Parents often ask me what their children can do to prepare for their baseball season. Because training is specific, they should be training for baseball 12 months a year. There are very few kids who are so gifted that they can be very good in several sports. Many children start training in one sport when they are about six years old and specialize in that sport for the rest of their competitive careers.

It’s hard to get in shape in one month, but there are several rules of training that they should follow. First it’s background before peaking. Before you can throw a baseball or hit a baseball hard, you have to throw and hit easy. If you try to throw hard in the beginning, expect to injure yourself. First you do background training by increasing the volume of your workload gradually for several weeks and when you are ready to start peaking, you decrease your work volume and increase your work intensity. So you should go out with your son or daughter and play easy catch each day and let him try to hit the ball is a specific place, rather than trying to hit the ball hard. He also has to jog slowly before he can start running fast. So every day, he should jog slowly for up to 30 minutes.

After a few weeks, he or she is ready to start training. The next rule, he must follow for throwing, hitting and running is stress and recover. On one day he throws harder, hit further and runs faster. On the next day, he should take the day off, or jog slowly, throw easy and hit short. He continues to have easy days for all three specifics until his leg and arm muscles feel fresh. If he is training properly, he should take two days of easy training. Then he throws hard, hits far and runs fast, and this is followed by a couple of easy days again. On his hard days, he may throw every fifth pitch hard, followed by four easy throws, and hit the ball hard once every five hits until his muscle start to feel sore. Then he must stop for the day.

Since baseball players almost never run hard more than 100 yards, his running training should be to run 40 yards fast, rest until he recovers and then run 40 yards again short of all-out and repeat the cycle until his legs start to feel stiff or hurt. If he can do these hard workout days once or twice a week, he can expect to improve dramatically. If he takes easy days every day or just plays baseball each day, his improvement will be minimal. Slow jogging will not prepare him for baseball and trying to run fast more often than twice a week will just injure him. You prepare for all sports by following two rules: “background and peaking,” and “stress and recover.”

Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

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Billy Crystal’s one-man show is titled “700 Sundays.” NFL underdog bettors in 2005 may have felt this past season lasted 700 Sundays, as favorites ‘covered’ at a record rate. However, the current NFL season has totaled just 20 Sundays (including Christmas and New Year’s Day).

My free play for Friday is in the NBA. Take the Cle Cavaliers over the Ind Pacers at 7:05 ET. I’m traveling on Friday and will take a rare ‘pass’. Check back on Saturday, as my games will be available by 9:00 ET.

January 29 will mark the first Sunday in the last 21 with no NFL football, as everyone awaits Super Bowl XL in Detroit on February 5. The Steelers are either a 3 1/2 or four-point favorite with the total hovering around 47 or 47 1/2. Look for a week-long countdown to the Super Bowl beginning Monday.

In college hoops last night, No. 2 Duke had little trouble with Va Tech a second time around (no 40-foot final-second shot needed this time), winning 80-67 (game wasn’t as close as the score). No. 3 Memphis ended UAB’s 10-game winning streak by winning at home, 73-66.

In some late Pac-10 action, No. 10 Washington lost at Cal 71-69 and No. 17 UCLA won at Oregon, 56-49. Washington will travel to Maples Pavilion on Sunday, where the Huskies have lost 12 straight to the Cardinal.

There’s a light six-game schedule in Friday’s college hoops but loads of action on Saturday. ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise eight games on Saturday, beginning with Cincinnati at Georgetown (ESPN2) and Kansas at Iowa State (ESPN) at noon ET. Saturday’s coverage ends with Texas at Oklahoma on ESPN2 at 9:00 ET.

CBS features Arizona at North Carolina at 1:00 ET on Saturday and regional coverage at 1:00 ET on Sunday (either Arkansas at Kentucky or Indiana at Minnesota).

Southern Illinois owns the nation’s longest current home winning streak (33 straight) but the Salukis play at Illinois State on Saturday. However, both Gonzaga and Illinois (each with 32 straight home wins) play home games on Saturday, Gonzaga hosting Portland (8-12) and Illinois hosting Purdue (7-11).

The NBA weekend tips off with a busy 12-game schedule Friday night.The ESPN doubleheader has Cleveland at Indiana (7:05 ET) and the LA Clippers at Denver (9:35 ET).

The Pacers are finally rid of Ron Artest but just yesterday announced that Jermaine O’Neal will be out for at least eight weeks with a torn groin (OUCH!). Peja, acquired from the Kings for Artest, is not expected to play tonight. Indiana just lost at Cleveland this past Tuesday (96-66) and is currently a four-point home ‘dog’ (and climbing!) to the Cavs with a total of 181 1/2.

The Nuggets put their seven-game winning streak on the line tonight when the Clippers come to town (teams play again Saturday night in LA). Denver, after a disappointing 14-17 start (remember the Nuggets closed last year on a 25-4 run!), have gone 11-2 in January. Camby could be back in the lineup tonight and Denver is currently a six-point choice with a total of 196.

Other games to keep an eye on Friday night are Memphis at Detroit (Pistons are an eight-point choice with a total of 175 1/2), Sacramento at Boston (Celtics are favored by four with a total of 200) and Golden State at the LA Lakers (Lakers are a seven-point choice with a total of 207 1/2).

The Pistons are off to a 35-5 start, tying for the fourth-best 40-game start in NBA history. Memphis is the league’s top defensive team and beat the Psitons both times last year, before losing in double-OT earlier this year.

Artest will make his King debut in Boston tonight (has been out since December 6) and if history is any indicator, it may be a winning debut. The Kings have beaten the Celtics four straight times and in 10 of their last 11 meetings.

In the Stalpes Center, Kobe returns to the court for the first time since his 81-point effort last Sunday against the Raptors, when the Lakers host the Warriors.

Ness Notes will be available at 7:00 ET on Saturday and Sunday.

Larry Ness is a documented member of the Professional Handicappers League.
Read all of his articles at http://www.procappers.com/Larry_Ness.htm.

Ace Athlete have a major problem while trying to gain peak performance in their exercise routine, and that problem is inability to maintain balance in their work out schedule. In this article i will detail a step by step procedure to implement regimen and balance it with proper peak performing exercises.

Action Plan to Achieve Peak performance using exercise. The first thing you will need to do is warm up for your exercises and perform light stretches. Imagine your exercise as a hobby which you look forward to engaging in. When you eventually starts the exercise, let it be a routine that you make sure it is consistent. This consistency will remove procrastination from your schedule exercises.

You can start with arm swings, toso twists, side stretches, head rolls and reach ups. All these are preliminary warming up process, when you are done, you can now move in to the real exercises. The real exercise can start with Knee lifts repeated about 15 – 20 times. This is what you will do:

Stand up, bring up your left leg and touch it with your right elbow. Repeat with the other leg. When you are done, you can relax for a while then move on to the next. The forward bob will be performed by you while the elbow is touching the knees. Stand erect, bring the right knee to touch the left elbow, do the same vice-versa on the other leg and elbow. Then bob forward, Repeat these for six times.

We are ready to move to the next step which is the forward lounge, we can do this touching the elbow at the same time. We will need to stand erect while performing this. Put up your right knee, lounge forward facing the floor. Steady yourself and try to raise the other knee up and maintain the position.

Below is the routine of exercises you will need to implement to balance out your exercise activity.

1. Thrice every week, you will need to perform Knee lifts at eight per exercise.
2. Every four times in a week, you will need to perform forward bobs.
3. Forward lounges will be once each time you are exercising.
4. Knee lifts exercise will be a regular thing and should be several, you can use your discretion here. I suggest eight times per set.
5. Forward lounge can be done twice after warming up for the exercise. Other worthy exercise routines worth performing include snapping of fingers, clapping of hands but doing it right, left, sideways, up above your head, and vice-versa. Wriggle your hips and waistline while clapping, snapping in all directions. Bring your legs together, step backward and forward at the same time Snapping and Clapping.

These exercise activities not only refreshes you, but it also rejuvenates and brings flexibility and strenght to your whole body as you continue to balance it up on a regular basis.

Joe Okoro writes about how to become an Ace Athletes in his free reports. You can sign up for his courses and get additional information by visiting http://www.coolcashjackpot.com/aceform.htm.