Philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, played as the starting number ten for the German national football team when he was only eighteen years old! He wanted to play rugby but, unlike Great Britain, France and Italy, Germans have always turned their noses up at such barbaric pastimes as “rugga.” Fred, therefor, never got the chance to live out his burning desire to play in the front … [Read more...]
Scorers and a play-makers. Is there is difference?
When coaches talk about the difference between a number 9 and a number 10 in soccer, a point-guard and a shooting-guard in basketball, a fly-half and a centre-three-quarter in rugby, a quarter-back and a running-back in American Football or a goal-attack and a goal-shooter in netball the focus tends to be on the differences in either the skill sets or the physical attributes of … [Read more...]
No Respect!
After a week in Sydney visiting a sick Mum in hospital I was excited about getting back to my home beach today. First impressions on checking out the break were hopeful rather than encouraging. Two to three foot looked fine after the dead flat I had left a week-ago. The howling off-shore, on the other hand, promised to make paddling hell. The day itself was dark, cold and … [Read more...]
Politicians love their sport – even when they have no interest in it!
I remember, many years ago, taking business associates to lunch or dinner and keeping the bill so I could charge the meal to my company expense account. That’s just the way things were done in those days. Deep down in my heart, despite being a one-hundred percent believer in private enterprise, I felt that this “expenses” thing was a bit of a con. If my colleague and I had … [Read more...]
When exercise, sport, spirituality and the environment come together – Socrates meets yoga guru Eoin Finn
One of the aspects of sport that gets very little attention either in the popular media or, for that matter, in animated sporty discussions around the local bar is spirituality. Few punters give any regard at all to whether the Cowboys have maintained a commitment to daily prayerfulness, whether Gary Ablett is on a path to ascending to a higher plane or whether the Matildas … [Read more...]