Crazy Sunday afternoon leaves heroic Andy Roddick a broken man - Times Online
My song of the weekend has to be the Kinks 'Lazy afternoon'. I went to a wedding on saturday where after the nuptuals, we decamped to an old barn, converted to a function room for such events. A lovely sunny afternoon with friends, sipping pimms and the odd glass of bubbles on the grass whilst we waited for the dinner to be ready and the happy couple got their pictures taken. Later when the band played the Kinks as one of the first songs of the night it topped off the day.
Cue sunday and it went from lazy afternoon, to crazy as this article neatly shows. I've heard some people crow about the quality of the tennis played compared to last years final, but I'm sorry, look beyond the aces from 2 strong servers and there was some brilliant ground strokes from 2 players giving it their all. And this is where it got interesting. 10 sets worth of tennis? Federer only breaking Roddick at the last. It came down to a game of poker at the finish and who was going to relent and who could hold their mettle. Roddick was a giant and was so unfortunate to lose. I was asked 'What was going through their minds at the finish?' by a friend.
I can't answer that, you'd have to ask both. But Federer always appears fresh on a court and maybe people don't see how athletic he is in the true sense of the word. But I bet his experience of winning grand slam finals and the hurt of last years loss helped him out, provided motivation and gave us a great finish. How tough on Roddick. I hope he comes back and wins a major. He was truly gracious in defeat. Hopefully he got his motivation yesterday.
Monday, 6 July 2009
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Not talked about it online, but of course you have to have been living in a cave to have missed the sad death of Michael Jackson last week. It was good to hear his music getting aired everywhere in the summer sun since. Enjoy this tribute from Terrence Parkers weekly podcast. Click this link to listen to it: http://terrenceparker.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-06-29T12_35_16-07_00
Thursday, 25 June 2009
An alternative view of 2012
Given the career choice I'm now pursuing I often, because of where I live in East London, get asked whether I'll get to work with Team GB athletes in time for 2012. My usual response is that its unlikely - most of the sports psych positions will be filled already no doubt - but working with younger athletes in my club, who knows for certain?
The view around peers when I've spoken about the Olympics, tends to be optimistic. That it will be great for the area, house prices, a flagging London economy, a neglected part of the East End, a legacy for the future, and a feelgood event that the Worlds eyes will be upon. However, you do get dissenting voices. What about the cost? Likely to be more than current estimates, and likely to be funded by more taxes - but lets not get into that debate for now... the area where the Olympics is and has been contentious is a more philosophical one. For the record, I like the ideal of individuals pitting themselves in competition, to excel at what they can do physically, and as an inspiration for people (think Usain Bolts amazing performance and time in Beijing), and kids in particular. Part of the reason for pursuing this change of career that I thought about this morning, was the upbringing I had, where football, motor racing, tennis and other sports were encouraged, debated at the dinner table, attended and participated in by my family.
However, the philosophy and sociology of sport is something that I've become more interested in over the last few years. It can be positive, but also negative. Blood doping in cycling taints the Tour de France more than anything. Its so exciting to watch, but yeah, loses its lustre when leader after leader is thrown out after being caught. People rightly ask, "Is it the rider or the enhancers that lead to that winning performance?" The same too with the Olympics. The chase for victory leading to many instances of drug cheats and corrupting the 'ideal'. And similarly, a pet bugbear of mine, but one that is so prominent you have to remind yourself these days of - the commercialisation of sport. I could write a whole section on the blog about this but I read today about a sports writer who died this week and who asked those difficult questions about sport, gave his opinion (bilous at times) and didn't just tow the party line. The Guardian printed this as an obituary on their site and as an example of his pieces the article below on the loss of the Olympic ideal and what is wrong with the games. I don't apologise for his language or the courage of his convictions. Corporate Steven Wells wasn't. Forthright he was. Let his belief and conviction be his testament and example to us all, whatever your views. RIP.
On why we should boycott the Olympics Steven Wells - 22 July 2008.
"The history of the modern Olympic movement is one long, sad litany of imperialism, racism, exploitation and oppression. But that's not why I think we should boycott the Olympics. And I do think we should boycott them. Not just the Beijing games. All of them. Forever. Why? Because of the total disconnect between what the Olympics are supposed to be about (grace, beauty, athleticism, sportsmanship, solidarity, brotherhood and the human spirit) and the sordid reality — as superbly illustrated by what the preparations for the 2012 London games are doing to the Manor Garden allotments.
"Ask yourself this question: are the drug-riddled, debased and corrupt Olympics worth the demolition of a single 80-year-old community institution that genuinely and continually promotes health, mental wellbeing, exercise, neighbourliness and fresh vegetables? And (while we're at it) was it worth ripping up the much-loved and heavily used five-a-side football pitches in East London's Spitalfields market just so the City of London could have yet another identikit shopping/office development? (If you answered yes to either question, stop reading and trot off and fellate a stockbroker, you dominant ideology humping Tory bastard).
"Don't get me wrong. I dislike cockney gardeners just as much as the next professional Northern bigot ... but when I see our socialist heritage of collective gardening trampled underfoot by the size-900 Adidas bovver sneakers of soulless corporate sport, I'm there on the front line, jabbing at the scaly, baby-eating, corn-syrup spewing monstrosity with a dung-smeared pitchfork, glotally whining in my best Thames Estuary accented sub-English: Bugger off back to whichever focus-group driven hell spawned you, Nikezilla. Ils ne passeront pas, me old cock sparrer, ils ne passeront bleedin' pas.
"What are these Olympics anyway? Every square inch of its corporate jism-soaked soul is fully owned by one crap-peddling multinational monster or another. And all the major events are dominated by freakish, faceless, unreal, disconnected, socially-crippled identikit meta-humans, most (if not all) of them as keenly engaged in an ever-escalating techno-war with the drug testers as they are in actually running, jumping or throwing stuff.
"Why should I cheer these freaks on? Because they supposedly represent the patch of dirt I was born on? Is it not absurd that an event so wedded to the increasingly redundant 18th-century notion of the nation state should be owned lock, stock and logo-plastered barrel by nationless corporations, all of whom automatically shift production to anywhere the grateful peasants will work for a dollar a day (and all the rice and rat meat they can eat) at the drop of a spread sheet?
"The fact is that we have irrevocably lost the Olympics to the dumb, piggish maelstrom of corruption, blind self-interest, amorality, blandness, hypocrisy and lowest-common-denominator aesthetics that is corporate capitalism. And no amount of hand wringing or faux-nostalgic bleating about Corinthian values is ever going to bring it back.
"... When the corporations start to sniff around the edges of these events (as they already do, the bastards) we should kvetch like billy-o. No, not because it'll do any good, but because not to do so means to accept cultural brain-death, to become sports Tories, to march in corporate sponsored official replica shirt-wearing lockstep into a new serfdom where our only functions are to slave and consume.
"I give you the NFL, the NBA, the Premier League and every other professional league on the planet, all of them to a greater or lesser degree on the slippery slope to soulless shut-up-and-consume McSports status"
The view around peers when I've spoken about the Olympics, tends to be optimistic. That it will be great for the area, house prices, a flagging London economy, a neglected part of the East End, a legacy for the future, and a feelgood event that the Worlds eyes will be upon. However, you do get dissenting voices. What about the cost? Likely to be more than current estimates, and likely to be funded by more taxes - but lets not get into that debate for now... the area where the Olympics is and has been contentious is a more philosophical one. For the record, I like the ideal of individuals pitting themselves in competition, to excel at what they can do physically, and as an inspiration for people (think Usain Bolts amazing performance and time in Beijing), and kids in particular. Part of the reason for pursuing this change of career that I thought about this morning, was the upbringing I had, where football, motor racing, tennis and other sports were encouraged, debated at the dinner table, attended and participated in by my family.
However, the philosophy and sociology of sport is something that I've become more interested in over the last few years. It can be positive, but also negative. Blood doping in cycling taints the Tour de France more than anything. Its so exciting to watch, but yeah, loses its lustre when leader after leader is thrown out after being caught. People rightly ask, "Is it the rider or the enhancers that lead to that winning performance?" The same too with the Olympics. The chase for victory leading to many instances of drug cheats and corrupting the 'ideal'. And similarly, a pet bugbear of mine, but one that is so prominent you have to remind yourself these days of - the commercialisation of sport. I could write a whole section on the blog about this but I read today about a sports writer who died this week and who asked those difficult questions about sport, gave his opinion (bilous at times) and didn't just tow the party line. The Guardian printed this as an obituary on their site and as an example of his pieces the article below on the loss of the Olympic ideal and what is wrong with the games. I don't apologise for his language or the courage of his convictions. Corporate Steven Wells wasn't. Forthright he was. Let his belief and conviction be his testament and example to us all, whatever your views. RIP.
On why we should boycott the Olympics Steven Wells - 22 July 2008.
"The history of the modern Olympic movement is one long, sad litany of imperialism, racism, exploitation and oppression. But that's not why I think we should boycott the Olympics. And I do think we should boycott them. Not just the Beijing games. All of them. Forever. Why? Because of the total disconnect between what the Olympics are supposed to be about (grace, beauty, athleticism, sportsmanship, solidarity, brotherhood and the human spirit) and the sordid reality — as superbly illustrated by what the preparations for the 2012 London games are doing to the Manor Garden allotments.
"Ask yourself this question: are the drug-riddled, debased and corrupt Olympics worth the demolition of a single 80-year-old community institution that genuinely and continually promotes health, mental wellbeing, exercise, neighbourliness and fresh vegetables? And (while we're at it) was it worth ripping up the much-loved and heavily used five-a-side football pitches in East London's Spitalfields market just so the City of London could have yet another identikit shopping/office development? (If you answered yes to either question, stop reading and trot off and fellate a stockbroker, you dominant ideology humping Tory bastard).
"Don't get me wrong. I dislike cockney gardeners just as much as the next professional Northern bigot ... but when I see our socialist heritage of collective gardening trampled underfoot by the size-900 Adidas bovver sneakers of soulless corporate sport, I'm there on the front line, jabbing at the scaly, baby-eating, corn-syrup spewing monstrosity with a dung-smeared pitchfork, glotally whining in my best Thames Estuary accented sub-English: Bugger off back to whichever focus-group driven hell spawned you, Nikezilla. Ils ne passeront pas, me old cock sparrer, ils ne passeront bleedin' pas.
"What are these Olympics anyway? Every square inch of its corporate jism-soaked soul is fully owned by one crap-peddling multinational monster or another. And all the major events are dominated by freakish, faceless, unreal, disconnected, socially-crippled identikit meta-humans, most (if not all) of them as keenly engaged in an ever-escalating techno-war with the drug testers as they are in actually running, jumping or throwing stuff.
"Why should I cheer these freaks on? Because they supposedly represent the patch of dirt I was born on? Is it not absurd that an event so wedded to the increasingly redundant 18th-century notion of the nation state should be owned lock, stock and logo-plastered barrel by nationless corporations, all of whom automatically shift production to anywhere the grateful peasants will work for a dollar a day (and all the rice and rat meat they can eat) at the drop of a spread sheet?
"The fact is that we have irrevocably lost the Olympics to the dumb, piggish maelstrom of corruption, blind self-interest, amorality, blandness, hypocrisy and lowest-common-denominator aesthetics that is corporate capitalism. And no amount of hand wringing or faux-nostalgic bleating about Corinthian values is ever going to bring it back.
"... When the corporations start to sniff around the edges of these events (as they already do, the bastards) we should kvetch like billy-o. No, not because it'll do any good, but because not to do so means to accept cultural brain-death, to become sports Tories, to march in corporate sponsored official replica shirt-wearing lockstep into a new serfdom where our only functions are to slave and consume.
"I give you the NFL, the NBA, the Premier League and every other professional league on the planet, all of them to a greater or lesser degree on the slippery slope to soulless shut-up-and-consume McSports status"
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
The research process for a Sports Psych (trainee)
So I've escaped to the sun and am diligently reading and writing to move the thesis on. It's a long process, but hugely enjoyable and lovely to do it poolside rather than in a small room in Stoke Newington. As per my last post I am going to be updating this blog so that it explains to the unitiated just what the hell Sport Psychology and mental skills training entail. To demystify, debunk and reach out to the wider World.
Last week I attended the 3rd International Qualitative Conference at my University and was inspired by other researchers presentations, findings, and encouragement. I'm determined to write a great bit of research and present it at a similar event in the future. The thing it left me thinking, other than that I am doing the right course of study and career, is that we have to make the work we do relevant to 'the man in the street' (or at least in the running club, football team, gym, office or factory). This doesn't mean dumbing down, but to transfer where the relevance of what is found in the field to everyday life.
I'll be telling you what Sport Psychology is; why its relevant to you; what I do, am aiming to do, and my theoretical orientation, amongst other useful starting points.
In the meantime, I'm using this medium to track my progress with my work, for as a novice researcher, I have to keep a reflexive journal to ensure I'm doing justice to the research being generating. Thats why I kept the 100 day log of training for the marathon. It tells me how I felt, what was going on, what factors were affecting my thinking and work. This needs to continue whilst I complete my work on 'the mental skills of marathon runners' that I captured at this years London Marathon. Got a lot to get through between now and tomorrow. I'll post up more on this in the next few days.
Last week I attended the 3rd International Qualitative Conference at my University and was inspired by other researchers presentations, findings, and encouragement. I'm determined to write a great bit of research and present it at a similar event in the future. The thing it left me thinking, other than that I am doing the right course of study and career, is that we have to make the work we do relevant to 'the man in the street' (or at least in the running club, football team, gym, office or factory). This doesn't mean dumbing down, but to transfer where the relevance of what is found in the field to everyday life.
I'll be telling you what Sport Psychology is; why its relevant to you; what I do, am aiming to do, and my theoretical orientation, amongst other useful starting points.
In the meantime, I'm using this medium to track my progress with my work, for as a novice researcher, I have to keep a reflexive journal to ensure I'm doing justice to the research being generating. Thats why I kept the 100 day log of training for the marathon. It tells me how I felt, what was going on, what factors were affecting my thinking and work. This needs to continue whilst I complete my work on 'the mental skills of marathon runners' that I captured at this years London Marathon. Got a lot to get through between now and tomorrow. I'll post up more on this in the next few days.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
What I'm up to for June
These days you can use the web in so many ways to announce what you're doing, where you're going and when you're free. Moving to a more freelance lifestyle, though its all a bit 'look at me', you have to in order to get work, pitch for work and keep on top of things.
This week is crunch for me as I'm trying to get thesis work done and finish a web job whilst working on the marketing for my sport psychology practice before going on holiday. Obviously i have this blog and i'm on email and twitter (username stuholliday). Facebook I tend to keep for staying in touch with far away friends and for all of my music promotion work (electric elephant as you ask: www.electricelephant.co.uk).
so, if all goes according to plan, by the end of June I'll be:
1) up to the results section of my thesis
2) be able to build any web sites anyone requires
3) have a website, flyers and business cards for the sports psychology and physical training consultancy
4) pimp myself out on spare days for web usability, office admin, project managerial work; mystery shopping; & dog walking (i'm joking about the dog walking)
From the 13th to the 23rd of June I'm in spain. If you're out there then I'm barcelona for the weekend of the 20th & 21st.
This process has been useful. I'm going to put a calendar on my website to show my availability! cool.
Till next time...
s
x
This week is crunch for me as I'm trying to get thesis work done and finish a web job whilst working on the marketing for my sport psychology practice before going on holiday. Obviously i have this blog and i'm on email and twitter (username stuholliday). Facebook I tend to keep for staying in touch with far away friends and for all of my music promotion work (electric elephant as you ask: www.electricelephant.co.uk).
so, if all goes according to plan, by the end of June I'll be:
1) up to the results section of my thesis
2) be able to build any web sites anyone requires
3) have a website, flyers and business cards for the sports psychology and physical training consultancy
4) pimp myself out on spare days for web usability, office admin, project managerial work; mystery shopping; & dog walking (i'm joking about the dog walking)
From the 13th to the 23rd of June I'm in spain. If you're out there then I'm barcelona for the weekend of the 20th & 21st.
This process has been useful. I'm going to put a calendar on my website to show my availability! cool.
Till next time...
s
x
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Put to the sword in Rome
Last night saw my beloved United of Manchester lose a game that many had them down to win. However, Barcelona, my favourite Spanish side and much better version of the team I used to see at Camp Nou, dominated a United team that despite a promising opening 10 minutes were made to look average at times. I was sure as the game went on, that the experience of the United manager (40 odd trophies won in his career) and players could and should have influenced proceedings, but it wasn't to be. Novice manager, Pep Guardiola picked up the Champions league trophy to add to the La Liga and Copa del Rey. Barça played with verve and comfortably ran out winners in the end.When your team, or any team for that matter, have been very good and consistent, it is strange watching them come off second best. But that’s what happened. Ferguson has been noted as gracious in defeat, but then he can't be much else. When asked if the loss would affect his or the teams desire last night, the offending journalist was given short shrift. The manager will take on board the way Barça operate beyond what he had done already in the pre-match build up, and as someone said on one of the Guardian message boards: if anyone can embrace any change it's probably Fergie.
One thing that does bode well for football next year is this. With Liverpool feeling they will want to come out and make up for second place in the league, and United wanting to avenge last night in Rome, motivation of those teams should provide another interesting season to all.
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Schools out for summer!
Finished the last of my assessed work yesterday and am now heading down the slope of finishing my thesis and starting the first tentative steps of a new chapter in my career. I've got to spend the summer juggling earning enough money to make ends meet and gaining useful experience with ensuring I do the thesis justice.
Some reflection over the bank holiday will help no end. As ever, I'm spending one of those days on the South Downs, walking in what I think as one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
On the work front I'm now convinced I've got something unique to give. 10 years of IT and web experience, I know what does and doesn't work in promoting business and brands. I've been asked to look at developing 3 websites in the last week too! Marry to that my skills learnt with training for running and Sport Psychology in the last year and I'm looking forward to working face to face with individuals.
Having been back in the books though, I've taken my eye off the ball, and the online world has moved on apace. It's now up to me to keep up! I've got to collate my web presence into a nice site, like my good friends at smarterfitter, which I'll do over the next few months. My sporting and uni colleagues are even further behind though and not out there utilising what the web has to offer in showcasing their talents and getting prospective work. I'm convinced I can improve this though.
I've finally succumbed to Twitter having spoken to some devotees in the last few weeks. You can follow me at Juan_Nossomvos if you tweet. Having got bored and restless with web, i'm now seeing it differently and realising its not so bad after all! Dammit, I'll be getting an i-phone next!
If you're interested in either getting assistance with health matters relating to your fitness, or in need of web consultancy on usability issues, or getting a simple web presence, then get in touch!
Some reflection over the bank holiday will help no end. As ever, I'm spending one of those days on the South Downs, walking in what I think as one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
On the work front I'm now convinced I've got something unique to give. 10 years of IT and web experience, I know what does and doesn't work in promoting business and brands. I've been asked to look at developing 3 websites in the last week too! Marry to that my skills learnt with training for running and Sport Psychology in the last year and I'm looking forward to working face to face with individuals.
Having been back in the books though, I've taken my eye off the ball, and the online world has moved on apace. It's now up to me to keep up! I've got to collate my web presence into a nice site, like my good friends at smarterfitter, which I'll do over the next few months. My sporting and uni colleagues are even further behind though and not out there utilising what the web has to offer in showcasing their talents and getting prospective work. I'm convinced I can improve this though.
I've finally succumbed to Twitter having spoken to some devotees in the last few weeks. You can follow me at Juan_Nossomvos if you tweet. Having got bored and restless with web, i'm now seeing it differently and realising its not so bad after all! Dammit, I'll be getting an i-phone next!
If you're interested in either getting assistance with health matters relating to your fitness, or in need of web consultancy on usability issues, or getting a simple web presence, then get in touch!
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