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In Essential Soccer Skills, Bob Bridle shows and explains many individual skills. He says, "like dancers and singers, soccer players bodies are their instruments, their means of performance and expression" (DK 60). Following this, one of the skills he teaches in the book is the outside hook shot. Within soccer games, you use many types of shots in order to score. I know many forms of hook shots, but the outside hook is by far my weakest. I decided to go out and practice this shot several times the way that my book had explained it. Bridle states, "for an out swinging strike, connect with the outstep, on the base of the ball" (96). Using this detail I focused on what Bridle was saying and focused on my form. After several tries, I was able to begin curving the ball more than I could before. I will continue to practice this shot, and use it in my soccer career.



He also shows a very similar explanation for the in swinging hook shot. He writes about how you hit the ball with the same placement on your cleats, but different area on the ball. On a regular shot you would hit the ball directly towards the middle of the ball in both vertical and horizontal directions. With a curve shot in swinging you strike the ball toward the lower outside quarter section of the ball. This will make it so the ball curves as you strike around it. I have pretty good experience with this shot but after practicing with some of the steps the book says, I found another way to complete this shot. This gives me a wider range of shooting ability for games. I intend to continue to improve my curve shot both inwards and outwards.

Bridle includes simple steps to a regular shot also. Commonly during games when I shoot the ball it goes over the crossbar. Bridle gives specific details about how to prevent this from happening. Though I get lots of input from my coaches about the way I shoot and how to improve, it is always good to get a unique perspective on how to do something. Thats what this book includes. It shows me different ways to do the skills I wish to master. I will continue to use these viewpoints in my soccer future.

Found on http://fuzzydicepunktse.blogspot.com/

Dear friends,

As you very well know, in February we had a lovely trip to Koln/Cologne. I have so many pictures from that trip... so many pictures I wanted to share with you, that I am booked for many more weeks to come. Of course, as usual, I am linking up with the #traveltuesday in order to keep track with my friends from the blogosphere - and also in order to get new ideeas of future trips ;)

The Lovely Hohenzollern Bridge

Last week I was telling you about the Hohenzollern Bridge - the bridge with the love locks. Today I shall tell you what we did next after checking the bridge piece by piece for interesting new locks. Dana was our amazing guide and after crossing back the bridge we started walking along the Rhein - from the Hohenzollern Bridge to the Chocolate Museum, close to the  Severinsbrucke.

Hohenzollern Bridge from the Cathedral side of the Rhein :)

Opera House & The Cathedral

I will tell you something only locals know ;) Next to the Cathedral there is the Opera House. It has a very nice coffee shop on the ground level and also some museums (that we did not check). It also has a very large portion of curved pavement under which there is the music area, the opera under the ground level. When walking over it the phonic isolation is not that well done so people inside can hear the people above walking, so when there are concerts/shows that area is closed to the public and they even have guards standing by to tell you not to cross over and try to walk as you usually should ;))) I can see a minor flaw there in the architecture plan :p
Walking along the Rhein will bring you face to face with some really nice and colorful houses. I call them happy houses as they brought a smile upon my face when I saw them :)
You have to pay attention to where you are walking as you may bump into a street paved with names of people - I have no ideea why and what and how but I just needed to snap a shot. As you can see a green truck wanted to run me over but I was faster ;)
We had a short detoru on Heumarkt/ Alter Markt and we checked the pulse of the city, the day before the Koln Carnival started. All the city was a buzz preparting with balloons and other sorts of decorations :)
The next day, when we were here, the whole square was full even if it was raining... You could hardly drop a pin! So many people packed in so many types of costumes, painted faces, all smiles :)

A pretty odd postcard, dont you think??!

Just another beer house :)

Another small detour was made to see the Rathaus, which was under construction but we still managed to circle it around to catch a glimpse of it. Not so impressive as the one from Vienna but still pretty and unique.

The Statue made me think of Harry Potter somehow... Ministry of Magic...

We did not enter to see the Choco Museum in Koln, as Dana told us what it was inside and I realised I would be very dissappointed if I would go. The best Choco Museum is the one in Barcelona - they even give you a chocolate ticket ;) you get to see the history of choco from the tree to ones mouth ;)
Instead we went on its rooftop and we watched Koln as the sun was setting. That was really beautiful and I am glad that we did that :) It was quite a nice stop after the long day. We all 3 sit down on a bench and watched the Rhine and the sun setting on our left side, between the buidlings

The 3 good friends :)

The perfect cloud

We walked further on until The 3 Cranes - a new piece of Koln architecture. Kranhaus Buildings Cologne - or The 3 Cranes - are 3 consectutive buildings along the Rhein (you can see them in the pictures above). Architect: BTR (Bothe, Richter, Teherani, Hamburg). The 3 buildings are actually 2 offices buildings + 1 apartment block.
We finsihed the tour with the lovely & dark & gloomy Cathedral :) and I managed to get a few nighttime pictures of it before we headed home. The day was complete by having an amazing meal prepared by Dana.
And guess what?! It was Romanian traditional meal - we had mamaliga and pork, the best combination ever! Plus... I have to be excused, I had to take a selfie in the curved mirror, it was too nice :p
Now, for more of my ramblings on travels in Koln/Cologne, you can check the links below:

• What Would You Visit In Koln - thoughts upon what one could see in Koln, ideeas at the beginning of the journey
• Germany, Ich Liebe Dich - Koln/Cologne & Bonn through BB pictures + 2 dear pictures that my best friend Dana took :) - a short intro to our trip in Germany
• The Flight Travel Bug - or how I love to fly and I am glad my husband choose Lufthansa for our trip to Koln/Cologne 
• Krakow-Cologne. How do I get there? - on how we managed to get from Poland to Germany: flight + ICE Train, and a little extra on the side: chinese food for dinner :) 
• A Dark And Gloomy Cathedral - a very extensive post on the awesomeness of the Cologne/Koln Cathedral. I fell in love with her at the first sight!
• You Love Me. Real Or Not Real? - the wonderful Hohenzollern Bridge with its love locks, right next to the Koln Cathedral was a wonderful stop :) 

I would love to hear from you and tell me what you think of Koln until now, of if you ever been there, or if you are planning to go, or even if you like my photos or not. Feedback is always appreciated ;)

Yours truly,
The Koln Loving LadyBug