Off to Nelson
The NZ Orienteering Championships are in the sunshine city this long weekend, so I'll be away until Monday - yesterday was the most number of hits I've ever had on this blog, so please come back next week.
A quick update on the cricket. I think I heard on the radio while half asleep this morning the hours of play for the upcoming SAF NZ series are 9.30 to 4.30 so bad light may be less of an issue. The draw back at 3.1 may not be such a wise move after all, but I'll get out of it at some stage. And GO THE DESHI's! More in hope now than belief, but they can still win this. Pity I'll be on a plane when it's all happening.
With travel and Orienteering, the time to devote to thinking about Super 14 bets has been limited, and the matches this week look even more unappealing than last week. On the face of it, you would expect the Blues, Crusaders and Chiefs to be comfortable winners over the Force, Cheetahs and Stormers respectively.
The Reds / Bulls holds a little more interest with the Reds travelling home from SAF. While the Reds did play well at home earlier this season I am tempted to back the Bulls if they stayed around the 1.90 mark. Cats v Sharks I don't care, 2 South African sides playing each other is not my forte, but I feel the Sharks are too short and if anything, I'd have a speculator on the Cats.
Earlier this season the Highlanders-Canes match was one to look forward to, but I feel the Otago boys are on the slide and now they have James Ryan out for the season. Am leaving it alone, which brings us to the final match of the round and the most interesting.
Waratahs v Brumbies. The head says the Waratahs but I can't entertain them as a 1.60 favourite. A 1.80 v 2.20 game in my book. The only thing I got right preseason this year are the Brumbies are not a spent force - with both teams at full-strength this will be worth watching.
Now that I've explained the difference between backing and laying, the bets for JWOC will be (assuming I can get them matched)
Lay the Reds @ 2.14 to win 30 (lose 34.20)
Lay the Sharks @ 1.60 to win 50 (lose 30)
Lay the Waratahs @ 1.58 to win 65 (lose 37.70)
Finally, something I read in the paper brought a few of those rambling thoughts together.
Graham Henry admitted he became so obssessed with results during stints with the Lions and Wales, he lost sight of managing and coaching the players. (John) Mitchell has taken a similar philosophy to the Force. "I am less outcome-focused as a coach. I am always looking for improvement rather than focusing on results" - Wynne Gray, NZ Herald 13 April
It made me smile because on Tuesday night, I rang an orienteer that I "coach" (I use the term loosely as our relationship consists of a phone call every two months or so) to basically convey the same message. It's all too easy when approaching a major sporting event to think about your goals and what you are setting out to achieve, rather than what you need to do to get your best sporting performance. "Focus on the process, not the outcome"
It leads to the paradox of elite sport - the more you concentrate on the process and think less about the desired outcome, the greater the chance you actually have of achieving the desired result. And therein lies a lesson for the boffins at SPARC:
SPARC, national sporting organisations et al are only interested in results. They have to justify money spent, and the only way (in their eyes) they can justify that is things like the number of medals. But athletes aren't (or shouldn't be) thinking about what colour medal they are going to get. Their job is to get everything right in the build-up and performance on the day, and (hopefully) the result will take care of itself. Hopefully, because one thing you cannot control in many sports is the performance of your opponent(s).
The role of NSO's and others who put money in is (or should be) to create the ideal environment for athletes to perform. To cut a long story short, publicly placing results expectations on individual sports and athletes IMO does not contribute to that ideal environment - for the simple reason that it runs the risk of dragging the athletes' focus away from the importance of process. They do read newspapers you know.
This has nothing to do with accepting mediocrity, or not placing expectations on athletes to perform, it has everything to do with sporting administrators and funders showing some understanding about what athletes need to do to perform and reach what are (or should be) common goals.
Have a good Easter everybody.
A quick update on the cricket. I think I heard on the radio while half asleep this morning the hours of play for the upcoming SAF NZ series are 9.30 to 4.30 so bad light may be less of an issue. The draw back at 3.1 may not be such a wise move after all, but I'll get out of it at some stage. And GO THE DESHI's! More in hope now than belief, but they can still win this. Pity I'll be on a plane when it's all happening.
With travel and Orienteering, the time to devote to thinking about Super 14 bets has been limited, and the matches this week look even more unappealing than last week. On the face of it, you would expect the Blues, Crusaders and Chiefs to be comfortable winners over the Force, Cheetahs and Stormers respectively.
The Reds / Bulls holds a little more interest with the Reds travelling home from SAF. While the Reds did play well at home earlier this season I am tempted to back the Bulls if they stayed around the 1.90 mark. Cats v Sharks I don't care, 2 South African sides playing each other is not my forte, but I feel the Sharks are too short and if anything, I'd have a speculator on the Cats.
Earlier this season the Highlanders-Canes match was one to look forward to, but I feel the Otago boys are on the slide and now they have James Ryan out for the season. Am leaving it alone, which brings us to the final match of the round and the most interesting.
Waratahs v Brumbies. The head says the Waratahs but I can't entertain them as a 1.60 favourite. A 1.80 v 2.20 game in my book. The only thing I got right preseason this year are the Brumbies are not a spent force - with both teams at full-strength this will be worth watching.
Now that I've explained the difference between backing and laying, the bets for JWOC will be (assuming I can get them matched)
Lay the Reds @ 2.14 to win 30 (lose 34.20)
Lay the Sharks @ 1.60 to win 50 (lose 30)
Lay the Waratahs @ 1.58 to win 65 (lose 37.70)
Finally, something I read in the paper brought a few of those rambling thoughts together.
Graham Henry admitted he became so obssessed with results during stints with the Lions and Wales, he lost sight of managing and coaching the players. (John) Mitchell has taken a similar philosophy to the Force. "I am less outcome-focused as a coach. I am always looking for improvement rather than focusing on results" - Wynne Gray, NZ Herald 13 April
It made me smile because on Tuesday night, I rang an orienteer that I "coach" (I use the term loosely as our relationship consists of a phone call every two months or so) to basically convey the same message. It's all too easy when approaching a major sporting event to think about your goals and what you are setting out to achieve, rather than what you need to do to get your best sporting performance. "Focus on the process, not the outcome"
It leads to the paradox of elite sport - the more you concentrate on the process and think less about the desired outcome, the greater the chance you actually have of achieving the desired result. And therein lies a lesson for the boffins at SPARC:
SPARC, national sporting organisations et al are only interested in results. They have to justify money spent, and the only way (in their eyes) they can justify that is things like the number of medals. But athletes aren't (or shouldn't be) thinking about what colour medal they are going to get. Their job is to get everything right in the build-up and performance on the day, and (hopefully) the result will take care of itself. Hopefully, because one thing you cannot control in many sports is the performance of your opponent(s).
The role of NSO's and others who put money in is (or should be) to create the ideal environment for athletes to perform. To cut a long story short, publicly placing results expectations on individual sports and athletes IMO does not contribute to that ideal environment - for the simple reason that it runs the risk of dragging the athletes' focus away from the importance of process. They do read newspapers you know.
This has nothing to do with accepting mediocrity, or not placing expectations on athletes to perform, it has everything to do with sporting administrators and funders showing some understanding about what athletes need to do to perform and reach what are (or should be) common goals.
Have a good Easter everybody.
posted by Rob Crawford at 8:04 AM
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