Faster, Stronger, Higher

The games start tomorrow and I will be glued to the TV over the next couple of weeks. The traditional motto of the Olympics is Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger" - and for me that makes the Olympics all about track and field. 

I am happy for the other sports to be there but I am not sure that they all fit with the true Olympic tradition. No where does that traditional motto include the words: Syncronised, Graceful, Artistic, Owner of the best equipment, Most Liked by the judges etc etc.

Sports Greats: People who revolutionized their sport.

Walter Lindrum

This is a great topic. We often talk about champion sports people. But there are some who did something that revolutionized their sport:

Simon Anderson - the man who put a third fin onto the surfboard. 

Dick Fosbury - the man who changed the way the high jump was done with the Fosbury Flop

Jack Dyer - invented the drop punt kick in football. This kick is now used almost exclusively in the game.

Walter Lindrum - Became so proficient at Billiards that they changed the rules to make the game fair on everyone else.

Jack Brabham - came up with the idea to put the engine in the back of his racing car, and changed formula 1 forever.

Ben Lexcen - the Americas cup yacht designer who came up with the famous winged keel. A bit like Simon Andersons third fin.

Feel free to add some more in the comments below.

AFL: Ducking for a Free Kick

There has been a lot of talk this week about players shrugging and ducking in a tackle to get a free kick for head high contact. Alistair Clarkson called for a change to the rules, Jeff Gieschen said it was not in the spirit of the game.

Seems like a big over reaction to me. The game and the tactics are developing faster than ever before, and this is just another example. "Back in the Day" players used to be taught to tackle from the hips and keep the arms low. But that often meant the player being tackled would lift his arms to keep them free from the tackle so he could get away a handball. So to counteract that, players now try and tackle higher and pin the arms. (In fact it is only last year that there was a fair bit of talk about this being dangerous because players could not protect themselves if they were thrown to the ground.) 

So ball players have just developed a new evasive skill to deal with the new style of tackling where instead of getting their arms out of the top, they try and slip the tackle by going underneath. One of the effects of that is they sometimes draw head high contact. But it is just part of the development of the game. Next step I see is that tacklers will need to learn a new technique to deal with this. Perhaps this is something that Alistair could concentrating his energies on.