5 Great Sports to Play Indoors

The winter is over now, but that doesn't mean that outdoor sports are in full swing yet. The rain keeps most of us cooped up in our homes all day when we want to play sports. As much fun as Wii tennis may be, it's just not the same as the real deal. Nevertheless, there are some fun games that you can play indoors without having to sacrifice anything along the way. If you have been looking for an excuse to get out of your pharmacy tech uniform and into some sneakers, you could look forward to playing one of these sports in the near future. Here are a few ideas to keep you fit and entertained indoors.

Bowling

Bowling is one of the easiest games for the indoors because anyone can play. It takes some skill to actually do well in bowling, but it does not take much to just play the game. You could drive to a local bowling alley if you wanted to, or you could just get one of those cheap plastic sets to play in the kitchen or hallway. Learn a little bit about the scoring, and you'll be all set.

Pool

I'm talking about billiards here, not a swimming pool. I'm not a huge fan of pool because I suck at it, but it can be fun to play indoors. You can find tabletop conversions for your home if you want to play at the house, but there should be plenty of places in your town that offer pool for $1 or $2 per game. You don't have to bring your own balls or sticks. You just need someone to play with. There should be something you can use there at the bar or pool hall.

Ping Pong

Table tennis is one of those games that looks easy but is actually really difficult to play well. Again, you can buy a table conversion to use at home, or you can go to a place that offers ping pong tables to play on. My husband and I used to play in the lounge for his dorm because that was the only place we had easy access to at the time. You may be able to find an arcade in your area to play in instead.

Darts

Darts are compact enough to store away, and they are versatile enough to work in any room. All you need is a wall to put the dart board on, and you should be able to play with your friends. Some people get super competitive with darts, and others just use them to destroy pictures of their enemies. What you do is up to you but I guarantee you will have some fun if you learn how to play darts well.

Basketball

Basketball is not an easy sport for some people to play, but it is something you can enjoy indoors. If you are not good at basketball in general, you may play HORSE or some other version of the game. I genuinely suck at anything related to throwing a ball, so I usually just create my own rules for the game and see what happens. Get creative, and you should find a way to have fun.

The rainy seasons doesn't have to dampen your spirits. You can have a ton of fun indoors if you have the right sports to play. Think about some of the options above and see if any of them will work for you. You will have a smile on your face in no time.

Human Resource Managers in the World of Sports

When most people think about sports recruiters, they think about coaches that go out to find players. While that does make sense in this context, a recruiter could also be someone that looks for employees to support a team or work in a stadium. This person is most often referred to as a human resource manager, and he or she plays a unique role in the athletic world. HR managers are generally responsible for creating a staff of quality employees to lead a team to success. They do this by recruiting and interviewing qualified men and women to work with them. If this sounds like a job for you, just keep reading. We'll show you what it takes to work in human resource management.

HR Manager Training and Education

To become a human resource manager in the sports industry, you obviously need a firm grasp of whatever sport you want to work around. That could be football, soccer, hockey, golf, or anything else you are interested in. In addition to that though, you need to have a background in human resources. That will come through a college degree. Common courses in HR management degrees include:

• Accounting and Finance: Managerial Use and Analysis per year
• Compensation and Benefits per year
• Employment Law per year
• Human Resource Management per year
• Human Resource Planning per year
• Labor Relations per year
• Leadership and Organizational Behavior per year
• Legal, Political and Ethical Dimensions of Business per year
• Managerial Applications of Information Technology per year
• Managing Organizational Change per year
• Marketing Management per year
• Strategic Staffing per year
• Training and Development per year

You may take additional courses related to the sport of your choice, but that gives you an idea of the overall subject matter you will be dealing with in your degree. If that sounds like something you could feasibly get through, you should be able to find a great career in sports human resources.

HR Manager Earnings

Of course, you probably want to know how much money you can make as a human resource manager in sports. This is somewhat hard to say because the sports industry has such a large gap in pay rates. You may make millions of dollars working for the Green Bay Packers, but you may make much less than that working for a low-end team in your area. The statistics below highlight the expected pay rates for HR managers in general, which you should be able to use as a guideline for your pay:

Salary by Degree

• Associate's Degree: $34,762 - $78,633 per year
• Bachelor of Arts in Psychology: $39,308 - $87,859 per year
• Bachelor of Science in Human Resources Management: $40,247 - $85,322 per year
• Master of Business Administration: $40,689 - $91,837 per year

Salary by Gender

• Male: $49,328 - $80,351 per year
• Female: $45,920 - $70,155 per year

Again, you may make more than that, but that should help you figure out what you may earn as a whole. If you decide that you do not want to work in sports specifically, you can always move on to another area of business. There is always a demand for HR managers in the job market if you look around long enough.

Take in all of the information above and figure out if you want to work in HR management. If not, do your research to find a sports-related career that can fit you.

Advantages of Having a Personal Trainer

Are you tired of looking the way you do right now? Have you developed a body over the years that is simply not where it needs to be? Do you really want to play a sport, but you just don't have the build do to so at the moment? If so, you may have started to realize that you need to do something about your body. The two main options you have when it comes to exercising are to work out on your own or to hire a personal trainer to work with you. While the expense of the second option may leave you assuming you need to work out on your own, the fact is that you may be able to get much better results by having a personal trainer on your side. Here are a few reasons why you may want to have a personal trainer working with you in the future.

Professional Guidance

If you start to work out in the gym, chances are you are just going to gravitate to the first open machine. In doing this, you may actually confuse your muscles and keep your body looking the way it does right now. This is far too common for people who lack guidance in their exercising, and the truth is that it hinders your results. A personal trainer can assess your body and your lifestyle and try to come up with the best possible workout routines for you. That way you do not waste time sporadically exercising in ways that will not yield results for you.

Consistent Motivation

There is an inherent motivation that comes from a personal trainer that you cannot get on your own. A personal trainer should want you to succeed just as much as you want to succeed, and he or she is going to motivate you to achieve that perfect body as you exercise. If you feel like giving up on your own, you can simply walk away from the workout. With a personal trainer there to guide you though, you will have to stay committed to your goals. You will feel much better about yourself in the end.

Customized Workouts

Every person has slightly different physical needs that must be addressed. If you purely get your fitness advice from Richard Simmons infomercials, you need to look into something a little more tailored to your needs. You can work with a personal trainer to come up with a plan that actually works for your body, not the cookie cutter image that pre-made workouts accommodate. If you truly want to transform your body, you have to consider working with a personal trainer.

Baller Status

I just have to throw this one out there. You can feel like a total baller if you have your own personal trainer to work with. If your friends ask where you're going, you can say, "I'm meeting up with my trainer," in that cocky way that no one appreciates until he or she has a personal trainer as well. If you want to take your pimp status to the next level, this could definitely be an opportunity to do so.

Conclusion

The fact is that a personal trainer is going to know about your body well enough to come up with a good workout for you. Even if you think you have found the perfect plan online or in a DVD set, you can never be too sure that you are actually doing what you need to do for your body. A personal trainer will have the expertise to suggest a perfect workout for you. Investing in their help will have a major impact on the way your body looks in the future.