Just a thought about sport...

[2ndRateMind]

...sort of arrived out of the blanket Olympics coverage. Don't get me wrong, I think sport is great, for the sports minded. It gives them a purpose in life, and for the rest of us non-competitors, a few moments of interested relaxation. But. (There's always a but!) To use a sporting analogy, life is a marathon, not an explosive sprint. Life is not a few seconds, or minutes, or even hours, of concentrated effort. It's the cumulative total of days, weeks, months and years of total immersion. Maybe that's why sport is popular; we don't have to suffer the sustained effort, only it's climactic result. But for my part, I'd be more interested in sport if it were the long term reflection of life, rather than the short term result of an obsessive concentration on (lets face it!) an irrelevant skill-set.

And sport is, for sport's sake. It is it's own rationale. No longer does one participate for fitness, for mental health, for well-being. The competition is all and the winning is the purpose.

So, when are we going to get life-reflecting sport? The most sociable person, perhaps, the tastiest Sunday lunch, or the most productive allotment, or best home-brewed beer maker? These are 'sports' I could get behind, without reservation, seeing as they are life skills that enhance our human experience rather than extract and glorify talent from a very limited pool of very limited human capacities that have little or no impact on the quality of anyone else's existance.

None of this is meant, in any way, to be a criticism of sports folk or sports fans. We all need a distracting hobby. I just worry that this distraction has the potential to seduce us away from the things that really matter.

Cheers, 2RM.

[happyhippy]

Good post 2RM,but I'm afraid sports drives me mad,especially on TV.My OH is a sports buff,so I have to endure the footy season,euro cup and now the olympics.I don't mind the odd few minutes but OH was taking over the nightly tv viewing by HOURS,so we had to make a compromise!lol Each to their own!

[Thomzo]

I guess that most activities that we now regard as 'just sport' once were the things that really mattered. Running, hurdles, swimming etc, for instance, would have been life saving activities, either to chase food or escape from predators. Javelin was originally a form of food shopping, as were shooting and archery.

I suppose tennis, badminton and gymnastics are probably the exceptions that prove the rule although I wonder if ball sports originated from throwing or kicking missiles at prey or enemies? Early forms of 'sport' were possibly practice or a way of educating children in the important life skills.

I wonder what the Olympics will look like in 100 years time? Motor racing, computer games, hang-gliding, extreme ironing?

I'm not a big watcher of sports, it sends me to sleep, so I'm taking this opportunity to turn the TV off and do something else.

Zoe

[Zech]

the most productive allotment, or best home-brewed beer maker?

I went to my first Welsh village horticultural show at the weekend, and they had both of these competitions (well, sort of for the first - lots of contests for best veg) alongside baking and preserving and various crafts. It struck me that most of the 'ishy' things I try my hand at were represented in those competitions, and it was all rather lovely.

I guess the 'olympics' of these sports is the Royal Welsh Show, which has a pretty big impact round these parts (we made the mistake of organising an event that clashed with the show. We won't be doing that again!)

[prison break fan]

I'm not particularly interested in sport but on Friday I went to the Olympic Park to watch the mens hockey and it was fantastic! My daughter in law and two grandchilden took me and we had the best time ever. The Park is amazing, the wild flower meadows were beautiful and everywhere was so clean. Transport was spot on, we won the hockey match and all in all I think London has done us proud. I wish I could go again. pbf.

[Thomzo]

I must admit that I'm regretting not trying for tickets even though I'm not a sport fan. I just console myself with the knowledge that I wouldn't have got tickets if I had applied. I would like to see the Olympic park though so will probably take a trip up there later in the year.

Zoe

[GeorgeSalt]

We weren't interested, and then the opening ceremony just grabbed us. We were expecting to sit with a couple of glasses of TC and have a good laugh at the predicted ineptitude, and then it just went so well!

Last Sunday we sat hitting reload for an hour or two and were rewarded with a pair of tickets to the volleyball at Earl's Court last Tuesday, and we picked up some Olympic Park tickets for one day of the Paralympics - we'll take our chances on returned tickets, or if not soak uo the atmosphere and admire the park itself.

[Millymollymandy]

Oh no! I thought Ish was the one sane place in the universe without a mention of the O word.

[gregorach]

So, when are we going to get life-reflecting sport? The most sociable person, perhaps, the tastiest Sunday lunch, or the most productive allotment, or best home-brewed beer maker?

Believe me, both the home-brewing and allotment scene can be very competitive if you want. I took the overall trophy for brewing at the Dundee Food & Flower Festival last year, with 2 golds, a sliver and 2 bronzes (out of 6 classes). Unfortunately I've been too disorganised and busy with other things this year to have a shot a defending my title... Although I still hope to enter one or two classes in the big CBA National competition down in Bristol.

And I certainly won't be entering the Edinburgh Allotments Show this year... It's been dreadful! I imagine it will be a very poor showing all round this time. Having said that, I suppose I might manage an entry or two in the bread classes if I can get myself suitably organised...

[Skippy]

I tend to agree with 2rdRM about the relavance of some of the sports. Things like the triple jump or hop , skip and jump as it was called at school seem just bizarre and then there's things like dressage, and syncronized diving all totally useless feats in the real world. Other things that baffle me are why do the shooters and archers have to hit a target but javalin throwers just have to wang it as far as possible and hit a field?
My biggest gripe with it all though is the total waste of money involved in staging the olympics in a different city every four years, why noy have it permantely in Greece, after all the FA cup is always played at Wembley rather than a different ground every year.


Pete

[yvette]

The olympics has taken me by surprise. I can quite understand the comments about the relevance of many of the sports, and I have reservations about the cost. As a resident of Stratford, I also have reservations about the usefulness of a darned great shopping centre that came as part of the package, and the difficulty of getting anywhere further than the end of the road at the moment. But I have been watching a lot of the sport. What has been inspiring to me has not been so much the fierce competitiveness, which I can't really understand, but the fact that what we see on the screen, from the buildings to the volunteers to the athletes performances, is the result of teams of people working together for the same end. That does seem to me to be a transferable skill worth cultivating.

[Thomzo]

What has been inspiring to me has not been so much the fierce competitiveness, which I can't really understand, but the fact that what we see on the screen, from the buildings to the volunteers to the athletes performances, is the result of teams of people working together for the same end. That does seem to me to be a transferable skill worth cultivating.

Like

[2ndRateMind]

Things like the triple jump or hop , skip and jump as it was called at school seem just bizarre and then there's things like dressage, and syncronized diving all totally useless feats in the real world.

Agreed. The triathlon - running, biking, swimming, seems to me like a sensible combination for all round fitness. The modern pentathlon, riding, swimming, fencing, shooting, running seems sensible for those of a military disposition, even if a little dated, despite it's name. The biathlon, skiing and shooting, eminently sensible for a snowbound country wishing to preserve the skills that might preserve that nation if invaded. I can comprehend sports that develop the whole body, the whole individual, and enhance some desirable skill-set for a nation. They have a utility beyond a fickle moment of glory. Most sports though, are not about that. Just skill for the skill's sake, and the advertising and sponsorship revenues they generate.

And I'd still like to see an olympic competition for the most productive allotment, in the hope that I might learn a thing or two!

Cheers, 2RM

[yvette]

Start the campaign now for the 'most productive allotment' even to be included in Rio 2016! I'd vote for it...

[Skippy]

I mentioned this to some friends and we started discussing it and came to the conclusion that the beach volleyball is one of the relavent sports simply because it's the sort of thing mr and mrs joe public actually play on their fortnight in the sun .


Pete