Kaka

Soccer Sensation: Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite
Birthday: April 22, 1982
Place of Birth: Gama, Brazil
Nickname: Kaka

     Kaka is a Brazilian soccer player who is on the Brazilian national team, as well as AC Milan. He brilliantly plays attacking midfielder for his teams, and is a great soccer player that contributes to many of the wins on both his teams. His height of 6'1'' gives him the ability to win many headers, but also dribble fiercely around many of the other teams with his speedy touches on the ball.

     Kaka began to play soccer at the age of eight, on a local club team, that really gave him the motivation to pursue soccer as his true passion in life. As a teenager, he was also interested in tennis, so choosing soccer of it was a big decision for him. At the young age of 15 he moved to Sao Paulo and finally decided that soccer was the path to take and decided to start training seriously to try and get on a big team. At the age of 18 he was in a swimming pool accident and suffered a spinal fracture that could have paralyzed him, but he luckily made a full recovery. After recovering he began to train again working endless hours every day where he worked hard, and his hard work definitely paid off, and in 2003 he joined the team Milan. His time on that team really motivated him to get better, and was rewarded. He won the Ballon d'Or and was awarded the title FIFA World Player of the Year in 2007. He was then contracted to play with Real Madrid, but recently (last year) moved back to play with Milan again, where his heart was and is.

 

 

http://goo.gl/fCrPfJ

 

     Kaka is married to Caroline Celico, and has two children. There names are Luca, born in 2008, and Isabella, born in 2011. He is a religious Christian. Something new I learned was that he was a model for Armani, and used for advertising for Adidas. He was also on the cover of the FIFA game 2011.

     The most interesting fact I learned about Kaka was that he was the youngest ambassador for the UN World Food Programme. and he's pretty popular on Twitter. He was the first sportsperson to reach 10,000,000 followers on Twitter.

Why do warm-ups?

Warm-ups: Are they really beneficial?

 



 

     As I was browsing through the internet looking for some interesting information to post today, I came across an article from the L.A. Times concerning ACL injuries. Now, for some of you who don't know, ACL stands for anterior cruciate ligament, and is one of the four major ligaments found in our knees. It's main job is to keep the knee stable while we pivot, or plant our foot while cutting in. If your ACL is torn ,  many people prefer to get auto graft surgery done, where tissue is commonly taken from your hamstring and used to repair the ligament. Recovery for this is about 6 to 10 months and time going to a rehabilitation center, but at least you'd be able to still play.

 

http://goo.gl/Gur0Bk

 

      The article proved that warming up for 15 minutes before a practice or a fame could significantly lower your chances of any ACL injuries. A study done in San Francisco tested 4, 564 Swedish women who played soccer from the ages of 12-17. 2,479 of the girls were assigned to do a 15 minute neuromuscular warm up twice a week doing a range of 6 different exercises. The other 2, 085 girls were used as a control group for the experiment. The experiment was very conclusive. The girls who warmed up twice a week were 64% less likely to injure their ACL and it reduced their rate of severe knee problems.

 

     I 100% agree with this article because at my practices and games, we were taught at a young age to always warm up before actually doing any practice drills, reducing our chances of getting hurt. A torn ACL is never ideal, especially when training for a big upcoming game or competing for a starting spot on your team. Not taking the necessary precautions could end your chances of succeeding before you get far.  A efficient warm-up contains dynamic and static exercises, and you need to individually stretch anything that might feel tight or anything that might be hurting. stretching a couple times during the practice couldn't hurt either,, just to make sure you feel loose and flexible.

http://goo.gl/G25WI8



 

 

 

 



Ronaldo

Soccer Sensation: Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro
Birthday: February 5, 1985
Place of Birth: Santo Antonio, Portugal
Nickname:CR7

     I thought Ronaldo would be the perfect person to start off this blog for 2014, especially because he started the year right by winning a Ballon d'Or. A Ballon d'Or is a awarded to the player who is considered to have the best performance of the previous year, and has been awarded to Messi for the past four years. Ronaldo ended his season with 69 goals scored for his team, not to mention his help in getting Portugal into the 2014 World Cup. He received 1,365 points from national team captains and coaches, while Messi had 1,205 and Ribery ending with 1,127.

     To start off, Ronaldo began playing professional soccer at a young age, but his career did not take off until his teen years. By the age of 18, he signed with Manchester United, where he triumphed and was a major advantage for the tea. While playing for MU, Ronaldo was great with Wayne Rooney as they defeated teams in the European league. His highlight with Manchester United was winning a Ballon d'Or in 2008, at the age of 23.

     In 2009, Ronaldo decided he wanted to play for Spain, and was signed for a world-record transfer fee of 80 million pounds. With his Spanish team, Ronaldo has managed to keep a steady record and win many award such as the Golden Boot.

     His current national team is Portugal and his club team is Real Madrid. He plays forward for his team and wears the jersey number 7.