Winter Olympics

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

RE: Winter Olympics

paulisi · Tennis legend

If anyone has any questions on curling terminology, then i can probably help, given that i took up the sport after Rhona Martin's gold.

Hack, Tee, Wick, Grabber, nose, freeguard etc there are many many more.

DF · Tennis legend

Wow! She did it! Gold medal for Lizzie! Well Done.

indiana · Tennis legend

Great stuff from Lizzie !!

Skeleton becoming the coxless fours of GB Winter Olympics.

What do you hear so much from British cycling, rowing and now skeleton ? - TALENT IDENTIFICATION - Are you an explosive fast athlete that will be able to nail the start ? Great, now we'll teach you how to slide.

Obviously there are big differences between sports, but how advanced a talent identification programme does the LTA have ? Most top players seem to have played seriously from a very early age, and I do think some with natural ability, but not drawn in from a very early age, could switch later, not as late as such as these other sports, but later.

At 11 / 12 yo ( even later ), how much do they just focus on who are the best tennis players as against who could be the future best tennis players ?

freerider · Futures level

Coup Droit wrote:
freerider wrote:
indiana wrote:
Good comparison, freerider. If tennis had just been invented it has many weird and wonderful terms and as for that football soccer thingy !! I thought they used their terminology but also were educational, being well aware that this would be new to most viewers. They brought the viewer into their world. Was good.

A classic example that made me chuckle was after the men's snowboard slopestyle final Graham Bell was interviewing Billy Morgan. Billy said "Go big or go home, I thought I'd go out and just huck it" (Huck is a freesports term for going big all or nothing)... cut back to the studio. Hazel Irvine "We do apologise for any viewers at home who were offended by Billys language there"

well, there you go, we live and learn . . Another word to add to the vocab (won't be using it - I'd sound daft - but at least it's good to know).
Mind you, am I stating the blindingly obvious but is there something in the name, freerider, that I've never picked up on ? Are you one of these crazy types who give your mother grey hairs by throwing yourself around without regard for life nor limb ? Is it snow stuff or do do you 'freeride' something else? Bikes ? Is it one of those mega mountain bike sports? (Sadly uninformed here, I'm afraid).

There is indeed something in the name!! And no snow sports are too expensive! I do indeed do a few of those mega mountain bike sports (and BMX as well)! Increasingly less these days though as getting older/more work commitments etc,, but nice to get out on a sunday afternoon still and let off a bit of steam biggrin

-- Edited by freerider on Friday 14th of February 2014 07:32:18 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Elise Christie, a pretty strong hope for us in short track speed skating, particularly in the 1000 metres event, has had an interesting time in the 500 metres and 1500 metres.

She was second across the line ( I'll come back to this line thing ! ) in the 500 metres, but she and others had come down earlier in a crash. Elise was judged responsible and disqualified.

Now today in her 1500 metres heat, while apparently qualifying easily, she disengaged her brain momentarily and skated inside the finishing line. Very sorry for her, but I don't agree with our commentators that she should of been allowed through on "common sense" grounds. Actually crossing over a clearly marked finishing line seems pretty fundamental. I have just heard her say that after her previous crash, she was making sure that she stayed away from the other competitors at the end. Unfortunately, skating into the infield is not how to do it !

I really hope these very disappointing incidents are the build up to a glorious finale for her in her favourite 1000 metres event.

Relating to tennis, and Oli having a twitter spat yesterday with some twit who had bet on him to bagel the 2nd set, I see that Elise deleted her twitter account the day after the 500 metres final due to cyber abuse.

There are rather too many pretty pathetic beings that sit at their keyboards typing horrible stuff. Such as twitter in particular has so much good to offer in connecting sports stars with their supporters. All very sad.

korriban · Challenger level

indiana wrote:
Elise Christie, a pretty strong hope for us in short track speed skating, particularly in the 1000 metres event, has had an interesting time in the 500 metres and 1500 metres.

She was second across the line ( I'll come back to this line thing ! ) in the 500 metres, but she and others had come down earlier in a crash. Elise was judged responsible and disqualified.

Now today in her 1500 metres heat, while apparently qualifying easily, she disengaged her brain momentarily and skated inside the finishing line. Very sorry for her, but I don't agree with our commentators that she should of been allowed through on "common sense" grounds. Actually crossing over a clearly marked finishing line seems pretty fundamental. I have just heard her say that after her previous crash, she was making sure that she stayed away from the other competitors at the end. Unfortunately, skating into the infield is not how to do it !

I really hope these very disappointing incidents are the build up to a glorious finale for her in her favourite 1000 metres event.

Relating to tennis, and Oli having a twitter spat yesterday with some twit who had bet on him to bagel the 2nd set, I see that Elise deleted her twitter account the day after the 500 metres final due to cyber abuse.

There are rather too many pretty pathetic beings that sit at their keyboards typing horrible stuff. Such as twitter in particular has so much good to offer in connecting sports stars with their supporters. All very sad.

I checked out the ignorant thug who had abused Oli and his twitter rants reveal him to be a truly vile individual. He clearly craves a reaction: that's the objective of his expletive filled musings against lots of different targets.

On Elise Christie I can't get too upset about her 2 mishaps......the first was a blatant mistake on her part which took out other entirely innocent skaters in an Olympic final, ruining 4 years of work for them. The second was a brain freeze of epic proportions. At least she has another chance to do well.....I hope some of the other skaters she tripped up in the 500 do as well. The whole sport seems to be a lottery, which is part of its fun and appeal in a way.

indiana · Tennis legend

1) I think me and a friend gave a few in our pub some rather bemused amusement last night with an Elise Christie arguement about her 1500 metres "non finish". It did make a change from football arguements :)

2) I must apologise for the sin regarding "should of" in my last post. Even slightly tipsy I realise that should HAVE been "SHOULD HAVE".

SMC1809 · All-time great

Indie, is the 'e' in arguEment a deliberate addition, e.g. A Scottish variant, or is your spell-check turned off?

paulisi · Tennis legend

I see the curlers are trying to throw away a semi final spot.....

indiana · Tennis legend

Hmm, arguEment was deliberate. Apparently just my variant.

Good that every day can still be a learning day :)

TomTraubert · Futures level

quality curling action
silver garanteed

paulisi · Tennis legend

Excellent win for the boys, even if the last end was messy.

I think the girls will get bronze. The men have a real tough match in the final, but it's a one off game and Murdoch has the experience having won multiple world and European championships.

PS there are only two dedicated curling rinks outside of Scotland, Tunbridge Wells and Queensferry, Chester.

-- Edited by paulisi on Wednesday 19th of February 2014 06:49:28 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Thought the Alan Davies Apres Ski show was quite good on Friday with his comments re the curling :

"Britain, or rather Scotland, have good chances in the curling. So after independence Scotland can say "Good luck with the curling !" to be replied with "Good luck with the funding !" "

GB men got out of jail a bit today and should have at best been facing an extra end against the hammer. But pressure brought a Swedish last stone mistake and then David Murdoch was calmness personofied to clinch the win, to follow up his brilliant last stone in the play-off match. Overall, it was a well deserved win. Tough final, but things just seem to be happening for them, and I sense real belief for the final.

Good luck to them in the final and to the GB women in the match for bronze.

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Thought the Alan Davies Apres Ski show was quite good on Friday with his comments re the curling :

"Britain, or rather Scotland, have good chances in the curling. So after independence Scotland can say "Good luck with the curling !" to be replied with "Good luck with the funding !" "

GB men got out of jail a bit today and should have at best been facing an extra end against the hammer. But pressure brought a Swedish last stone mistake and then David Murdoch was calmness personofied to clinch the win, to follow up his brilliant last stone in the play-off match. Overall, it was a well deserved win. Tough final, but things just seem to be happening for them, and I sense real belief for the final.

Good luck to them in the final and to the GB women in the match for bronze.

I usually 'get' curling tactics these days (or at least can see that there are competing options with advantages, disadvantages and varying degrees of difficulty and thus a difficult decision to be made) but I found the way the GB men played the last few ends quite hard to fathom. Still, even Crammy was getting confused in all the tension, saying at the start of the 10th end that if GB tied it up, we'd have the hammer in the 11th end.

A great result in the end though, even if they were lucky that the Swedish skip made a rare error right at the death. Dave Murdoch having made two vital final stones in the last two matches should stand him in good stead if the final gets tight, so it may all turn out for the best in the end!

A pity about the GB women - they were unlucky with the pick-up early on and it probably did decide the match in the end, though they had a couple of half-chances later on. They played pretty well in the bits I managed to watch, though, and Canada (very impressive) hardly gave them anything. I'd say their best chance of reaching the final disappeared not today but when they managed to grab defeat from the jaws of victory against Denmark, which is why they ended up playing the Canadians in the first place.