Sports Science and modern coaching is ruining sport. Some sports are already destroyed due to its influence. I’m going to use football as my example.
I’ve been a huge football fan since I was a nipper back in the late 70s. In recent years my interest has waned. It finally became something I do not care about after the BLM bollocks and empty stadium football.
But I was getting bored of it way before BLM and bat flu. How so?
Well, I think it’s because every team plays the same way. There may be small formation changes, but the premise is the same. Everyone now plays like Germany to put it in simple terms.
Zee Germans were the first to want only athletes in their team back in the late 70s. Hans Peter Breigel being a perfect example. A 6ft muscular former decathlete. Pretty shite player in terms of ability, but his ‘engine’ made him a useful player. Gerd Muller received a lot of criticism from coaches and fans in Germany over the years for not being an athlete, despite an incredible goal scoring record.
This meant Germany (or West Germany as it was then) turned up to world cups with a squad of athletes who could run all day and who played the percentages. It was very effective too, with a very average team winning the Euros in 1980 and becoming runners up in World Cups ’82 and ’86.
It took a while to catch on elsewhere, but by 2010 the World Cup was ruined. Brazil now also played like the Germans. As did the African teams. European coaching and the influence or sports science created every team playing the same way. Even the East Asians are in on it now. And yes, talented players do get in teams, but they need to work for the team and know how to press and run all day. They must not take chances too and stick to playing the percentages, unless they’re on the Ballon D’or list. People harp on about the 2018 World Cup being the best. It was exciting at times, but every team played the same way (or attempted to). I found it rather dull and predictable for this reason.
Yes, the players are fitter, the game is faster and a slacker is found out quickly and will not survive…but the flair and contrast in styles has gone. Players (unless they are outrageous talents like Messi) now can’t take chances. They have to play the percentages. That 70 yard ball to the striker from a Hoddle or Platini? Hardly see them nowadays. The showboating passing (Brazil in scoring their 4th in the ’70 final)? No chance you’ll be seeing that anymore.
It used to be that the Africans would be naive but big dirty bastards. The Asians would be small, quick and skillful but lack stamina and height.
The Europeans would (mostly) be physical but have a few mavericks in their teams that they’d rely on. They usually had the best defences.
The South Americans would be skillful but cheating cunts. They’d also be dirty bastards when needed. Usually good going forward but seemed to have dodgy keepers and defences that could switch off. However, if they had one or two real talents in their teams they could be almost impossible to beat.
This diversity of styles made for some great games. Now, I know Team A will press Team B and try and work an opening. Just a glint of space is needed 30 yards out to create a chance. Sure, the players need to be good, but they really just need to be extremely fit and well drilled.
It’s like watching a load of robots now and has become boring. I don’t know much about rugby, but a mate of mine does and he claims the same is going on in rugby too with everyone copying South Africa’s style of play for the same reasons.
Sports science is the equivalent of the call centre (worked in one about 20 years ago for a few soul destroying months) versus an old fashioned office. Sure, it’s more efficient now some little Adolf times your bog break and how many seconds your calls take on average or how long it takes you to fill in a piece of admin (“Your filling in of the PS46 is taking you .37 of a second over the average so I’m giving you a warning”), but nobody fucking enjoys it anymore. Staff are lost and the business suffers in the end.
Sports Science and modern coaching can fuck off. Bring back the boozy mavericks.
Nominated by: Cuntybollocks
Donald Trump’s fail-safe plan in the event of things not going his way in the election was to claim there existed a massive mail voter fraud conspiracy, yet election officials across the US, republicans and democrats alike, have refuted these allegations. Even more ridiculous is the ‘QAnon theory’, which proves there is no shortage of people eager to take advantage of the stupidity of others for personal gain. Using various forms of subterfuge as a means to seize, consolidate or hold on to power is a tactic that has been used throughout history to target the gullible, the fearful and the easily-manipulated.
