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  • Simple net game, revisited

    I have been delivering an after-school club this term. As happened last year, we have been evicted from the newly built sports hall to accommodate exams. Unlike last time, we have been able to carry on with the weekly club, but in the much smaller and very crowded old sports hall.

    So small and crowded, in fact, that the only safe option has been to roll out the nets to keep the players away from table tennis tables, rowing machines, badminton nets, benches and other clutter.

    Rather than a basic net session, I wanted to utilise the simple net game format, with a points system designed to reward specific behaviours beyond just “having a hit”!

    But, as I can’t resist tinkering with games, the points scoring system was modified, in an attempt to make the practice a little more realistic.

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  • What can we learn from “…a fast slow-left-arm unorthodox orthodox bowler…”?

    A fascinating look at Axar Patel’s startling bowling successes, from Jarrod Kimber’s presentation based on data analysis by Himanish Ganjoo.

    I do enjoy this type of analysis, partly for the insight into exactly what is going on in the professional game (“we’d hit him all over the park if he bowled like that at us”…), but mostly for the opportunity to consider how the relevant skills might be coached, and how they might be counter-acted.

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  • Why does sport matter? It’s so much more than just a game.

    This post is a much extended version of a 500-word assignment on why football is “more than a game”, written for an online course.
    It has been edited to take account of some helpful comments from reviewers, and to include some slightly more coherent conclusions than could be accommodated in the original word-count.

    I have just completed an online course with FutureLearn — Football — more than a game?, with University of Edinburgh. History, finance & governance, community engagement, just a little politics…fascinating!

    The course provided lots of data on revenues and TV viewing figures, and reports of the social, economic, diplomatic and philanthropic activities delivered by, or in the name of, “football”. But I don’t think this evidence of the global reach of football really captures the essence of why football, or sport in general, matters to fans.

    For me, the question seems to be more about “ownership” of the game, and that sense of “belonging” to a “tribe” — beyond being a fan of a particular team or national side, this is more to do with those who “get” sports, and those who don’t.

    It really is so much more than just a game.

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