DS Talk » with only two of their top seven averaging more than 40

Karen Lieu always knew she had a competitive streak, but as a girl, she never found an outlet for it. The sports she tried didnt work for her.I tried to see if I could do gymnastics and did a handstand against the wall. Well, I ended up breaking a few lamps, she said. My parents were furious, so that stopped. Tennis wasnt for me. Id hit the ball out of the court.During the summer of 1992, after graduating from high school, she found her sport. She was watching the Barcelona Olympics when the telecast turned to fencing. Shed seen swordplay in movies but had never seen the sport, with its masked athletes, fierce attacks and electronic scoring systems. She thought it was fascinating.That fall, when she enrolled at Pasadena City College, she found fencing in the class schedule. She signed up, and in the midst of her first class, she was smitten. Soon she was taking two classes at school as well as outside lessons. Within a year, she qualified for and competed in the AAU Junior Olympics.Lieu, 42, competed through college and now takes part in national adult tournaments. She also coaches children and adults, works clinics, organizes tournaments and serves as an official. Lieu, who works for the county of Los Angeles as an operations assistant auditing budgets for the use of Sheriffs officers at county courts, says fencing has been a force in her life since those 92 Games.At 5-foot-4, she can stand tall with a foil in her hand.With any other sport, you had to be a certain size or had to have a certain physical [characteristic], said Lieu, who lives in Rosemead, a suburb east of downtown Los Angeles. For a gymnast, you had to be really flexible and maybe petite in proportion. Volleyball or basketball, you had to be really tall. But in fencing ... if I worked at it, I was able to become good. I worked really hard, and I was able to excel quickly. It was exciting.Fencing round the clockToday, Lieu coaches after school, in the evenings and on weekends at the Beverly Hills Fencers Club in Culver City. Her schedule conforms to her work hours. She trains at night and on weekends -- when she also competes -- and puts in time at the gym on her lunch break.Fencing has taught me to have really good time management, she said with a laugh.In the gym, she works with weights on isolated muscle groups, especially in a surgically repaired knee, to gain strength and quickness and on cardio machines to gain endurance. But she doesnt run.I could lunge as much as I wanted and not get tired, but if you ask me to run a few miles, youd get me really winded, she said. Youre using different muscles in fencing -- for powerful, explosive moves.Since she turned 40, she has competed in the veterans division. Her first year, she was ranked nationally and placed among the top 16 in the nation. Last year, she didnt compete as much because her knee injury flared up. Now fit again, she is learning new techniques and hopes to place higher at nationals.I like to watch a lot of videos, she said, noting that recent Olympic matches from Rio de Janeiro are on YouTube. Fencers from each nation have different styles and tactics she can study and emulate.Nobodys foilLieus weapon of choice is the foil. She has tried the sports other two styles -- saber and epee -- but foil suits her best. The foil is a long, light, thin blade just over 35 inches in length. Matches are as long as three minutes but can end within seconds. Points are scored only with the tip of the blade. The target area is the torso only.Lieu disliked the slashing, more physical attacks in saber (I didnt really like getting hit in the head a lot, she said) and wasnt comfortable with epee, in which the entire body can be targeted.Perhaps what she loves most about fencing is the mental duel. She must be quick, have good technique and be able to physically execute her footwork and blade action with precision. But the chess-match nature of the sport is its most compelling aspect, she said.Whats your move, and whats the other persons move, and your counter move? she said. You have to outwit them.She appreciates the culture of fencing and that its a lifetime sport. In fact, she plans to compete into her 70s. The fencing community is small enough, too, that she has made friends everywhere. One time, she recognized a former Olympian, but that Olympian knew of her because of her years as a coach and competitor.Im like, Wow, you know me! she recalled.The sports impactYears ago, after Lieu injured her knee and had surgery, she went home to her two-story condo and dragged her mattress downstairs so she could sleep on the ground floor while recovering. It was then that her mother finally understood her daughters passion for fencing. Until then, her mom had questioned why she wanted to do a boys sport. She couldnt understand why her daughter put so much time and energy into it.I camped out for two weeks, so I wouldnt have to go up the stairs, Lieu said. And my moms like, Look what this is doing to you! I cried and cried and said, Im not quitting. After that day, she never questioned my love of fencing.Lieu cant imagine what her life would be like if she hadnt come across Olympic fencing on TV back in 1992. The sport has given her so much. When she was little, she says she was an introvert, and fencing helped her grow.In fencing, you have to take the initiative to attack the person, so it gave you courage, so to speak, so Im less introverted, she said. I think that is good to teach kids and adults to deal with obstacles. [You think], Oh, that person I cant beat. OK, Im going to try a different tactic and learn how to overcome. Cheap NFL Jerseys . 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The medical staff initially thought hed torn the ligament, and the test a day later in Cincinnati confirmed it. Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping . They were putting most of their energy into a record-setting offensive display. Going into the tour to Bangladesh in July 2015, Hashim Amla had averaged 66.43 in his last 41 Tests, scoring 16 centuries in just 69 innings - that is a hundred every 4.3 innings. In 15 series during this period (excluding one-off Tests), he averaged 50 or more 11 times, while the average dipped below 30 only twice. In this period of 65 months (February 2010 to Jun 2015), among all batsmen who had batted more than five times in Tests - there were 266 batsmen who made this cut-off - Amlas average of 66.43 was the highest, while only Kumar Sangakkara and Alastair Cook scored more hundreds (17 each).That period of prolific run-scoring was entirely consistent with Amlas steady improvement as a batsman through this career. After an iffy start in Test cricket - he averaged 33.92 in his first 22 Tests - his numbers steadily improved through each phase: he averaged nearly 50 in his next 19 Tests, before that sustained period of excellence between 2010 and the first half of 2015. Since then, though, things have gone pear-shaped for Amla: in his last 15 Tests his average has dropped to 34.81, which is similar to the early years of his Test career. In 22 innings during this period, he has scored only two hundreds. More worryingly, he has struggled to get starts, being dismissed for single-digit scores 10 times in these 22 innings; when he was in his pomp, in the period between February 2010 and June 2015, he had only 12 such scores in 69 innings. From a 17% frequency of such scores (one every 5.75 innings), the percentage has gone up to more than 45 (one every 2.2 innings). Even allowing for the unusually difficult pitches in India in 2015-16, he still has six single-digit scores in 15 innings. In the last year and a half, Amlas contribution to the teams runs has dropped to 14%, down from more than 18% during his best years. Amlas biggest contribution in the South African top order has been his ability to soak up the pressure of an early wicket and make huge scores at No. 3, even when he has come in to bat against the new ball. He averaged 69.48 at No. 3 between February 2010 and June 2015, but in innings when the first wicket fell early, before the score reached 20, Amla averaged 88.07. Some of his highest scores during that period came after South Africa had lost an early wicket; he routinely converted the threat of an early wicket into an opportunity to bat for the longest periods possible. His highest Test score of 311 not out came aftter South Africa lost Alviro Petersen for a duck in the third over at The Oval in 2012; his second-highest Test score of 253 not out, against India in Nagpur in 2010, came after Ashwell Prince had been dismissed for a duck.dddddddddddd.He showed earlier this year that he still hasnt lost that ability, making 201 against England at Newlands after South Africa lost Stiaan van Zyl in the third over, but the failure rate has gone up recently. In the Durban Test against England, Amla made just seven after the fall of an early wicket, and he failed again after an early wicket in Perth and in Adelaide, in the ongoing series in Australia. The other big difference recently has been his inability to impose himself early in a series: he has averaged 16.12 in the first Test of a series in these last 18 months, scoring just 129 runs from eight innings; six times in these eight innings he has been dismissed before 15, including two ducks. Some of his runs later in the series havent been as meaningful: his 109 and 96 in Centurion came after England had already sealed the series.Between 2010 and June 2015, he was at his best in the first match of a series, averaging 85.72 in the first Test (excluding one-off matches), with eight hundreds in 26 innings. Most South African batsmen have suffered a batting slump recently - thanks in large parts to the India series - with only two of their top seven averaging more than 40, but Amlas blip seems more prominent simply because he has been so prolific and consistent for so long. It is inevitable that even the best batsmen have periods when the runs dry up, but Amlas slump has meant his average is in danger of slipping below 50.Coincidentally, the last time Amlas career average was less than 50 at the end of a Test was after the Adelaide Test of 2012, when he scored 11 and 17, which pulled his career average down from 50.37 before the game, to 49.66 after. That was Amlas 64th Test. Now, after his failure in the first innings of the ongoing Adelaide Test, Amlas career average is currently 50.15. If he is dismissed for fewer than 27 in the second innings, his end-of-Test career average will slip below 50 for the first time in four years. Even if only a temporary blip, it will feel unusual, at the very least, to see a number less than 50 in the averages column next to Amlas name. ' ' '