This is how we do it

Not a bad soccer goal — YouTube

“If you never failed, you’ve never lived”

With all the thrills and triumphs in sports, there are also the disappointments and failures.  A player might not make varsity, a team might be upset by a weaker opponent or a player might suffer a season-ending injury.

As the video below shows, failing and setbacks are part of life.  Ultimately, people are judged by how they respond to setbacks, not the setbacks themselves.  Life = Risk.  Try your best.  Never give up.

The Best Motivational Video

The football season kick-off: The Urban Touchdown

What better way to kick off the football season than with a short video by Remi Gaillard?  The French entertainer, Gaillard has a series of videos on YouTube that have been watched by millions.  Gaillard started his pranks after losing his job at a shoe store.

In perhaps his most famous prank, he disguised himself as a soccer player at the 2002 Coupe de France final match and entered the playing field as the match completed.  He took part in the winners’ celebration and was even greeted by the President of France, Jacques Chirac.

Gaillard’s stated motto is “C’est en faisant n’importe quoi qu’on devient n’importe qui” which translates to: “It’s by doing whatever that you become whoever.”

Visit Gaillard’s website

The Urban Touchdown

Auburn football walk-ons earn scholarships

Hard work pays off for Auburn football players — YouTube

Are Federer’s commercial tennis serves real or fake?

You be the judge — YouTube

How yo-yo play has progressed

“Walk the Dog,” “Rock the Baby,” and “Around the World,” were some of the yo-yo tricks that were popular in my neighborhood.  But, oh how yo-yo tricks have progressed.  Check out the video below of Canadian Jensen Kimmitt winning the 2010 World Yo-Yo Contest.

The oldest surviving yo-yo dates back to 500 B.C.  The toys were made of clay, wood or metal.  In the 16 Century, Philippine hunters used rocks with strings attached to hunt animals from trees.  The word “yo-yo” means “come-come” or “return.”

Donald Duncan purchase the Yo-Yo Manufacturing Company based in Santa Barbara, California from Pedro Flores, a Filipino American for $250,000 in 1929.  Although the company did well for many years, sales slowed in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  Duncan paid for a new TV advertising campaign in 1962 that sent sales skyrocketing.  The launch of the Duncan Butterfly was a huge hit.  Duncan ultimately lost his trademark on the word “yo-yo” and several other manufacturers entered the marketplace.

Today, yo-yo contests abound.  In some contests, contestants must perform 25 looping tricks to regulation standards and can only miss one.  Technology improvements have made today’s yo-yo very different from Duncan’s Butterfly.  However, Duncan still sells about 2 out of every 3 yo-yos in the U.S.

Canadian National Champion Jensen Kimmitt wins the the 2010 World Yo-Yo Contest

Next Page »