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I was just thinking how much team sports have changed, even since I was a kid.  My little sister was in gymnastics when we were kids, and there wasn’t anything very hi-tech about it then.  Coaches and gyms communicated with parents via letters and flyers sent home with the kids, or good old-fashioned phone calls if an immediate response was needed.

The kids I babysit for are in team sports, so I have a good perspective of modern team sports.  These days, some teams still communicate via phone calls and notes sent home to the parents, but others have moved into the age of technology.  For instance, many teams use team management software, also known as group management software.  This allows coaches to send emails to parents about upcoming events, request RSVPs, keep track of everyone’s information, etc.

I think it shows how much things have changed since our parents’ generation, or even since my generation.  I can’t even quite remember what I did before I could research a subject on the Internet, communicate instantaneously via email or even chat, keep tabs on old classmates online, etc.  Was there really life before the Internet?

Kids these days almost take it for granted that we have these things.  But those of us raising, teaching, or training the kids…  We’re old enough that we can recognize how much easier technology has made our lives!

Technorati Tags: group management software, gymnastics, team management software

I was told that my boat needs to have new outboard parts.  We had to have these outboard parts replaced.  The boat was close to 15 years old, so I should have expected to have to replace them at some point.  We did some research and decided that we wanted to replace these parts with Evinrude parts.  These parts were high quality parts that had been voted the top boat replacement parts for a few years in a row.  We looked around for the best selection and easily found them.

We also went about updating the boat with new boat accessories.  The boat accessories that we had before, just like the outboard engine needed updating too.  I was happy that along with the outboard, we were able to find a great deal of accessories that added to the happy feeling that our boat gave us as we zipped around the lake.  It is funny how adding just a few new things to an old boat can give it a whole new look.  My whole family enjoyed the changes we made to our boat; we might use it even more these days than we did a few years ago because of the changes we have made.

Technorati Tags: boat accessories, Evinrude parts, Outboard, outboard parts

Once when I was a kid I found a golf ball in a lake.  My friend was letting me borrow his goggles and snorkel.  People used to hit them off their docks, as far as they could, into the lake.  I suppose they don’t much do that anymore.  Now we try to keep our lakes pristine.  I counted the dimples on the golf ball.  I made a little dot in ink after I counted each dimple, to be sure I wouldn’t count it again.  When I asked my parents why golf balls are shaped that way, they didn’t know.  Neither did my teacher.  I asked everyone until someone said “they fly further that way,” but he couldn’t tell me why that was so.

I became an engineer, and, strange to say, ended up designing golf equipment.  Clubs, mostly.  There are good jobs in the golf industry.  A lot of engineering to it all.  A lot of rich people will pay a lot of money to improve their golf games by a small margin.  A waste of effort?  Nah, it was a good job, and people try to perfect everything.

In fact, I’m an instructor at an academy of golf, now, as something of a retirement job.  The truth is, I love the sport.  I’d be a golf pro if I were good enough.  And if you’re wondering: 535 dimples, although golf balls vary and most today have fewer than that.

Technorati Tags: academy of golf, golf industry, golf pro

When I first started coaching I coached a soccer team because my son was small and he wanted to play soccer.  He later decided he wanted to play a different sport so I decided to coach that team as well.  However, I kept coaching the previous team because I grew to know and love the kids.

Now I am coaching three different teams and I am feeling a bit overwhelmed.  I didn’t know how to coach when I first began and now nearly all of my free time is occupied with sports.  One of the parents on my teams was beginning to get the idea that I was getting buried in work with these projects and suggested I install some league software to keep the teams organized and lessen the amount of stress I was experiencing.  Not long after the program was put in place I immediately felt relieved from my increasing workload. 

The program allows me to contact the parents all at once, organize payments, and post a calendar.  The calendar is a great reminder for parents so they can get their kids to the practices and games that are scheduled on time.   I have received a lot of great response from the parents as well.

Technorati Tags: coaching, how to coach, league software

A fisherman friend once said, if you’re interested in fly fishing and want to find a good fly fishing guide, GA is a good place to look. In Georgia, the weather stays warm for much longer and these guys train and work on some of best fishing spots. Freshwater lakes and rivers in protected park land make for great fly fishing in ga. Trout and bass are common and you’ll be busy the whole time learning different patterns. That natural setting is what everyone needs to unwind and experience the world in its natural state.

When I talked to him last, he said that he’d read an article called Fly Fishing North GA, where fishing conditions were described on the Toccoa River and other places in the Chattahoochee National Forest. He said several fishermen were concerned if environmental change would affect fly fishing, but it wasn’t yet known if other factors beyond overdevelopment near fishing areas were soon going to impact how fish were caught, or if the sport could itself be endangered. There wasn’t a doubt that it was affecting conditions elsewhere, so the fly fishermen were being urged to voice their own concerns to be recognized.

Technorati Tags: fishing in ga, fly fishing guide GA, Fly Fishing North GA