A gentleman who likes soft furnishings admits that he doesn’t understand why people watch sport.
Reading that it suddenly struck me how much sport I watch, on TV, and how little I mention it here (I don’t even have a “sport” category for my posts). Sure I comment on the footie now and then, basketball (NBA) gets a mention, as does my infrequent outings into the sporting arena, but given the amount of time I spend watching sport it’s probably the thing I blog least about (other than my work).
Now, let’s get this straight, I’ll watch pretty much ANY sport, even cricket. I’ve always enjoyed watching sport and I’m wondering why. I’ll watch football, rugby union and league, basketball, golf, cricket, badminton, squash, aussie rules, american football, baseball (still getting to grips with that though, it’s not on often), and all the more common sports. I’m equally happy watching anything from the Olympic events, X-Games and so on, currently battling an addiction to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (late night on Bravo). In fact the only “sports” I don’t watch are horse and greyhound racing (separately, as far as I know they don’t yet race them both at the same time… I wonder who’d win?).
I don’t really have many favourite teams or athletes, I just enjoy watching the competition I think. The battle of wills, call it what you will (pun intended!), can be fascinating, especially as it usually boils down to two individuals pitting themselves against other. Even in most team games it will be two people who usually are the focus and can influence things. I enjoy learning about the tactics and styles used in different sports, how american footballers learn all those codes, how you can start to see when a fighter is feinting with his head before shooting a straight left, the tiny adjustments to position made on a badminton court that can switch the advantage.
Part of it might be aspiration of course, and occasionally it may be in the hope of picking up a few tips to improve my own game (ever watched ten pin bowling? very informative!), but mainly it’s the competition I love. I’m fairly competitive myself and that allows me some form of projected connection with the athletes on screen. Yes, I think I’d be happy watching tiddlywinks on the television, either that or khabaddi.