AC Milan confirmed that David Beckham will join the club for on loan during the winter transfer window just like last year. Both the player and the club are eager to complete the transfer as Beckham wants to cement his place in the England’s world cup squad next year although he has lost his starting place due to age.

AC Milan are also keen on the deal that will help them provide another attacking player to the already ageing Milan squad. But the move seems more of a move to improve the financial status of the Italian club.

Milan, were in financial crisis that led to the sale of Kaka to Real Madrid for around 65 million euros. The money has been used to relieve Milan of financial debts because there was no major signing done by Rossoneri apart from the 18 million euro Klaas-Jan Huntelaar from Real Madrid.

Bringing Beckham to Milan will improve sale of shirts around the world as the former England captain still has a huge fan following in Europe.

Beckham has promised that he will return to American MLS league after his loan spell ends at Milan which puts an end to all rumors that the midfielder wants a permanent move to Europe, although the loan move to Milan means that he will miss the start of American MLS season.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy one of the world’s best attackers is looking for a new club in order to make a position for himself at next year’s world cup in South Africa. Van Nistelrooy, a former Manchester United front man  was bought by Real Madrid for 24 million euros in 2006 but after a couple of success full seasons the striker has had a series of injuries which has left him baking the benches.

Liverpool are interested to buy the striker in order to improve their attack. The Merseyside club is currently having one of the worst seasons ever after being thrown out of Champions League and currently lying seventh on the Premier league with just three wins in their last 15 matches. But Liverpool will be asking Van Nistelrooy to accept a cut in wages, as they cannot afford to pay £100,000 a week after tax that he currently earns at Real Madrid.

Tottenham Hotspurs are the other club who want to purchase the striker and are currently accumulating funds by trying to offload Roman Pavlyuchenko, Alan Hutton, David Bentley and Robbie Keane who are currently surplus to requirements in White Hart Lane.

Real Madrid are offering Van Nistelrooy to Chelsea but are asking for Ricardo Carvalho in return to make up for injured Pepe who will be missing the rest of the season with torn cruciate ligament injury in right knee.

Van Nistelrooy is available for purchase for a few of £3 million and is desperate to leave the Los Merengues in order to cement his chance in World Cup 2010.

Liverpool has just had one of the most disastrous Champions league campaigns ever; they didn’t even make it to the knock out stages of the championship and got out of the group stages even before the final round of fixtures was played.

Nobody knows what went wrong with Liverpool, they have had great luck in the competition. A couple of years ago they struggled to finish in the top four in the domestic competition and won the European club competition.

Last year the manager Rafael Benitez spend about 18.5 million pounds on Glen Johnson, 15.3 million pounds on Aquilani (who never got to play much due to injury problems from his former club) and this was spent to help Liverpool’s chances of winning the cup. But instead things have got worse and compared to this year, they did better last time. Maybe selling Xabi Alonso was too overwhelming for them. This shows what kind of player he was.

Nobody knows what went wrong, when a team has players like Gerrard and Torres how can you not come in top 2 with a group of teams like Fiorentina, Lyon and Debrecen? This will be a huge loss to Liverpool in terms of money and the club’s image. To make matters worse there are rumors lurking around that say Javier Mascherano is leaving for Barcelona for earning more money and that Torres will be sold to relieve the club of financial burdens.

Liverpool now focuses on Europa League. If they win the cup it will be nothing great because Liverpool are the most talented team in that league but if they lose it will build even more pressure on them.

Mourinho has been asked by Inter Milan players Samuel Eto’o and Wesley Sneijder to bring José María Gutiérrez ‘Guti’ Hernández to Inter Milan to solve their mid field woes. The two players believe the attacking midfielder will provide great opportunities to the Inter strikers who are shy of scoring in Champions League.

Guti currently is out of favor at Real Madrid following a war of words with Coach Manuel Pelligrini, in which the trainer won the duel and now Guti has been left to warming the benches at Real.

Inter coach Jose Mourinho is currently facing the heat from owner Massimo Moratti, following their 2-0 deafeat at Barcelona at the Champions league. The “Special one” has done nothing spectacular since replacing Roberto Mancini in 2008. True, the have won a couple of Scudettos, but this was already achieved by Mancini. Moratti wants Champions League success and has gone public with his disappointment with Mourinho to which the latter replied by saying ‘I would like to coach in Spain’

Guti is expected to leave Los Merengues following the outburst against Pelligrini during the Copa Del Rey match against Alcoron. But both Real Madrid and the player have insisted that there will be no transfer. Pelligrini has other ideas; he is heard saying that Guti is not playing because he is ‘injured’.

The football world is still wondering how unlucky Ireland is for missing the World Cup qualifying spot. Some blame Henry for it; some say that the match should be replayed while some just point at the country’s lamentable luck.

The big question is what about Henry now? And will he get to participate in the World Cup? Again here there are differences of opinions, some say that he should be banned and some say he should be forgiven.

The Irish FA had asked for the match to be played again. That request was rejected by FIFA. Then the Irish FA asked for a place in the World Cup anyways. Yes, they wanted to be the 33rd team in the competition. FIFA president Sepp Blatter obviously thought this was some kind of a joke and went public with the matter.

The Irish FA has now come with all guns blazing and is severely criticizing Blatter for singing about something that was supposed to be confidential. While the Irish FA are doing all they to make an appearance in the football’s greatest competition, Blatter is ignoring their calls and pretending that he cares about it by saying ‘Henry matter will be discussed’

The Irish are refusing to believe they are out of the tournament and are doing all they can to put themselves back in. Maybe they are publicly critiscing Henry and are hoping that people will do the same and the team will get a place due to the public outcry.

But that isn’t working so they are trashing Blatter and screaming about what a bad president he is. And now we wonder what will Ireland do next?

Ireland is embarrassing itself, they should get over it. Maybe few people think they should be in the World Cup (and most of them are Irish) but rest all think that France should be in, they will entertain more than couple of Irish players that no one has ever heard of.

Lionel Messi was announced World Player of the Year, he was far ahead of the nearest rival making him favorite to win the award.

The award to Messi goes probably because of his contribution in the Champions League where helped catalan giants, Barcelona to win the competition for the year 2008-2009. This is not all, Messi was a part of the Spanish team that was the first ever to win all three competitions or the ‘treble’ for Barcelona.

Contrary to the popluar belief that Messi lived in Argentina for most of his life, the winger was spotted by Barcelona when he was in his teens and quickly offered him a place in the youth academy. He has since grown there and climbed up the youth ranks to make a name in the first team of the Blaugrana.

Messi is considered now as one of the best players in the world. He has everything right from skill full tactics to speed and he has the capability to single handedly lift a team to victory.

Messi, as most famous players are, has been seen a lot of rumours floating around, linking him another club. Barcelona made a bid for Manchester City Robinho and Manchester City were quick to ask for Messi in a swap deal. There were also reports in Italy linking the Barca ace to Inter Milan where money is not a problem for the Inter owner Massimo Morati. The wildest of rumors have been new Real Madrid owner Florentino Perez trying to do another Figo and break the bank to buy Messi.

But Messi says he will remain loyal to Barcelona since they showed so much faith in him when he was young and brought him to Spain. Messi continues to terrorize the defense and cause night mares to defenders of the opposing team.

Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro has cleared doping drug test said the Italian Olympic Committee. Italian skipper took a medicine containing banned substance cortisone after a wasp sting failed. Case was dropped at the request of Coni anti-doping prosecutor.

Cannavaro said you are stung by bees and find yourself in newspapers and media. He is unhappy about his treatment by media. He added saying this is the second time in my life that he found himself in newspaper without cause that too for a story like this. He hoped this story does not follow him and career as career has always been notable by respect towards sports and ethical principal which support it. On the evening of Parma’s Uefa final victory over Marseille, Cannavora was videoed inserting a drip into his arm. His lawyer confirmed the drip contained Neoton and this drug is used in cardiac surgery to protect heart and was not on the World Anti-Doping Agency list of banned substances. Ettore Torri said the case dropped last week and Cannavaro has not committed any doping offence. Cannavaro requested an exemption after being treated foe sting but did not receive any documentation before he was tested. He was suspended for Italy’s 2-2 draw in Ireland now guaranteed their place in World Cup finals in South Africa and is planning to play home game with Cyprus.

Justine Henin former world’s number one champion approved for a wildcard for the 2010 Australian Open. Belgian player announced in the month of September that she would come out of retirement in 2010 after 18 months. Craig Tiley tournament director has confirmed 2004 champion Henin will play for the Grand Slam.

Tiley added saying he spoke over the weekend and was happy to grant her permission for a wildcard into the Australian Open. Justine is the ultimate competitor and winner of seven grand slam titles and looking forward of welcoming back. Tiley said Justine decision on returning from the retirement won’t be taken lightly and she is in great shape and all prepared to compete against world’s best player. Justine once said Belgian player Kim Clijsters stunning performances after the return back inspires her. Henin is anticipated to make her comeback at the Brisbane International starting from the 3 January 2010 then later Australian Open, which will begin in Melbourne on 18 January. Henin won 2004 Australian Open and played 2006 final champion humbled her succession despite of bigger and stronger opponents in women tennis. Justine has won 41 titles before retiring from the game in May 2008 hold responsible of injuries and desired to live a life away from games.

Aikido is a unique form of martial art. Its emphasis lies on the harmonious fusion of mind and body with the natural laws of Nature. Aikido focuses on accepting and respecting the energy of life and nature and channeling this harmony onto techniques that expresses this energy in physical forms.

Aikido is often viewed as more of a defensive martial art since its techniques and teachings are designed for you to avoid or get out of trouble. On the contrary, Aikido’s techniques are very powerful and effective.

Basically, there are four levels of technique in Aikido training. These are the katai which refers to the basic training and is intended to build the foundation of body movements and breathing; the yawarakai trains the defendant to deflect attacks and fuse movements to take control of the attacker or situation; the ki-no-nagare which involves training the defendant to defend or counter attack by merging his movement with the attacker even before the latter makes contact; and the ki which is the absolute Aikido technique and involves establishing a link of ki or spirit from the defender to the attacker.

When training for Aikido, you need a sparring partner. The uke and the nage. The Uke is the initiator of the attack and receives the Aikido techniques, while the Nage is the defender and the one that neutralizes the attack.

Aikido basic techniques include ikky which involves control an attacker by placing one hand on the elbow and one on near the wrist giving an opportunity to throw the attacker to the ground; the niky which draws in the uke using a wristlock and twists the arm while applying painful nerve pressure; sanky which is a rotating technique aimed at applying a spiraling tension on the whole arm including the elbow and shoulder; yonky a shoulder control technique with both hands gripping the forearm; goky is another variant of ikky

wherein the hand gripping the wrist is inverted and is quite useful in weapon take-aways; shihnage or the four-direction throw; kotegaeshi or wrist return which involves a wristlock-throw that stretches the extensor digitorum; kokynage also known as breath throws or timing throws; iriminage or entering-body throws which resembles a “clothesline” technique; tenchinage or heaven-and-earth throw; koshinage or the Aikido’s version of the hip throw; jinage or the shaped-like-’ten’-throw; and kaitennage or rotation throw wherein the nage sweeps the arm of the uke back until it locks the shoulder joint after which the nage applies forward pressure to throw the attacker.

These are just basic techniques and from the list thousands of possible implementations or combinations can be drawn by the aikidokas. In Aikido, the strikes employed during the implementation of the Aikido technique are called atemi. For beginners, grabs are the first ones to be taught. It is safer and the aikidoka can easily feel the energy flowing from the uke to the nage.

Among the basic grab techniques are the katate-dori or single-hand-grab which involves using one hand to grab one wrist; morote-dori or both-hands-grab which uses both hands to grab one wrist; ryte-dori another both-hands-grab technique wherein both hands are used to grab both wrists; kata-dori or the shoulder-grab technique; and the mune-dori or chest-grab which involves grabbing the clothing of the chest of the attacker.

Mastering each technique involves discipline and dedication. To be a good aikodoka, one must master both the techniques and principle of the marital art.

With the visible convergence of East and West cultures, more and more people are discovering and rediscovering new means self-discipline especially in the field of martial arts. One of these means is called “Aikido,” a very popular Japanese martial art.

KNOWING AIKIDO

“Do not fight force with force,” this is the most basic principle of Aikido. Considered as one of the non-aggressive styles in martial arts, Aikido has become popular because it doesn’t instigate or provoke any attack. Instead, the force of the attacker is redirected into throws, locks, and several restraining techniques.
Since aikido uses very few punches and kicks, the size, weight, age, and physical strength of the participants or the opponents only partake only a small role. What’s important is the skilled Aikido practitioner is skilled enough to redirect his or her attacker’s energy while keeping him or her in a constant of unbalance.

The history of Aikido as a martial art can be traced when Morihei Ueshiba discovered and developed its principle of aikido. Known as “O Sensei” or the “Great Teacher,” Ueshiba made sure to develop a martial art that is based on a purely physical level using movements like throws, joint locks and techniques derived from another martial arts like “Jujitsu” and “Kenjutsu.”

Technically, aikido was stemmed out and developed mainly from “daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu” while incorporating several training movements similar to the “yari” or “spear, “jo” or a short “quarterstaff” and from “juken” or “bayonet”. Although these jujitsu movements are prominent while practicing the martial art, many practitioners agree that strongest influences of aikido is that of kenjutsu.

When he finally developed the minor and major principles of Aikido, Ueshiba emphasized that the martial art does not only pertain to self-defense techniques but can also play a major role in the enhancement of the practitioner’s moral and spiritual aspects eventually leading them to place greater weight on the development and achievement of peace and harmony. In fact, because of the great emphasis in the development of harmony and peace, seasoned aikido practitioners say that “the way of harmony of the spirit” is one phrase that could describe or translate the term “aikido” in English.

Just like any other martial art, aikido has various techniques that include ikkyo or the “first technique,” “nikyo” or the “second technique,” “sankyo,” or the “third technique,” “yonkyo” or the “fourth technique,” the “gokyo” or the “fifth technique,” the “shihonage” or the “four-direction throw,” the “kotegaeshi” or the wrist return, “kokyunage” or the “breath throw,” “iriminage” or the entering-body throw, “tenchinage” or the “heaven-and-earth throw,” “koshinage,” or the “hip throw,” “jujinage” or the “shaped-like-’ten’-throw,” and the “kaitennage” or the rotation throw.”

Although aikido is not about punching or kicking the opponent, it is not considered as a static art. It is still a very effective means of martial arts because it requires the aikido practitioner to use the energy of their opponent so they can gain control over them. When you will look at the martial art closely, you will realize that aikido is not only a means of self-defense technique but can also serve a means of spiritual enlightenment, physical health or exercise or a simple means of attaining peace of mind, concentration, and serenity.

Although different aikido styles gives great emphasis on the spiritual aspects to varying levels—some to greater or lesser degrees—the idea that the martial arts was conceptualized in order to achieve peace and harmony remains the most basic ideology of the martial art.