Relay Races & Team GBR

[Ex-Bay]

We have experts in this or that discipline, we can tear up a track in the Velodrome, and all that gucci stuff.
Then we hit the buffers; hard. In this current case, the Relay Race.

What is it about Team GBR that cannot seem to grasp a baton correctly ?
Perhaps that should be "pass a baton" correctly ?

I'm no athlete, never have been, but the one thing I remember from school was the importance of the hand-over. We had to practice it often, and separately to the actual running.

Runner B (taking the baton), at the appropriate time, takes off at some speed; extends a left hand backwards, open and pointing downwards.
Runner A, giving the baton, brings the baton up into the hand of Runner B and as Runner B grasps it, lets go.
Runner A takes off like a scalded cat and Runner B collapses on the ground.

OR: Have I missed something here?

[ written before the 4x400m mens race; we came 4th ]

 

[Toonman]

Very easy in theory but so hard in practice when excitement takes over.

 

[propersplitbrainme]

What is there to miss, they made a mistake.

End of over-analysis.

 

[Ex-Bay]

What is there to miss, they made a mistake.

End of over-analysis.

1. Tell that to the Talking Heads who had a real go about it.

2. At a bit of a wash-up in the evening, one Head quoted an athlete; "all we gotta do it get the baton round the track".

 

[propersplitbrainme]

1. Tell that to the Talking Heads who had a real go about it.

So? The pundits are bound to over-analyse, thats what they do. I cant tell them anything unless they are posting on the goat which is highly unlikely. The analysis is still pretty simple, they messed up the change over so you didnt miss anything which was what yiu originally asked.

 

[Tin basher]

Some of these journo's and pundits watch a particular sport for an hour every 4 years yet believe they can give expert opinion. The runners made an error, a simple mistake, nobody got it wrong on purpose, they are people not machines, no one died. Kipling had this to say about success and failure

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools"

 

[propersplitbrainme]

Some of these journo's and pundits watch a particular sport for an hour every 4 years yet believe they can give expert opinion"

Ex-bay likes to use the term 'talking heads' to desribe the TV pundit teams, but its about a thousand miles off the mark. A talking head is a newscaster or other commentator framed by their head and shoulders reading from a script where there is no need for them to offer any analysis. To be fair to them, by and large the BBCs presentation team (who are often seen full on, not just their heads) are ex-sportsmen/women in their own right and CAN offer a meaningful insight into what competing at the highest level is all about, and also why things dont always go according to plan. Of course, if you cant understand the analysis being offered it all probably sounds boring, in which case why watch it.......DT_Xtremez_42:

One such pundit on SSN this morning suggested the relay team loses its funding until they learn how not to get disqualified. Now Id have thought taking their funding away would make them worse not better.