In pub discussions about the Australian women’s football team’s most remarkable player the name Aivi Luik is not often the first one to come up. Socrates thinks that this might be a mistake and that the value of this remarkable athlete might be under-recognized. Check out her record of achievment in almost every corner of the football world. USA, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Spain, Australia. MVP awards. Championships. All star team selections. She has had a remarkable career by anyone’s standards and is still playing at her best at 34! With Luik and her fellow Matildas in camp preparing for their Olympic Games qualifying series matches against China, Thailand and Taiwan this week Socrates was grateful that she found time to answer some questions about her footballing life. Press here for the Aivi Luik interview – a must for all sports fans, especially ambitious young athletes considering overseas careers.
social media
Tribalism in sport – lets hear it for the twitter twits
Social media can be frustrating. Especially when the hyper-partisan sporting tribes decide to attack each other rather than to scrutinize the politicians they pay to care for their needs. Socrates borrows the thoughts of a wise academic to show how communities should participate and co-operate to keep the politicians from using public money to look out for themselves.
Politics and the rugby scrum
Rugby scrum and sports rorts – government employs Spartan approach
Socrates discusses rugby scrums and how they used to be in the good old days. He thinks that the former Sports Minister has been taking lessons from the Spartan scrum. Back in the day there used to be rules that wiley hookers would try to twist to their advantage. Socrates explains that some rugby scrums, on the other hand, didn’t give a tinkers cuss about “the rules” and pretty much made things up as they went along. In many ways, this lawless version of the rugby scrum (which didn’t usually pay off back in the old days) is currently making a return in the new world of Australian politics and, frustratingly, the lawless ones seem to be getting away with it. It is now the world of “I am the boss, so I can do what I want. I am not breaking the rules… because there are no rules!”
key statistic
Assists versus stuff ups. Where do Australian guards stand?
In the lead up to the Olympic Games could this extraordinarily brilliant graph shine a light on one of the teams most critical questions? With all their brilliance (in dunking, dribble penetration, athleticism and shooting) we sometimes forget that the good old assist/tunover ratio is still one of the most important measures of the effectiveness of a point guard. Where do Australia’s guards (who play in the NBA) stand in this regard. While comparing different players will always be problematic… especially when it comes to using stats… this little chart may still give us something to think about. Click the graph and get the story…
obey sound sporting principles!
OLD MEN CAN’T JUMP – and good principles always apply
Despite coaching basketball for over twenty years Socrates still manages to make the same stupid mistakes he tries to teach his young players to avoid. The old fool turns up for a game of pick-up with a bunch of fellow old coots and manages to make a complete goose of himself by doing precisely what he knows doesn’t work! The moral of the story? Even if you are playing with a bunch of sixty year olds, good principles still apply!
Waves of Pain!
Battle of Palm Beach – the day the surfers stood their ground
How do you like your day at the beach? Lots of blood, bruises and broken bones? Not many remember that relations between the various tribes that inhabit the surfing beaches was not always as good as it seems to be now. This fictitious yarn about a bad day at the beach is based on real events that happened at Sydney’s beautiful Palm Beach way back in 1966. Of course, as the old saying goes, the names have been changed to protect the innocent… (or guilty).
sport and politics
Sports funding – Why bother with a Sports Commission? The Minister knows best!
Socrates and Aristotle are in the philosopher’s sports bar when Aristotle raises the subject of the Australian National Audit Office’s enquiry into the former sports minister’s awarding of funding in the Community Sport Infrastructure Program. Socrates slams his beer on the bar and lets fly. Aristotle wipes the beer from his cloak and tries to figure out why Socs is so pissed off. Click the pic to listen in…
secret strategies for sensational success
Small town Rugby League star gives birth to brilliant strategy!
Some of the world’s best sporting strategies can come from the smallest leagues and least famous characters! A few years back, a wily small-town country rugby league back-rower had an amazing suggestion for his famous coach, Rugby League legend, Ian Martin. Click hear to find out what Martin thought of his idea. But how did super coach Jack Gibson find out about this big bloke’s secret strategy?
who is this kid?
The Sporting Life of Albo
This good looking young bloke was a handy rugby league half back and a cracker fielder on the cricket oval (though he couldn’t bat or bowl to save himself). He also had a pretty handy back hand in tennis. The handy back-hand he still has! Anthony “Albo” Albanese may be a sports tragic who would still love to win a competition or two but he knows that sport has more going for it than the buzz you might get out of winning the next match. Great sport is about great community thinks Albo!
sports style – or lack of it!
Seven deadly sins of sports sartorialism and style.
There are hundreds of fashion choices that look ridiculous, foolish, horrible and offensive in a sporting context but seven particular style choices brand the “sinner” almost beyond redemption. Socrates smugly sticks his massive nose in the air and points the finger of sartorial disgrace at the “sins” he finds most hideous.
hokkaido adventuring
Life of adventure – John Morrell
Have you ever thought about living a life of adventure? Of buggering off to another land with a different culture, language and entire way of life and never coming back? That’s what John Morrell did decades ago. He went for a short visit… and never came back. If you went to Hokkaido too maybe you would do the same. Find out why John and his family are still loving the aspirin snow. Get his story in his chat with Socrates right here!
Wisdom
“Rugby is a good occasion for keeping thirty bullies far from the centre of the city.”
Oscar Wilde
While I appreciate Oscar’s humour, I gotta say he is being a bit harsh. There are a few rugby players who are not bullies!
wisdom
“These are my new shoes. They’re good shoes. They won’t make you rich like me. They won’t make you rebound like me. They definitely won’t make you handsome like me. They’ll only make you have shoes like me.”
Who else but the incomparable Sir Charles “Round Mound of Rebound” Wade Barkley.
rough and risky play
“The Magic Pudding” – a guide to what kids love and how risky play helps create young athetes
Kids aren’t into fantasy fiction! They just love fighting, eating themselves silly and giving the rude finger to authority. So thought artist and novelist Norman Lindsay, and it inspired him to write the children’s classic, “The Magic Pudding.” With sports physiologists arguing that helicopter parenting (kids being barred from playing rough and risky games by risk-averse parents) prevents kids from developing higher level athletic skills I thought it might be a good idea to look at what this Magic Pudding thing might be able to teach our kids. Even if you don’t like the values it represents, its still a bloody funny read!
aphorisms, insights and wisdom… about fishing!
“You know when they have a fishing show on TV? They catch the fish and then let it go. They don’t want to eat the fish, they just want to make it late for something.”
Brilliant and unorthodox American comedian, Mitch Hedberg, who like so many other comic geniuses, died way too young.
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