its similar to weightlifting in that athletic ability and

ESPN NRL expert Brett Kimmorley looks at round 24 and says alarm bells would be going off at some teams as the pressure intensifies leading into this years finals series.1. Form lines of the top teams are a concern.The Sharks, the Storm and the Cowboys - probably not the best time of year to be in a form slump.The Storm have only lost one game but have been pushed over the past few weeks and are just surviving. I think it is pretty important for those sides, with two games to go after this weekend, to find some form and self-belief because the longer they struggle the more confidence it gives their rivals because they dont fear them as much anymore.Its a huge weekend for these three clubs - Id prefer to be going into the semi-finals in form rather than scraping in if I genuinely think my team is a chance of winning the premiership.I think its huge for the Sharks more than the other two because the Cowboys will have confidence from last years premiership success and the Storm continue to surprise everyone and Craig Bellamy are all experienced in big game football.Cronulla are the only side that havent been around semi-final football too often over the past few years and last year they got a fair spanking in North Queensland so I think re-gaining some confidence is more important for the Sharks than the other two.2.?Panthers and Titans need to keep winning.They both played some wonderful football last weekend - the Penrith second half when they scored 36 unanswered points was amazing football.?Penrith and Gold Coast are full of kids looking for second chances and the fact they are oozing confidence is huge for both sides. I like the brand of football both these clubs play - they pass the ball around a lot, they back themselves and the best part about it is they wont die wondering.Im looking forward to seeing if they can both go on a bit of a run because I think it will enormous to get to the semi-finals and have eight teams that, on their day, can win the competition.From what I saw from Penrith and what I continually see from Gold Coast - I think they could defy the theory that youve got to be a top four side to win the Grand Final.3. Canberra are the hottest team in the NRL.I really enjoy watching Canberra Raiders because thyre the hottest team of the competition.Theyve beaten team one and team two comfortably, they have the biggest forward pack in the NRL, theyre super-fit and Ricky Stuart has them humming and full of belief.Theyre out of the media spotlight in Canberra too - theyre not going to come under any pressure down there, great halves, Joey Leilua, Jordan Rapana, Jack Wighton and Jarrod Croker is a point-scoring freak.Theyre the real deal on paper and obviously the hottest team in the competition at the moment. Rickys got that passion back, theyre playing a great brand of football, they believe in themselves and its not the bash and barge, five hit-ups and kick to the corner type grinding footy. Vapormax Womens Canada . -- Mike Smith never saw his first NHL goal go in. Vapormax Cheap Sale . -- The Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake played to a 0-0 tie Saturday night that left the top of the Western Conference standings unchanged. http://www.airvapormaxcanada.com/vapormax-flyknit-3-canada.html . LUCIE, Fla. Vapormax Flyknit 3 Canada . Los Angeles star goalie survived those perilous gymnastics with no problem, and he eventually backstopped the Kings to a skid-snapping win. Quick stopped 27 shots in his return from a 24-game injury absence, Jeff Carter scored the tiebreaking goal with 7:55 to play, and the Kings snapped their five-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night. Air Vapormax Canada . -- The Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake played to a 0-0 tie Saturday night that left the top of the Western Conference standings unchanged. RIO DE JANEIRO -- A decade ago, when Olympic sprinter Justin Gatlin was banned from his sport for a doping violation, he thought about spending his time playing professional football.He tried out with the Houston Texans. And then with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.Gatlin quickly learned that it takes more than just world-class speed to make it in the NFL.Its so tough, he told The Associated Press. I would say that how track and field is built without a union and its a dog-eat-dog world, thats how it is to get into football. Its the same thing: a dog-eat-dog world. I respect all those athletes who are trying to try out for teams.Theyre judged not only by their athleticism, he said, but if they even need them.But what if you did judge NFL players and Olympic athletes only on athleticism? What if you were to throw out everything but the barest of statistics -- speed, strength, vertical jump?Who would be the superior athletes?Of course, such a simple question has no simple answer. Not even those involved in the debate seem willing to hazard a guess, perhaps trying to ensure that their separate sports receive their own due.Make no mistake: They are separate. But comparing them -- sprinters to NFL running backs, linemen to weightlifters, wide receivers to high jumpers -- is at least an entertaining endeavor.Speed comes in all different kinds of forms, said Gatlin, the reigning 100-meter Olympic bronze medalist. All the fast guys you can think of, we all can run -- lets say we run 9.99 (in the 100). We all have different strategies and forms to run 9.99. We all get to the same point in different ways.For a football guy, hes explosive and powerful, Gatlin said. So if we race in the 40 or 60 or something, I dont know exactly how it would turn out. They might have more explosive speed from the line than I would, because even though Im a fast guy at the start, I might have to build my speed up because thats how Im programmed to do it.Rarely do NFL players run more than 40 yards at a time, which is partly why times for 40-yard dashes are such common descriptors of speed. The record at the NFL combine was 4.24 seconds in 2008 by Chris Johnson, the former Pro Bowl running back who once boasted he could beat Usain Bolt in a race of that distance.Gatlin said hes run unofficial 40-yard times between 4.12 and 4.35 seconds.I would win on the tail end, he said, but it would be good competition on the front end.Trying to compare NFL linemen to weightlifters may be even more difficult.The lifts done by football players tend to be the more common strength-training lifts such as the dead lift and bench press.ddddddddddddIn fact, the biggest strength indicator at the NFL combine is the bench press, where rookies-to-be are required to lift 225 pounds as many times as possible.The record is 49 repetitions set by Redskins defensive tackle Stephen Paea in 2011.Thats a worthy feat, so I cant make light of it, said Kendrick Farris, the lone mens Olympic weightlifter representing the U.S. at the Rio Games. But if weightlifters focused on that particular exercise with that load, the results would be quite interesting.Instead, they focus on two particular lifts: the snatch, in which the weight is lifted from the ground to overhead in one movement, and the clean and jerk, where the bar is lifted in two movements. The combined results of the lifts determine the placement in a competition.Being strong is important, but technique is also a significant factor.If football wasnt my thing, I would probably pursue strongest man, Paea said, because Ive got the lower center of gravity, things like that. Im pretty strong on the squat, too.Weightlifting, youve got to give it to them, he added, but if it comes to like overall running, all those conditioning (aspects) with it, wed probably give them a good run for their money.How about comparing vertical leaps among NFL players to Olympic high jumping? Well, its similar to weightlifting in that athletic ability and technique go hand-in-hand.You wont see a wide receiver flopping backward over a bar while hauling in a touchdown pass.I know a couple of people in college who did the high jump and they have some springs, man, said Chiefs wide receiver Chris Conley, whose 45-inch vertical at the 2015 NFL combine is the record.They can definitely jump a lot higher than me. It takes a lot, he said. Technique is the most important thing. At some point theres God-given talent, but when it comes to that level of jumping, the difference between the world record and that level of medaling is all in the details.One thing all those athletes can agree on? They love watching their counterparts compete.We have a lot of swimmers from (my alma mater) Georgia that qualify every year and I know some of them, Conley said. I like to watch because its my background, but I also know people there as well.---AP Sports Writers Rob Maaddi, Pat Graham and Stephen Whyno contributed to this report. ' ' '