Liverpool FC Forum

by **Dundalk** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 5:32 pm

That might have something to do with it

by **The Manhattan Project** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 5:52 pm

Other reasons our athletes are mediocre:

- The PE Teacher mentality. Who needs to play five a side football games where each kid has time with the ball and can develop their skills when they can play on a muddy freezing full size pitch shivering in the cold while Mr Pickles says "GET RID OF IT!!!!!!!"

- No nationalist passion. Chinese athletes have a desire to win because since age 3 they get up in the morning, salute their flag, then train all day for their motherland and flag. British kids don't do that because everyone knows that being proud of one's country means you are a member of the BNP and the British Empire brutalised the world!!!!!!

- Limited horizons. For American athletes it's either GOLD or nothing. They care about first place, world records, and Olympic records. For British athletes, it's about being 1- British number one, 2- Personal bests, 3- getting the South Sheffield Sports Club record.

by **SupitsJonF** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 5:55 pm

The Chinese athletes are really amazing me, but I am missing most of the events. But so far no terrorist attacks, just a pretty bad murder

. I didn't know the family but they looked like the kind of people anyone could get along with. Sad when bad things happen to genuinely good people.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympic....pe=lgns

Old news, but pretty sad.

by **CardinalRed** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 6:09 pm

The Manhattan Project wrote:Other reasons our athletes are mediocre:

- The PE Teacher mentality. Who needs to play five a side football games where each kid has time with the ball and can develop their skills when they can play on a muddy freezing full size pitch shivering in the cold while Mr Pickles says "GET RID OF IT!!!!!!!"

- No nationalist passion. Chinese athletes have a desire to win because since age 3 they get up in the morning, salute their flag, then train all day for their motherland and flag. British kids don't do that because everyone knows that being proud of one's country means you are a member of the BNP and the British Empire brutalised the world!!!!!!

- Limited horizons. For American athletes it's either GOLD or nothing. They care about first place, world records, and Olympic records. For British athletes, it's about being 1- British number one, 2- Personal bests, 3- getting the South Sheffield Sports Club record.

Agreed Manhattan....... it all comes down to our attitude to sports in general, it's a sad fact but it will never change en masse, now and again a Seb Coe or Daley Thompson comes along but they're very much the exception and not the rule...

:cool:

by **laza** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 6:13 pm

The Manhattan Project wrote:Other reasons our athletes are mediocre:

- The PE Teacher mentality. Who needs to play five a side football games where each kid has time with the ball and can develop their skills when they can play on a muddy freezing full size pitch shivering in the cold while Mr Pickles says "GET RID OF IT!!!!!!!"

- No nationalist passion. Chinese athletes have a desire to win because since age 3 they get up in the morning, salute their flag, then train all day for their motherland and flag. British kids don't do that because everyone knows that being proud of one's country means you are a member of the BNP and the British Empire brutalised the world!!!!!!

- Limited horizons. For American athletes it's either GOLD or nothing. They care about first place, world records, and Olympic records. For British athletes, it's about being 1- British number one, 2- Personal bests, 3- getting the South Sheffield Sports Club record.

maybe they just got better chemists

by **The Manhattan Project** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 6:26 pm

laza wrote:
The Manhattan Project wrote:Other reasons our athletes are mediocre:

- The PE Teacher mentality. Who needs to play five a side football games where each kid has time with the ball and can develop their skills when they can play on a muddy freezing full size pitch shivering in the cold while Mr Pickles says "GET RID OF IT!!!!!!!"

- No nationalist passion. Chinese athletes have a desire to win because since age 3 they get up in the morning, salute their flag, then train all day for their motherland and flag. British kids don't do that because everyone knows that being proud of one's country means you are a member of the BNP and the British Empire brutalised the world!!!!!!

- Limited horizons. For American athletes it's either GOLD or nothing. They care about first place, world records, and Olympic records. For British athletes, it's about being 1- British number one, 2- Personal bests, 3- getting the South Sheffield Sports Club record.

maybe they just got better chemists

I don't think so.

You get the occasional cheat like Marion Jones, but I think overall America and Australia's sporting attitude is far superior.

I laugh when Sky Sports News drone on about who's the English cricket captain, when it's obvious that as soon as they play Australia, they'll get killed.

Rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic.

by **LFC2007** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:11 pm

Australia is just an absolutely crazy sporting country.

Americans are fiercely competitive, and have a few hundred million people to call on.

China is simply the most populous nation on earth, with a very specific aim of achieving as many medals in the olympics as possible. It's a global demonstration of growth and strength, and they've been keen to show it for a while.

Great Britain would like to do well but doesn't care as much

by **Number 9** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:16 pm

LFC2007 wrote:Australia is just an absolutely crazy sporting country.

Americans are fiercely competitive, and have a few hundred million people to call on.

China is simply the most populous country on earth, with a very specific aim of achieving as many medals in the olympics as possible. It's a global demonstration of growth and strength, and they've been keen to show it for a while.

Great Britain would like to do well but doesn't care as much

Or have the ability!(you should have added)

by **Bad Bob** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:43 pm

LFC2007 wrote:Australia is just an absolutely crazy sporting country.

Americans are fiercely competitive, and have a few hundred million people to call on.

China is simply the most populous nation on earth, with a very specific aim of achieving as many medals in the olympics as possible. It's a global demonstration of growth and strength, and they've been keen to show it for a while.

Great Britain would like to do well but doesn't care as much

And then there's Canada, which doesn't even show up on Red37's medal round-up and whose athletes (based on the comments of our television broadcasters anyway) are satisfied just to approach or occasionally beat personal or national bests, even if it means finishing 18 places below the podium in virtually every sport. :blush:

Ahh well, I suppose we like to think of ourselves as winter sports specialists and are thus saving ourselves for 2010 in Vancouver.

by **Sabre** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:55 pm

The Manhattan Project wrote:Other reasons our athletes are mediocre:

- The PE Teacher mentality. Who needs to play five a side football games where each kid has time with the ball and can develop their skills when they can play on a muddy freezing full size pitch shivering in the cold while Mr Pickles says "GET RID OF IT!!!!!!!"

- No nationalist passion. Chinese athletes have a desire to win because since age 3 they get up in the morning, salute their flag, then train all day for their motherland and flag. British kids don't do that because everyone knows that being proud of one's country means you are a member of the BNP and the British Empire brutalised the world!!!!!!

- Limited horizons. For American athletes it's either GOLD or nothing. They care about first place, world records, and Olympic records. For British athletes, it's about being 1- British number one, 2- Personal bests, 3- getting the South Sheffield Sports Club record.

Too harsh to your country. Don't you think that size of the country also counts? I think there's a direct relation between the size of the country and number of federates to a sport and the actual level of the sport in the country.

Of course, there are some sports in which Americans are masters, and credit to them, but it's not the same to choose from 10000 athletes, or 100.000.

As for the nationalism, I'm not sure it wins medals. For instance the hockey on grass and waterpolo (a sport I love to watch every 4 years, impressive how they jump in the water) have given several golden medals to Spain, but actually they could perfectly be a Catalonia squad, as best elite players are from that region. That never avoided them to defend the spanish flag, with more or less passion, but competing well.

Also that harsh analysis forgets about men like Sebastian Coe. I wouldn't be far away in exageration if I told you that he's a legend here as was, say, Kenny Dalglish. UK, in every sport they take seriously (for some reason you don't seem to give a fúck about basketball and any sport that it's not on open air), are pretty good at it.

by **Kash_Mountain** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:56 pm

Haven't really been watching the Olympics this time round, however Tom Daley' diving partner Blake Aldridge seems like a bit of a moron.

by **LFC2007** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:02 pm

Bad Bob wrote:
LFC2007 wrote:Australia is just an absolutely crazy sporting country.

Americans are fiercely competitive, and have a few hundred million people to call on.

China is simply the most populous nation on earth, with a very specific aim of achieving as many medals in the olympics as possible. It's a global demonstration of growth and strength, and they've been keen to show it for a while.

Great Britain would like to do well but doesn't care as much

And then there's Canada, which doesn't even show up on Red37's medal round-up and whose athletes (based on the comments of our television broadcasters anyway) are satisfied just to approach or occasionally beat personal or national bests, even if it means finishing 18 places below the podium in virtually every sport.

Ahh well, I suppose we like to think of ourselves as winter sports specialists and are thus saving ourselves for 2010 in Vancouver.

..and you're bound to do well in the winter games with all the best mountains, ski resorts and snow :no

by **The Manhattan Project** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:07 pm

Too harsh to your country. Don't you think that size of the country also counts? I think there's a direct relation between the size of the country and number of federates to a sport and the actual level of the sport in the country.

Size doesn't matter. Population might. We have a bigger population than Australia, but they seem to be great at sports like swimming, cricket and rugby. I don't see why we shouldn't be better than them at cricket and rugby. Also, much is made of Australia being good at swimming due to the climate, but that shouldn't affect indoor swimming pools.

I think it's a matter of poor infrastructure, bad training/coaching, and a lack of investment. It goes down all the way to schools. Having experienced how :censored:

poor PE/Games classes are, I'm not surprised that few Olympic champions emerge.

by **SupitsJonF** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:59 pm

Bad Bob wrote:
LFC2007 wrote:Australia is just an absolutely crazy sporting country.

Americans are fiercely competitive, and have a few hundred million people to call on.

China is simply the most populous nation on earth, with a very specific aim of achieving as many medals in the olympics as possible. It's a global demonstration of growth and strength, and they've been keen to show it for a while.

Great Britain would like to do well but doesn't care as much

And then there's Canada, which doesn't even show up on Red37's medal round-up and whose athletes (based on the comments of our television broadcasters anyway) are satisfied just to approach or occasionally beat personal or national bests, even if it means finishing 18 places below the podium in virtually every sport.

Ahh well, I suppose we like to think of ourselves as winter sports specialists and are thus saving ourselves for 2010 in Vancouver.

Your from Canada? If so the medal is in the bag, Crosby > Ovechkin.

And Manhattan Project, gym in America isn't too great. I played a mix of American football, volleyball, and futbol for all 4 years. It's supposed to be a rotation of every sport, but I got stuck with those 3 sports every year. Not bad though, even though 4 years of varsity tennis so some warm up during the school day wouldn't be bad.

Oh, and if Babel wasn't in Beijing I would swore I played water volleyball with him in Mexico today. He was playing net with me, and spoke dutch and looking identical. Slightly difference, but if I would of have some more alcohol in me I would be asking for an autograph

by **LFC2007** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:12 am

The Manhattan Project wrote:
laza wrote:
The Manhattan Project wrote:Other reasons our athletes are mediocre:

- The PE Teacher mentality. Who needs to play five a side football games where each kid has time with the ball and can develop their skills when they can play on a muddy freezing full size pitch shivering in the cold while Mr Pickles says "GET RID OF IT!!!!!!!"

- No nationalist passion. Chinese athletes have a desire to win because since age 3 they get up in the morning, salute their flag, then train all day for their motherland and flag. British kids don't do that because everyone knows that being proud of one's country means you are a member of the BNP and the British Empire brutalised the world!!!!!!

- Limited horizons. For American athletes it's either GOLD or nothing. They care about first place, world records, and Olympic records. For British athletes, it's about being 1- British number one, 2- Personal bests, 3- getting the South Sheffield Sports Club record.

maybe they just got better chemists

I don't think so.

You get the occasional cheat like Marion Jones.

Occasional?

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