Any number of sports and recreational pass-times can be potentially life changing. Sports like surfing, skiing, sailing, mountaineering, hiking… even team sports such as rugby, cricket, netball, soccer, basketball, whatever… can have a profound impact on where and how a person chooses to live their life and conduct their relationships. Some activities go beyond simply … [Read more...]
Can Usain Bolt succeed at soccer?
A couple of days ago the perceptive and articulate (especially in relation to sporting matters), Peter Fitzsimons, threw his hat (or bandanna) into the twitter sphere ring of people commenting on Usain Bolt’s intention to swap his snug running daks for baggy soccer shorts. Fitz was less than enthusiastic about Usain’s prospects and offered a catalogue of sound reasons why the … [Read more...]
The most important statistic in sport
What is the most important statistic in sport? Clearly, it’s the FU-TU ratio. Forget goals scored, assists, tackles, missed tackles, meters gained, passes completed, rebounds, efficiency rating and any one of a hundred other stats. None of them hold a candle to the FU-TU ratio. Every coach on the planet needs to seriously consider the FU-TU rating of every player on … [Read more...]
Risks of trusting Video Assisted Refereeing? – The deskilling of match officials
When was the last time you saw or heard of a police officer pulling a driver over for not stopping at a give-way or stop sign, changing lanes without indicating, not stopping at a pedestrian crossing or turning right or left without indicating? Twenty years ago, these were considered serious traffic violations and resulted in nasty fines and loss of points. Not now. The police … [Read more...]
Should serious young athletes stick to one sport? Not if you believe data from this years NFL draft.
According to Tracking Football, a U.S. American Football recruitment and sports data analysis service, over 88 percent of players drafted into the NFL’s (American National Football League) professional ranks in 2018 played multiple sports in high school. Multi-skilling an advantage? Such a statistic makes one wonder why many coaches still encourage their young athletes to … [Read more...]