day its about whos going to be the toughest mentally, and I think in the last few years | Forum

OXNARD, Calif. Youth Ultra Boost 2018 . -- Chris Maragos cant imagine an NFL without kickoffs.The Philadelphia special teams ace admits to sounding like a lobbyist when he said he never feels safer during a play that the league keeps altering in an effort to reduce high-speed collisions, backed by statistics that show most injuries occur on kickoffs.With competition committee member Stephen Jones of the Dallas Cowboys suggesting that safety is more important than players making a living covering kickoffs and punts, Maragos is quick on the counterpoint.Yeah, things are moving fast and youre running down the field. But I never feel like my safetys compromised, at all, said Maragos, who is going into his seventh year as mostly a special teams player. From what people look on the outside in, it looks like a chaotic play. But the guys who are really mastering it know what theyre doing. Its pretty under control.Five years after moving the kickoff to the 35-yard line from the 30 to reduce the number of returns, the NFL is trying something else to encourage more touchbacks by putting the ball on the 25 instead of the 20 on a one-year trial.There is still plenty of dialogue, too.Senior vice president of officiating Dean Blandino held a conference call with special teams coaches during the offseason.Among other ideas being discussed are eliminating the running start for the coverage team and pulling players on the receiving team closer to the kickoff line so that theyre moving more in the same direction as the kicking team, making it more like blocking for a punt return.Blandino said he doesnt think the kickoff will be eliminated.Its a big part of the game, he said. Its an exciting play.But the league increasingly sees it as a dangerous play, particularly with so much attention on concussions. And thats where Jones isnt swayed by the idea that it might mean fewer opportunities for players who arent good enough to be stars on offense or defense.At the end of the day the players health and safety is the No. 1 priority in this league, said Jones, the executive vice president of personnel for the Cowboys. If that comes at the expense of something else thats not as high a priority, then we certainly have to accept that.One of the most noteworthy plays of 2015 was actually a punt return, when Dallas safety Jeff Heath blocked Ricardo Lockette when the Seattle coverage man was in full stride and didnt see him. It was a legal play, but the resulting neck injury ended Lockettes career.While Heath has twice as many tackles on defense as Maragos in half the number of years, he still fits the special teams profile: part-time defensive player, full-time chaser of opposing kick returners. And he believes there will always be a need for that.Youre covering a lot of ground and youve got to be fast, said Heath, who is going into his fourth season. Theres a lot of skill that comes into it as well. Those type of guys tend to do well wherever they play. Defense, offense or special teams.Maragos would argue that kickoffs and punts are gateways to stardom, too. Among his peers, he points to Tennessee tight end Delanie Walker, his teammate in San Francisco when Maragos was a rookie. He says special teams helped keep Walker on the roster, and now Walker is coming off a Pro Bowl season in Tennessee.Minnesota receiver Adam Thielen was undrafted out of Division II Minnesota State Mankato and spent a year on the practice squad before becoming a key special teams contributor for the Vikings. He blocked a punt for a touchdown in 2014 and last season ran a fake punt 41 yards in the NFC North-clinching season finale at Green Bay.Thielen said the key to safety in kick coverage comes on the practice field.Every day, its technique, technique, technique, he said. I really dont think its more dangerous than an offensive play. You could get hit on a crossing route over the middle a lot harder than on a kickoff.Maragos grew up in Wisconsin rooting for the Green Bay Packers, who beat New England 35-21 in the 1997 Super Bowl. The thing Maragos remembers most is the anticipation of the opening kickoff. And by the way, Desmond Howard had a 99-yard kickoff return and was the games MVP.You talk about speed down the field, athleticism to avoid blocks. You talk about a heart, a grit, a determination, an inner desire, Maragos said. To me, it embodies everything that an NFL football player should be. And really what the game is about.---AP Sports Writers Dave Campbell in Minneapolis and Stephen Hawkins in Dallas contributed to this report.---Online:AP NFL websites: http://pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Schuyler Dixon on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apschuyler Wholesale Ultra Boost 2018 Online . Dukurs winning time was 1 minute, 45.76 seconds, a quarter-second better than Russias Alexander Tretiakov. Lativas Tomass Dukurs was third, 1.41 seconds off the pace. Jon Montgomery of Eckville, Alta. Rose Ultra Boost 2018 . They were putting most of their energy into a record-setting offensive display. http://www.cheapultraboostoutlet.com/ . Goals from Jerome Boateng, Franck Ribery and Thomas Mueller extended Bayerns unbeaten run to a record 37 matches. "This record is incredible," Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. I remember the first time I saw diving.I was at my sisters swim practice at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre and I had wandered down the pool to the diving boards. Watching the divers soon became a routine. I would turn up for my sisters training hoping that the divers were there, too. But, it wasnt until I was watching the finals of the synchronized diving at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with my dad that my parents finally let me join a diving team. I was 10-years-old. At first it was just a fun after-school activity, but it soon became a passion.Shortly after taking up diving, I was accepted into the junior diving program at the Australian Institute of Sport in Brisbane. I accelerated quickly after that, and it wasnt long before I was competing. By 13 I was the national champion and Commonwealth Games silver medallist, and by 16 Id won an Olympic Medal.Over my time as an Australian diver competing at the Commonwealth and Olympic Games, I have grown from a young athlete learning her craft to an experienced diver leading her team into the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.These are just a few lessons Ive learned about myself, diving and growing up in such a competitive landscape.Remain Focused On Your GoalsAt 13-years-old I attended my first national diving championship. It was an important time in my career; I was in a program with three other divers and if you didnt perform you were out.The championship is a bit of a blur now. I was so focused on training, performing and maintaining my spot in the program. But I remember when one of my teammates was dropped, I overheard his mum on pool-deck telling people I should have been kicked out as well. I remember that day so clearly, thinking no, Ive trained so hard for this and Im not going to be kicked out.It was a stressful time. Id constantly been reviewed and analysed in the lead up to the championship and I knew I had to perform to qualify for the Commonwealth Games.Winning the championship was a relief, defeating established Australian stars Chantelle Newbery, an Olympic champion, and Loudy Tourkey, a bronze medal winner at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. I was under so much pressure to perform, and it was that moment that I realised Id made it and I just needed to keep working and keep focused on myself. My coach at the time was so focused on the job. For him it wasnt about me beating people, but me diving well. We trained hard for me to compete well, so he was very focused on my performance.It was an important lesson for me going into the rest of my career, making sure I didnt focus on other people. At the end of the day, and no matter what other people say, you still have to do your dives and so I make sure to focus as much as I can on what Im doing.All About Performance - Expectations Are HighI had my first experience on an international stage at the 2006 Commonwealth Games; I was 14-years-old, and it was an eye-opening experience.I was thrown together with my synchronized diving partner, Alex Croak, a week before the Games. We didnt really know what to expect, so we just thought wed do our best. It was different to anything Id experienced.We won the silver medal and I cant really remember what I was thinking at the time; I just remember being so excited. I dont even remember being nervous. I just remember competing.I never really thought of what I achieved. The mentality of the program, everyone was expected to perform; not just me but the whole team. You dont think about what youve accomplished when the culture iis based so much on performance. Cheap Ultra Boost 2018 Shoes. You grew up learning that everything is about performance, so I went in there trying to have fun but knowing I had to perform.It was the same when I won silver at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. I was 16-years-old, and Id had a few more international tournaments under my belt. I won silver again in the synchro, with Briony Cole, and I became the youngest Australian diver to medal at the Olympics. But I didnt really know or focus on that achievement. My time at the Olympics was all about performance. I had to go there and perform; getting a medal, particularly the silver, was what was expected of me, especially with our previous results in the lead up.With all that pressure and the expectations, winning the silver wasnt really a wow moment. It was amazing winning a medal, but I remember having that pressure on me and just thinking that was what was expected of me.You Have To Be Brave To Be A DiverDespite practising simple dives from the 10 metre platform for a long time, I still remember the first time trying a more difficult dive from that height. Id been trained from a young age to be comfortable up there, but still it was really scary trying the difficult dives for the first time.I can remember that day as I was getting to the pool. I could feel the adrenalin building and I was getting pretty nervous to start doing those more technical dives. But once I did it, it was such a great feeling because then I knew that rush.We do all the practice and all the lead up to prepare ourselves, but you never know what youre going to feel like until you go up there. Its the fear of the unknown; you need to have that bravery and willpower to just go for it and not worry about whats going to happen.Being Teammates and Competitors Can Be A Lonely PlaceIts always tough being in a competitive solo sport. People can be very different in the pool and out of the pool.Alex Croak is probably one of the few people in my diving crew who remained friends with me no matter what the results were. But I have found that friendships like Alexs are rarer than people who treat you differently with the results.Its just the nature of sports; its something you learn form a young age that its just how people are in a sporting environment; so you learn to just stay focused on what youre doing. If you make friends, thats a bonus; but at the end of the day youre probably not going to have that many friends.It can be a really lonely place being teammates and competitors. It was especially hard when I was younger. It was really tough. Were all teammates trying to compete in the same environment, and if you dont perform youre out.Youre Not Always Friends On The Olympic TeamIve matured a lot over the years, obviously as a person and through my diving, too.It takes a lot of time to get experience and to start diving consistently; its a real mental thing in competitions. You do all your physical preparations in training but at the end of the day its about whos going to be the toughest mentally, and I think in the last few years I have improved my mental strength.After years of self-doubt, I finally feel more comfortable in myself.Ive had a lot of issues with self-confidence over the years and now I feel so much better on so many different levels, and to be able to pass on this confidence to younger athletes is something Im really proud of. Cheap NFL JerseysCheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From ChinaCheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys China NFL Cheap Jerseys' ' '