Ancient philosopher, Seneca, was not much of an athlete. But he knew quite a bit about what it was like to have a bad day. His tips on how to deal with getting the rough end of the pineapple in a sporting context are well worth hearing. One might imagine that wealthy, famous and highly respected philosophers… people who have held high status roles in government and in business… … [Read more...]
Kahanamoku – Australia’s first surfer? Nah!
Manly Beach, 1913. Olympic silver medalist swimmer, Cecil Healy, meets a local ratbag beach bum for a beer and a chin wag. Hmmm. Maybe this chat never actually happened. But it could have. Tommy skips down the two sandstone steps from the front door of the Seagulls club house, traverses the tarmac footpath, crosses the South Steyne, then wanders past the timber surf club to … [Read more...]
Training mysteries in the times of COVID
Strange and mysterious stuff happens during Covid lockdown. Even stranger stuff happens when attempting to train under Covid lockdown conditions. A good example of the mysterious times we live in happened to me yesterday. I turned up at my local lap pool, in the morning, ready to knock out two kilometres of freestyle. The sign on the door demanded, not surprisingly, that … [Read more...]
Super body surfing – The Master, Dix Ozier, discusses the why and how of the ancient art – Part 1.
Why should anyone want to learn to body surf? I mean really body surf. I mean its not a real sport like surfing is it? Isn't body surfing just playing around in the surf because you can't ride a board? True body surfing masters go into fits over such heresy! Such ignorance! Of course body surfing is a real sport. And it's a real form of surfing. The experts might even say its … [Read more...]
Sport 2021 – Sports philosopher No 2. Aaron Kearney
It’s hard to summarise the sporting life of multi-award-winning journalist Aaron Kearney. Attempts to do so demand more print space than is possible for the average sporting story. Suffice it to say that Kearney has played, watched, reported on, commentated (T.V. and radio), anchored, written about, produced, organized and facilitated more sports and sporting events than most … [Read more...]