Wow

I could watch this over and over and over again.

Unbelievable wildlife shots

http://www.gregdutoit.com/index.php?page=ftf_blood

worth reading the story

random fitness update

Biked 30 km. Bloor to Humber, south to Lakeshore, west to Etobicoke Creek, north to Evans to Royal York and up.

Random Notes:

• Flood waters receding on Humber, Mimico and Etobicoke.
• People starting to burn off yard waste. "Spring cleaning in the city" but smells like camping
• Right hip flexor still fried
• Back is inordinately tight
• Stretch... must stretch.
  

Sport in Australia

http://www.sportpanel.org.au/internet/sportpanel/publishing.nsf/Content/758D8954C2A74E11CA257672000140A7/$File/Crawford_Report.pdf

Warning - this is 357 pages long. 

Respect mah authurity!

http://current.com/items/92210887_blackwater-in-kabul-or-eric-cartman-gets-an-ak-47.htm

For a niche audience

http://www.canadiandesignresource.ca/officialgallery/miscellaneous/radio-canada/

10. Jim Peplinski

 

 

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10. Jim Peplinski

via Sport At Its Best by duffgibson on 1/12/10

What is the purpose of sport?  Is it to win Olympic medals?  Is it to prove the dominance of a political system?  Or is it ultimately about teaching life lessons and leading a healthier and happier life through physical activity?

I met Jim Peplinski, the former Flames captain almost a year ago now at the announcement of the construction of WinSport's new Athletic and Ice Complex here in Calgary.  I was asked to give a few comments at the event about the benefits of the centre in terms of generating enthusiasm for sport in the next generation and how that was a benefit to our community as a whole.  Jim approached me after the talk and asked me if I was familiar with a business concept – that your mandate was first and foremost to make your employees happy.  The offshoot of the philosophy was that you had a successful money-making business.  It's a little bit of a reversal from the usual mandate which is to simply make money.  Jim believes very much that the same philosophy applies to making someone a great athlete – that you first focus on the person and if you can make them a great person, then you are also more likely to make them a great athlete.  Either way you win.

I prodded Jim a little to write down his philosophy in terms that anyone could understand and I'm very grateful that he came up with this…

*****

What is the purpose of sport?

Sport can make people great athletes…

Or

Sport can make athletes great people.

Many people participate in a sport or get their children to participate in sport, invest countless hours and thousands of dollars with a view to becoming a great athlete or raising a great athlete.

This can work.

Is there another objective? A better objective? An objective that can cause you to play longer? An objective that increases your chances of reaching your athletic potential while improving personally through the lessons of sport?

Should we change our thinking on how we coach and approach sport?

If you approached sport with a goal to enjoy what ever sport you chose to participate in, to do your best and enjoy it, would you play longer? Would you be better rounded? Would you get more out of sport? Would you be a better person? And maybe become a great athlete too?

I believe so.

To me sport teaches character. Character is doing what you said you would do when it costs you!

To me sport teaches discipline. Get discipline. Get better. At anything !

To me sport teaches the value of fundamentals. Get great at skating, shooting, passing and you reach a high level in hockey. Get educated, you reach a high level in life.

To me sport teaches the value of health. Look after your body it looks after you.

To me sport teaches commitment.  It is rarely the most talented who succeed. It is regularly the person who does the work and hangs in longest who is rewarded.

To me sport teaches empathy. Know how you teammate feels, instead of only thinking about how you feel.

To me sport teaches performance. Keep score. Measure yourself. Get better.

To me sport teaches mental toughness. Fall down. Get up. Push yourself through discomfort.

To sport teaches responsibility. Take responsibility for your actions. Entitlement doesn't win in sport. Entitlement doesn't win in life.

So, get involved in sports. Stick with it.

Get good at a sport. Be a better athlete. You bet.

Get good at what makes you good at a sport, be a better person. You win both ways.

Best athlete, best person. Absolutely.

Jim Peplinski.

 

 

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The psychology of pace

and winning versus individual goals.

 

 

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The psychology of pace

via ESPN.com - TrueHoop on 1/11/10

Players in the D-League want to be noticed.

In the game of getting called up to the NBA, how many points, rebounds and assists you get matters. So, you can forgive players for hurting their teams at time by being selfish, for instance by taking shots when they're not open.

The coach in Idaho has assuaged player fears by playing at an insanely high pace -- faster than any NBA team. The extra possessions inflate everybody's numbers, and seem to be working nicely as a trick to get players to pass the ball when they're covered.

By building in a way for players to get the stats they need, the team has been able to inspire a certain kind of selflessness. Which has helped winning. And, in fact, the team has stats showing that call-ups are much more common from D-League teams that win.

It's like a big circle of psychological tricks, one feeding into the next. Kind of beautiful.

 

 

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Girls, High School Sports, Academics and beyond

A 10% increase in participation in girls' HS athletics leads to a 1%
increase in girls' college attendance & a 2% increase in women's
workforce presence.
Stevenson finds that "greater opportunities to play sports leads to
greater female participation in previously male-dominated occupations,
particularly for high-skill occupations." Fascinating stuff.

http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/betseys/papers/TitleIX.pdf

Why James Chartrand Wears Women's Underpants | Copyblogger

http://www.copyblogger.com/james-chartrand-underpants/

Sent from a Blackberry. My apologies for brevity and typos.

5. Teamwork and Positive Rivalry – Part 1

 

 

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5. Teamwork and Positive Rivalry – Part 1

via Sport At Its Best by duffgibson on 12/9/09

Cal Botterill (see Contributors) is an accomplished teacher of sport (or performance) psychology.  I've had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Cal over the past few years through his work with the Canadian bobsleigh and skeleton teams (while I have been coaching skeleton).  Before meeting Cal, I certainly knew of him by reputation through friends and colleagues of mine who think very highly of him and as I am coming to realize, for good reason.

What I find really appealing about Cal is his positivity.  When you're talking to him you really get the feeling he 'gets it'.  One thing that contributes to making Cal a great communicator, is the fact that he's been in his field working with elite athletes for decades and has some great anecdotes to draw from.  When you can illustrate your point by referring to people who have won championship trophies or Olympic medals, you can make a strong argument.

One of the challenges in working with a team of athletes that compete in an individual sport is the fact that your teammate is also your competition (like Jamie Gregg and Jeremy Wotherspoon).  Speaking from personal experience as both an athlete and a coach, it's difficult sometimes to be in that environment and not look at a teammate as the enemy.  It's easy to fall in to that trap.  Depending on your perspective, it can be really stressful to go to practice every day along side someone else who wants nothing more that to be exactly where you want to be – on top of the podium.

Of course this is a very limited perspective – everyone in your entire sport wants to be on top of the podium.  In fact, it's their job as your competition to want to be on top of the podium, and they serve you best by challenging you.  In general terms, your opponent (teammate or not), shouldn't be thought of as "the enemy" or someone you have contempt for but someone that will help you to reach your best by creating the greatest possible challenge and exposing areas of your game that you can improve upon.

In fact, it's their job as your competition to want to be on top of the podium, and they serve you best by challenging you.

Here's what Cal and Tom Patrick wrote in their book Perspective, The Key To Life (Lifeskills, 2003) about teamwork and perspective,

People with perspective are usually great at teamwork.  Their ability to see the big picture helps them recognize and appreciate the value of collaboration and working with others.  Their sensitivity and perceptiveness help them realize that everybody has a role that is important and needs to be appreciated.

Most of all, people with perspective have enough vision, gratitude and security to be open to positive rivalries and other people's needs.  Positive rivalries are reflected in the sentiment "I hope you are great, because that brings out the best in me, and that's better for all of us".  Top competitors seem to embrace positive rivalries and share this attitude.  It is clearly a much higher level of functioning than negative rivalries and the "eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth" mentality that often creeps into highly competitive activity when people lose perspective.

Positive rivalries bring out the best in us and promote a win-win possibility.  They promote an approach-success versus avoid-failure outlook, which is much healthier and facilitates, much higher levels of performance and functioning.  Negative images, fears and tension are reduced and enhanced focus, connection and flow become possible.

People with perspective play a leadership role (by example or initiative)!  Their poise has a settling effect on people.  These people play a huge role in teams developing perspective.  When this happens, it is an exciting thing to be a part of.  Team members become constant reminders of the perspective, poise and dedication necessary to be successful.  Natural energy flows and is shared and felt regularly, without the tension and static that is part of negative rivalries and have to versus want to mentalities.

One of the great examples I was referring to previously that Cal has to draw from is the positive rivalry once held between Susan Auch and Catriona LeMay-Doan.  At the Nagano Olympics in 1998, Susan won her second straight silver medal in the 500 meters speed skating event while Catriona won her first of two consecutive gold medals.  It was a case of two world-beaters on the same team, always training on the same ice at the same time.  Cal suggested that I look up an old video that he had put together for Sport Manitoba.  The video talks about the rivalry and you really get the feeling that it was a strain at times but there's a great segment in which Susan talks about the end result,

"Catriona and I became powerful because we were working together.  I think it's a lot harder being from the same country, but obviously it's possible.  I mean there were times that were really really difficult.  They were dumb things [the petty differences] so in the end I definitely think that the two of us wouldn't have been on the podium without doing it the way we did.  We would not have both been on the podium, maybe one of us would have, maybe the other, maybe not first.  But I'm sure we both wouldn't have."

Positivity and collaboration facilitated by perspective results here in higher achievement.  This is yet another case where attitude translates in to success.

 

 

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In awe

 

 

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In awe

via The Torch by Babbling Brooks on 11/12/09

Definition of a hero: one who puts the well being of others far ahead of his or her own needs. At least, that's one definition.

By any you choose, though, Cpl William Kerr is a hero. This line from a story about the royal visit is simply amazing:

Cpl. William Kerr was among a group of Canadian soldiers on foot patrol just over a year ago in Afghanistan's Zhari-Panjwaii district. There had been a skirmish between the Canadians and Taliban in the area a few weeks earlier, and the soldiers were going from one village hut to the next, searching for Taliban observation points. Kerr was the fifth man through the doorway of the last hut the group was to clear, and as he turned to get in position, an IED detonated under him.

As a result of the explosion, Kerr lost both legs above the knee, as well as his left arm just below the elbow.

A year later, he talks about his good fortune: "I found out that the reason everybody survived in the room was that I was standing on top of it when it went off," he says. "If I were a metre to the left or a metre to the right, we all would have been dead.

"Five guys got to walk out because of me. That's how I look at it. That's how I try to keep myself motivated." [Babbler's bold]

Cpl Kerr, you're not motivating only yourself. You're inspiring others with your example.

 

 

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Flu Trends

http://www.google.org/flutrends/ca/

Brilliant juxtaposition

same place - different century

http://torontobefore.blogspot.com/2009/10/yonge-street-slip-remix.html

walking in circles

Apparently we do, indeed, walk in circles when lost...

http://attilautab.blogspot.com/2009/09/walking-in-circles.html

http://www.mpg.de/english/illustrationsDocumentation/documentation/pressReleases/2009/pressRelease200908171/genPDF.pdf

A Mugging on Lake Street - Chicago magazine - September 2009 - Chicago

Race, violence and youth in Chicago... Themost interesting component is his own self-examination.

Painkillers during a race or on a regular basis: a bad idea

All these years I've been oh - so wrong...

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/phys-ed-does-ibuprofen-help-or-hurt-during-exercise/

Painkillers during a race or on a regular basis: a bad idea

via Sweat Science by alex on 9/2/09

Gretchen Reynolds of the New York Times has a really excellent article on the "prophylactic" use of "non-steroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen — popping them before or during a competition, or on a regular basis before workouts, in the hopes of dulling pain or preventing subsequent soreness and swelling. It's a must-read for everyone who does this.

In a number of studies conducted both in the field and in human performance laboratories in recent years, NSAIDs did not lessen people's perception of pain during activity or decrease muscle soreness later… Moreover, [Indiana University researcher Stuart] Warden and other researchers have found that, in laboratory experiments on animal tissues, NSAIDs actually slowed the healing of injured muscles, tendons, ligament, and bones.

I can't count the number of athletes I know, ranging from recreational to elite, who pop ibuprofen or equivalents on a regular "just in case" basis, hoping to avoid pain and soreness down the road. I really hope they read this article, and its conclusion:

When, then, are ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatory painkillers justified? "When you have inflammation and pain from an acute injury," Warden says. "In that situation, NSAIDs are very effective." But to take them "before every workout or match is a mistake."

RIP Ted Kennedy

"The Dream shall never Die" speech. Despite the controversial legacy, what a speech. Who up north could deliver an equivalent speech?

RIP Martin Streek

Alan Cross' memorial

Spirit of Radio

Liisa Ladouceur of Eye Weekly

Toronto Mike forum

The Star

CFNY's own - which is interesting as they laid him off in May from the only company he'd ever worked for. Awkward.

What Has the World Bank or IMF Ever Gotten Right?

One could find an analogous situation with industry analysts...

 

 

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What Has the World Bank or IMF Ever Gotten Right?

via Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed by pk on 6/23/09

I ask this question in all seriousness: What non-trivial has the World Bank or IMF ever gotten right in their respective forecasts about global financial markets?

Assuming we can't come up with anything, it's worth wondering, is it not, why anyone pays any attention to the various and sundry regular economic reports from said institutions. It always strikes me as a textbook example of Philip Tetlock's classic Expert Political Judgment at work, or, better yet, the old joke about why economists make forecasts -- the answer being, of course, because people keep asking them.

 

 

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