George F. Will once said "Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence."

The basic strategy undertaken to patronize sports is that of capturing young talent and this spirit is rightly brought to surface through the Commonwealth Youth Games.

Though George's ideology is over 60 years old, this statement holds much importance and relevance even today. What were once considered  purely recreational activities are now seen as an expression of exquisite talent and the fruits reaped by this talent are boundless. It not only adorns a sportsperson with fame and glory but also enables him/her to posses a calm mind and a healthy body.

It is because of such lucrative end results that today sports

The student capital of India will have all eyes from the Commonwealth on it as 1300 student athletes and another 500 officials descend upon the city as Pune becomes the first Asian city to host the Commonwealth Youth Games.

Located in the Deccan Plateau in the culturally entrenched state of Maharashtra, Pune is only 160 kms South-east of India's financial metropolis Mumbai and 100kms from the coastline of the Arabian Sea. The city of Pune covers an area of 450 sq kms and it is home to almost 4 million people. One of the major assets that Pune has is the climate. It remains cool and pleasant throughout the year and the temperature ranges between 12'C and 37'C. The most common language spoken in Pune is Marathi. But most people also understand Hindi (India's national language) and English.

Pune is home to a lot of youngsters because of the many great educational institut

With so many new, young audience members at the Commonwealth Youth Games, we felt it imperative to run through some of the rules and scoring methods for sports that aren't everyday parlance for most us.

We begin this series with a look at the three most physical sports at the games - boxing, wrestling and weightlifting.

BOXING

Amateur boxing is based on a points system with the boxer who has the higher number of points at the end of the bout (boxing match) being declared the winner. Each boxer has a white strip on the gloves around the knuckles and a point is awarded whenever a boxer connects that white portion of the gloves cleanly at the face or torso of the opponent with significant force. Most amateur bouts are scheduled for four rounds, but can be stopped sooner in case of a Knock-out. Each bout has five judges alloted to it and points are scored through an electronic system if a minimum of 3 judges feel that a strong enough contact has been made.

Scotland are an increasing force on the Commonwealth stage having jumped from 6th place and 32 medals in the innaugural youth games to a higly competitive 4th place and 52 medals in the 2004 games in Bendigo, Australia. Only the hosts, England & South Africa finished above them, with SA just 4 medals (though eight golds) better.

Team Scotland will be participating in eight event categories at the games, surprisingly it is Tennis, from the land now known for top-10 player Andy Murray, that the Scots are skipping. With only a 44 member squad, and an increased participation from across the Commonwealth, the Scots could struggle to better their performance from the previous editions (remember now an athlete can participate in a