News About Upcoming Special Olympics Pennsylvania Events

This blog was originally published on Matthew Mann's website here. 

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Special Olympics Pennsylvania (“SOPA”), a branch of the much larger global Special Olympics movement, provides venues for athletes with special challenges to enjoy the benefits offered by participating in competitive sporting events. The organization serves an estimated 20,000 athletes in the state of Pennsylvania. It furnishes free training and frequent events. Several upcoming activities will interest athletes and volunteers this month. Watch for emails concerning training calls!

SOPA maintains a busy winter schedule. Yet during the period between Thanksgiving and the arrival of the New Year the pace slows somewhat as everyone turns their attention towards the holiday season. This happy time provides opportunities to train volunteers and raise funds for upcoming activities:

Make a Splash This Month!

On Friday, December 1st, the organization will sponsor a fundraising “Polar Plunge” at Drexel University in Philadelphia. SOPA currently accepts registrations for this upcoming event. Volunteers can test their willingness to dive into a pool of cold water in order to raise funds for SOPA.

Conducted at the Recreation Center at 3301 Market Street on campus, the event lasts from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Last year, this well-attended fundraiser collected an impressive $100,000 for the Special Olympics. It will include four separate plunge categories: Cool Schools for high school students in SOPA’s Interscholastic Unified Sports Program (9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.); Power Lunch for interested business executives (12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.); and Public and University for members of the general public and anyone affiliated with Drexel University (5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.). SOPA conducts Polar Plunges at nine separate locations around the State of Pennsylvania during the course of the year.

Develop Your Bowling Skills

You can also register to participate in Bowling Skills Training conducted on Saturday, December 2nd in Bethlehem, PA. This event occurs from 10:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. at Town & Country Lanes on Stefko Boulevard. It provides an opportunity to develop better bowling skills. Have fun and socialize with other SOPA supporters!

The athletes who enter SOPA competitions frequently face the challenge of living with developmental or intellectual disabilities. Their participation in Special Olympics events offers them a chance to showcase their capabilities without prejudice, and to enjoy the camaraderie and applause of others. None of our activities could occur without the generous support of volunteers!

Focus, Breath, and Swing: Removing Stress and Anxiety from Your Golf Game

This blog initially appeared on Matthew Mann's website here.

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Anxiety can be an all-consuming event. Imagine yourself on the first tee, mentally going through your routine, checking your stance, gripping the club for the first drive that day, going through all your mental checkpoints and suddenly you begin to feel anxious and nervous. You visualize your first drive carrying the ball into the woods, or just entirely out-of-bounds.

Before you know it, you are concentrating on your anxiety and stress and no longer focus on your approach to the ball or any of your other pre-swing routine steps. What you are feeling is normal. Baseball players, football players, basketball players and all sports enthusiasts experience stress and anxiety.

Suggestions to help you move past this emotional feeling:

• You can take the Buddhist approach by using meditation, calming views of clouds passing by, relaxed breathing for a calming effect.
• Begin preparing for this bout of anxiety before you even get to the golf course. Practice focus and concentration.
• Practice calming breathing techniques. Slowly inhaling and slowly exhaling.
• Grip your club and squeeze and release several times to release the tension in your hands and arms.
• Relax, shake all the stress from your shoulders and continue breathing.
• Feel confident, relaxed, in control and take that swing. Follow-through just as you mentally practiced, relaxed, in control and confident.

Other techniques to consider:

• Be prepared for your day of golf.
• Check your golf bag to ensure you have tees; your clubs are clean, you have bottled water or whatever you drink to refresh yourself on the course.
• Ensure you are organized before stepping on the course.
• Don't add additional stress related problems to your possible anxiety attack.
• Be yourself and relax
• Visualize success before you step up to tee off
• Take control and suppress your emotions. Everyone knows golf has its good and bad days. Concentrate on the good and suppress the bad.
• Trust yourself and your ability to perform, relax into your environment.
• Turn on your autopilot, you are in control, and you feel the stress and anxiety leave.
• Continue with your positive thoughts and follow-through.

You have control, just breathe slowly and take charge as you probably play better than you think and with practice, you will improve and feel better about the results.

3 Small Tidbids About Golfing

This blog initially appeared on Matthew Mann's website here.

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Offseason Golf Tips

As winter approaches, the cold weather numbers your days on the golf course. This period can be tough for any golfer. The time off causes a loss of feel, strength, flexibility, and timing. However, there are ways to keep your skills fresh while you’re off. Try this:

• Performing line drills with or without a golf ball can be useful.
• All you need is a line on a carpet that is perpendicular to your target line.
• You can also use a wedge and ping-pong balls to work on your short game.
• Hitting the ball at various times will help you learn how to use the club to hit different shots.

Warming Up For A Golf Session

Just like with any form of physical activity, warming up for golf is crucial to staying safe and avoiding injuries. Golf stretching exercises will help increase your range of motion and your power. You want to avoid static stretching for your warm up. These kinds of stretching exercises can negatively affect your performance. Instead, focus on more dynamic, working stretches that will warm your muscles and prepare you for the game. Arm swings, trunk rotations, and side bends with a club are great examples. You should be sure to include a stretching session after your game as well. Include some static stretches here will be useful to improve flexibility.

Skills All Great Golfers Have

It is a fact that most professional golfers are not the greatest athletes in the world. However, they all possess particular attributes that make them successful. Two specific traits cited to turn a golfer from good to great. Those qualities are attitude and skill. These are skills that boost anyone in any profession but, in golf, they can add a substantial boost to one’s game. An excellent golfer maintains a calm, cool, and collected demeanor. Keeping a positive spirit even during a challenging game is a good sign. Skills that one should look for in a great golfer are tempo and distance control. Players who have a good tempo tend to maintain a smooth and fluid swing. It is also essential to know how far to each of your clubs. Great golfers recognize the various dynamics of their swings and have mastered the differences between them.

Technical Education Around the World

This blog post initially appeared on Matthew Mann's website here.

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Vocational and technical education is being pushed in the forefront around the world once again. Technical education doesn’t require the amount of time that university degree programs require, but they can produce highly skilled workers with the skills that employers need. It’s a great choice for countries looking to improve their workforce and economic competitiveness.

Tanzania

Tanzania is working to increase the availability of technical education for its youth. They have look towards none other than Germany as their mentor to how vocational education can enhance its economy. Germany is the world’s leader in vocational education. The focus of the program is to provide opportunities for youth to get training in specific industries and occupations. They will utilize industry internships and apprenticeships to ensure that workers are skill ready.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is finally opening up to the idea of vocational education as a positive career path for all students. They have removed roadblocks to students pursuing a vocational education in lieu of university. Students who choose to take a vocational education track will no longer be giving up the opportunity to go a university in the future. Students can leave the track devoted to high-pressure university exams and study a career instead.

The Philippines

The Philippines has recently extended their secondary schools from 4 years to 6 years of study and have incorporated vocational-technical courses within these additional two years. Understanding the importance of a highly trained workforce, they have increased the opportunity for skills training and have even worked to provide free college and vocational training to all students. They are also working with other Southeast Asian countries to build a system of better vocational training in the region.

Australia

On the other end of the spectrum, Australia is dealing with a reduction in vocational education opportunities. Funding is a problem in many tertiary institutions. This has caused a reduction in vocational education opportunities. In fact, funding for some programs have dropped as much as 20% and much of the funding drops haven’t been able to be covered through increased tuition. This has meant fewer vocational technical opportunities at a time where other countries are increasing their availability of training opportunities to meet a changing world economy.

United Kingdom

The UK has long grappled with issues in vocational education and the idea that vocational credentials are some kind of second-class qualification. Attitudes are changing and people are realizing that it’s a quality career credential. In fact, the UK has a national Post 16 Skills Plan focused on ensuring that there is training beyond secondary school. It calls for more apprenticeships and more opportunities for career training.

It’s clear that despite a few roadblocks, many countries around the world are embracing vocational-technical education opportunities. They see vocational education as an opportunity to provide education and skills that their economies need in order to get ahead.