Ryan Galiotto

Posts Tagged ‘sports and recreation’

No doubt, if you have an athlete involved in youth baseball today, he has experienced some disappointment. Thats ok, its part of athletics; it builds character. The problem I want to dissect here is how and why these game to game disappointments sometimes turn into prolonged slumps, or long-term struggles.

The game to game disappointments athletes often experience are usually the result from a particular skill that isnt developed as well as it could be. Long-term slumps on the other hand, are caused by much more complex issues. Long-term struggles are generally caused from a combination of physical skill inabilities as well as confidence problems and self-doubt. Those two problems (physical and mental) occurring at the same time can be devastating to a players game.

Before I talk about how to solve a long-term slump, its important to understand how small game-to-game failures grow into full blown long-term slumps. Its really a simple concept to understand. Your mind records images of your performances, especially if the performance is accompanied by a strong emotion. If the performance is poor, the mind will save the image of your poor performance in your short-term memory allowing you to review it over and over again. The problem gets tough when the amount of negative images pile up in the short-term memory.

When a collection of small negative images flood the minds eye, it caused extreme emotions in the athlete. The longer the player experiences these emotions, the greater chance there is for a long-term slump to occur. There are a couple ways to tackle this problem. One is physical practice, and the other is mental practice. For now, Ill give you the mental skill set you need to avoid slumps.

The solution to fixing a struggling mental game is to change the mental image your mind has stored. Instead of seeing the failure or series of failures, begin to see those failures turn into successes. Rather than seeing yourself strike out looking at bat, see yourself hit the pitch into the left-center gap for a double. Rather than seeing yourself make an error in the infield, see yourself backhand the ball and throw out the runner at first base. This skill is a bit tricky and strange at first since you are essentially lying to your brain. But, with time and frequent practice, youll be able to lessen the impact of failures and experience continued growth as an athlete.

Underwater digital cameras have become an essential part of scuba diving equipment for professional and amateur scuba divers. The underwater world of scuba diving offers so many opportunities to capture once-in-a-lifetime photos of undersea life, vivid colors of coral reefs or a remote shipwreck. With underwater digital cameras it is possible to capture these images in a life-like picture that can be shared with friends or sold professionally.

Common underwater digital cameras:

Some of the most popular dive cameras are the Canon G10, Sea Life Dc 800, Sony A200 Digital SLR Camera and the Nikon D3. These revolutionary underwater digital cameras give clean and crisp pictures that truly reflect the images of marine and plant life and are diving scuba cameras that can withstand the depths and pressure of many feet underwater.

Excellent Compact Dive Cameras:

The Canon G10 and Canon housing WP- DC28 is one of Canons most advanced compact cameras that sells for under $500. It is a well-rounded underwater digital camera package that gives richly detailed, high resolution images and has an excellent LCD that is large and crisp. With a superb wide-angle lens and lots of dedicated controls, it gives great performance for even the most serious photographers. The WP DC28 underwater dive camera housing enables you to take the Powershot G10 to depths of 130 feet.

With Ikelite #6841.20 housing the Sony A200 Digital Camera is an entry level digital camera that has an auto focus system which captures enough detail for photo quality prints. With large view finder and a wireless flash control the Sony A200 gives good details with low sensitivities. It is a very affordable camera and well constructed. This compact camera is teamed with Ikelite housing to get a compact, clear underwater corrosion free performance of up to 200 feet.

Better Performance, Professional Grade Dive Cameras:

The SeaLife DC800 is a sleek modern design diving scuba camera with high tech functionality. With its 5 new dive-specific color correction modes you can take colorful pictures underwater. You can restore lost colors that happen with underwater pictures at 200 feet by just setting the camera to Sea mode. This rubber armored underwater digital camera is designed for shock protection. For a full day of diving and photography Sea life also offers quick shutter for fast action shots and a long lasting battery.

Although pricier than some of its competitors the Nikon D3 digital camera are top in line in technology. With the Sea MDX-D3 housing the Nikon D3 is popular with professional photographers because the auto exposure is dead on perfect, the viewfinder huge and the auto focus fast and accurate. The Sea MDX-D3 is built ergonomically to make taking photography underwater with ease. It is made in such a way that with one finger holding the camera the other finger is shooting pictures. The new Sea underwater dive camera housing is quite impressive.

For cameras to capture your underwater memories two main questions must be asked the type of camera and how much am I willing to pay for an underwater digital camera. For those who love diving, and are looking for information on good digital cameras that can be used underwater and with suggested housings visit http://scubasoul.com, , the recommended website for any scuba diver looking to purchase scuba equipment or just looking for information on scuba diving.

Whether you’re new to scuba diving or a diving nut, you want to be sure the scuba regulator you have is top notch. There are differences in any scuba regulator and tons to consider such as warm water regulators, cold-water models, and ones that will work for any dive. Let’s look at what’s new, what are musts for diving regulators, and what’s a surprising alternative.

Latest in Regulators

In 2008, we saw the technologically advanced carbon fiber regulator that was lightweight and claimed to be most wanted for years. Compact yet high in performance the carbon fiber regulator’s second stage case came in sixty-five percent lighter than it’s metal cousins-take a look at these, if for nothing else-your curiosity.

The alternate inflator category saw a new star in the Sherwood Gemini model. Renowned for its ease in its breathing features and skilfully designed and placed controls. Other than its lightweight, it is nitrox-ready and is rated excellent with moderate breathing rates at both approximately 132 and 165 feet.

What’s a Must in Regulators?

Most divers look for durability when it comes to regulators. The Sherwood Oasis is a good warm-water regulator. Many of its models were tested for durability, service hours, annual servicing, corrosion issues, and peak performance. Along with the innovation of diving regulators, most were durable. But like any other fine piece of equipment, following the manufacturers recommendation.

The Blizzard is another regulator that is able to keep out moisture and icing. This was only a small part of this regulators feature. Apart from this model, a bubble deflector exhaust tee reduced the bubble size increasing the line of vision.

Another regulator by Sherwood is the SR1. It boasts a 360-degree swivel that works with both a yoke and DIN attachment. Its best for all-weather diving. This scuba regulator is one of the top picks for 2008 because it had it all.

Alternative Dive Regulators

The alternate inflation regulators are extremely functional and are integrated into your power inflator, getting rid of the traditional octopus hose. These were a challenge to build because of their small housings geared at keeping them ergonomically correct-but with today’s technology, they have built some good ones. Most inflation regulators on today’s market have gotten a nod from some experts and we expect to see more advancement in these dive regulator models.

The Bottom Line

After taking a look at many different models of dive regulators that were mostly connected to the Sherwood range, many questions have been answered on which best suits you. The scuba regulator is key to the aqua lung when diving so be sure you take the time to do some more proper research on the type of regulator that you need.