Menu

Olympics

1000 days and counting…

, , , , ,

Today (2013-11-09) it’s exactly 1000 days until the opening of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games…

This might seem still a long way away but we all know in every day life, time goes fast and faster. Even more than in regular life topsport requires planning ahead. This is so for players with ambitions, for teams, for clubs, for federations, for all concerned. The classic “Demming circle” of “Plan, Do, Chect, Act”  is something I picked up at work, but can (and should) be applied to almost every aspect of life and most certainly (top)sport.

Those aiming to be a contender for the Games in Rio better already have a plan and be turning the Demming circle around and around… improving themselves. A 1000 days will go by very quickly!

In this light it was good to see the world governing body for our sport (FIH) publish their main international events for the next 4 years ahead of us – click here to see their announcement and planning. And watch the video announcing the next World Cup below:

In the beginning of this year I wrote an open letter to the FIH & EHF (click here to read it) regarding our frustrations about the lack of this planning ahead in our sport and proposed my ideal calendar to them. I’m happy to say I see a lot of this concept returning in the calendar proposed by the FIH today. Not everything of course has been planned to my ideal version and they only planned ahead for 4 years where I would have done this for 6 to 8 years, but still… It’s a good step, if not a major step into the right direction!

Some other issues still on the table according to me would be :

  • The major issue I still have seeing their 2015-2018-cycle is it doesn’t (yet) show the planning of the continental federations included. When will the continental championships be scheduled? Because they too have an impact on the calendar of all concerned.
  • When & where will the World League Rounds 1 & 2 be planned. Less important maybe for the major countries, but also those countries in the sub-top or aiming for the sub-top require planning ahead.
  • Why is there still a separate Champions Trophy on the calendar? I think most (if not all) players and coaches concerned would agree it’s one tournament too much on the calendar. The brand is great, so let’s keep that but let’s call World League 4 (the final round) the Champions Trophy and we’re all happy…
  • Other issues that will certainly arise have less to do with when but more with where these events will be played. I think all will understand the special position India holds in our world. I think we will all benefit from a strong(er) India, fully committed in the hockey community but the share they got from the top events to be organised is somewhat disproportional to say the least. Something to be discussed I’m sure…

But we’ve made some steps into the right direction with regards to planning! And I’m happy to see this. We all know “Rome was not build in one day” so I am sure the process of do, check and act (=adapt) following this planning will help improve the issues I still see in the future.
Therefore I’m looking forward to the 2015-2018 planning of the continental federations within the framework of the FIH and I challenge the national federations as well to question their existing competitions! I think if our European national competitions remain as is, at least we should consider playing with less teams (max 10) in the top division. But why not dare to rethink our competitions totally? From time to time it’s healthy to think outside the box. Yes, I do believe continuity is a good thing so maybe we don’t need to change it at all. But keeping things the way they are, just because it has always been like that is a sure way to become stale and obsolote. That is not what sports is about…

So let’s celebrate hockey and not be afraid to challenge it as well sometimes!

Jacques Rogge: “Ik hou van de stilte”

, , , , , ,

Olympic_RingsOver enkele dagen zal een van de beste sport bestuurders ooit terugtreden als voorzitter van het IOC. Jacques Rogge, dokter, graaf… maar de enige eretitel die hij zichzelf zou toedichten is die van Flandrien zoals blijkt uit onderstaande video, tevens een van de betere interviews van de Nederlandse sportjournalist en tegenpool van Rogge, Mart Smeets.
“Omdat mijn persoon niet belangrijk is. Het is wat ik vertegenwoordig dat belangrijk is” legt Rogge de essentie uit van de rol van een bestuurder in de sport. Smeets kan zijn onbegrip nauwelijks verhullen: “Nou… nou…” ;)

Een stille, noeste, harde werker die topsport (3x Olympiër in de zeilsport en speler van de nationale ploeg rugby) en studie perfect wist te verzoenen wat hem een mooie carriere na de sport als chirug opleverde. Toch bleef ook de wereld van de sport lonken en via de nationale bonden vond hij zijn weg naar het IOC waar hij op 59jarige leeftijd die niet altijd onbesproken figuur van Juan Antonio Samaranch opvolgde. Een positie die hem rangschikt bij de top 100 van meest invloedrijke mensen… ter wereld…
Deze bescheiden maar, vergis je niet, ook zeer ambitieuse Vlaming/Belg zette het werk van Samaranch voort op onder andere het vlak van de financiële gezondmaking van het IOC. Maar hij werkte ook hard aan de strijd tegen doping en corruptie. De eerste een bedreiging van de integriteit van de sport(ers) zelf, de tweede een hardnekkig kwaad achter de schermen. Beide zullen nooit volledig uitgeroeid worden maar hij leverde goed werk in het bestrijden van deze ziektes.
Bij de erkenning van zijn bijdrage door de Belgische koning en regering, de verheffing in de adelstand tot graaf, koos hij de wapenspreuk “Nil volentibus arduum” (vrij vertaald naar “niets is moeilijk als je maar wil”). Mijn indruk? Goede keuze… Persoonsverheerlijking ligt niet in mijn aard, maar bij het nakende afscheid van deze grote mijnheer voel ik toch de behoefte mijn respect te betuigen voor de prestaties van deze man, in mijn ogen de ideale sport bestuurder!

Over enkele dagen zullen we zijn opvolger kennen. De kanshebbers zijn de Duitser Thomas Bach, de Puerto Ricaan Richard Carrion, de Singaporees Ng Ser Miang, Denis Oswald uit Zwitserland, Sergei Bubka uit Oekraïne (jawel die polsstokspringer) en Wu Ching-Kuo uit Taiwan. In juli hebben zij officieel hun plannen mogen uitleggen aan de leden van het IOC, ook deze laatste dagen zal de lobby zijn werk ook nog doen maar op 10 september zullen wij weten wie de zware taak zal krijgen Jacques Rogge te mogen opvolgen. Rogge zelf gaf aan geen revolutie te verwachten wie ook zijn opvolger zou worden, maar een voortzetting van de weg die werd ingeslagen onder Samaranch en zijn eigen bewind. Ik ben benieuwd… Hoe dan ook, vanaf volgende week zal Rogge verdiend meer mogen gaan genieten van “de stilte”.

Ik snap dat de aandacht van de sporters zelf veel meer gericht zal zijn op de aankondiging enkele dagen ervoor, overmorgen om precies te zijn. Als de stad bekend wordt die de Spelen van 2020 zal mogen organiseren: Tokio, Madrid of Istanbul. Ik denk echter dat de verkiezing enkele dagen later minstens even belangrijk, zo niet belangrijker, zal zijn voor de sport. Enigszins in de schaduw van dit alles werd nog voor de Spelen van London een nieuwe Belg benoemd tot IOC lid en gelukkig voor mijn sport was dat iemand die de hockeysport in zijn hart draagt: Pierre-Olivier Beckers (ex CEO Delhaize Group en huidig voorzitter van het Belgisch Olympisch Comité).

Want dat zal mijn sport hockey vooral nodig hebben om te overleven als Olympische sport na 2020, de steun van IOC leden!

Familie, vrienden en de topsporter

, , , , , , , , , ,

In het kader van het Europees kampioenschap hockey dat later deze zomer hier “om de hoek” georganiseerd wordt zette de organisatie Topsport Vlaanderen een aparte website op ter promotie van dit EK. Mijn eerste bijdrage aan hun blog “de insider” werd vandaag gepubliceerd: http://www.topsportvlaanderen.be/blogpost/familie-vrienden-en-de-topsporter

More

Innovation in sports is a good thing, but…

, , , , , ,

hockeybalI do admire the officials at the reigns of our hockey sport. Their innovation in different areas is one way to guarantee the attractiveness of the sport and to prevent it from becoming obsolete. However another quality  should also be the ability to not be afraid and turn back on decisions that have proven to be not so much an added value to the game. The most prolific example here would be the “own goal” rule of course…

scoring is simpleApparantly no one in the world understands how a shot from outside the circle, ending up in the goal, is not counted. Well I’m sorry, the rule wasn’t that hard to understand: “a ball had to be touched by an attacker inside the D (or circle) in order to be a valid goal”. If people think this is too complicated I feel sorry for them… But since some other more wel known ball-sports allow scoring from anywhere on the pitch that seemed to be a problem for spectators. So we could have changed the rules so any shot from anywhere on the pitch entering the goal should be counted and the sole purpose for the D would be the area for the keeper to use his whole body to play the ball and the area where faults would be sanctioned with a penalty corner. The “D” from our hockey game would be very similar to the “box” from football for example in that case. This would be a valid choice… I still would not like it, but it would make sense.
However since the material our ball is made off and the speed at which it travels this would make our game a whole lot more dangerous, so they came up with some rule change in between. The ball still had to be touched within the circle, but now when a defender is the only one to have touched the ball within the D before the ball enters the goal it now counts a a goal scored where before this would have been a long corner. OK, I’ll admit the rule where any touch within the D is a goal is more simple than it has to be the attacker who touches the ball within the D. But seriously… is this going to make our sport more spectator friendly? Hardly… It will make it more dangerous again. That’s for sure… Please listen to your players/coaches and change this rule back to what it was before…

Speed & size of the ball

The only real issue for spectators from outside our sport or even those who do know hockey is the combination of the higher speed of the game and the visibility of the smaller ball. That is what makes our sport somewhat harder to follow on TV or from the stands. So let’s address these issues instead…

bluepitchyellowballTwo rule chages where tried out at the London Olympics to make it a more spectator friendly sport with regards to the issues stated above. They turned to the game of tennis where the speed of the ball and its size where also issues for TV and grand stand spectators at times… So they tried out two tennis-recipes for curing this :

  1. change the colour of the ball from white to yellow;
  2. change the colour of the pitch to blue.

Allthough a great idea, if only for marketing because the blue & pink smurf turf really stood out in the Olympic Park in London, the proof of the pudding is always in the eating. Spectators on the stands around the pitch, as well as those behind the TV or any other screen, soon came to the conclusion this blue colour may have worked for tennis ( a dry surface) but in combination with the water needed on the pitch was not the best of ideas. The blue colour, the sun and the water on the pitch resulted in a glare even worse than on the traditional green pitches. The yellow ball however was an improvement. Still very small and very, very fast sometimes but clearly more visible than the white balls before.

So allthough I’m a little bit dissapointed the yellow ball still has not taken off as the improved successor of the white ball, I was happy to see the organisation for the World Cup as well as other major international tournaments abandonned the idea of a blue pitch. Most of them returning to the usual green, so unfortunately not testing other options. The World Cup scheduled for 2014 announced a darker shade of green which makes sense to me. Then, out of the blue -no pun intended- I heard the choice has been made for a blue pitch once again in Rio for the Olympics in 2016… Why? We’ve tried it… It was no improvement…
Investec World League LeagueAnother recent test of the colour of the pitch was held at the recent World League for women in the UK. The test there was changing the colour of the D only. So the pitch was a regular green, but the circles were blue. I did think it was a good idea, at least worth a test to have a more distinctive circle or D. However the conditions in which it was tested were far from ideal. Anyone with some experience in these matters could have told you it is a bad idea to replace only a part of the pitch with some new turf. The new patches of turf will always be different regarding ball handling from the older existing turf and the idea behind an artificial turf is having the exact same ideal conditions of play all over the pitch. You’ll never have that if you replace only a certain part of the existing pitch, which is what they did for this World League tournament in the UK. So unfortunately this could not be a valid test for this idea. Next time the opportunity is there they should replace the entire pitch when trying out different colours for the D only.
I do think testing different colours for the pitch could be worthwhile, but the true innovation would be a pitch similar to today’s waterbased pitches without water. That would be a major breakthrough that would also be beneficial for promoting the artificial turf and our sport in regions of the world where water is very costly… maybe the blue colour could work without any water on the pitch, but forget about it as long as we need the waterbased pitch to play modern hockey.

Some (very) good changes

However we did see some recent rule changes that have proven to be a plus for our sport or have the potential of proving their worth. The best example of great rule changes since the abolishment of the off-side rule and the rule allowing for continuous changes has got to be the self-pass. The innovation rich EHL came up with this one and it has been embraced by all in our sport at every level of the game. It doesn’t make it easier to follow for referees nor for the spectators, quite the contrary. But it has been a wonderful addition to our game, making it more fair (intentional faults are not rewarded anymore) and more competitive. I think all agree here…

showoffThe latest test already seen in action shows some promise as well: allowing the raising of the stick above the shoulder to play the ball. They’re testing it in the EHL and have been testing it in the Wolrd League as well. Unfortunately the test seems not be prolonged to the European Championship this summer.
Again a rule that was a little bit hard to follow sometimes for spectators from outside our sport. So allowing the stick above the shoulder would simplify the game for them and add something extra and spectacular for the players as well. Of course the interpretation by the referee for what would be dangerous remains… But think about those beautiful goals smashed in that had to be disallowed because of the old sticks rule.  I truly hope this one makes it into the regular hockey rules soon !

Another change in the making is the up and coming Hockey 5’s… The FIH will be testing this new format of our game with 5 against 5 on the next Youth Olympics and has conducted tests in Asia recently as well. Changing the rules for indoor hockey last week by dropping a player and so aligning this variation of our game to the Hockey 5’s outside seems to indicate a keen interest in developping this new format. However I can’t really tell if I like it just yet… I do think it could be an interesting addition to our sport but I can’t really decide if it would be beneficial to our regular game of hockey or if there’s a risk of it would taking it’s place in the Olympics maybe? Did the game of volleyball suffer from the rise of beachvolley?
I do think there should be room for different kind of variations in our sport, such as indoor hockey or beach hockey. However, I’m not sure about this one yet…

We don’t need a global club competition, we need global development for hockey!

, , , , ,

ilovehockey
… and we need to ensure it’s Olympic future!

Are our sport officials doing what it takes to preserve our sport on the highest podium of all, The Olympics? Or is their focus too much on other matters? Probably also important to our sport, but I don’t think anyone will argue the fact that further developing our sport on a global scale to keep its place in the Olympic family should be on top of their priority list…

More or less a month ago I felt the urge to put some of my random thoughts in writing about the future of my sport, field hockey. The first article was “The future of hockey” and I followed it up by an open letter to the FIH & EHF. As all bloggers and wannabe writers I of course have the need to be read and heard… and applauded ;) Hey, I’m human… However I was not as naive to think I would get an actual answer from the federation presidents I addressed with my open letter. I got some fans, some (international) players, some coaches, some club presidents and actually also some presidents of national federations to acknowledge the ideas in these articles. But you’ve guessed it… no answer from the people I actually wrote it to… no suprise there.

EHL_logo
EHL brought further innovation to our sport

Last weekend the hockey community enjoyed once more the EHL, freezing their ass of in Amsterdam or warm & cosy behind the computer or TV at home or… even on the move the nice new EHL app gave us the possibility to enjoy the live streaming images from the Wagener Stadium. The people from Pro Sport and the EHF helped change the hockey sport for the better when they introduced their EHL 5 years ago. I was fortunate to be the organizer of the very first EHL at my club Antwerp (together with the dutch club HGC) and immediately became a big fan of their innovations. As you would expect not all of the aspirations for the EHL from those early days came true, the economic crisis struck hard when it was to time to harvest the potential sponsors to help fulfill the dreams they had at the start. But you’ve got to admire and respect those people at Pro Sport and especially the ABN Amro for sticking with it and continue to build the brand of the EHL and hockey. They might not have scored the biggest crowds for all matches, nor the other sponsors (yet) to help build the sport. But they’ve brought us a new standard of TV images promoting our sport and several innovations in the rules of the game that truly have added value to our sport and you have to applaud that…

The HIL is a motor for development in India
The HIL is a motor for development in India

Another recent and very welcome additional event for our hockey sport has been the recent HIL (Hockey India League) which has brought his own innovations to the sport and has immensely been appreciated by the international top players, the Indian sponsors, media and public. However I do not see any benefit in wanting to integrate both these wonderful initiatives as read in the press recently. The HIL is different from the EHL and that should not change because India is different from Europe and it has the potential to help revive Indian (and Asian) hockey to new standards and help them regain their position among the top in the world.

Olympic_Rings
How to survive in the Olympics?

Which of course would also be beneficial for our sport on a global scale… Important to help keep our sport on the agenda for the Olympics. Because we must not neglect the warning that has been given recently by the IOC about the Olympic status of our sport. We might have been a big hit as a sport at the London Olympics last year, but this was not the case in Beijing or Athens and most likely hockey will not draw the biggest crowds to the Rio stadiums either.
To keep our Olympic status the international federation (FIH) has to focus on two issues that are hurting us at the moment :

  1. We need hockey representation within the IOC, which has been lost when Mr Negre took over the FIH presidency from IOC member Mrs Van Breda Vriesman.
  2. We need to focus on (re)developping our sport on a top and (!) grassroot level in important countries such as France, Spain, Brazil, USA, India, Pakistan, Japan, China, etcetera…

In the developped countries (in hockey terms) the focus should be on broadening the basis of our sport, with good infrastructure, better youth academies and a strong focus on further developping both recreational and top hockey. It is not a necessity to become a competitor for a sport such as football, but we do need to grow in numbers as a family friendly sport where respect is not just a catchphrase in marketing but seen and lived on and alongside the hockeypitches all over the world. That will attract the corporate sponsors we need to help improve our sport every year.

opendata
“Open data” for the FIH as well?

We can only assume (or maybe hope is a better word) our officials in national and especially international federations are working along these lines but to be honest I think it is a bit alarming we see so little evidence of this.  In governement politics – somewhat related or similar to sport politics I would guess – one of the hottest items at the moment is “open data“. I do think we need some of that from our federations as well to help us understand in which direction our sport is growing, what is being done and what could be our contribution…
Maybe with the newest shareholder of the EHL, Infostrada Sports Group, they could get some (data & communication) expertise in house for such an “open data” project. Because frankly I am worried when I (as an engaged hockey supporter) once again see & hear tales about these ideas for a new global club competition from the officials. We do not need such a competition! It will not attract new hockeysupporters nor players nor sponsors that last and really contribute to the development of our sport. And in my humble opinion it will even be damaging for our sport because it takes the focus away from those things that do need to be done : development of our sport in those countries that can make a difference (both developped and developping countries with regards to hockey) through infrastructure and improving tophockey to stimulate recreational hockey!

So my message to the FIH and other relevant officials is please do continue developping the World League, but please forget about this global competition for clubs and focus on getting our IOC representative back and on developping hockey in key countries on every continent. And maybe invest some more attention towards open data (and communication) to reassure (or at least inform) us about the direction our officials are taking our sport… because I’m not reassured by some kind words from the parting IOC president Rogge about our sport. I think we need to do what needs to be done to make sure our sport is never doubted again to be a deserving member of the international family of sports.

The future of hockey?

, , , , , , ,

Olympic_RingsThrough the most recent phenomenon in international hockey, the HIL or Hockey India League, we once again were confronted with the  diversity of the world and of course also the world of sports. And while the echo of the Indian fireworks at the HIL finals could still be heard the IOC almost cut our sport from its most prestigious podium, the Olympics. Reasons for almost being cut were , as heard through the grapevine, the image of being a sport of the Commonwealth nations but not anywhere else… Strange reasoning if that were the case. Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, Korea are, to name but a few well performing hockeycountries at international level, not any part of the Commonwealth. Champions have come from all continents in recent history. However we must not be blind to the fact that we’re not exactly part of the major sports on a global scale and so there is still a lot of work ahead for the FIH…

The differences between hockey in different continents

In Europe, or at least several western European countries, we are blessed with the concept of clubs, family oriented clubs, and the competition that goes with it. Most of us don’t even realize how lucky we are to have such a set up. Not only does it help getting more people involved in sports, it adds a valuable element to our social life and to the education of our kids through the feeling of an extended family for those sports who manage to create this extra. But even as close to home as the western European countries we see a lot of differences in the way these clubs are managed, with a strong family focus in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and a different approach for example in Spain or the UK and most Commonwealth countries.

waterbased_hockeypitchIn other parts of the world the entire concept of a club (with teams for young and old, men and women and entire families participating in club life) is unknown. In India for example, as most if not all Asian countries, clubs for sports do not exist. Indian hockey doesn’t have a club competition, it has the tradition of sports at school and it has teams playing for their company or other employer (army, postal services, police, …). And these teams meet in tournaments, not in competitions that last for several months during a year. Lots of reasons exist for these differences, besides obvious cultural differences, distance is often a reason. But another very important reason is infrastructure… The choice for waterbased pitches as the international standard has not made it easier to develop our sport of hockey globally. Water is an issue in most parts of the world, we tend to forget that over here…

No easy task

So promoting our game to become a truly global sport, and thus ensuring its Olympic future, is no easy task… The FIH has some committees & “developpers” in place for each continent, however I’m not sure what they’re doing and if any of it is paying off. But that might be because I live in a country which is doing just fine already and doesn’t really need the attention of these “developpers”. The only efforts that do reach us are those directly related to topsport development by the FIH top, because these make more interesting newsitems to the press obviously. Although at first I wasn’t very enthusiastic about their choice to build the World League at the cost of the Champions Trophy and the Champions Challenge, they might be on the right track there anyway. Engaging more countries than in previous formats…

I do think sport is an exception to the rule that “bottom up” is usually the best way to build whatever you want to achieve. In sports I think the “top down” approach is more likely to succeed. Meaning you start building teams to compete at the international level, because those playing sports are competitive by nature and want to have something to aim for. If not for themselves then for their sons and daughters… However it seems to me all these efforts would go to waste if at the same time you do not facilitate at the grassroots level, especially in youth… Allthough I’m a firm believer in our European club life I do respect other cultures, other countries, having a different take on things, different customs. So there is most likely not just one way to get where we want our sport to grow.

HILWhat to do…

I’m a bit concerned by the latest rumours about a World League for clubs (next to the one already in existance for countries) they (= FIH) seem to be planning…. I do not believe it will contribute to the global development of our sport, maybe even quite the contrary. Firstly I do not see what teams from for example the Asia-Pacific continents (India, Pakistan, Korea, Australia…) would participate in such an event, nor from the USA or other countries from the American continent (except for Argentina). They do not have the club structure we have in Europe but the top level of our sport is being played in short tournaments with specially composed teams, such as the AHL (Australian Hockey League) in the very competitive Australia or the recent HIL (Hockey India League) in India. But most of the important players in these leagues are also attached to the important European clubs and how to solve in which team they would play in such a World League for clubs?  The HIL, but also the AHL in Australia and the EHL in Europe are wonderful events, contributing largely to our sport, but I do not see any added value to a global club competion of any sort. It is not without reason I think this kind of event does not exist in any of the major team sports.

However I do think, whatever the structure of the sports in each country, the FIH should be facilitating the developing countries, firstly with regards to infrastructure and maybe put some pressure on finding the alternative to waterbased pitches. Secondly the development of national teams in smaller hockey countries, in all age categories and for both sexes, and thirdly  in the ongoing development of good youth academies offering the possibility to learn the sport at an early age and throughout most of the year. That’s why I was very happy to hear the winner of the very first HIL, the Ranchi Rhinos are also setting up a new youth academy in their region. Whether these youth academies are based at clubs, schools or companies is less relevant. Important is they will offer the possibility to develop the practice of the game for at least 6 to 9  months during the year. In geographically smaller countries these would lead to national competitions (among clubs, or schools, or companies…), in larger countries where travel would prevent such a competition it would lead to regional competitions and for example one shorter national event (such as the AHL in Australia) for a select few that did well in the regionals.

Infrastructure, national teams, youth academies…. In my opinion that’s where the FIH should focus, that’s where the money should go!

Do one thing every day that scares you…

, , , , , , ,

My youngest son, still only 24 today, has had an incredible year this 2012… He has seen his dream come true last summer when he competed in the London Olympics. I’m not ashamed to say I had to wipe some tears from my face when he told me just before the summer he made the final selection for the Dutch national hockey team.

Both brothers in London
Both brothers in London

My oldest son had already been told he would go as a member of the Belgian coaching staff, so this would make the London Games a true family thing. Hockey is kind of a way of life in my family and our hockeyclub is as it were a part of the family or so it seems some times.

Aiming high…

We’ve all had our share of successes (and failures) on the field but he had set his goals pretty high. After some early successes for the Belgian youth teams he decided to use his double nationality and go for the Dutch national team. A team playing consistently in the top 3 worldwide and with some 230.000 players considerably more competition for a spot on the top compared to the 15.000 Belgian hockeyplayers at that time. He resisted the temptation to return to the Belgian team before and after the Beijing Olympics and worked hard to get noticed by the Dutch selectors and for years he came close, often missing out on the selection only by an inch… He missed out on several Champion’s Trophies, two European Championships and a World Cup and the frustration grew, especially not making the cut for two major tournaments in less than a year before the Olympics. Were these efforts and sacrificies during all those years going to waste or…

Doing what it takes…

Whether or not he would have made it, I would have been proud on both the efforts and choices he made during these years, after all I am his father. But when push came to shove he was able to go the extra mile ensuring he would have done everything within his power to make the dream come true. It would have been easier to point the finger of blame into another direction but he took a good hard look at what had to be done and than gave it all he got and some more and was rewarded for this with a participation in the London Olympic Games.
On August 10 tears welled up again reading his facebook status about how he was about to play the game (the Olympic final) he had been dreaming about since he was a little kid… Dreams do come true… if you make them come true! And when they did (he won a silver Olympic medal), they are quickly replaced by new dreams… new goals… :)

Do one thing every day that scares you…

I started thinking about all of this reading a recent newspaper article (the old fashioned kind on paper) about him in light of the Champion’s Trophy about to start in sunny Melbourne… And having this mind used to wandering off, it reminded me of the inspirational speech by Al Pacino’s character in Any Given Sunday he used often to get the juices running before a game. Life’s this game of inches… And his favorite inspirational speech led me to one of my favorites: Rocky Balboa in front of his son dispensing “his” wisdom… The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows…

However when it comes down to fatherly advice I think Baz Luhrmann’s “Wear sunscreen” song comes closest to my take on things. I’ll add all three videos below so you can make up your own mind. Enjoy !