Topic

sport & selling

A collection of 415 issues

Pressure Is A Privilege

A bonus blog having just watched the women’s tennis slam final in London. It turns out the title of this post was both a text sent by former champ Billie Jean King (to Maria Sharapova before she won the 2008 Open in Melbourne) and a book she co-wrote. As

Brummagem Details

Birmingham City won their first major silverware since ’63 this season. Then got relegated. Not pretty. Only now do I feel able to mention this in public. This is because we now must have “hope in our heart” with a new manager. Two thoughts occurred to me from this season

Athletic Pledge

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Meadows] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_van_Commenee] The Dutch head of UK Athletics enjoys a reputation as somewhat of a hard man. Charles van Commenee could well be the most cartoonesque one-man case study on tough man-management in world sport. I thoroughly

Tempo Management

This is evidently an inside phrase as used by football referees. It relates to the flow of the match. In England, referees are renowned and praised for an observed focus to “keep the game flowing”. When the on-pitch atmosphere gets a little spicy though, with tasty tackles and plenty of

Tensator Pylon Polish

[http://www.tensator.com/showroom/tensabarrier-posts.aspx] I learned of one brand name in the marketplace for those barriers you get where the seat-belt style fabric slots into a pole, so beloved by airports and New York clubs. I caught the start of the Istanbul Grand Prix today, and the

Training Ground Routines

The World’s fourth priciest footballer recently suffered an embarrassing 903-minute wait for his first goal at his new club. Fernando Torres [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Torres] was the subject of plenty of pundit advice during his drought. Most of it was rubbish of course, but a pair

Six Nations Values

So England failed to nail the Grand Slam. Hammered by an Ireland presumably embarrassed they’d been previously absent from the tournament. Catching the interviews from the game beforehand I was struck by one response from a young Scottish player. In assessing the impact of beating Italy to avoid the

Blatter Ineptitude

Can you name a world sporting administrative body that actually does good for the game it purports to support? Tricky, huh? With such globally crass stupidity abundant, it’s difficult for one particular administrator to stand out as being the single most damagingly incapable. But if anyone can, it is

Daley Thompson's Competitive Focus

I watched a documentary on a plane from 2004 about a legendary 80s Decathlon rivalry. Les grands duels du sport heard plenty from both affable German Jürgen Hingsen and irreverent Brit Daley Thompson. The German was thought the superior athlete, regularly holding the world record, yet never beat his tougher

How England Cricket Plays Easy

Arh, yes. The revelling in such Ashes glory. With so much to admire from an English perspective, cricket writers have since been beside themselves to try and put fingers on how such a monumental thrashing of the big enemy came to pass. One example came from the always enjoyable Vic