Playeasy.com’s Post

🏆 It's Olympics Eve! 🌍 Although the opening ceremony isn't until Friday evening, the games in Paris get under way tomorrow, with football, rugby sevens, handball, archery and shooting all getting going before we see the athletes parade around with their flags. As well as the events we've come to expect at most Olympic Games, skateboarding, climbing and surfing will again be part of the action after their first inclusion at Tokyo in 2021, while breaking has been included for the very first time. Rugby and football aside, I'm most looking forward to watching plenty of sports I don't usually get the chance to see in non-Olympic years, and there's always at least one event in which I end up becoming heavily invested. In 2012, I was engrossed by the time-keeping controversy in the women's fencing semi-finals. In 2016, I was thrilled to see rugby return to the Olympics and Fiji win their first ever medal - a gold. Last time out, it was a much stranger experience due to COVID, and it was also tricky to watch too much because of the time difference, but I did enjoy watching the two forms of karate included as a one-off event. So, what will it be this year? With a much more favourable time difference, although I'll still have plenty of work to do, I'm sure plenty of events will be vying my attention, so you'll just have to watch this space to see what piques my interest over the next two and a half weeks. Are you a real Olympics-head like me? What sports are you most looking forward to watching? #LITranslators #Sport #Translation

As Chair of the Eastlink Community Hub, Hamilton's largest sporting hub, which is the home to racquet sports such as badminton, squash, & tennis, the article below on the rise of the popularity pickleball in the USA is an interesting read. As those of us who volunteer in the NFP sporting sector are aware; more people are choosing sports that are quicker to pick up, require less commitment, and are more social, rather than organised sports with fixed time commitments or requirements for teams or high levels of skill. Participation as a driver has become as important as performance. The rising popularity of pickleball here in Waikato is a shining example. The challenge for us involved in traditional racquet sports is to stay relevant and be aware of the emerging variants of our sports that are becoming trendy and a 'disruptor' to our current & traditional sporting models.

🏓 Pickleball is close to surpass Padel. Huge popularity growth. 🔴 Pickleball trails paddle tennis by a narrow margin. As #Google search interest data shows - based on the popularity of relevant search queries - both 🏓 Pickleball and 🎾 Padel are in a continuous upward trend. ➡ However, Pickleball has a higher annual growth rate: 🌍 Worldwide Search Popularity YoY ( 🗓 '23 vs '22): ◾Pickleball - 77% ◾Padel - 28% Any surprises? 🛑 Provocative question (because "why not"): ➡ Who will rule the racquet sports world in 10-20 years? Will tennis hold on to its top spot or will it be dethroned? #padel #pickleball #tennis #sport #trends

The Olympic medal count system can be seen as #insane and #unfair due to several reasons. Firstly, it doesn't account for the varying levels of difficulty and competitiveness across different sports. For instance, #swimming and #gymnastics have numerous events, offering more medal opportunities, while sports like #rugby and #baseball have very few. This disparity can unfairly skew the medal tally in favor of countries excelling in sports with multiple events. Additionally, sports like #athletics and #football, with higher global participation, often see stiffer competition, making medals harder to come by compared to niche sports like #equestrian. The system also fails to recognize the individual brilliance required in sports with fewer events, like marathon running. Furthermore, team sports like basketball contribute only a single medal despite the collective effort involved. The medal count also overlooks the different investment levels and resources available to athletes from various countries. This system can therefore misrepresent a country's overall athletic capability and investment in sports development. #Olympics #MedalCount #FairPlay #AthleteDiversity #SportsEquality #CompetitionLevels #GlobalParticipation #TeamSports #AthleticInvestment #OlympicChallenges

A common question I'm asked is about whether tennis coaches should delve deeper into padel before coaching in the sport 🤔 We've got some incredible tennis coaches making their mark in padel, and while good tennis players can pick up padel skills fast, it is really important that they too train padel to improve their playing level. All good tennis coaches should give padel a shot—not just for their own game improvement but to level up their grasp of the sport and consequently, their coaching. To push padel into new territories, we need experienced coaches from various backgrounds to bring their expertise to the court, however, I strongly encourage tennis coaches to embrace padel training to elevate their coaching game. The deeper you dive into padel, the more apparent its differences from tennis become 🙌 When you started padel, did you realise it would be so different to tennis? 💭 #Sport #Padel #PadelTennis #LTA #ThePadelSchool #PadelTips #PadelLessons #PaddleTennis #PadelExercise #Leisure #RacketSport #Pickleball #GBpadel #WorldPadelTour #PadelVideos #PadelFun

The USA Olympic Trials for swimming finished yesterday (June 15-23). What an event to take part in. It's known as The Meet of Tears for a reason. The years of training and preparation. The burden of expectation, stress, and fear of failure. The joy of qualifying and the despair of missing out. And then you see the photo of the pool with the crowd right there! Check out this post from Mel Stewart OLY. The article gives great insight into the event. #performance #mindset #swimming

Do you like sportsball* but also a have a thing for bicycles? Bike Polo promises an exhilarating and entertaining experience. Whether you're up for participating or simply spectating, be prepared to witness an adrenaline-fueled event that will keep you on the edge of your seat. For a better understanding of this incredible sport, go to the first comment below. https://lnkd.in/gHqQ3_zk *sportsball = sports that involve a ball, i.e. football, basketball, baseball, etc.

🎾SiamSportsPro uses the ITF’s International Tennis Number (ITN). Knowing your ITN Level helps you book the right sessions for your skill level. 💪 ✨This is a rating system from 10.3 to 1, ITN 10.3 being a new ‘STARTER’ to tennis and an ITN 1 being an ‘ELITE’ professional. The ITN is broken down into 5 levels; 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟Starter (ITN 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3) This first level ensures that any player, whatever their level, can have an ITN. The ITN 10.1 to 10.3 categories will usually involve playing in a modified environment e.g. using the slower Red, Orange and Green balls, on a smaller court and / or using adapted rackets as appropriate. 🌟🌟🌟🌟Recreational (10 - 8) Recreational is the first level where players can rally and compete with yellow balls. Often in need of more practice to develop better understanding of where to stand and improve on their anticipation of situations. 🌟🌟🌟Intermediate (7 - 5) The middle level of the ITN normally has the highest quantity of players, and also a group of players varying technical abilities, but have similar competitive levels in match play. The development of all 4 pillars of tennis reminds of it's importance in this level (TECHNICAL, TACTICAL, PHYSICAL & MENTAL). 🌟🌟Advanced (4 - 3) This level is often where more experienced and physically fitter players find themselves. These are the best players at the club, and normally are competing on a weekly basis internally against other Advanced players from the club, and in local/national tournaments. 🌟Elite ( 1) The best of the best nationally and the top player/s of the club. Elite players are capable of holding an ITF/ATP/WTA ranking. 📖You can read more about ITN levels in this blog post on our website https://zurl.co/ktvL 😬If you are not sure what your level is, our coaches will gladly assist you. ❤️Like, share and comment below what is your ITN level 🎾 #siamsportspro #tennisacademy #tennisphuket #phukettennis #thailandtennis #phuketthailand #tennisplayer #tennislife #phukett #tennisacademythailand #tennislesson

The road of Zone 4 winning the team events : actually it’s kind of pretty sad we didn’t get to play against all zones like previous years BCWG team events, but probably it’s also for the best in the term of making the interest in the badminton sport in BC getting higher. We had to play bracket draw to decide 2 levels of Tier, the 2 zones who wins the semifinal stage gets to go to tier 1, and the zones that loses had to play against each other to make the 3rd team into tier 1, and the zones that loses goes into Tier 2 and Tier 1 and Tier 2 play the they own round robin stage to get the medals. So Basically the medals also have to different Tier Level. Before winning the Gold Medal level Tier 1, Zone 4 had to play twice against Zone 6 and once against zone 5, zone 4 we won 2 times vs Zone 6 with nail bitting matches with score 3-2 for both match ups, and won 4-1 vs Zone 5, Hence the medal positions in Tier 1 is, 🥇Zone 4 🥈Zone 6 🥉Zone 5

Here are the glimpses of intense badminton rallies at the second week of our Annual Sports meet. The spirit of competition and camaraderie was at its peak. Swipe through these moments of athleticism and teamwork! 🏆🤝 #SportsMeet #BadmintonChallenge #TeamSpirit #LifeAtPalTech #TeamBuilding #TeamBuildingEvent #TeamBuildingGames #TeamWork #SportsMeet2024 #FunAtWork #CorporateEvents