When did sport stop becoming an entertainment and when did fear enter? Answer when it became big business.
The more I watch sport, the more I believe it has or is becoming divorced from enjoyment. Players are being stripped of originality, they are being over coached and the fear instilled in them is that they mustn't lose.
Amongst the pretty dreadful football friendlies I subjected myself to over the past couple of weeks were England's 1-0 win over Austria and 1-0 win over Romania. Both were devoid of spirit. But they paled into insignificance when compared with the match between old adversaries Portugal and Spain which was just dreadful. Both teams looked scared of playing any attacking football. Not surprisingly the match ended in a goalless draw and I believe in the first half there wasn't a single shot on target from either team.
Then we had the first cricket test between England and New Zealand. Admittedly a whole day was wiped out by rain which seemed to make a draw inevitable but New Zealand tried to make a match of it by declaring and giving England a chance to hit their way to victory. It became obvious from the first ball that they had no intention of "going for it" and were just hanging on with the intention of playing time out for a draw - something they achieved with ease but at the cost of boring everyone rigid.
A number of years ago I studied for a diploma in sports psychology where the essence was positivity. Now we seem to be bereft of that positivity thanks to the fear of losing. I just hope that one day the spirit of adventure returns to our sporting arenas and the people who run these sports (sadly today this is more likely to be accountants than coaches) realise that people pay a lot of money to be entertained and not to be sent to sleep.
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A few days ago somebody asked on a Facebook page for people to post something they used to do regularly but no longer do.
I thought about this and the answer for me was "watching WWF wrestling." When my two sons were younger they were obsessive watchers of World Wrestling Federation. It seemed to be on television all the time (and probably was).
It had to change its name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) because of a name conflict with the other WWF (The World Wildlife Fund). It was a highly scripted battle between good and evil with lots of American wrestlers continually threatening or shouting at each other. Mind you there was plenty of danger in some of what was going on with more and more outrageous moves being brought in.
At times you could see that they weren't hitting each other and by stamping on the canvas they could make a sound approximating a punch or slap. I also found out that the referee was all part of the plot, often informing the contestants about what to do and how to play the drama out.
But I haven't watched American wrestling for years. And do I miss it? Absolutely not.
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On the face of it staycations are a very good idea, particularly on bright and warm days. But I have heard so many horror stories of traffic jams recently that I'm wondering whether it's worth venturing out of the local area (remember that phrase and what it meant this time last year?)
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Tomorrow I'm going to introduce you to the most powerful people in our country - those that I refer to as "the mythical they."
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Included with this blog are a few random photographs taken over the past couple of days.