After a week of recording pitifully slow freestyle times over 1500 m, swimmer and sports philosopher, Socrates, knew he had to change something. "I was swimming like a bloody soccer player, all week," lamented the ancient Greek athlete and thinker, "...so I had to come up with a solution!" Miraculously, Socrates shaved five minutes off his recent times while swimming at … [Read more...]
Small town Rugby League star gives birth to brilliant strategy!
Like many big bloke athletes, a mate of mine (who, incidentally, was the hard man power forward for my high school basketball team), considered himself a tactical mastermind. Not too many years ago, Big David was still playing in the back row for the Warialda Wombats regional Rugby League footy team. As a student of the game and a serious thinker to boot, David used to look for … [Read more...]
Golf – The best origin story?
For many years I thought that the funniest sporting origin story I had ever heard was the “Fractured Fairy Tales” version of the origin of golf. According to Edward Everett Horton, the Fractured Fairy Tales narrator, golf was invented by a very clever King who came up with the idea of belting a little ball into a hole. The sport he created was so difficult that he, initially, … [Read more...]
The ancient art of cheating at golf
For about the last eight years I have been a regular hacker on the golf course at Mullumbimby. In that time, my game has not improved one iota. And to be brutally honest, I would have to say the same of the blokes with whom I play. Big Fella, a left-hander (“there’s me and Phil Mickelson,” he’ll boast, before hooking his drive into the brown-snake infested rough), generally … [Read more...]
The Queen – A sports lover with no time for uppity colonials…
Now that HRH, Queen Elizabeth II has departed this earthly domain we, her subjects, have been left to lament the loss of a remarkable woman. For weeks we have heard the personal testimonies of hundreds who had met her or "knew her personally" and countless stories of her acts of kindness have been recounted. Selfless, dutiful, witty, humorous, resilient, steadfast and dedicated … [Read more...]