Passion and temptation come in many forms, but strings have been involved for me this week.
I have neglected my guitar playing for quite some time now. I started playing in my teenage years and you can find my various tracks on this site. I fell out of love with it all for some reason although other interests have naturally filled the gap. However, getting the chance to play on a nylon-strung acoustic at a party made me realise that I still really, really enjoyed it.
Being in an acoustic mood I popped down to Nevada Music to grab some new strings as my acoustic has been out of action for a while due to string breakage! Nevada is pretty much the SHOP OF DREAMS. There are so many shiny objects of musical desire that a musician would need a cold, cold heart to not even be tempted.
My acoustic is very old and was in fact my first ever guitar. Old, battered and attempting to mic it up was always an exercise in feedback-frenzied pain. Next thing I know, I’m surrounded by string-clad siren acoustics: “Look at me! Shiny! I’m an electro-acoustic! Quality pre-amp! Listen to how BRIGHT I sound! Mmmmm!”.
MINE. Not yours. MINE.
Needless to say, I bought the guitar. A lovely Takamine with integrated tuner (They think of everything these days).
In mitigation, I have always wanted a quality acoustic guitar of this nature. I have plenty of lovely electric guitars but the non-amplified side of things has been lacking! Back in the day, the sort of thing I was after was prohibitively expensive but it is great how quality is seemingly much cheaper nowadays.
I am very much out of practice but it is amazing how everything is coming back so quickly. However, it isn’t just about the knowledge: It is the sheer enjoyment of playing and coaxing a wide range of emotions from the instrument that is striking me.
Just in case though, next time, I think I should take a chaperone…
I’d love to hear about any musical purchase impulses that have struck you, be they ultimately good or bad!
Man in Pompey shirt lifting FA cup. Last week. Last week I lifted the FA Cup. Well, one of them. I’m not convinced that it was the real deal. I was tempted to start running out of the stadium and see how many people started chasing me as a test but decided it would not be particularly professional!
I was helping out at the Jobsite World Cup. This was a great little 5-a-side football tournament hosted by Jobsite at Fratton Park. It is really interesting to be at a premiership championship stadium on a non-match day and explore all the facilities! Not even the changing rooms were safe…
Although I was originally present as an assistant and to take some wonderful photographs I did get roped in to play for the Jobsite ‘B’ team. This mostly consisted of people that don’t really play football in any seriousness. Hey, I like to think I am a pretty hot referee but my first (and second…third…) touch is shocking. Predictably we got thrashed but I did set up the most amazing goal… honest, I really did.
Well in there!
There was some great skill (and importantly, sportsmanship!) on display. Matchtech won through in the end representing Cameroon so many congratulations to them!
Now to continue to work towards my own footballing goal: To be refereeing at stadiums like this in high profile games in the future! It’s certainly not going to be an easy journey but then what fun would it be if not challenging?
The season is now over so my main focus at the moment is preserving fitness (including sprinting speed and agility to avoid evil Achilles problems). There may well be a shift in focus from football to judo for a bit as a result of this training…
“There are no bad children, only bad parents” is a phrase which is known by many. Essentially, behaviour is learned, mimicked, whichever you feel applies. The same principle applies to sports and over the years I have certainly seen it first hand.
I should stress before continuing that ‘bad’ is a bit strong in most cases. A coach is not setting out to be a bad coach. They are not sitting at home before heading to an event wondering how best they can upset people and have a counter-productive influence on whoever they are coaching. They do want the best outcome for their athletes but their approach has somehow become misguided.
Judo is predicated around mutual benefit and welfare. As a result, the attitudes of the vast majority of coaches and indeed the players has been exemplary in my experience. Yes, perceived bad calls from the referee team are challenged but it is an absolute exception when any behaviour starts to become threatening! This just goes to show how enforcing such principles from the very beginning of the coaching process reap benefits throughout a judoka’s life.
Football, however, has a long-running battle with behavioural problems. The fact that the Respect campaign exists in the first place is testament to this. There is conflict between players (even those on the same team), managers, coaches, spectators and referees. The second game I refereed ‘featured’ an altercation where one manager allegedly assaulted the other over a confrontation regarding a child swearing at some of the gathered parents.
Particularly with youth football, the coaches set the example. If I meet a friendly, relaxed, professional and balanced coach it comes as no surprise when his or her team are there to actually play football. There is precious little dissent. In the unfortunate event that I had to dismiss a player for violent conduct (the irony is appreciated), a manager I am thinking of said after the game “I have no problem with the decision, he deserved it, he has to learn somehow”. Such a well-balanced view is sadly rare.
Compare and contrast to, shall we say, the more shouty coaches. The referee’s decisions are likely to be targeted to compensate in any short falls in team ability. A referee may be pilloried for getting a penalty decision wrong, but the fact that a team missed several open goals will be conveniently forgotten!
That said, some such coaches are ‘balanced’ in that they are just as likely to shout in the same way at their own team. This does, however, result in the players having the same form of attitude (high levels of dissent) which the referee has to deal with firmly. It is important to set the boundaries EARLY.
Referees are there to control the event and enforce as required. Coaches, however, should have trained their players in such a way that the referee should never NEED to be dealing with discipline issues.
However, it is very important to keep an open mind despite the general trends. I was surprised when the latter style of coach who had very loudly criticised a penalty decision during a game was very polite and listened afterwards. He just wanted to know the reasoning. I also heard him complimenting an opposing player on a run. More balanced than perhaps someone just hearing the shouting might have realised.
During my cup final there was one player getting VERY angsty over an offside not being given. I took him to one side and explained what had happened. Once he understood, the angst immediately vanished and he apologised.
Let us not forget the parents as well. They are not just instilling behaviour (good or bad) in their children at home but also when standing and watching at the side of a sporting event!
Coaches, parents, referees… we all have our role to play in education.It is NEVER someone else’s problem: We all have a responsibility to help!
I would love to hear about any behaviour, good or bad, you have witnessed at sporting events and how this may have been linked to any coaches and/or parents present!
This time it was my turn to be in charge for the ‘top’ (Division 1) cup final for the Farnham and District Sunday Football League. It was an honour to get this appointment considering this has been my first season and is obviously a reflection on my performance. It also meant that I would be provided with neutral assistants to form my team. Exciting!
The game itself was hosted at Farnham Town FC which is great little ground. Unfortunately, we did not have the weather on the day: It rained pretty much throughout. I was able to keep warm with all the running about but my poor assistants did not have the opportunity to move quite as much!
Yep, still in charge...
Despite the conditions, there was a good crowd present with the seating at capacity. I didn’t really notice this until half-time as from the moment I led the teams onto the pitch for the Respect handshake I was in the zone and filtering all that out. I’ve been involved in these many a time when acting as Assistant but it was certainly a real thrill to be doing it as the actual referee.
Also present were the various officers of the league which meant I was acutely aware that I really did not want to be screwing this one up!
The game itself was a feisty, competitive and passionate affair. Both teams really went for it although the differences did show by the end both on the pitch and by the 3-2 result. ‘Only’ two cautions were required (both for dissent). Unfortunately, there was also an injury: A dislocated shoulder but by the reaction from the player and his team I got the impression that this was an old ‘war wound’ (he didn’t seems shocked at all!)
After the game my team received their medals and of course so did those actually playing! Both sides were ultimately a credit to Sunday football which does get a bad name from some quarters. I was happy to have worked with two neutral assistants who really helped me out (With club-provided assistants you can never fully ‘trust’ them as they are obviously impartial). With the neutrals I could happily let them call fouls and so on in their part of the pitch which really helped with credibility.
Shiny!
We were visited in our changing room after the game by an assessor: We had been stealth assessed! He was very complimentary, particularly so once he realised this was my first season! In particularly he was happy with my application of Law and the development point that he had for me was to reduce any non-official signals which could cause confusion and/or draw unnecessary attention. A very fair comment and I will be working on just that from now on. The league officials were also happy…. and the players seemed to be as well!
In all, a very exciting and enjoyable day that gave me a real buzz. As the game went well it also meant it should be memorable for the players, team officials and supporters as well (for the right reasons) which ultimately meant I did my job properly on the day.
