Field hockey
Field hockey is a team game of the hockey family. The earliest origins of the game date back to the Middle Ages in Pakistan; the game can be played on grass, water turf, artificial turf or synthetic field as well as an indoor board surface. Each team plays with eleven players, including the goalie. Players use sticks made out of wood, carbon fibre, fibre glass or a combination of carbon fibre and fibre glass in different quantities to hit a round, plastic ball; the length of the stick depends on the player's individual height. Only one face of the stick is allowed to be used. Goalies have a different kind of stick, however they can use an ordinary field hockey stick; the specific goal-keeping sticks have another curve at the end of the stick, this is to give them more surface area to save the ball. The uniform consists of shin guards, shorts, a mouth guard and a jersey. Today, the game is played globally in parts of Western Europe, South Asia, Southern Africa, New Zealand and parts of the United States.
Known as "hockey" in many territories, the term "field hockey" is used in Canada and the United States where ice hockey is more popular. In Sweden, the term "landhockey" is used and to some degree in Norway where it is governed by Norway's Bandy Association. During play, goal keepers are the only players who are allowed to touch the ball with any part of their body, while field players play the ball with the flat side of their stick. If the ball is touched with the rounded part of the stick, it will result in a penalty. Goal keepers cannot play the ball with the back of their stick. Whoever scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is tied at the end of the game, either a draw is declared or the game goes into extra time or a penalty shootout, depending on the competition's format. There are many variations to overtime play that depend on the tournament play. In college play, a seven-aside overtime period consists of a 10-minute golden goal period with seven players for each team.
If a tie still remains, the game enters a one-on-one competition where each team chooses 5 players to dribble from the 25-yard line down to the circle against the opposing goalie. The player has 8 seconds to score on the goalie keeping it in bounds; the play ends after a goal is scored, the ball goes out of bounds, a foul is committed or time expires. If the tie still persists extra rounds thereafter until one team has scored; the governing body of field hockey is the International Hockey Federation, with men and women being represented internationally in competitions including the Olympic Games, World Cup, World League, Champions Trophy and Junior World Cup, with many countries running extensive junior and masters club competitions. The FIH is responsible for organizing the Hockey Rules Board and developing the rules for the game. A popular variant of field hockey is indoor field hockey, which differs in a number of respects while embodying the primary principles of hockey. Indoor hockey is a 5-a-side variant, with a field, reduced to 40 m × 20 m.
With many of the rules remaining the same, including obstruction and feet, there are several key variations: Players may not raise the ball unless shooting on goal, players may not hit the ball, the sidelines are replaced with solid barriers which the ball will rebound off. In addition, the regulation guidelines for the indoor field hockey stick require a thinner, lighter stick than an outdoor stick. There is a depiction of a field hockey-like game in Ancient Greece, dating to c. 510 BC, when the game may have been called Κερητίζειν because it was played with a horn and a ball. Researchers disagree over, it could have been one-on-one activity. Billiards historians Stein and Rubino believe it was among the games ancestral to lawn-and-field games like hockey and ground billiards, near-identical depictions appear both in the Beni Hasan tomb of Ancient Egyptian administrator Khety of the 11th Dynasty, in European illuminated manuscripts and other works of the 14th through 17th centuries, showing contemporary courtly and clerical life.
In East Asia, a similar game was entertained, using a carved wooden stick and ball prior, to 300 BC. In Inner Mongolia, the Daur people have for about 1,000 years been playing beikou, a game with some similarities to field hockey. A similar field hockey or ground billiards variant, called suigan, was played in China during the Ming dynasty. A game similar to field hockey was played in the 17th century in Punjab state in India under name khido khundi. In South America, most in Chile, the local natives of the 16th century used to play a game called chueca, which shares common elements with hockey. In Northern Europe, the games of hurling and Knattleikr, both team balls games involving sticks to drive a ball to the opponents' goal, date at least as far back as the Early Middle Ages. By the 12th century, a team ball game called la soule or choule, akin to a chaotic and sometimes long-distance version
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two opposing teams who take turns batting and fielding. The game proceeds when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball which a player on the batting team tries to hit with a bat; the objectives of the offensive team are to hit the ball into the field of play, to run the bases—having its runners advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team is to prevent batters from becoming runners, to prevent runners' advance around the bases. A run is scored when a runner advances around the bases in order and touches home plate; the team that scores the most runs by the end of the game is the winner. The first objective of the batting team is to have a player reach first base safely. A player on the batting team who reaches first base without being called "out" can attempt to advance to subsequent bases as a runner, either or during teammates' turns batting; the fielding team tries to prevent runs by getting batters or runners "out", which forces them out of the field of play.
Both the pitcher and fielders have methods of getting the batting team's players out. The opposing teams switch forth between batting and fielding. One turn batting for each team constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, the team with the greater number of runs at the end of the game wins. If scores are tied at the end of nine innings, extra innings are played. Baseball has no game clock. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games being played in England by the mid-18th century; this game was brought by immigrants to North America. By the late 19th century, baseball was recognized as the national sport of the United States. Baseball is popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, East Asia in Japan and South Korea. In the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions: East and Central; the MLB champion is determined by playoffs. The top level of play is split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League.
The World Baseball Classic, organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation, is the major international competition of the sport and attracts the top national teams from around the world. A baseball game is played between two teams, each composed of nine players, that take turns playing offense and defense. A pair of turns, one at bat and one in the field, by each team constitutes an inning. A game consists of nine innings. One team—customarily the visiting team—bats in the top, or first half, of every inning; the other team -- customarily the home team -- bats in second half, of every inning. The goal of the game is to score more points than the other team; the players on the team at bat attempt to score runs by circling or completing a tour of the four bases set at the corners of the square-shaped baseball diamond. A player bats at home plate and must proceed counterclockwise to first base, second base, third base, back home to score a run; the team in the field attempts to prevent runs from scoring and record outs, which remove opposing players from offensive action until their turn in their team's batting order comes up again.
When three outs are recorded, the teams switch roles for the next half-inning. If the score of the game is tied after nine innings, extra innings are played to resolve the contest. Many amateur games unorganized ones, involve different numbers of players and innings; the game is played on a field whose primary boundaries, the foul lines, extend forward from home plate at 45-degree angles. The 90-degree area within the foul lines is referred to as fair territory; the part of the field enclosed by the bases and several yards beyond them is the infield. In the middle of the infield is a raised pitcher's mound, with a rectangular rubber plate at its center; the outer boundary of the outfield is demarcated by a raised fence, which may be of any material and height. The fair territory between home plate and the outfield boundary is baseball's field of play, though significant events can take place in foul territory, as well. There are three basic tools of baseball: the ball, the bat, the glove or mitt: The baseball is about the size of an adult's fist, around 9 inches in circumference.
It wound in yarn and covered in white cowhide, with red stitching. The bat is a hitting tool, traditionally made of a solid piece of wood. Other materials are now used for nonprofessional games, it is a hard round stick, about 2.5 inches in diameter at the hitting end, tapering to a narrower handle and culminating in a knob. Bats used by adults are around 34 inches long, not longer than 42 inches; the glove or mitt is a fielding tool, made of padded leather with webbing between the fingers. As an aid in catching and holding onto the ball, it takes various shapes to meet the specific needs of differ
Softball
Softball is a variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a field that has base lengths of 60 feet, a pitcher's mound that ranges from 35-43 feet away from home plate, a homerun fence, 220 feet away from home plate. It was invented in 1887 in Chicago, United States as an indoor game; the game moves at a faster pace than traditional baseball. There is less time for the base runner to get to first; the name softball was given to the game in 1926, because the ball used to be soft, however in modern day usage, the balls are hard. A tournament held in 1933 at the Chicago World's Fair spurred interest in the game; the Amateur Softball Association of America governs the game in the United States and sponsors annual sectional and World Series championships. The World Baseball Softball Confederation regulates rules of play in more than 110 countries, including the United States and Canada. Women's fast pitch softball became a Summer Olympic sport in 1996, but it and baseball were dropped from the 2012 Games.
There are three types of softball. In the most common type, slow-pitch softball, the ball, which can measure either 11 or 12 inches in circumference depending on gender and league, must arch on its path to the batter, there are 10 players on the field at once. In fastpitch softball, the pitch is fast, there are nine players on the field at one time, bunting and stealing bases are permitted. Modified softball restricts the "windmill" wind-up used by fastpitch pitchers, although the pitcher is allowed to throw as hard as possible with the restricted back swing. Softball rules vary somewhat from those of baseball. Two major differences are that the ball must be pitched underhand—from 46 ft for men or 43 ft for women as compared with 60.5 ft in baseball—and that seven innings instead of nine constitute a regulation game. Despite the name, the ball used in softball is not soft, it is about 12 in in circumference, 3 in larger than a baseball. Softball recreational leagues for children use 11-inch balls until they participate in travel ball around age 12 and adjust to a 12-inch sized ball.
The infield in softball is smaller than on an adult or high school baseball diamond but identical to that used by Little League Baseball. In fast pitch softball the entire infield is dirt, whereas the infield in baseball is grass except at the bases and on the pitcher's mound which are dirt. Softball mounds are flat, while baseball mounds are a small hill. Softballs are pitched underhand; this changes the arc of the ball. For example, depending if the pitcher pitches a fastball, in softball the ball would most rise while in baseball because the pitcher is on a hill, the ball would drop; the earliest known softball game was played in Chicago, Illinois on Thanksgiving Day, 1887. It took place at the Farragut Boat Club at a gathering to hear the outcome of the Yale University and Harvard University football game; when the score was announced and bets were settled, a Yale alumnus threw a boxing glove at a Harvard supporter. The Harvard fan swung at the rolled up glove. George Hancock, a reporter there, called out "Play ball!" and the game began, with the boxing glove tightened into a ball, a broom handle serving as a bat.
This first contest ended with a score of 41–40. The ball, being soft, was fielded barehanded. George Hancock is credited as the game's inventor for his development of a 17" ball and an undersized bat in the next week; the Farragut Club soon set rules for the game, which spread to outsiders. Envisioned as a way for baseball players to maintain their skills during the winter, the sport was called "Indoor Baseball". Under the name of "Indoor-Outdoor", the game moved outside in the next year, the first rules were published in 1889. In 1895 Lewis Rober, Sr. of Minneapolis organized outdoor games as exercise for firefighters. Rober's version of the game used a ball 12 inches in circumference, rather than the 16-inch ball used by the Farragut club, the Minneapolis ball prevailed, although the dimensions of the Minneapolis diamond were passed over in favor of the dimensions of the Chicago one. Rober may not have been familiar with the Farragut Club rules. Fire Station No. 19 in Minneapolis, Rober's post from 1896 to 1906, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in part for its association with the sport's development.
The first softball league outside the United States was organized in Toronto in 1897. The name "softball" dates back to 1926; the name was coined by Walter Hakanson of the YMCA at a meeting of the National Recreation Congress. The name softball had spread across the United States by 1930. By the 1930s, similar sports with different rules and names were being played all over the United States and Canada. By 1936, the Joint Rules Committee on Softball had standardized the rules and naming throughout the United States. Sixteen-inch softball sometimes referred to as "mush ball" or "super-slow pitch", is a direct descendant of Hancock's original game. Defensive players are not allowed to wear fi
Literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines publish short stories and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors and letters. Literary magazines are called literary journals, or little magazines, terms intended to contrast them with larger, commercial magazines. Nouvelles de la république. Literary magazines became common in the early part of the 19th century, mirroring an overall rise in the number of books and scholarly journals being published at that time. In Great Britain, critics Francis Jeffrey, Henry Brougham and Sydney Smith founded the Edinburgh Review in 1802. Other British reviews of this period included the Westminster Review, The Spectator, Athenaeum. In the United States, early journals included the Philadelphia Literary Magazine, the Monthly Anthology, which became the North American Review, the Yale Review, The Knickerbocker and the New Orleans-based De Bow's Review. Several prominent literary magazines were published in Charleston, South Carolina, including The Southern Review and Russell's Magazine.
The North American Review, founded in 1815, is the oldest American literary magazine. However, it had its publication suspended during World War II, the Yale Review did not. Begun in 1889, Poet Lore is considered the oldest journal dedicated to poetry. By the end of the century, literary magazines had become an important feature of intellectual life in many parts of the world. Among the literary magazines that began in the early part of the 20th century is Poetry magazine. Founded in 1912, it published T. S. Eliot's first poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Other important early-20th century literary magazines include The Times Literary Supplement, Southwest Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Southern Review, New Letters. The Sewanee Review, although founded in 1892, achieved prominence thanks to Allen Tate, who became editor in 1944. Two of the most influential—though radically different—journals of the last-half of the 20th century were The Kenyon Review and the Partisan Review; the Kenyon Review, edited by John Crowe Ransom, espoused the so-called New Criticism.
Its platform was avowedly unpolitical. Although Ransom came from the South and published authors from that region, KR published many New York-based and international authors; the Partisan Review was first associated with the American Communist Party and the John Reed Club, however, it soon broke ranks with the party. Politics remained central to its character, while it published significant literature and criticism; the middle-20th century saw a boom in the number of literary magazines, which corresponded with the rise of the small press. Among the important journals which began in this period were Nimbus: A Magazine of Literature, the Arts, New Ideas, which began publication in 1951 in England, the Paris Review, founded in 1953, The Massachusetts Review and Poetry Northwest, which were founded in 1959, X Magazine, which ran from 1959–62, the Denver Quarterly, which began in 1965; the 1970s saw another surge in the number of literary magazines, with a number of distinguished journals getting their start during this decade, including Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, The Iowa Review, Agni, The Missouri Review, New England Review.
Other regarded print magazines of recent years include The Threepenny Review, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, The Greensboro Review, ZYZZYVA, Glimmer Train, Tin House, Half Mystic Journal, the Canadian magazine Brick, the Australian magazine HEAT, Zoetrope: All-Story. Some short fiction writers, such as Steve Almond, Jacob M. Appel and Stephen Dixon have built national reputations in the United States through publication in literary magazines; the Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Presses was founded by Hugh Fox in the mid-1970s. It was an attempt to organize the energy of the small presses. Len Fulton and founder of Dustbook Publishing and published the first real list of these small magazines and their editors in the mid-1970s; this made it possible for poets to pick and choose the publications most amenable to their work and the vitality of these independent publishers was recognized by the larger community, including the National Endowment for the Arts, which created a committee to distribute support money for this burgeoning group of publishers called the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines.
This organisation evolved into the Council of Literary Presses. Many prestigious awards exist for works published in literary magazines including the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Awards. Literary magazines provide many of the pieces in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Essays annual volumes. SwiftCurrent, created in 1984, was the first online literary magazine, it functioned as more of a database of literary works than a literary publication. In 1995, the Mississippi Review was the first large literary magazine to launch a online issue. By 1998, Fence and Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern were published and gained an audience. Around 1996, literary magazines began to appear more online. At first, some writers and readers dismissed online literary magazines as not equal in quality or prestige to their print counterparts, while others said that these
Secondary education in the United States
In most jurisdictions, secondary education in the United States refers to the last four years of statutory formal education either at high school or split between a final year of'junior high school' and three in high school. The United States had a demand for general skills rather than specific training/apprenticeships. High school enrollment increased when schools at this level became free, laws required children to attend until a certain age, it was believed that every American student had the opportunity to participate regardless of their ability. In 1892, in response to many competing academic philosophies being promoted at the time, a working group of educators, known as the "Committee of Ten" was established by the National Education Association, it recommended twelve years of instruction, consisting of eight years of elementary education followed by four years of high school. Rejecting suggestions that high schools should divide students into college-bound and working-trades groups from the start, in some cases by race or ethnic background, they unanimously recommended that "every subject, taught at all in a secondary school should be taught in the same way and to the same extent to every pupil so long as he pursues it, no matter what the probable destination of the pupil may be, or at what point his education is to cease."At the turn of the 20th Century, it was common for high schools to have entrance examinations which restricted entrance to fewer than 5 percent of the population in preparation for college.
Most were expected to be ready for a family after junior high school. The first public secondary schools started around the 1830s and 40's within the wealthier areas of similar income levels and expanded after the American Civil War into the 1890s. Between 1910 and 1940 the "high school movement" resulted in increasing founding of public high schools in many cities and towns and with further expansions in each locality with the establishment of neighborhood, district, or community high schools in the larger cities which may have had one or two schools since the 19th Century. High school enrollment and graduation numbers and rates increased markedly due to the building of new schools, a practical curriculum based on gaining skills "for life" rather than "for college". There was a shift towards local decision making by school districts, a policy of easy and open enrollment; the shift from theoretical to a more practical approach in curriculum resulted in an increase of skilled blue-collar workers.
The open enrollment nature and relaxed standards, such as ease of repeating a grade contributed to the boom in secondary schooling. There was an increase in educational attainment from the grass-roots movement of building and staffing public high schools. By mid-century, comprehensive high schools became common, which were designed to give a free education to any student who chose to stay in school for 12 years to get a diploma with a minimal grade point average. In 1954 the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education made desegregation of elementary and high schools mandatory, although private Christian schools expanded following this ruling to accommodate white families attempting to avoid desegregation. By 1955, the enrollment rates of secondary schools in the United States were around 80%, higher than enrollment rates in most or all European countries; the goal became to minimize the number who exited at the mandatory attendance age, which varies by state between 14 and 18 years of age, become considered to be dropouts, at risk of economic failure.
In 1965 the far-reaching Elementary and Secondary Education Act, passed as a part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "War on Poverty", provided funds for primary and secondary education while explicitly forbidding the establishment of a national curriculum, it established high standards and accountability. The bill aimed to shorten the achievement gaps between students by providing every child with fair and equal opportunities to achieve an exceptional education. After 1980, the growth in educational attainment decreased, which caused the growth of the educated workforce to slow down. Under the education reform movement started in the early 1990s by many state legislatures and the federal government, about two-thirds of the nation's public high school students are required to pass a graduation exam at the 10th and higher grade levels, though no new states had adopted a new requirement in 2006; this requirement has been an object of controversy when states have started to withhold diplomas, the right to attend commencement exercises, if a student does not meet the standards set by the state.
Pressure to allow people and organizations to create new Charter schools developed during the 1980s and were embraced by the American Federation of Teachers in 1988. These would be and financially autonomous public school free from many state laws and district regulations, accountable more for student outcomes rather than for processes or inputs. Minnesota was the first state to pass a charter school law in 1991. By 2009 charter schools were operating in 41 states and 59% of these had waiting lists; the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 required all public schools receiving federal funding to administer a statewide standardized test annually to all students. Schools that receive Title I funding must make Adequate Yearly Progress in test scores and Schools that miss AYP for a second consecutive year are publicly labeled as in need of impro
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball through the defender's hoop while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own hoop. A field goal is worth two points, unless made from behind the three-point line, when it is worth three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one or more one-point free throws; the team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play is mandated. Players advance the ball by bouncing it while walking or running or by passing it to a teammate, both of which require considerable skill. On offense, players may use a variety of shots -- a dunk, it is a violation to lift or drag one's pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands resume dribbling.
The five players on each side at a time fall into five playing positions: the tallest player is the center, the tallest and strongest is the power forward, a shorter but more agile big man is the small forward, the shortest players or the best ball handlers are the shooting guard and the point guard, who implements the coach's game plan by managing the execution of offensive and defensive plays. Informally, players may play three-on-three, two-on-two, one-on-one. Invented in 1891 by Canadian-American gym teacher James Naismith in Springfield, United States, basketball has evolved to become one of the world's most popular and viewed sports; the National Basketball Association is the most significant professional basketball league in the world in terms of popularity, salaries and level of competition. Outside North America, the top clubs from national leagues qualify to continental championships such as the Euroleague and FIBA Americas League; the FIBA Basketball World Cup and Men's Olympic Basketball Tournament are the major international events of the sport and attract top national teams from around the world.
Each continent hosts regional competitions for national teams, like FIBA AmeriCup. The FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup and Women's Olympic Basketball Tournament feature top national teams from continental championships; the main North American league is the WNBA, whereas strongest European clubs participate in the EuroLeague Women. In early December 1891, Canadian James Naismith, a physical education professor and instructor at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School in Springfield, was trying to keep his gym class active on a rainy day, he sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters. After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot elevated track. In contrast with modern basketball nets, this peach basket retained its bottom, balls had to be retrieved manually after each "basket" or point scored.
Basketball was played with a soccer ball. These round balls from "association football" were made, at the time, with a set of laces to close off the hole needed for inserting the inflatable bladder after the other sewn-together segments of the ball's cover had been flipped outside-in; these laces could dribbling to be unpredictable. A lace-free ball construction method was invented, this change to the game was endorsed by Naismith; the first balls made for basketball were brown, it was only in the late 1950s that Tony Hinkle, searching for a ball that would be more visible to players and spectators alike, introduced the orange ball, now in common use. Dribbling was not part of the original game except for the "bounce pass" to teammates. Passing the ball was the primary means of ball movement. Dribbling was introduced but limited by the asymmetric shape of early balls. Dribbling was common by 1896, with a rule against the double dribble by 1898; the peach baskets were used until 1906 when they were replaced by metal hoops with backboards.
A further change was soon made, so the ball passed through. Whenever a person got the ball in the basket, his team would gain a point. Whichever team got; the baskets were nailed to the mezzanine balcony of the playing court, but this proved impractical when spectators in the balcony began to interfere with shots. The backboard was introduced to prevent this interference. Naismith's handwritten diaries, discovered by his granddaughter in early 2006, indicate that he was nervous about the new game he had invented, which incorporated rules from a children's game called duck on a rock, as many had failed before it. Frank Mahan, one of the players from the original
