MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree banning demonstrations and rallies for two and a half months in Sochi around the 2014 Winter Olympics. The Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the official government newspaper, published the presidential decree Friday, listing an array of measures tightening security in the Olympic host city, including the ban on public assemblies. All "gatherings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets" that are not part of the Olympics or the Paralympics will be prohibited in Sochi from Jan. 7 to March 21, the decree said. The Winter Olympics is taking place in the Black Sea resort from Feb. 7-23 and the Paralympics are being held March 7-16. Government-imposed protest bans across entire cities where Olympics are held are unusual. Putins decree could be aimed at heading off demonstrations against Russias ban on alleged gay propaganda, a new law that has been sharply criticized in the West. Among other measures in the decree were restrictions on vehicles entering Sochi. Only cars with local license plates, emergency vehicles and those accredited by the Olympic organizers will be allowed to enter the host city between Jan. 7 and March 21. Rights organizations have earlier voiced concerns about what they described as the "harassment and intimidation of civil society" advocates in Sochi. Human Rights Watch said in a statement that environmental, human rights and other activists have been "the targets of attacks, detention for peaceful protests and police searches." The International Olympic Committee received a letter Thursday from Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak giving assurances that the host country will comply with the Olympic Charters provision against discrimination of any kind. The letter, however, defended Russias new anti-gay law and said it would be enforced. Gay activist Nikolai Alexeyev told The Associated Press on Friday that he would petition the Supreme Court next week to contest the presidential decree banning rallies in Sochi as "violating our right of freedom of assembly." Russian authorities have repeatedly denied gay activists applications to set up a Pride House in Sochi during the Games but Alexeyev said he would apply for permission to hold a gay pride rally in Sochi on the opening day of the Games anyway. Cheap Air Max 720 . - Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr has nothing but good problems right now. Nike Air Max Plus Wholesale . The Yankees made the moves before Tuesdays game against Baltimore. Robertson was listed retroactive to Monday. Robertson posted two saves in three games as the replacement for retired Yankees closer Mariano Rivera before getting hurt. http://www.wholesalenikeshoesclearance.com/cheap-max-270-shoes/fake-air-max-270-black.html .C. -- Duke sophomore Rodney Hood is entering the NBA draft. Wholesale Air Max 720 . - Kobe Bryant and LeBron James traded hugs, big shots and verbal jabs all night with warmth and humour. Air Max 720 Outlet . Particularly when speaking in the stadium of Tuesdays opponent: Manchester City. "Maybe they dont fear us as before," Pique said on Monday, "because in the last two years we didnt win the Champions League.Arrigo Sacchi once said, "You dont have to have been a horse to be a jockey." With regards to becoming a professional soccer coach, that is an expression that one will hear often. In fact, it is a mantra for aspiring coaches who never made the grade as professional players. They point to recent successes in football management - like Tottenhams Andr? Villas-Boas - who never played the game professionally as examples of why a professional playing career is overrated when it comes to being a professional coach. But is it? Does a professional coach need to have a professional playing career first in order to be successful as a coach? Is it a prerequisite for getting hired? Is a coach who never played the game viewed by the establishment as inferior to those who did? Lets take a look at the coaches in the English Premier League for some insight. Since the league began in 1992, there have been 179 different men in charge of the 20 clubs in the league. Some were only in the job for a day as caretakers, while others - like Sir Alex Ferguson - were in charge for many years. By my count, only six of those coaches moved into coaching without first having enjoyed a substantial professional playing career. The likes of Villas-Boas, Roy Hodgson (now manager of England) and Avram Grant didnt accumulate years of experience in the game as professional players before moving into coaching. Instead, they served years as coaching apprentices before working their way up through the coaching ranks. Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers retired from the game as a player at the age of 20 due to injury before beginning his journey on the coaching pathway. But these coaches are very much the exception. When it comes to getting a job as a coach at the highest level in England, having a professional playing career behind you is almost mandatory. But does it actually make a difference? Does a professional playing career make you a better coach? Im not convinced that it does. Some of the brightest coaches in the game - people like Villas-Boas and Rodgers - demonstrate that the ability to coach the game isnt reflective of ones ability to play the game. Those coaches became students of the game at an early age and worked their way up the coaching ladder, either as assistant coaches or as academy coaches, before moving into senior management. Internationally, some of the most successful coaches in the game achieved their success without ever touching the field as professional players. Arrigo Sacchi turned AC Milan into one of the greatest club teams ever in the late 80s and early 90s, winning back-to-back European Cups. Carlos Alberto Parreira won the World Cup with Brazil in 1994; neither he nor Sacchi ever set foot on the field as professional players. Closer to home, Canadas womens national team coach, John Herdman, never played professionally. Yet he is one of the best coaches Ive come across in over two decades of professional involvement in the game.dddddddddddd While players are immersed in a football culture day in, day out, that doesnt necessarily translate to success in coaching. Take Arsenal and England defender Tony Adams, for example. An exceptional player for both club and country, his forays into management with Wycombe Wanderers and Portsmouth FC failed to bring success; he suffered relegation to League Two with Wycombe and only managed to win four of his 22 games in charge of Portsmouth before being sacked. Adams last coaching appointment was in May 2010 with Gabala FC in the Azerbaijan Premier League, a post he subsequently left in November 2011. Arguably the worlds best-ever player, Diego Maradona, had a disastrous spell as manager of his national team. In charge of Argentinas 2010 World Cup appearance, he will be remembered for his tactical naivet? and general incompetence during his countrys 4-0 hammering at the hands of Germany. In professional football, being able to manage the personalities of your players is far more important than being able to ping a 60-yard ball across the pitch. Sir Alex Ferguson summed it up nicely in his recent autobiography, when he said, "Football management is a never-ending sequence of challenges. So much of it is a study in the frailty of human beings." While a professional playing background teaches you the technical, tactical and physical requirements of the game, does it teach you to understand the frailty of human beings? Not really. Being a player is often a selfish existence; you worry, first and foremost, about your own performance. You dont have that luxury as a manager, where you must give as much of your time (if not more) to the weakest member of your team as you do to your star player. You must be able to see the bigger picture, and must be able to tailor your teaching methods to meet the needs of each and every one of your players and staff. The ability to do this comes naturally for some - which might explain why so many clubs make the mistake of hiring a former player as their coach. They assume that years spent playing the game are equivalent to years spent teaching it. But for most coaches, being able to manage a group of professional players comes only with years and years of practice. But if you dont have a professional playing career behind you, getting an opportunity at a professional club is very difficult. Because there is definitely a perception amongst club owners and chairman that the lack of a professional playing career is somehow a black mark on a coachs resum? - as if the ability to teach the game is directly related to the ability to play the game. Perhaps the only way to dispel this belief is for more coaches like Villas-Boas, Rodgers and Herdman to achieve success in the game. ' ' '