Active.com Team Sports - Because sports are about so much more.

Do You Use Weight Machines?

I can write all day about just how misunderstood baseball training information is these days. However, I would make myself sick because it really upsets me to see kids getting such bad advice.

One such piece of advice is the use of machines in weight training.

Machines should never be used. I repeat, machines should never be used!

Do you have a machine guiding you on the baseball diamond? I didn't think so. So why in the world would you train with them?

Machines are not only useless, they can decrease performance and increase the risk of injury! That's right. Triple whammy right there.

On most machines you are sitting or lying down. In order to increase power, strength and speed your must perform ground-based movements. This means your feet are on the ground and you are standing up. Not sitting on some pretty chrome machine.

Machine strength has very little carryover to the baseball diamond for a number of reasons. The machines actually guide the weight for you. So the stabilizer muscles do not have to work. These may be one of the reasons for the high amount of injury our youth have been experiencing.

Please do yourself a favor and use good old fashioned barbells, dumbbells, medicine balls, bodyweight movements and kettlebells. Your body (and statistics) will thank you!

Overlooked Soccer Training Method

Most soccer conditioning is based upon running...and rightfully so.

Typically a coach will have his or her players run distance or sprints. But never together.

This is a monumental mistake.

The game of soccer demands a player can "cruise" at lower speed and then turn on a 100% sprint at the drop of a dime. This is done throughout the entire game.

Therefore, interval training should be the basis of your conditioning work as that will have the greatest carryover to the soccer field.

Alternate periods of slower, duration running with sprints ranging from 85-100% of a players max.

USA Softball 2006 Women’s National Team roster

USA Softball has announced the roster for its 2006 Women's National Team.

The team will now prepare for the second annual World Cup of Softball in Oklahoma City, July 13-17 and then travel to Beijing, China for the ISF Women’s World Championships.

The roster has seventeen players and includes eleven members from the 2004 Olympic team. Be sure to check out the Active.com World Cup of Softball special section.

Baseball phenom not so great off-the-field

Delmon Young is the Tampa Devil Ray uber-prospect who THREW A BAT at an umpire last month and received a 50 game supsension. Well MLB has an interview with Delmon and to say he is "less than contrite" about the incident is an understatement.

He refused to answer questions about the suspension--prompting the interviewer to move on--and didn't feel he had to do anything 'special' to win back his teammates' respect.

Most revealing of all is the reaction of TV producer Bob Grissom, who conducted the interview, at the end when he just shrugs his shoulders in disbelief. A very revealing look into a professional athlete who is acting 'way below' his age.

Is softball hazardous to your child's health?

Did you know that softball/baseball injuries are the biggest reasons for children to go the Emergency Room? Dogbitelaw.com has fascinating data showing the rate of ER incidences among children. (I wonder what happens if you play softball--and have a dog.)

The Road to Williamsport

Pairings have been set for the 2006 Little League Baseball World Series. This is the 60th World Series!

Check it out on Little League International's Web site.

We'll be launching a Little League World Series special section August 1. Be sure to stay tuned and check it out.

First girl to win Spelling Bee since eteamz launched

Congratulations to Katharine Close for her National Spelling Bee win! This is the first female win since eteamz was officially launched to the public in 1999 (thought this was a more interesting way to put it).

The winning word was "ursprache." Check out the definition on Google.

Should we add Spelling as a sport to eteamz? :)

Football team saves man pinned under car!

I don't know if they can score touchdowns but members of the Centralia High School football team are certainly champions off the field. As players were unloading tires off of a truck they heard the screams of Ed Marsh who was pinned underneath a pickup truck and being attended emergency workers. So the players LIFTED the truck to free Marsh. ESPN has the whole story.

J-Mac goes Hollywood!

The amazing story of Jason McElwain, an autistic high school senior who scored a miraculous 20 points in a February basketball game, came full circle today with news that Columbia Pictures has won a bidding war for the film rights to the story.

Alvin Sargent, who wrote Spider Man 2 is slated to pen the script. Most interesting is the presence of Magic Johnson--whose involvment as producer likely sealed the deal.ESPN.com has the full story.

Pitcher returns to mound after losing eye

John Fortenberry of East Central Community College is like any other pitcher trying to get a college scholarship—except for one small fact—he only has one eye.

Fortenberry lost the eye in an intrasquad game when a ball was crushed directly into his face. After doctors told him he’d never play, and 29 screws were inserted into his face, Fortenberry returned with a 4.06ERA to round out a very decent freshman year. Click here for the rest of this amazing story on Yahoo Sports.