Golf

Golf was supposed to have been invented in Scotland some 400 years ago, where each player has to hit his own small ball into a hole using various types of clubs. The club is swung at the motionless ball on the ground from a side-stance. Score is kept with the smallest score being the best.

Golf is thought to have come from the Dutch word ‘kolf' meaning a club. It is defined in the Rules of Golf as "playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules." A favorite theory is that golf was started by bored shepherds knocking stones around with bent sticks. Its popularity was hampered in the early years by requiring close-cropped grass. The lawnmower was not invented until 1831 and not really practical until the machine-tool industry was able to cut steel gears c. 1880's.

Golf is most commonly played on courses consisting of 18 holes, usually consisting of 4 par threes, 4 par fives and 10 par fours. The term par being the number of strokes required by a good golfer to get the ball from the ‘teeing ground' or ‘tee box' into the hole. To enable players of all levels to compete there is a handicap system whereby a lesser golfer is given ‘shots', the fewer shots one has the better golfer one is. The maximum handicap allowable for competitions is 28 for men and 36 for women. Some golfers will be rated with a plus handicap which means that they must add their plus handicaps to their final scores when playing against amateurs.

Golf club is a term for an organization of members usually owning a golf course and clubhouse. Golf club is also the term used to describe the ‘tools' used by golfers to get the ball from the tee, using a tee peg to sit the ball above the ground, along the fairway and onto the green.

Golf has a wonderful history spanning over 400 years of funny names and interesting definitions. From the archaic terms of the Scotts to modern colloquialism, the most common are Birdie, getting the ball into the hole in one stroke less than par. Eagle, getting the ball into the hole in two strokes less than par. Albatross, getting the ball into the hole in three strokes less than par.

Baseball Rules

Baseball teams consist of nine players and these players take turns fielding and at batting, with the home team batting second.

An inning consists of batters from each team taking their turn at batting until three batters are out. A game lasts for nine innings, but is extended into extra innings if the scores are level.

The fielding side consists of a pitcher, catcher, four infielders, and three outfielders.

The pitcher throws overhand, using a variety of deliveries from a raised mound to the home plate - a distance of 60.5ft.

An opposing batter attempts to hit the pitches and then get on base, while the fielders attempt to get the batter out through various plays.

A batter who misses three legitimate pitches, or fails to swing at three judged hittable by the umpire, is out on strikes. However, if the pitcher throws four pitches outside the strike zone, the batter obtains a base on balls, and gets a walk to first base.

A run is scored every time a batter becomes a runner and crosses home plate after touching each base in the prescribed order.

When the fielding team gets their opponents' three batters out, the teams swap roles.

If the score is level after nine innings, play continues into extra innings until one team has scored more than the other in an equal number of turns at bat.

Play Disk Golf

1. Disc golf is a sport that has grown very popular since its invention in the late 60's. George Sappenfield, a Californian, realized that golf would be a lot of fun if played with frisbees, so he set up a course of targets for kids to play on. A year later Sappenfield introduced the game to many other frisbee players. Many of them brought the game back to the U.C. Berkeley. Meanwhile on the East coast standardized targets were created and the game became more serious.

2. Find a disc golf course near you to play on. A good source for this is the course locater in the External Links section.

3. Get yourself a set of discs. An initial set usually consists of a Driver, a Mid-range and a Putter. Getting these can be done several ways. There are a few select courses that have pro shops, some that even rent discs. However, this is the exception and not the rule, so it is advised to find a local retailer or purchase online. A good way to do this is on the Innova Discs website or Discraft or any of the retailers linked in the External Links section.

4. It helps to go out to the course you are going to play a few minutes before your "tee-off" time so you can walk the course and get an idea of the targets locations, this will make your game easier as you won't have to scout for them as you play.

5. You'll find most courses have no greens fee so you can play as much as you desire all for the price of any lost discs, which WILL happen eventually.

Warnings
1. Your arm will get tired! To prevent this you can play the first few times on only the top or bottom 9 holes and take breaks to rest your arm.

2. You will lose discs! This is a fact that every disc golfer must deal with. To minimize this buy brightly colored discs and keep track of the flight path of your discs.

3. Avoid throwing your discs into trees as they will become stuck and dense plants as they are hard to find even if brightly colored.

4. Avoid throwing your disc onto pavement or any other hard surface as this will warp the plastic causing erratic flight.

5. Do not store your discs in a high temperature area as this will also warp the plastic causing erratic flight.

Tennis

Tennis Rules
A. The player who delivers the ball to start the point is called the server. The player who stands opposite and cross-court from the server is the receiver.

B. The right to serve, receive, choose your side, or give the opponent these choices is decided by a toss of a coin or racquet. If the choice of service or receiver is chosen, the opponent chooses which side to start.

C. The server shall stand behind the baseline on the deuce court within the boundaries of the singles court when playing singles and within the doubles sideline when playing doubles. All even points are played from the deuce court and odd number points played from the advantage court.
D. The receiver is deemed ready if an attempt is made to return the server's ball. The receiver can stand where he likes but must let the ball bounce in the service box. If the ball does not land in the service box, it is deemed a fault and a second serve is given.

E. The server always calls his score first. If the server wins the first point, he gets a score of 15. Scoring is done like a clock. The second point is called 30. The third point is called 45 and game is won when the score goes back to love. If the score is 40-40, one side must win by two points.

F. After the game, the opponents serve. The first to win 6 games, by two, wins the set. The first to win 2 sets wins the match. If the score is 6-6, a tie-breaker is played. The first team to score 7 points winning by two wins the set. The tiebreaker continues until one side wins by two.

G. If the ball goes into the net, or outside the boundaries of the court, the player who hit that ball loses the point. If the ball hits the net during the point and goes into the opponents’ court, the ball is in play.

H. A let is called during the point if a ball rolls on the court or there is a distraction from someone besides the players on the court.

I. A ball that lands on the line is good.

J. If players serve out of turn or serve to the wrong person or court, the point or game will stand and order will be resumed following the point or game.

Basketball

Scoring:
- 2 point field goal- a shot made from anywhere during play inside the 3 pt arc.
- 3 point field goal- a shot made from anywhere outside the 3 pt arc.
- Free throw- 1 point is awarded to an unguarded shot taken from behind the free throw line while the clock is stopped.

Skills:
- Boxing out-a player’s position between an opposing player and the basket to obtain a better rebounding position.
- Dribbling- bouncing the ball with 1 hand using your fingertips instead of your palm so that it rebounds back to yourself.
- Passing- moving the ball by throwing, bouncing, handing, or rolling it to another player.
- Shooting- throwing the ball to make a basket.
- Pivoting- stepping once or more in any direction with the same foot while holding the other foot at its initial point.
- Rebounding- The recovering of a shot that bounces off the backboard or the rim.

Terms:
- Air ball- a shot that completely misses the rim and the backboard.
- Assist- a pass to a teammate who then scores a field goal.
- Defense- team trying to stop the other team from scoring.
- Dunk- to throw the ball down into the basket with the hand above the level of the rim.
- Fast break- dribbling or passing the ball towards your basket before the defense can set up.
- Man-to-man- a defensive strategy where everyone guards an assigned player.
- Offense- team trying to score.
- Turn over- any loss of the ball without a shot being taken.
- Zone defense- a defensive strategy where everyone guards an area instead of a player.

Badminton

General rules and terms
- A player may not touch the net with a racket or history body during play.
- A birdie may not come to rest or be carried on the racket.
- A birdie may hit the net on its way across during play and the rally can continue.
- A player may not reach over the net to hit the shuttlecock.
- In class games will be played to 15 points and a match is 2 out of 3 games.
- Some types of shots are the lob, drop shot, smash and drive.

Serving
- A coin toss or spin of the racket determines who will serve first.
- The serve must travel diagonally to be good.
- A serve that touches the net and lands in the proper court is called a let serve and is reserved. A serve that is totally missed may be tried again.
- The racket must make contact with the birdie below the waist on a serve.
- The server and receiver shall stand within their respective service courts until the serve is made.
- Points may only be scored when serving.
- All lines are considered in bounds.
- In singles, when the server's score is an even number, the serve is taken from the right side. When the server's score is an odd number, it is taken from the left.

Volleyball

Play Volleyball
1. Maximum of three hits per side.
2. Player may not hit the ball twice in succession.
3. Ball may be played off the net during a volley and on serve.
4. A ball touching a boundary line is good.
5. A legal hit is contact with the ball by a player body above and including the waist which does not allow the ball to visibly come to a rest.
6. If two or more players contact the ball simultaneously, it is considered one play and the players involved may not participate in the next play.
7. A player must not block or attack a serve.
8. Switching positions will be allowed only between front line players.

Volleyball Basic Violations
1. Stepping on or over the line on a serve.
2. Failure to serve the ball over the net successfully.
3. Hitting the ball illegally (Carrying, Palming, Throwing).
4. Touches of the net with any part of the body while the ball is in play. If the ball is driven into the net with such force that it causes the net to contact an opposing player, no foul will be called, and the ball shall continue to be in play.
5. Reaching over the net, except under these conditions:
6. Reaches under the net.
7. Failure to serve in the correct order.
8. Blocks or spikes from a position which is clearly not behind the 10-foot line while in a back row position.