every basketball player’s dream come true. Whether an NBA All-Star or one of the guys shooting hoops on the block, every player wants to be able to slide past the other team’s defenses, pass with precision and make scoring shots. Now, thanks to the power of creative visualization and relaxation (CVR), that dream may be your new reality.

Methods like sports psychology have helped players in the past, but the prohibitive cost–a hundred or more dollars per hour–put such aids out of reach of all but the wealthy. The field was wide open for a method that would offer a bigger boost in performance at a fraction of the cost.

That’s where CVR comes in.

The key to performance in any sport is practice. Mental rehearsal is one method many successful athletes use to instill skill and muscle memory without spending extra hours on the court. Creative visualization helps athletes picture the perfect play and then step onto the court and achieve it. The relaxation inherent in the process means no stress and no nerves; just calm concentration and motivation.

But can it really be that easy? Can you really visualize it and then realize it?

Apparently, yes. Athletes from the Olympics to the New York Knicks have already experienced positive changes in their games. That’s because CVR helps players eliminate distractions and employ laser-like focus to bring it on the court. Such visualization techniques can help basketball players develop the mind of a champion, transform weakness into strength, and even understand rotation, arch and the motion of release.

Of course, CVR is just one weapon in the arsenal of a truly successful athlete. Many pros also use brain entrainment, or light and sound, technology to enhance the effectiveness of CVR sessions. Such light and sound technology usually comes in the form of glasses and earphones that use finely-tuned light and sound frequencies to synchronize the left and right sides of the brain and produce deeply relaxed brainwave activity.

In technical terms, such brain entrainment technology features deep carrier frequencies. These are the actual sine waves that transport your mind into the deepest meditative states, magnifying the effect of the binaural beats and allowing you to achieve better results in far less time.

That may seem like it’s more in the realm of MIT than the New York Knicks. The bottom line, though, is more internal motivation, better coachability and easy access to the zone…all of which take players from novice to pro at incredible rates.

Most light and sound devices also don’t take an engineering degree to use; you can plug them into any MP3 player. And, 20 minutes in such mind training is equal to four hours of sleep, which helps keep athletes fresh and alert.

Most importantly, when used in combination with CVR audio sessions, brain entrainment helps basketball players to perform at their optimum levels both on and off the court. Play is enhanced by sessions that help athletes learn from the best, read their opponents and review their own performance without regret or self-incrimination.

Every athlete has brilliance inside. Now you can use CVR to bring your brilliance into your life and your game.

Stardom comes with a cost. And sometimes that cost is a heavy price to pay. Being in the spot light is not as easy and comfortable as it looks. The first time you are thrust in to the hands of fame, you see the world through rose tinted shades and everything is just peachy. The incessant adulation perks and the paycheck is tantalizing. But once the glamour of it all wears of all, the uglier layers of celebrity world is exposed one by one, till one realizes, it is just a sad little life reeking of desperation. Everyone wants a piece of their star, and some literally do. Your privacy becomes a thing of the past. You whole life completely transforms into the façade that you had put up initially to get their attention. And now you just want them to leave you alone for at least a few minutes. Life becomes a paradox.

Tennis stars usually attain celebrity status quickly owing the global audience. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, Martina Hingis, Leander Paes et al are example of famous celebrity Tennis players. Sania Mirza might not be a global celebrity but she sure is all the rage in India.

Sania is a prolific tennis player. She rose to fame quite quickly and has managed to stay in the limelight since. The fact that she is quite easy on the eyes also did wonders to Sania Mirza profile outside of the tennis world. She juggled between, Championship titles and photo shoots. She was the quintessential sports star celebrity. She was everywhere: national television, billboards, Internet, magazines and even newspapers. It was this overexposure that did her in finally. She started courting controversy one after another, or rather, controversy stalked like a love sick psycho. From criticism by Muslim fanatics for inappropriate sartorial choices to her very wedding, she has encountered myriads of problems along her career. She was photographed with her feet near the Indian flag and was tagged unpatriotic; she was photographer vulgarly by paparazzi who are skewed in their heads; she broke of her engagement with her childhood sweetheart citing compatibility issues which painted her in a very unflattering light; then she married Pakistani cricketer- Shoaib Malik, which became the cherry on top of the cake. After a particular point, Sania became so frustrated that she decided to stop playing in India for a while, as every time she did, she was in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Millions of people participate in sports gambling each and every day. The overwhelming consensus opinion is that it is impossible to win money from sports betting. While it is true that it can be extremely difficult to make money on sports betting, it is not impossible.

One comparable is the stock exchange. So many people lose tons and tons of money on the stock exchange, but so many people are millionaires because of it. The same applies in gambling. Every system in our society has inefficiency. If gambling, or any other business were perfectly efficient, then there wouldn’t be any reason for anyone to gamble on sports.

If you’re currently failing to make a significant profit in sports gambling, the main thing you should try and do is better control your bank account. Let’s say you have $100. You’re probably wagering between $10 and $25 per bet. Lose a few bets and you’re done. To remedy this, never bet more than 1% to 5% of your bankroll. This will allow for sustainable growth over time rather than immediate spikes or dips in your account.

You should also try and analyze your bets extremely thoroughly and give them star ratings, or confidence ratings on a one star to five star scale. A five star bet may be a $5 bet, whereas a two star bet may only be for $1. Assuming you’ve done your research correctly, your five star bets should allow you to make profit over the one or two star losses that might come.

But you need to make sure you’re doing the proper research necessary. This may be an all day activity, figuring a consensus on the game, as well as keeping up with injury reports. If you don’t think you can do this, then there are definitely other options. These are sports betting systems, and sport handicapping services.

For example, an NBA betting system may say that when a team loses three straight on the road and are at home their next game, bet the spread. Systems like this often have great success, you just need to find the right system because there are so many scams in this industry. The same goes for sport handicappers. Find the right one, and you can hit on 60% – 65% of your games, but finding a bad one-which is much more likely- and you can lose your whole bank account.

In a very clear way, the 2018 All-Star game in Washington D.C. last week was representative of the current state of the sport of baseball. The ten home runs hit set an all-time record for the Midsummer Classic, nearly twice as many as the previous high of six.

That long ball production is indicative of the season, which is on pace to see more home runs than any other year in baseball ‘s long history. That statistic is not the only record that will be eclipsed in 2018, and the All-Star game reflected that as well.

Players are striking out twenty five percent of the time now, a frequency that will result in a record number of strikeouts in 2018. It came as no surprise then that the pitchers in the Midsummer Classic fanned twenty five batters in total.

Just as that highly promoted contest highlighted the sport’s reliance on the homerun and the strike out, it was another game a week earlier that served as a microcosm of some of baseball’s biggest problems. Commissioner Rob Manfred and the officials around the sport would rather ignore that game, which would be easy to do considering how few people actually saw it.

The Tampa Bay Rays played the Marlins in Miami on July Third, an intrastate battle that should have created all kinds of excitement in the home of Spring Training and three pennants. To underscore the serious attendance problem baseball has had there for over two decades, only six thousand people were in attendance.

The game itself went sixteen innings, dragged on almost six hours, and featured forty four different batters between the two clubs. Eighteen different pitchers took the mound, in addition to the three others who were called up on to pinch hit and or play a position at some point during the Sunshine State Bore-a-thon.

When it finally ended, an estimated two hundred fans remained in the seats. Miami’s front office rewarded those few loyal souls by handing out two free tickets to each one.

A better gift for them, and most other baseball fans, would be for the sport to adapt the extra innings rule started in the Minors this year. If tied after nine innings, each team starts the extra frame with a runner on second. That situation would almost guarantee that a game would be decided long before the sixteen innings it took before Tampa Bay finally beat Miami.

Besides reinforcing the fact that games are too long, that night also exposed another issue that plagues the sport. It must force the National League to adopt the designated hitter rule.

Because they were playing at Miami, the Rays had to allow their pitchers to hit. This stipulation might not be a new problem for the starting pitchers, who have been used to getting at least one plate appearance in an inter league game on the road.

However, having to bat poses a real problem for the multitude of relievers on the staff, for most of them never swing a club all season. What can happen when they are forced into such a role, is exactly what happened to a Tampa reliever that night.

Left hander Vidal Nuna injured a hamstring while running to first base after hitting a grounder, causing him to be placed on the ten day disabled list. The injury would never have occurred had baseball enforced a universal DH rule, and it also might have been avoided had the extra innings rule been used at the Big League level instead of just the Minors.

Good Luck for London 2012!

1896 The States was one of the first 13 countries to send an athletic delegation to the Summer Games – among the world’s most high-profile sporting events– on Greek soil. This year was a key moment for the global’s sport.

1896 In Athens, the United States of America became the leading sports country of the world after finishing first in unofficial team standings in the First Modern Olympiad. There, the 1896 U.S. Olympic squad earned a total of 20 medals: 11 gold, 7 silver, and 2 bronze. Meanwhile, Boston-born James B. Connolly was the first person to claim a gold medal in Olympic history after winning the triple jump in Athens’ Panathinaiko Stadium. Back home in Boston, Mr. Connolly was given a hero’s welcome. Since 1896 -without interruption– America has been renowned for producing international champs.

1896 Thomas Burke’s rise to prominence came in Athens when he was the first winner of the men’s 100m in Olympian history, making him the world’s fastest sprinter. Mr. Burke was identified with the emerging generation of American athletes in the late 1890s when he realized his dream of winning the Olympic gold.

1896 What hurdler was the first American athlete to win an Olympic title? Answer: Thomas Curtis, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student. He made a time of 17,6 seconds to win the gold in the men’s 110m hurdles in Greece.

1900 With 47 international medals (19 gold, 14 silver, and 14 bronze), the States once again became one of the world’s elite sports powers in the multi-sport event in Paris (France).

1900 Alvin Kraenzlein was in the spotlight as he, a born-athlete, led American team to win four golds in Paris: 60m, 110m hurdles, 200m hurdles, and long jump. To prepare himself to become an outstanding sportsman, the United States hurdler made his first overseas visit to the United Kingdom. Hailing from Milwaukee (Wisconsin), Kraenzlein was the American star in the Games of the Second Olympiad, followed by Ray Ewry (3 golds), Margaret Ives Abbot (first female in US history to capture an Olympian championship), and Irving Baxter (2 golds), among other high-profile athletes. On the other hand, Kraenzlein’s life has been an inspiration to several sports people in Wisconsin and the States.

1904 St. Louis (MO) was the site for the Games of the Third Olympiad. Unequivocally, the 1904 Olympics were in the focus of the attention of the world press.

1904 In the Olympic diving tournament in Missouri, the Americans swept the first three positions.

1904 Pittsburgh-born runner James Lightbody was the winner of the men’s 800m and 1,500m–He was the first male to win both these competitions at the same Olympics. Shortly afterward, he took a number of other major athletic titles, including the Intercalated Games in Greece.

1904 The host country’s team -made up of four stars: Herman T. Glass, Edward Hennig, Anton Heida, George Eyser- claimed first in the gymnastics tournament at the III Olympiad in St. Louis (MO).

1908 At the IV Summer Olympics in London (England), the US Olympic team was ranked second in the medal count -23 golds, 12 silvers, 12 bronzes-behind only Britain.

1908 With three wins (800m, 1500m and medley relay), New Jersey’s runner Mel Sheppard had an exceptional year in the Briton capital of London.

1912 Oklahoma-born Jim Thorpe won both the decathlon and pentathlon in the Summer Games at Stockholm, Sweden. Decades later, many sportswriters and sports experts selected Thorpe as both “the greatest football player and male athlete of the first half of the 20th Century”.

1912 With three gold medals in the shooting tournament, New York City-born Alfred Lane became America’s most successful athlete at the V Summer Olympics on Scandinavian soil.

1912 Two future personalities competed in the Games in Sweden: Firstly, Avery Brundage in pentathlon-elected President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC); the first U.S. sports leader to occupy the post. Secondly, George S. Patton, General during World War II.

1920 At the Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp (Belgium), the States became undisputed champion when it was first in the medal standings with 95 medals. The U.S. team had more than 40 Summer Olympic Games Champions.

1920 In Belgium, Duke Kahanamoku earned the men’s 100m freestyle for the second time in a row. For the past four years, Hawaii’s sporting icon became the first islander to conquer the coveted title (Stockholm Games) and was a national-class swimmer in the States. Prior to 1916, the untapped athlete moved between his home, Hawaii, and frequent swimming events in the continental United States, where his only goal was to train to become the world’s fastest swimmer. There, he gained the national trials, capturing tickets for the Summer Olympics. As well as being one of the most outstanding swimmers on Earth since 1912, Duke Kahanamoku reintroduced the sport of surfing to the western world- he turned it into a great national passion in the continental U.S. Like Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop and the performer Don Ho, his immense personal popularity added to Hawaii’s international fame.

1924 In the Olympics in Paris, France, America’s strong squad was first in the medal count with 99 – 67 medals more than Finland (second in the Games).

1924 The US water polo team took third place in the international competition, becoming the first American squad to be medalist in the Olympiad.

1924 After gaining four golds, America’s sportsmen became champion in the free-style wrestling tournament in the Games of the VIII Olympiad in Paris. The winners were Robin Read, Russel Vis, John Spellman, and Harry Steele.

1924 The United States swimmer Albert White quickly established himself as the “undisputed champ” in the Olympian Diving Tournament in France, winning golds in both springboard and platform diving.

1928 During the IX Olympiad in the Netherlands, the States was the leading nation in the medal count, earning 22 global titles -12 more than Germany.

1928 Pennsylvania’s Olympic ambassador Johnny Weissmuller won the 100m freestyle for the second time in a row in Amsterdam (Holland/Netherlands). He was one of the top favorites to win the title. Over a sporting career that spanned more than 10 years, he obtained 52 national championships and five Olympian golds. Likewise, he set 67 world records in the States and Western Europe. After stepping down as swimmer, he became a top movie star in Hollywood and co-starred with such prominent actresses as Brenda Joyce and Maureen O’Sullivan.

1928 Elizabeth Robinson had the distinction of being the first female to win the 100m (track & field) in the IX Summer Olympics.

1932 The Games of the X Olympiad were held in Los Angeles (CA)-for the second time in the history of the United States (St. Louis, 1904).

1932 World-class athletes led the US delegation to win the Los Angeles Games: 103 medals! -well ahead of Italy (36). Among Summer Olympic stars: Jesse Owens (track and field), Jim Bausch (decathlon, athletics), Edward Flynn (boxing), Michael Galitzen (diving)…

1932 The home country took third place in the Water Polo Championship, earning a bronze. The local team gained that distinction by beating Japan and Brazil.

1932 America’s Olympian decathlon champion Jim Bausch obtained the James R. Sullivan Memorial Trophy as the top Olympic athlete. Few were surprised when he received that award.

1936 Despite a troubled relationship with the Germany of Adolf Hitler, Washington dispatched a national contingent to Berlin, home to the XI Games.

1936 Alabama-born Jesse Owens captured America’s attention by earning four world titles in Berlin— 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay, as well as the long jump. As a result of this, the United States sprinter was one of the globe’s most high-profile athletes in the 20th Century. This man is of great historical significance for America. Why? His big performance came at a time when there were fewer black athletes in the global sports arena, breaking down the barriers of prejudices, and occurred with the political backdrop of Germany’s Nazi regime. During Owens’ days as sprinter and long jumper, he became a symbol of the struggle against racism.

1936 The U.S. men’s soccer squad did not qualify for the second round after being eliminated by Italy-the world’s top-ranked team — but they finished 10th in the Olympic tournament, ahead of Taiwan, Egypt, Hungary, Turkey, Finland, and Luxembourg.

1936 The United States -a basketball-mad nation– placed first in the Inaugural men’s basketball championship in Germany, a feat they repeated from 1948 and ’68. The U.S delegation captured the universal trophy by beating Mexico (25-10) in the semis and then Canada (19-8) in the gold-medal match. On their way to win the event, the North American nation also defeated Estonia (52-28) in the second round and Philippines (56-23) in the quarter-finals.

1936 Glenn Morris, a native of Simla (Colorado), made headlines around the world when he obtained the James R. Sullivan Memorial Trophy as the top Olympic athlete in the States.

1940-1944 The Games were cancelled due to World War II.

1948 The United States received 23 golds in the Games of the 14th Olympiad in London, Great Britain, winning the unofficial team championship. In the meantime, in New York City, America’s win set off a wave of explosive emotion as it was announced on nationwide radio.

1948 In the United Kingdom, the young American Bob Mathias, who hails from Tulare (California), began to make a name for himself in track and field when he finished first in the decathlon with 7,139 points.

1948 The US basketball team claimed first place in the London 1948 Olympic basketball tournament, earning the title and allowing they to compete in the next Olympics in Scandinavia.

1948 Surprisingly Porter William led a United States sweep in the men’s 110-meter hurdles.

1948 Unbeaten in the decathlon, Robert Mathias –invariably known to his friends as “Bob”— earned the James E. Sullivan Memorial Trophy. He gained a gold medal the XIV Olympiad and those of the XV Olympiad in 1952.

1952 At the Helsinki Games, the United States delegation took first place in team standing by winning 40 global titles.

1952 With four trophies, America’s sportsmen finished first in the weightlifting competition in the 15th Summer Games in the Finnish capital of Helsinki, defeating the Soviet Union in the medal count.

1952 Pennsylvania’s runner Horace Ashenfelter was the first American runner to gain a gold medal in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase in Finland.

1952 The States captured a gold in basketball in the XV Olympics, giving the US squad access to compete in the upcoming men’s Olympic Games basketball championship in Australia in the mid-1950s.

1952 Upon winning an Olympic trophy in the men’s javelin throw in Scandinavia, Cy Young was the first person in America’s sporting history to receive that honor.

1955 Looking ahead to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the US Olympic Committee sent an important delegation (spearheaded by its top athlete Patricia McCormick) to Pan American Games in the Mexican metropolis—Among whom were the future Olympic winners: Rafer Johnson (decathlon), Parry O’Brien (shot put), Mildred McDaniel (women’s high jump), Huelet Benner (shooting), and Charles Vince (weightlifting).

1956 Norma Armitage, a fencer, was the flag-bearer for America’s fourteenth Olympian delegation at the 16th Olympiad at Melbourne, (Australia).

1956 The United States team took first place in the basketball tournament at the Melbourne Olympics following its impressive string of triumphs in the 1954 World Championships and 1955 Pan American Sports Games.

1956 Patricia McCormick gained two global titles (her fourth Olympian gold) in the diving championship at the Australia Summer Games, becoming a regional hero. Previously to her wins in Oceania, she had collected two golds in the Helsinki Olympiad and three women’s Pan American titles in 1951 and 1955. Hailing from Seal Beach (California), she was one of the most respect female divers in the world sports community in the 1950s.

1959 Santa Monica-born Parry O’Brien –who lived his dream of becoming an Olympic champ in 1952 and 1956 — earned the Sullivan award as the country’s top amateur athlete.

1960 In the Games of the XVII Olympiad in Italy’s capital, Rome, Wilma Rudolph was known worldwide by her triumphs in athletics — 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay.

1960 The national team won the men’s basketball tournament in Rome after losing to Brazil in the gold-medal match at the 1959 World Championship.

1960 Louisville-born Cassius Marcellus Clay Junior gained the gold medal in the Games of the Olympiad in Rome-This boxer was a fierce athlete (both amateur and professional) in every arena he competed, giving an extraordinary example for America’s sportsmen and women. In the wake of his victory on Italian soil, he turned pro at the age of 18. Afterwards, by the 70s, he was regarded as the greatest boxer of all time by many international sportswriters. He converted to Islam, changing his name to Muhammad Ali in the mid-1960s.

1964 At the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, the US contingent captured 90 medals – 36 gold, 26 silver, 28 bronze– winning the first place in the unofficial team championships.

1964 The non-favorite runner Bob Schul came in first in the men’s 5,000m (track and field) in Japan, being the first American to do so since it was included as one of the official sports in the First Olympic Games in 1896.

1964 At the Tokyo Games, Billy Mills was the first person in America’s sporting history to take a gold medal in the 10,000meters since 1908 when men’s 10,000m became a medal sport.

1964 The men’s basketball team defeated the USSR/Soviet Union for their sixth straight Olympic Cup (1936-1964) after failed to make the top three in the men’s basketball World Championship in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

1968 America’s sports system produced several Olympic champions and future new stars in the XIX Mexico City Games, defeating the USSR in the medal count. The States won 45 golds.

1968 New York’s Bob Beamon set a long jump world of 29 feet 2 ½ inches, earning the Olympic title in the Mexican metropolis—which stood until 1991.

1968 Despite being considered a strong contender to earn golds in men’s swimming, Mark Spitz only won two Olympic titles in the United Mexican States, but that was a prelude to his “big win” in the next Olympiad in West Germany.

1968 The U.S men’s basketball side, among the globe’s most high-profile sports teams, obtained the gold for the seventh time in a row during the Mexican Games.

1968 America’s discus thrower Al Oerter made Olympic history to win his fourth consecutive gold (from Melbourne 56 to Mexico 68).

1972 World-class swimmer Mark Spitz made international headlines in the Munich Olympics after winning seven golds: 100m frestyle, defeating 47 competitors from 29 countries and territories; 200m freestyle, with a victory over his fellow athlete Steve Genter; 100m butterfly, first among 39 swimmers from 29 nations; 200m butterfly, finished first over his countryman Gary Hall; 4x100m freestyle, alongside David Edgar, John Murphy & Jerry Heidenreich; 4x200m freestyle, with his fellow Americans John Kinsella, Frederick Tyler, and Steve Genter; 4×100 medley, with Mike Stam, Bruce Tom, and Heidenreich. On the other hand, America’s coach James Counsilman was the “hand behind” the victory of his compatriot Spitz.

1972 While America’s elite swimmer Mark Spitz made Olympic history in the Summer Olympics at West Germany’s city of Munich, the basketball national team failed to earn the Olympian championship for the first time, after losing to the Soviet Union, led by its star and future famer Sergei Belov. Since 1936, the US squad went undefeated to win the Olympian championship.

1972 Olga Connolly –a gold medalist Olympic athlete for Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic since 1993) in 1956- was named as the flag bearer of the US Olympic delegation at the Opening Ceremony of the Summer Olympics at Munich, West Germany.

1972 Finishing ahead of the world’s top four runners — among these were Ethiopia’s Mamo Wolde and Japan’s Kenji Kimihara– Frank Shorter, a gold medal-winning marathoner at the VI Pan American Games in 1971, stunned West Germany by becoming the first American to gain the marathon since John H. Hayes in 1908.

1976 The women’s basketball squad of America earned the Pre-Olympic Cup in the Canadian city of Hamilton, qualifying for the Games of the Olympiad in Montreal. In Canada, that winning team defeated such teams as Cuba (89-73), Mexico (80-57), France (79-59), Poland (84-66), and Bulgaria (76-75).

1976 With Darrell Pace and Luann Ryon, the States finished first in the archery competition in the XXI Summer Olympics at Montreal, Canada.

1976 Surprisingly, with a world record of 49,99 seconds, Jim Montgomery captured the men’s 1oom in the Olympic Swimming Tournament. He achieved his greatest success at Montreal after gaining a bronze medal in the 100m at the II FINA World Championships in Cali, Colombia (South America), in July 1975.

1976 America’s charismatic athlete Bruce Jenner defeated West Germany’s Guido Kratschmer and Nikolai Avilov from the Soviet Union -winner at Munich’72– to earn the decathlon with 8.618 points. During his brief stayed in Montreal, he was regarded as one of the “most popular athletes” by sportswriters and Canadian fans. Upon his win, he became the face of the Summer Olympics during the 1970s.

1976 Women’s basketball debuted in the Olympiad with the US squad gaining a silver medal.

1979 As a warm-up to the 1980 Moscow Olympics, America’s sportsmen and women competed at the VII Soviet Spartakiad,between July 21 and August 5, 1979, in the Russian capital of Moscow–the world’s largest multi-sport event in the 70s.

1980 The world of sport was mourning the death of Jesse Owens-who had hundreds of fans outside the United States.

1980 After capturing the FIBA Seoul World Championship and the William Jones Cup on Taiwan, the women’s basketball side obtained a spot at the Moscow Olympics following a historic win over the host nation 76-75 in the World Olympic Qualification at Varna, Bulgaria.

1980 The men’s soccer squad made an unexpected returned to the Olympic scene when they qualified for the Moscow, but the American could not go the USSR.

1980 At the request of President Jimmy Carter,the U.S. Olympic Committee decided to boycott the Moscow Games after a votation, becoming a project against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and then followed by 60 other governments and anti-Soviet rulers –as Albania’s Maoist chairman Enver Hoxha– around the globe. It was a major blow to America’s Olympian sport.

1980 Ahead of the Moscow Games, the American team were planning to spend many days training in West Germany.

1983 With the leadership of the future Hall of Fame player Michael Jordan, the American basketball team claimed first in the IX Pan American Sports Games at Venezuela, the most important pre-Olympic event in the Western Hemisphere.

1983 In preparing for its upcoming event -Los Angeles ’84, the U.S. Olympic Committee sent five future Olympian champs to the Venezuelan capital of Caracas to compete in the Pan American Boxing Tournament. They were Henry Tillman (heavyweight), Jerry Page (lt.welterweight), Pernell Whitaker (lightweight), Steve McCrory (flyweight), and Paul Gonzalez (super heavyweight).

1984 The Kremlin and its satellites in the developing world – the likes of Laos and the backed-Soviet Angola– and Eastern Europe decided not to participate in the Los Angeles Games. Similarly, four anti-American states, Albania, Burkina Faso, Libya and the Islamic republic of Iran, declined to send athletes to these Olympics. By contrast, Guinea, Guyana, Madagascar, Nicaragua, Romania, Seychelles, and Yugoslavia –states with difficult ties to Washington-competed at Los Angeles’84.

1984 Los Angeles (CA) was transformed into an “Olympic paradise” with the famous Olympic Stadium as backdrop. The largest city of America’s western coast, hosted the Summer Games for the second time, regarded as one of the greatest multi-sport events in Olympian history despite an international boycott.

1984 Guyanese-born Innis Jennifer became the first naturalized American to compete in the women’s long jump in the Olympics. As a United States athlete, she was runner-up in the Pan American Games at Indianapolis in late 1987. While competing for Guyana -an Anglophone republic on the South American continent– she placed 13th in the 1980 Olympiad. Jennifer’s athletic career dates from the time when she went abroad to compete in the 1979 Pan American Games.

1984 Edwin Moses came in first in the men’s 400m hurdles, capturing its second Olympian title. Curiously, he won all his races between 1977 and 1987.

1984 In California, the American track-and-field athlete Valerie Brisco-Hooks defeated the up-and-coming Florence Griffith Joyner to win the 200 meters. Brisco-Hooks also was the winner of the women’s 400m-she was the first sportswoman to earn both these competitions at the same Olympic Games.

1984 The 1984 U.S. Olympic team came close to winning the water polo gold after losing to Yugoslavia -an ex champion in 1968– in the finals.

1984 After being runner-up in the 1976 Montreal tournament, the US women’s team gained the III basketball championship in the Los Angeles Olympiad, securing a berth in the 1988 Olympiad in South Korea. The North American squad was one of the world’s most high-profile teams, attending every Olympic event from 1984 onwards.

1984 At Los Angeles, Mary Lou Retton won a gold medal in women’s gymnastics, becoming the first US women to do so. Aside from that, she won five 1984 Olympic medals.

1984 Surprisingly, Joan Benoit was the first person to gain the inaugural women’s marathon at Los Angeles by defeating Grete Waitz of Norway and Rosa Mota of Portugal (both world-class runners).

1984 America’s handball players participated in women’s tournament– It was the first appearance for the US side on the Olympic stage.

1988 At the United States Olympic Track and Field Trials at Indianapolis, California’s sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, under Bobby Kersee’s watchful eye, lowered the previous world record of 10,76 seconds (established by her fellow team-mate Evelyn Ashford) in the 100m four times -a 10.60, 10.49, 10.71, and 10.61.

1988 Surprisingly, the men’s basketball team of America –often the favorites to obtain the competition-earned a bronze medal. In the last global tournament in Spain, by 1986, the national team placed first by defeating the Soviet Union.

1988 Astonishingly, America’s top swimmer Matt Biondi lost to Suriname’s Anthony Conrad Nesty in the men’s 100m butterfly.

1988 After finishing second in the women’s 200m in the Games of the 23rd Olympiad on US soil in 1984, Griffith Joyner became the globe’s fastest woman when she obtained three golds in the Seoul Games:100m, 200m and 400-meter relay. She added a silver medal in the 1,600-meter relay. But that wasn’t all. On September 29, 1988, she broke the world record twice in the women’s 200m — 21.56s (semi-finals) and 21.34s (finals). At the medalist’s press conference following his victory in South Korea, she said: “When you’ve been second-best for so long, you can either accept it, or try to become the best. I made the decision to try and be the best in 1988”. As well as being named as the “sportswoman of the year” by sportswriters, sports comentators, and other experts in Western Europe and the States, she was praised in the Communist-controlled newspapers in the Soviet Union. By the end of the year, she obtained the 1988 Sullivan Award.

1992 John Smith, Kevin Jackson, and Bruce Baumgartner were the first American wrestlers to capture golds in non boycotted Olympic events since 1972.

1992 The so-called “Dream Team” made its long-awaited international debut in the Games of the 25th Olympiad in the Spaniard city of Barcelona, after beating Angola (African champion) 116-48. Later on, the team became Olympic champion. The US delegation included the NBA stars Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Chris Mullin, Clyde Drexler, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, Larry Bird, and the young-up-and-coming player Christian Laettner. From the beginning, the American side was the “big favorite” by the media in Spain. Four years earlier, the 1988 U.S. Olympic squad-made up of American collegians– claimed third in the Olympiad -its worst result since 1972-previously they had a bad year in the pre-Olympic year of 1987 when the North American team losing to Brazil in the gold-medal match during the X Pan American Games in Indianapolis (IN). At the time, under Soviet/East German pressure (during Cold War, exactly), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to accept professionals in the multi-sport events. Nonetheless, by 1989, the IOC ruled that professional athletes were eligible to participate in the Summer Olympics (1992-).

1992 The 19-year-old boxer Oscar de la Hoya, nicknamed “Golden Boy”, gained the Olympian lightweight boxing title, upon a win over Marco Rudolph (Germany) in the finals–America’s only boxing gold in the 25th Olympiad,

1992 Evelyn Ashford qualified for the Olympics for the fifth time (from Montreal’76 to Barcelona’92).

1992 After not even qualifying for the 1988 South Korea Games, New Mexico-born Trent Dimas was the first American gymnast to become an Olympian champ during the Post-Cold War era.

1996 Kentucky-born Muhammad Ali-the Greatest– lit the cauldron for the Centennial Games in Atlanta, giving one of the more memorable moments in the Summer Games.

1996 After capturing the gold in the men’s long jump by defeating James Beckford of Jamaica, Carl Lewis, whose career spanned three decades, earned his ninth Olympic gold medal. Due to these trophies, he was considered one of the 20th Century’s greatest athletes. He began to represent the States in the international meets in July 1979 as he attend the VIII Pan American Games on Puerto Rico in July 1979-at the time Carl Lewis was an pre-Olympic hopeful.

1996 The men’s soccer team competed in the Games after being absent for two editions -Seoul’88 & Barcelona’92.Nonetheless, they placed ninth — the nation’s best result!

1996 The U.S women’s soccer team, one of the most popular squads on the North American continent, won the Olympic Cup at the Atlanta Games, the first time women’s soccer was included in the Summer Olympics. As host nation and medalist in the last global championship in Scandinavia, the U.S. team was the heavy favorite to gain the Olympic contest, well ahead of Norway’s side (the current world champ). Meanwhile, the backbone of America’s undefeated 1996 championship squad, Mia Hamm was the most outstanding player.

2000 Rulon Gardner defeated three-time Olympic champ Aleksadr Karelin of Russia -known during Cold War’s time as the Soviet Union/USSR — to win the Greco-Roman super heavy-weight final; Karelin had never lost an international championship. Gardner is widely regarded as the most remarkable wrestler in history of the US Olympic wrestling team.

2000 Baseball history was made in the Summer Games when the US side received the gold by defeating Cuba.

2000 The US women’s team finished first in the Sydney Olympic softball tournament, earning the gold. In the finals, they defeated Japan in extra innings, 2-1.

2004 The US took first place at the 2004 Athens, capturing 103 medals (35 gold, 39 silver, 27 bronze).

2004 Astonishingly, America’s basketball players won the bronze medal in the men’s Olympic championship, behind Argentina (gold) and Italy (silver). In Athens, the national squad was considered a strong contender to earn the event.

2004 Steven Lopez, whose parents are from Nicaragua (Central America), won a gold medal in taekwondo for the second time in a row. With two golds between 2000 (lightweight) and 2004 (middleweight category), he is the greatest American taekwondo fighter of all time.

2008 America’s soccer players obtained their Olympic ticket for men’s tournament in Beijing 2008.

2008 President George W. Bush made a special trip to the People’s Republic of China to attend the Summer Games.

2008 With special pride, Lopez Lomong –a former refugee during Sudan’s civil war 1983-2005– accepted to carry the American flag in the four-and-a-half-hour-long opening ceremonies of the Summer Games in Beijing’s National Stadium.

2008 After many disappointing years in which the States repeatedly lost the big events – 2004 Olympiad, 2006 FIBA World Cup (third ), 2007 Pan American Games (5th place), the national team won the basketball tournament.

2008 Maryland-born swimmer Michael Phelps shocked the world by winning eight Olympics golds in Beijing, China’s capital. This sports star — whose supporters number among them President George W. Bush– won the 200m individual medley, the 400m individual m, the 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 200m freestyle, the 4x100m freestyle relay, the 4x200m freestyle relay, and the 4x100m medley relay–breaking the 36 -year-old record of Mark Spitz. His victory in the Asian country was the subject of considerable media attention and was the most recognize face on the planet in 2008. The United States athlete is the most decorated sportsman in Olympian history.

2012 America’s modern democracy and political-economic system has produced a host of top-class athletes since 1896 (not as a political propaganda as occurred in the former Soviet Bloc): Alvin Kraenzlein (1900), Mark Spitz (1972), Mary Lou Retton (1984), and Greg Louganis (1984-1988), among other high-profile sports figures. Unlike many countries around the world, its sportsmen and women are lionized by their compatriots. In fact, they are Goodwill Ambassadors. At London 2012, the States might send 580 athletes, having strong chances in several sports as athletics, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, gymnastics, swimming, tennis, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, and wrestling. In the last FINA World Aquatics Championships at Shangai, China, for example, the US delegation captured 17 golds with sports stars like Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Rebecca Soni, Jessica Hardy and Missy Franklin. Meanwhile, in the 2011 Athletics Global tournament, there were 12 winners from America.

There has been much concern that has developed in recent years about the effect that seeing so many celebrities up close and personal might be having on our children.

So many times famous people like movies stars, music stars, and sports stars live lives that can seem so glamorous and trouble free to our kids. We seem to think that all they see are the advantages that they have.

While it is true that with so much celebrity exposure, this could be a factor in leading children in one direction or another. With television and all that is available to view, children can often be exposed to some things that they should not be. Many channels that we can have access to with satellite and cable, can have content that is inappropriate for some.

Some music and concerts that have adult lyrics can make kids feel more grown up when they sing them. The skimpy clothing that is being worn by young female celebrities and pop stars have little girls as young as five or six wanting to imitate their style. While there is nothing one can say about what other people wear, it is ultimately parents who buy the clothes our kids wear.

Young boys that see their favorite sports star wearing designer clothes and two hundred dollar pairs of tennis shoes may not fully understand that their parents might not be able to afford these things. Many young people have resorted to stealing and worse to get these items.

In recent months especially, there have been incidents where some of the celebrities that our kids love to imitate, have gotten into some serious trouble. In many of these cases these celebrities are paying the price for their actions.

Although it is a sad thing about what many of these young and famous are going through, it is at least good that our children also get to see that there are rules to abide by and sometimes it does not matter who you are.

In being fair to celebrities, there are many who pride themselves on trying to be better role models for their young audiences. As parents we must realize that how our children turn out in life is in large due to how they are raised at home and the time and effort that we put into them.

So if our children end up in trouble of some kind or are heading down the wrong path, it is not fair to place the blame on some celebrity we do not even know. After all, we are the ones who are responsible for our kids, not celebrities and how they live their lives.

Why are MLM conversion rates so important to know?

How can conversion rates build your downline?

How many people can you convert from being a prospect to an MLM partner, a member of your downline and onto being an MLM Star? What are your conversion rates of prospects to being your MLM downline partner. A lot of MLM members may say 10% 20% or 30% yet some will say 50%. What is the difference?

Conversion is difficult. Like people wanting to loose weight. A LOT of people need to loose weight, but how many actually do? Many people want to make an extra income but how many actually do? Kids in school love to think that they may one day be a sports star. They play their sport in Elementary School, Junior High School. Some go onto play it in Senior High School. A few of those go onto play it in University and very few of them go onto become stars of their sport. Many become to treat the sport as a hobby.

Don’t be disappointed if your conversation rate is low. Helping people is sometimes a difficult thing, even when they know it’s better for them! If you spoke to 10 smokers how many could you get to stop smoking? If you spoke to 10 overweight people how many could you get to lose weight? Alcoholics? Convert to a religion? Buy a certain car?

What is your conversion rate?

Most MLM members don’t even take statistics on their conversion rate.

Have your members keep records of how many prospects they talk to over the month.

Have your members keep records of how many members they then get over the month.

What is good about this is that they will have their own personal conversion rate using their current recruiting techniques. Why is this good? Let’s take a simple conversion rate of 10%. So you have a guy in your downline prepared to note his conversion rate and he says that his conversion rate is 10%. He know knows that if he talks to 10 prospects that atleast one of them will join his downline.

One new member out of 10 prospects may or may not sound good, but actually it doesn’t matter. What this new guy now knows is that if he wants 10 new members this month that he must present his MLM to 100 people this month. Sounds like a lot? Is it?

Conversion rate is 10% ( one out of 10 people will join his MLM ).

He wants 10 new members this month.

To get 10 new members this month he must talk to 100 prospects this month.

A month has 30 days.

100 prospects divided by 30 days.

To get his goal of recruiting 10 new downline members this month he needs to talk to three (3.3) prospects a day.

If he makes $100 per new member sign up, then he makes $1000 a month.

If you divide the $1000 by the 100 people he spoke to he is averaging $10 per person he speaks to. He now knows that he is getting paid $10 for every NO he gets and $10 for every YES he gets. Now your new member doesn’t care if the person says YES or NO.

Now knowing that he’ll be paid the same for a YES or a NO stops him from appearing hungry to sign up the prospect. This will in fact increase his conversion rate! He is now looking for a quick Yes and a quick NO. He doesn’t care which he gets. He knows his conversion rate! He shows the prospect the business opportunity and then takes it away from them. Not what the prospect expected. The prospect now sees that the opportunity is not for the guy to sign him up but for the prospect to get into the MLM business.

I think conversion rates are important, do you?

What’s your conversion rate? Read on:

Advantages of Using Soccer Patches and Star Patches to Motivate Players. The advantage of the soccer patches and star patches are that they can be seen, touched and held. Players really like them. If a player earns one, he or she will be proud. If they see another player earn one, most kids will also want to earn one. They quickly understand what they need to do to earn a patch. There are 2 main times to give patches: at the end of practice and at the end of each soccer game. At the end of the game, call your players all together around you (“Gather Round”) and encourage the parents to watch while you give out the patches. If a player has to leave early, you can give that players his or her patches personally, but encourage them to stay while you give the rewards. Tell the parents it is an important part of motivation. For U4 and U6 players, give everyone at least one patch (like an attendance patch). At U8 and older you can still give an attendance patch if you want, but start to use the patches to motivate the behavior you want by making the players earn the patches. They could earn them for hustle, bravery, listening to the coach, effort, attitude, leadership, teamwork, improvement (it is important to constantly encourage improvement and to reward improvement), or specific achievements, such as great defense or following a shot to be in position for a rebound (even if they didn’t score). If you are having a problem getting players to play a position such as Goalie, select a special Goalie Patch that you ONLY give to players who play Goalie.

Specific Ideas for How to Use Soccer Patches and Star Patches to Motivate the Behavior You Want. Some ways I like to use the patches are for hustle, bravery, listening to the coach, effort, attitude, leadership, teamwork, improvement (it is important to constantly encourage improvement and to reward improvement), or specific individual or team achievements, such as great defense, following a shot to be in position for a rebound (even if they didn’t score), or the team not allowing a goal (getting shut-out). Some coaches reward every player on the team when goals are scored to reinforce the idea that goals are a team effort. If you can get your players to hustle, listen to the coach, to be brave and to do their best, then you are motivating them. Keep in mind that it is a process – it won’t happen all at once. I like the idea of encouraging individual improvement, achievement and team spirit. I like the idea of letting every player be a “Captain” at one of the games so you can take a positive approach to Leadership. (More than one player can be a Captain at each game). Or, you could use the “C” patch for Courage. I think bravery, hustle, listening to the coach and doing your best are 4 of the most important things to motivate. If you motivate those 4 things, your players and team can achieve their potential, and you can be proud of them, win or lose. Those are also valuable life lessons that build character. If you are having a problem getting players to play a position such as Goalie, select a special Goalie Patch that you only give to players who play Goalie, or Fullback if that is the position you are having a problem with.

Whether you’re an aspiring sports star, casual athlete, or just someone looking to get in shape, the right frame of mind makes all the difference in attaining your goals. If you want to build your muscles, improve your stamina, or hone your skills, you need more than a good diet, healthy habits, and sheer willpower – you need a winning attitude.

The following tips are important for both fitness practitioners, and coaches and trainers, to optimize health and athletic goals.

It first starts with the athlete’s attitude towards competition. Whether on the field or at the gym, the sense of competing with others can be a major motivator, if harnessed correctly. You should see competition as an opportunity to grow and develop, and as a test of your abilities and skills – not as a way to show up or put down others.

Moreover, whoever or whatever you are competing against, you should not fear failure or take any shortcomings personally. Competition is not a win-or-lose, zero-sum game; like any test, it is a chance to learn and grow, and that requires an occasional loss or disappointment. Successful athletes see the bigger picture and take every challenge they encounter – especially those that lead to losing – as a teachable moment.

This leads to the attitude towards winning and losing. Feeling good about victory, and conversely, feeling bad about failure, are perfectly normal responses. But athletes should look beyond points, wins, and losses and instead draw a lesson from every development, good or bad.

If an athlete wins, they should ask – or be asked by their coaches – what helped them secured that victory. What worked? What didn’t? What can be learned to ensure victory next time? Similarly, when an athlete loses, they should think about what contributed to that loss, rather than beat themselves up about it. Again, it is all about taking the long-view and seeing every development on the path to fitness as a chance to learn.

A winning attitude also focuses inward, developing a mindset that is beneficial on and off the field. This entails knowing more about yourself – strengths, weaknesses, and goals – being mindful and focused about your objectives, remaining committed and resolute to any task you set upon, and keeping an open mind to growing both physically and mentally.

Cultivate a winning attitude and reach your goals in health, fitness and sports!