Rob's Blog

Is Basketball the World’s Most Popular Sport?

March 10th, 2011 · Basketball, Football (Soccer), Sport

I have seen a lot of articles online trying to determine what are the most popular sports in the world, and almost without exception Soccer (World Football) is listed on top. I came up with the idea of looking at the page view stats on Wikipedia to see what sport pages are the most popular. Surprisingly, the highest ranked Sport page was in fact Basketball. This would partly be due to the high US based traffic to the English version Wikipedia site, but mostly it was because the stats for Soccer is split between Soccer and Association Football pages.

Fans at a soccer game

When all the stats are combined, soccer (football) regains it title of the most popular sport in the world! See more analysis of the World’s Most Popular Sports According to Wikipedia.

Comments Off on Is Basketball the World’s Most Popular Sport?Tags: basketball·popular sport·soccer

Swimmers Blast Back From The Past

February 14th, 2011 · Swimming

What is with all the Australian swimmers coming back from retirement? First, it was butterfly swimmer Geoff Huegill, who made a successful comeback to the Commonwealth Games, including shedding a huge amount of post-competitive weight, then announced he would continue until the 2012 London Olympics.

More recently, Ian Thorpe told us he has been secretly training for three months, losing a bit of weight too no doubt and is back on track for the Olympics too. Not to be left behind, ex-teammate Michael Klim has also announced he is coming back from retirement. Can’t these guys make up their mind? I always thought that retirement is just that, let yourself go and enjoy just being a spectator. Of course, the desire to be out there competing may still be there, but usually, the body has made the decision for you.

Come on, move over and let the next batch of swimmers do their thing. They are not going to be satisfied with anything less than what they achieved in their previous career, and they are only setting themselves up for embarrassment. Well, at least that will be entertaining.

→ 1 CommentTags: retirement·swimming

The Beep Test Can Kill

January 30th, 2011 · Fitness, Rugby Union, Sports Medicine

The beep fitness test should not be taken lightly. It is a maximal test, which means the participants are required to go as hard as they can for as long as they can (though they do not always do this).

This was highlighted recently when 27-year-old Welsh man Adam Rumming died while performing the bleep test as part of an army fitness test at the Sandhurst Academy where elite British Army officers are trained.

He is believed to have had an undiagnosed heart problem, which is often the case for sudden death during exercise in seemingly healthy young people.

If you are ever in charge of conducting fitness testing, particularly exhausting tests, you should exclude anyone with a fever or other risky medical condition, or even better get them to complete a PAR-Q (Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire).

→ 1 CommentTags: beep test

My Gymnastics Clipart on Soap

September 22nd, 2010 · Gymnastics

My clipart has been used for websites, logos, t-shirts, posters, and many other purposes, but this is the first time that I know of it being used to illustrate soap!

I don’t know how it was done, you will have to visit a canuck in Oz to find out how to do it for yourself.

To see the original clipart images, go to the gymnastics clipart page.

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RPE is Now Easy

September 12th, 2010 · Fitness

I’ve just updated my pages on Rating of Perceived Exertion Scales, and I decided to make up my own! Instead of a 1-10 or 6-20 scale, my RPE Scale uses the hand to indicate the 1 to 5 ratings. It utilizes the ‘thumbs up’ sign which is fairly universally used to indicate that you are doing OK, while the five fingers hand out is also a familiar signal for stopping. Compared to the other RPE Scales, this is so simple to use, it does not need any printouts (all you need is a hand), the 5-point Likert scale is familiar to a lot of people, and it is non-verbal so is great for research where the subject is unable to talk. See more about my RPE-5 Hand Scale.

Not all all hard (I’m feeling great and could keep up this pace all day long)
slightly hard (I’m still comfortable, but am breathing a little harder and starting to sweat)
moderately hard (This is a good workout)
very hard (It is getting pretty tough, I could only keep at this pace for a short time)
extremely hard (It’s too hard, I need to STOP!)

To see the original RPE scales, and now download a printable version, see RPE Scale 1-10 and RPE Scale 6-20.

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Perth City2Surf 2010

September 6th, 2010 · Fitness, Track & Field

Last weekend I joined a record number of 40,468 people in the Perth city to surf event, from the city centre to City Beach, a distance of 12 km. As a sign of my increasing age, I had opted to join the walkers of the 12 km event, pushing my 3 year old and 9 mth old in a stroller. It was still a brisk walk to complete the course in 2 hrs 10 minutes, with plenty of people still behind us, and the sore feet to show for it.I would have just beaten the marathon runners!

I’m glad I was not in the half marathon event, as the lead out cyclist took the runners the wrong way, requiring the leaders to backtrack quite a bit. I cannot imagine they would be too happy about that.

As usual there were plenty of characters, people dressed up like the one pictured. It was a fairly warm day, so he would have been feeling the heat. As would have the two dressed in Storm Trooper outfits. All done to raise funds for a worthy charity.

Comments Off on Perth City2Surf 2010Tags: athletics·fun run

What Makes a Champion?

August 29th, 2010 · Fitness, Sports Psychology

Shirley Barbara Strickland There is a huge range of components that contribute to successful sports performance, mainly physical and mental. In addition, there are many more minor factors including supply of equipment, opportunity for training, expertise in coaching and skill teaching, nutritional status, a good support network, funding (and probably many more). Success also requires these factors to come together and interact in the right way.

Our challenge was to list these factors, and ultimately rate and rank them for a range of sports. After much discussion, it has been narrowed down to the following 15 factors. The physical components predominate here, as sport is mostly a physical endeavour, but it is the role of the other factors that can make the difference in a champion. I do not expect all of these to be factors for all sports, and the importance of each will vary between sports. See more on these factors.

Body Composition
Cardiovascular Endurance
Muscular Endurance
Muscle Strength
Explosive Power
Speed / Quickness
Anaerobic Capacity
Flexibility
Agility
Balance and Coordination
Reaction Time
Analytic and Tactical Ability
Motivation and Self Confidence
Coping with Pressure
Skill and Technique

Why don’t you have a go at rating the importance of these factors. See this page and select your sport.

Comments Off on What Makes a Champion?Tags: fitness

Bet on the Octopus – World Cup Predictions

July 12th, 2010 · FIFA World Cup, Football (Soccer)

Paul the ‘Psychic’ Octopus, also known as the ‘Oracle of Oberhausen’ and ‘Pulpo Paul’, is a resident of the Oberhausen Sea Life aquarium. He became a celebrity after a 100% success rate at predicting the winners of eight World Cup matches – all of Germany’s games and the final between Spain and The Netherlands.

I want to go out on an (octopus) limb and say that it was all due to chance. I know it may sound far-fetched and very unlikely, but maybe he was just lucky and was able to select the winning teams through chance. No psychic abilities, no hand of God, and no conspiracies – just luck. A lot of luck.

Comments Off on Bet on the Octopus – World Cup PredictionsTags: betting·FIFA World Cup·football·Germany·octopus·soccer

World’s Longest Tennis Match

June 24th, 2010 · Grand Slam Tennis, Tennis

If you have been focused on the Football World Cup, you may not have noticed that after three days of playing, the longest tennis match in history has just finished – what a marathon!

The tennis match was played between American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut at the Wimbledon Championships, starting on June 22 and finishing on the 24th. The match eventually took 11 hours and 5 minutes, spread over three days. The match was won by Isner 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68.

The fifth set was the longest set in history as determined by both duration and number of games and the set itself would have broken the previous longest match record of 6 hours 33 minutes.

australia-sydney-cockatoo-island-tennis-pd

The US Open is the only of the Grand Slams to use a tie-breaker in the final set for singles matches, the other tournaments use an advantage set, meaning they keep playing until there is a winner by two games clear.

As you can see, this can mean a game can go on indefinitely. I hope the others don’t follow the US example and remove the advantage set, as we could miss out on such dramatic games as this.

Comments Off on World’s Longest Tennis MatchTags: grand slam·Tennis·Wimbledon

The World Cup Sends Me To Sleep

June 23rd, 2010 · FIFA World Cup, Football (Soccer)

With the World’s greatest sporting event currently well on the way in South Africa, it may be surprising that this is my first post about it. It would not be surprising if you knew that I support Australia, and up until today, they have not done anything to write home about.

After getting up at 2 am this morning to watch Australia play Serbia, I am much happier and very impressed with their performance. Although they won today, they just missed out on progressing to the knockout round.

world-cup-2010 Spain — Spain at the world-cup-2010

The team did us proud, playing great football and giving everything for their country. Missing out of the final 16 is no great disappointment, the Aussies have played above expectations.

I cannot say the same about the French team, and cannot imagine the public outcry at their team’s performance. There is always drama at the World Cup, and that is why we are captivated. A few more sleepless nights to come!

Comments Off on The World Cup Sends Me To SleepTags: FIFA·football·soccer·World Cup