Content tagged with “sports”

There are 25 item(s) tagged with “sports” on this site.

Airsoft
Explanation
October 14, 2022
339

“Airsoft is like paintball, but without paint. Airsoft guns shoot rubber pellets that don’t burst and aren’t filled with anything. Obviously, in paintball, it’s obvious if you get hit. In airsoft, it’s not obvious, and you have to ‘call your hit.’ This makes it easier to cheat in airsoft, and lots…”

Athletic Booster
Explanation
August 25, 2023
275

“Yes. When you are an official ‘athletic booster,’ the NCAA prohibits you from doing certain things involving athlete recruitment. To be considered a booster according to the NCAA , you have to have done any of the following activities: Provided a donation in order to obtain season tickets for any…”

Blackshirts
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
203

“In the context I decided to investigate, it refers to the starting defense of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. To differentiate players during practices in the 1960s, the Nebraska coach put his defenders in black jerseys, and the name stuck. When Nebraska keeps opponents to a low score, it…”

Bo Knows Bo
Deane’s Library
Book
8
Bruin
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
December 16, 2024
137

“This is just another name for ‘bear.’ It was a name of a bear in a Dutch children’s fable from the 12th century. Most people know this as the name of two major sports teams: the UCLA Bruins in college sports, and the Boston Bruins in NHL hockey. The UCLA team is very prominent with the bear…”

Cricket
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
November 1, 2021
440

“This is hard to describe in words. You sort of have to watch it visually. Here are two great videos (literally the first two results when searching YouTube for how to play cricket ): How to Play Cricket (2:00) How to play cricket: The Basics (7:06) It’s tempting to compare this to baseball, because…”

Edge Rusher
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
August 14, 2024
328

“This refers to the outside-most defensive players that rush the quarterback in American football. In a 4-3 set-up, it’s the defensive ends In a 3-4 set-up, it’s the outside linebackers Those players are on the ‘edges’ of the defensive line scheme – the edges of whatever format is expected to rush…”

Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler’s Best
Deane’s Library
Book Review
December 31, 2022
317

“I had trouble connecting with this book. It describes Grand Prix and rally racing of the 1930s – the ‘Golden Age of Auto Racing,’ this era is called. Racing, especially then, is, by nature, visceral and sensory, and I felt disconnected from it. The central theme is that Hitler and the Nazis used…”

Fore
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
December 25, 2021
103

“No one agrees where this came from. One story: there was a person that waited down the driving range to see where the ball landed. This caddy was known as a ‘fore-caddy.’ Yelling ‘Fore!’ was a way of warning the fore-caddy that a ball was on the way. However, there are other origin stories. Here’s…”

Icosathlon
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
August 15, 2023
312

“This is a relatively new track-and-field event. It’s a multi-event – like the decathlon and heptathlon – where athletes compete in multiple disciplines over two days for a combined score. There are 20 events (it’s sometimes called the ‘double decathlon’). They appear to be held in quick succession,…”

Let the World See You: How to Be Real in a World Full of Fakes
Deane’s Library
Book Review
April 30, 2022
215

“So, it’s tough not to like this book, because Sam Acho is an engaging writer and seems like a lovely person. But the book is unfocused, and doesn’t seem to go anywhere. The title (and subtitle) hint that’s it about letting the world see ‘the real you.’ But the result is really just a bunch of…”

My Life, My Fight
Deane’s Library
Book
10
Off Piste
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
November 10, 2023
91

“ ‘Piste’ is French for trail or track. So, ‘off piste’ is a skiing term for backcountry skiing, meaning to ski in areas that are not groomed slopes at ski resorts. As an idiom, ‘off piste’ could mean to do something unexpected or outside the ordinary. ”

Open Era (tennis)
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
223

“Until 1968, professionals were not allowed to compete in the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments: the Australian Open, the French Open, the U.S. Open, and the British Open (Wimbledon). These four tournaments were reserved for amateur players, to make them ‘fair’ to players who could not devote their…”

Pacesetter
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
July 3, 2022
522

“I had a conversation with my friend Ben about this. Ben (and his son) was a competitive runner in college: Me: In a running race, what’s the purpose of a pacesetter? Ben: The pace setter helps make sure the pack of runners doesn’t get out too fast or slow. This is often used when some runners are…”

Parkour vs. Freerunning
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
November 14, 2024
144

“For most everyone, there probably is no difference – the terms are likely interchangeable. But, in a strict sense: Parkour is about efficiency – moving from point A to point B in the least amount of time Freerunning is more artistic and incorporates acrobatic movements for style alone The word…”

Super G
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
May 20, 2024
306

“There are five alpine (meaning ‘gravity-based’) skiing events in the Olympics: All of them involve navigating a course down the side of a mountain while turning to go through ‘gates’ demarked by flags. They’re differentiated by how close the gates are, which dictates how often the skier has to turn…”

Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports And Why We’re Afraid To Talk About It
Deane’s Library
Book Review
November 5, 2021
417

“This book explains (it doesn’t ‘claim,’ it just explains) that Black humans are generally better athletes than White humans. It goes deep into the different regions of Africa, and shows how significant portions of athletics are simply dominated by athletes from those regions. In particular, the…”

The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy
Deane’s Library
Book Review
January 25, 2019
544

“This book is … a lot. I just started watching basketball as a hobby. I was perhaps not the right audience for this book. Bill Simmons is a sports columnist. He’s the ultimate sports bro. He knows everything. He has an opinion about every subject. He rattles off statistics in a stream of…”

The Breaks of the Game
Deane’s Library
Book
10
The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History
Deane’s Library
Book Review
May 10, 2019
89

“Truly, one of the most perfect books I have ever read. I wanted a comprehensive history of the NBA, and that’s what got, with style and beauty to go along with it. The history is organized well, the writing is superb and goes beneath superficial observations, and the artwork is just amazing – like,…”