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When vacation time rolls around, some people choose to stay home, putter around the house, and get caught up on repairs or cleaning. While this might be a cheap option, it is not the most ideal.

Psychologists and thinkers like twentieth century Russian literary critic Victor Schlovsky emphasize the importance of what they call defamiliarization. This means that to make you better appreciate life and your surroundings, you need to step back and look at it from a different perspective. You must defamiliarize yourself from you present situation.

One of the best ways to do this is a vacation to a far away and exotic place. Take yourself out of your everyday surroundings. While many of us want to do this, cost is often a deciding factor. It is important, however, not to let cost dictate your vacation plans. There are ways to reduce the costs of travel so that you can experience the tremendous benefits of defamiliarization.

Start by visiting one of the high quality discount travel websites on the Internet. These sites can help find discounts on condos, hotels, and plane tickets. Next to airline fees, the cost of a condo on the beach or a nice hotel room is the biggest expense of a vacation. Finding a condo at a discounted rate will go a long way to enabling you to realize your vacation dreams. When you stay in a condo, you can relax in a home-like environment. You can often prepare your own meals and have room to spread out and really relax.

Coastal Vacations Club offers it members use of many different condo rental options that cost on average, about $200-$300 per week for 1 or 2 bedroom condos.

There are no timeshare presentations, no timeshare tours or any secret sales gimmicks here with Coastal, just use the condo, like you are an owner, and one never has to pay those high yearly maintenence fees that come with timeshare and vacation ownership.

Jeff Mills is a former Youth Pastor of 9 years, who is now a full time internet information entrepreneur, author, speaker, sales coach, and also an avid traveler. Jeff has passionately pursued seeking the best discount travel clubs and has discovered Coastal Vacations Travel Club to be the top of the heap. Discover more about it immediately at http://www.travelwithcoastalvacations.com

# posted by ujx @ 6:39 PM 0 comments

Good tennis shoes do several things apart from covering your feet, and tennis is a sport, that is very hard on shoes, and feet, so you need to find a shoe that will last, and one that is not too heavy, bearing in mind some factors.

Tennis shoes must be able to support your feet with all the stops and starts you have to make, and it must give you good support at the sides of your feet. Each surface has differing requirements, and all of us have different types of feet, all of which places different demands on your tennis shoes.

The first consideration is what type of feet you have, because that will determine how much cushioning you will need, and what and where you will need lateral support.

There are three basic foot types:

1.SUPINATED here your wear is on the outside of the shoes
2.PRONATED here your wear is on the inside around the ball of the foot, and this type of foot suffers the most with injuries from overuse.
3.IDEAL here the wear is even.

Either get a fellow player to walk behind you to determine whether you are walking with your foot tilting inwards, or outwards, or not at all. Better still find yourself a well-qualified sports shoe person. You could also test yourself by wetting your feet and standing on a square of cardboard.

1.If there is a large are where the arch of your feet didnt touch you are SUPINATED
2.If the whole of your foot is marked, looking like a rectangle with slight curves then you are OVERPRONATED
3.If your feet leaves an imprint that is a balance between the others then your foot is IDEAL

Confirm this self-diagnosis with a third party watching you walk, and the wear test on your current shoes.

THE FIT OF THE TENNIS SHOE is vital, and points to pay particular attention to are as follows.

1.You need about half an inch of space between your longest toe and the end of the tennis shoe.
2.The foot should be a comfortable fit without any stretching
3.The heel should not slip, although some movement is wanted.

Just remember your feet are different sizes, so pick your size according to the larger foot, and use an insole to balance up your smaller foot. The most important thing in a tennis shoe is LATERAL SUPPORT because much of your running on a court is side to side, and there are dangers of turning your ankle. Good lateral support is necessary if you are heavy and if you are pronated.

Your tennis shoes will need a degree of CUSHIONING and SHOCK ABSORPTION. This is especially true if you are a baseliner, and you play most of your tennis on hard courts. Pronated feet jar most easily.

The two most common cushioning you read about are EVA, which is lightweight, but not very durable, or stable, and PU[polyurethane] which is denser, better stability, but it is a lot heavier.

FLEXIBILITY is important, and tennis shoes must bend easily at the ball of the foot, however too much flexibility makes for a shoe that wont be comfortable.

At the end of the day, comfort is important, and tennis shoes are no different to anything else, you tend to get what you pay for, and I know very few things of quality that are cheap!!

Ian Smith is a former international sportsman who contributes articles to websites featuring sporting footwear. He recommends Adidas, and suggests you check out http://www.adidas-shoes-guide.info

# posted by ujx @ 4:19 AM 0 comments