By Arnoldo Watson
 Picture the scenario, if you want.
You're at the big one, playing Madison Square Garden. You're in front of a sold-out crowd, thousands of people chanting your name, with half of them wanting you to choke and the other eager to see you deliver the goods. You're down to the last few seconds of the game and you can feel yourself buckling under the pressure. Then, just as you see the perfect opening you can exploit to land that right cross, take him down for the count, and grab the championship, you choke. Your performance anxiety gets the better of you and you choke. You pass on the opportunity and, for just a split second, leave yourself open. It isn't much of a window, but you're up against an experienced hitter, and he takes the shot. A split second later, you're out.
It is far from pleasant, but for some boxers, this is a harsh and real possibility. The slightest opening you afford your opponent can result in you being taken down for the count. However, boxers aren't the only ones that
end up in this sort of situation. Athletes will always experience a certain degree of nervousness while playing, though the reasons may vary. For some, it is the pressure to excel and prove oneself worthy of their place in the team. For others, they have a reputation that they have to uphold. Anxiety can, really, be caused by a number of reasons.
Performance anxiety can literally cost you a championship. However, the problem isn't just a one-time thing that strikes at the most critical point of a match. performance anxiety is at its most annoying when it becomes a constant problem for the athlete while he's performing in that all-important game. It is that twitching in your nerves that causes you to miss that crucial three-point shot. It is that miscalculation in your mind that makes you strike out when your team desperately needs a home run. Performance anxiety is that single mistimed step that gets you trampled by the opposing team as you're going for a touchdown.
Of course, performance anxiety does not necessarily have to be limited to one's performance come the big game. Several of history's greatest sports superstars, from Michael Jordan to Wayne Gretzky, from Muhammad Ali to Babe Ruth, all experienced it at one point or another. For some, it is when facing off against their infamous rival, like that third bout between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frasier. For others, it is that first away game of the season, far from the support of the hometown crowd and right in the middle of what can be considered enemy territory. For some athletes, the anxiety comes when they know that people important to them are watching them in the arena, such as family or a significant other.
For many experts, it is no longer about how to prevent performance anxiety. In many ways, athletes will always be nervous about performing, even if the game is a low-pressure one. The focus right now is finding ways to help the athlete be effective despite the anxiety and fear he's feeling. There is really no way to prevent being nervous, but there are ways that coaches and players can utilize to get around the impediments presented by that anxiety. The most common way is to train the player to see his own anxiety as a challenge, using it as motivation to push him to excel despite his fears that he may not be up to the standards expected of him by the crown and his teammates.
Want to find out about crowntail betta and pictures of chickens? Get tips from the Knowledge Bin website.
The Algarve: Classic Golfing Destination
By Giuseppe Mathis
 The Algarve, in Southern Portugal, with its year-round sunshine, miles of golden sand beaches, and picturesque villages, has become one of Europe's most popular golfing destinations. But while there are many courses suiting all abilities, the Algarve is also perfect for non golfers, especially the eastern region around Tavira, with its stunning nature walks. At the other end of the scale, resorts such as Vilamoura and Vale do Lobo are mega destinations with all the golfing and sporting options you could want. Then, in Western Algarve, around the bustling holiday destination of Albufeira, you can holiday 24/7, combining championship golf with a hectic nightlife.
Western Algarve golf breaks
Besides bustling Albufeira, there is the charming old town of Lagos, set on one of the largest bays in the Algarve. Its 17th-century fort stands at the harbour entrance and a new marina with rows of excellent restaurants and bars draws the crowds. Alvor, an old port at the mouth of the Rio Alvor, has many traditional restaurants by the quay and a maze of cobbled streets lined with whitewashed houses, shops and a few bars.
Golf holidaymakers should check out the renowned Pinta, one of the best courses in the Algarve, designed to retain natural valleys and undulations. Neighbouring Gramacho is also excellent and both courses are free of green fees for those lucky enough to be staying at the Pestana Hotels.
Central Algarve offers golf and more
Quinta do Lago is a premier golfing destination. Two of its four excellent 18-hole courses are listed among the Europe's top 25 golf courses, and half of the 2000-acre resort comprises a residential and recreational estate, surrounded by pine forests. This beautiful area is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Ria Formosa nature reserve. Nearby is a large shopping centre with a health club, nightclubs and restaurants, and scenic countryside runs along miles of secluded beaches.
Just 20 minutes' drive from Faro International Airport, Vilamoura is one of Europe's largest sport and leisure complexes. There are five golf courses, championship tennis courts, an acclaimed riding school, and fishing and shooting facilities. The resort's large marina has many fine restaurants, cafes and shops.
Vale do Lobo, Portugal's biggest luxury golf and beach resort, also 20 minutes from the airport at Faro, is one of Europe's finest. Its two golf courses, the Royal and Ocean, provide stunning views of the coast, and its 5 km-long sandy beach, with dramatic red sandstone cliffs, provides non-golfers with seriously good beach and swimming options. The resort also offers tennis courts, a gymnasium and health and beauty centre, as well as restaurants and shops.
Eastern Algarve; golf tours without the crowds
For a less frenetic golfing experience and a chance to enjoy nature, head east from Faro towards the Spanish border. There are many hotels not far from the airport, close to some well-designed courses. Tavira, at the mouth of the River Gilao, is a fishing port dating from Moorish times. Nearby you'll find Reserva do Sapal, one of Portugal's most important nature reserves. And just across the border, on the Costa de la Luz, are many more great golf courses.
Research about acid reflux facts and history of insulin at the Knowledge Bin website.
The Mathematics of Gambling
By Julio Trujillo
 Thorp managed to find out that owners of gambling houses gave their officials rather strict directions with regard to the strategies which they should stick to in the game with visitors. Control over fulfillment of these directions had its initial aim to prevent from a frame-up of a croupier with the rest of the gamblers, a chance of which could not be excluded. Assigned for a croupier strict rules determining his game strategy really substantially reduced a probability of such a frame-up, but on the other hand, allowed an "advanced" gambler to rather adequately reveal the essence of this strategy and effectively oppose it. For unlike a croupier a gambler needn't show the first of the received cards, as well as isn't enchained by any strict rules as regards his strategy, that is why flexibly changing his behavior he can confuse a croupier. For example, Thorp found out that practically in all gambling houses of Nevada State croupiers were strictly ordered to keep away from a widow in case the amount of points in his cards exceeded or was equal to 17, and a player, from our mathematician's point of view did not have to miss an opportunity to make use of the knowledge of even some aspects of a croupier's strategy for achievement of his aims. Thus, those advantages which had an official of a gambling house from the start (as we already know, he is not obliged to open his cards at the end of the game), can be compensated to a certain degree for the knowledge of a player about the strategic "tunnel vision" of a croupier.
Besides, as has been mentioned, Thorp, while building his strategy presumed that cards were not often shuffled, in particular, if after finishing of a regular game there were still cards left in a pack, a croupier did not collect the thrown-away by the gamblers cards but dealt them anew (and the next game was played), and only after complete exhaustion of a pack, an official of a gambling house collected all the cards, thoroughly shuffled them and a new "cycle" began. Naturally, if a gambler had a good memory he could change his strategy depending on the knowledge of the cards which had gone out of the game, and what cards could still be counted upon. It is important to remember that a croupier himself who was to strictly follow the directions of the casino's owners practically without changing his strategy!
Thorp set himself a task to formulate the rules which would allow him to calculate probabilities of taking out one or another card out of an incomplete pack. Knowing these probabilities a gambler could already with reasonable assurance draw cards from the widow without being too much afraid of "a pip out", and besides, on the basis of the knowledge of some aspects of a croupier's strategy to make suppositions about those cards which he had, and other gamblers as well. Naturally, as a gambler was to make a decision with regard to a widow very quickly, the sought rules for calculation of probabilities were to be rather simple for a gambler to be able to use them "in mind" with the help of neither a calculator, nor a pen and paper (even if we suppose that a gambler will be given a chance to do calculation on paper, it will certainly arise suspicion). Edward Thorp managed to solve this mathematical problem having created rather simple algorithms for calculation of probabilities of taking out of one or another card from a pack, and using them to build a strategy of the game of twenty-one which would not be very complicated, allowing a gambler to considerably increase his chances of winning!
As the Hungarian mathematician A.Reni states after a few days of presenting his report on the obtained results at the meeting of the American Maths Society in 1960 in Washington "Thorp received from a businessman a letter with a check for 1 thousand dollars intended for checking of a winning strategy in practice. Thorp accepted the check and having learnt the formulated by him rules left for Nevada to try his discovery. The trial went well: less than after two hours Thorp won 17 thousand dollars.
Needless to say, the owner of a gambling house didn't share Thorp and his companion's delight with regard to a successful comeout of the trial and the next day did his best to prevent Thorp from joining in the game. Later on Thorp tried to penetrate into other gambling houses, but the news of him had already spread far and wide, so that the doors of all the gambling houses appeared to be closed for him. Several times having adjusted a fake beard or having got a make up of a Chinese, Thorp managed to get to the gaming-table, but in any disguise his constant gain invariably gave him away. Thorp had to refuse from further checking of the strategy developed by him". Though "additional checks" were "necessary" only to enrich the pockets of the talented mathematician. One could hardly doubt that E.Thorp managed to create a real winning strategy!
However, since he could no longer benefit from his discovery himself, he decided to render "welfare assistance" to his colleagues having published in 1961 a small article in an American academic journal (Thorp E.O. "A favourable strategy for twenty-one", Proc.Nat.Acad.Sci., 47, 110-112, (1961)). And despite the small size of the article and, consequently, an extremely condensed form of persentment, made it comprehensible for rather a narrow group of professionals, one can be sure that a number of American scientists and their friends certainly "improved" their material situation (owners of gambling houses were unlikely to read scientific magazines at that time).
Learn about peony facts and dried papaya at the Knowledge Bin website.
|