I don't get the interest in football (of any kind) or cricket, or any of the mass market spectator sports.

- You don't get to have a go yourself so where's the fun in that?

- Nothing much happens and the stuff that happens is a bit lame (guys running around with balls and bats and ****).

- The participants are all highly paid professional entertainers who go with the highest bidders so there's no real tribal loyalty.

- The sports are so dull they have to introduce a myriad of statistics to prove to people that something interesting is happening.

- The competition isn't really a personal struggle so there's nothing particularly inspiring about it (eg. lone marathoner makes it over the line after battling adversity as opposed to a bunch of rich guys poncing around a paddock)

- It's not inherently spectacular (surfing Jaws or skiing the Matterhorn)

As a good mate said, I would rather do something really badly than watch the best in the world.

I normally sort out my sock draw on AFL Grand Final day.... much more exciting

Gorgo said...

I don't get the interest in football (of any kind) or cricket, or any of the mass market spectator sports.

Just curious, do you enjoy watching high profile surfers, windsurfers, kitesurfers on TV, or the net?

No different really, most of us are never going to reach those pinnacles, but doesn't mean we cant enjoy watching other people reach them.

To me, its all about competition. Two teams battling it out. Anything can be interesting if it is a good competition and you get involved in it by picking a side/athlete to support. I'm competitive by nature, so sport is a natural outlet for me.

Historically, we used to fight tribal wars against each other, now our "tribe" does battle on the field. I think this is what brings out such passion and emotion from the supporters.

The other thing I enjoy in sport is seeing a top level athlete/team performing at their best and smashing the competition. Except for Collingwood, will always hate those 2868's

Gizmo said...

I normally sort out my sock draw on AFL Grand Final day.... much more exciting

I have always wanted to know but always been to embarressed to ask. I have only even seen my sock draw and I am curiously interested to know :

Do you sort by colour, length or texture.

Do you have different sections for summer and winter socks.

Do you have a special area for one sock waiting for the second to turn up, and another for one sock, probably never find the second ?

Do you rotate to get even wear ?

How long do you reckon you can get a pair of socks to last ?

whatthe said...

To me, its all about competition. Two teams battling it out. ...

That sort of makes sense. But you still end up with people randomly choosing a side to support then deciding to care about the result. How bizarre.

It is still something you watch and not something you get to do. In percentage terms nobody plays football or cricket once they leave school. I'm not too keen on golf either but at least everybody who loves golf gets to play it.

I guess my competition gene is a bit atrophied. I will compete with my mate to ride faster or jump higher or have more fun. As soon as score keeping is involved I lose interest. If you keep score then you have winners and losers and the potential for people to have a bad day purely because somebody else got a higher score.

In psychological testing there is a technique to induce negative emotions in people. The subject plays a game with a computer. The game engages the person at first, then explicitly excludes them to generate feelings of loss and frustration.

You also introduce cheating which is inherent in most competitive "sports". In a pure race each person would do their best and the one who gets the highest objective measure is the winner. Once you introduce tactics and rules then people spend more time working out ways to get an advantage over the opponent.

BTW One of my strongest memories from almost 30 years ago is stopping by a mate's place to go windsurfing. The boys were going to go the MCG to watch the cricket. It was forecast to be 40-45 degrees. I went windsurfing and a tanned, lithe, topless honey in a g-string spent the day crashing into me. It was terrible. When I stopped by my mate's place they had not moved from the couch. Doing is always better than watching.

More BTW. I have to admit I was windsurfing at Torquay many years ago. A very young Jason Polakow (15yo) was teaching his mates to forward loop. I did stop riding and just watched these kids doing this amazing thing.

listening to the boxing day test match on the radio, very relaxing!!

^ and i do.

bring on boxing day!

Not a cricket fan, and don't actually watch much footy either, but I did enjoy playing the game. Personally, I reckon a lot can be gained from playing a team sport when young.

I've helped out at Auskick over the past couple of years & found that the kids respond really well to playing in a team environment, & is one of the most important lessons that all kids should learn.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for "selfish" & "exclusive" sports like windsurfing, spending hours on the water, not speaking to anyone for simply self-gratification, not to mention the cost involved (ahhh, the joy). But honestly, there's a lot to be said for joining your mates a couple of times a year in a beer-swilling and vocally opinionated day sitting in front of the idiot-box shouting out expletives at 'sportspeople' that we'll never know & couldn't care less about!

[end rant]

Sailhack said...


Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for "selfish" & "exclusive" sports like windsurfing, spending hours on the water, not speaking to anyone for simply self-gratification,

[end rant]

Oh yeah!

Gorgo said...

Sailhack said...
... Personally, I reckon a lot can be gained from playing a team sport when young.

I've helped out at Auskick over the past couple of years & found that the kids respond really well to playing in a team environment, & is one of the most important lessons that all kids should learn.

...

I don't agree with that. I think that team sports are ultra-elitist and strongly biased for the in-crowd. If you're good at footy or whatever then you're in and if you're not then you get excluded.

The kid that lets through a goal or gives away a free kick is never going to be popular with the rest of the team or the coaches.

Kids that can't bat or bowl get stuck fielding in the outer.

All the sports I do are inclusive. Everybody gets to have fun. Nobody gets left out. To an extent the group looks out for others and makes sure they are safe if not actually having the same amount of fun.

Shortboard surfing tries to be exclusive and keep out the kooks. Longboards and SUPs and surf schools is changing that a little.

I don't agree. I was at best average at playing cricket and football of the various codes. However it was always good fun when I was a kid. Of course I was one of the last to be picked when they were picking sides but I really did not give a sh!t. It was always fun to show the kewl kids something.

One of my fondest childhood sporting memories was a softball game in primary school. It was the A side vs the B side. The A side was full of the cool boys and the B was the rest. Naturally I was in the B side. The B side had nothing to lose and went for it, hammer and tong. It was a great game and one which the B boys side, much to the chagrin of the A side and their coach. The B side went off to the inter school competition in Urunga and we had a great time while the A side had to stay at school.

Actually I was captain of the school basketball team. I played in a social team when I left school and we were C-grade premiers. It was the same league that a lot of AFL players used for their off season training. They tended to win a lot because they had better skills than everybody else, and they would slam people behind the play.

I was crap at basketball but I was taller than everyone else. I also played soccer a bit. I never had any luck breaking into the football team although I had offers later on when I grew taller. My real talent was running. I could run faster and farther than anybody else and won a few medals at State level.

I don't like team sports because they are exclusive and impractical. You can't do them without a huge infrastructure. They do exclude and isolate people who are not on the team. That is beside the point. I would understand if people loved footie if they actually played it. Nobody plays football.

I also dislike sports that keep score or use judging. A race is straight forward. The winner wins. Even if you don't win, as long as you have participated and done your best you get to have fun. I have participated in some world class sporting events. I never had a chance of winning but I got to be in the same field with the top guys and got to have some fun.

This is all beside my original point. Why do people care about AFL (or whatever) commercial team sports? People say "We" won, or "We" did this or whatever.

"We" had nothing to do with it. "They" are a large commercial enterprise making huge profits and allow a small elite to live out their sporting dreams. "You" had nothing to do with it at all. Why do you care?

Why do you arbitrarily choose a team to support then expend time and money pretending it has anything to do with you? It would make more sense to buy some shares in BHP then go down to the stock market and barrack for them.

I don't normally enjoy the cricket even though I played all of the way through school. Listened to the Ashes match that was on at the waca on the radio while at work and day 2 and 3 I was carrying the radio around with me so I didn't miss anything and I enjoyed it much more than I do watching it on tv.

Biggest problem with watching the cricket is the add breaks at the end of every over. Sure nothing much is happening then but the adds come on at twice the volume of the cricket so you get screamed at over and over.

Love watching other sports. It's real excitement and drama, not to mention a display of skill and the battle of skills and wills between two people or teams can be very entertaining if you let it.

knigit said...

What's the point of not keeping score?
...

If you look at Seabreeze in general there's a little bit about GPS speed and the occasional posting about competition results. The vast majority of it is about doing and the simple self-satisfaction of doing it.

It's reasonable to add a simple, objective measure to a sport to help you assess for yourself how you are going. It just screws things up if you make that measure the sole reason for doing it.

Why screw up a perfectly good sport by turning it into a formal competition?

If you want to, or need to, keep score that's fine (although I am personally not convinced).

That still does not address why people choose to align themselves emotionally ( and financially) with a corporate entity like a football team. A friend donated $1000 to her AFL team to help them in their campaign for the flag. They didn't win. They never looked like winning. The players, coaches and management were all on multi-million dollar contracts. What was she thinking giving money to them?

sport is fed to us to keep us amused + unconscious.

that said, i love watching sport on the box.

especially like watching the 2 wingers Gareth Bale + Aaron Lennon of Tottenham.




found this at henrymakow.com,

You need to shut out the world for set periods of time and focus on what inspires you. That means turning off the TV, Internet and media in general.

Just as you nourish your body with food, you feed your soul with thoughts, sights and sounds. Your soul reaches out for beauty, grace, harmony, truth and goodness. You become what you think about.

What lifts your spirit? It might be a long walk, nature, hobby, sport, or music. It might be time with your family or friends. It might be the Bible, religious writing or meditation.

"Do what you love," Henry David Thoreau said. "Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw at it still."

It would make more sense to buy some shares in BHP then go down to the stock market and barrack for them.

I did, day before yesterday they won, yaaaaaaaaaa!!!! Yesterday the lost
Lucky we live in a free society. We can blather on about all sorts and nobody to tell us "Ya cant write that you Zyloom!!. Weell we can blather on about most things without a wrap on the knuckles.
Merry Christmas yous lot.