I’ve just started work at a new place. This time I’ve moved away from the financial industry and have found myself in the exciting world of TV broadcast! One of the perks of the job is sports TV at your desk. One monitor shared between you and your neighbour. I have a smorgasbord of sports-on-tap.

Growing up I’ve never liked football. Despite my father being an avid Rugby Union fan and he was quite talented at it from what I’ve heard. This lifelong adoration of Rugby has worn off on to my brother who follows a different code, Rugby League. I however, have never had even the slightest inkling of interest to it in any way. And that’s still the case.

I think I’ve partially figured it out by a process of elimination.

At work I can choose any station that our company offers (not naming the company, but it’s not too hard to figure out). I find myself drawn to the cricket, baseball, golf, snooker, surfing. I find myself distracted by football (all codes), Nascar and ice hockey.

By analyzing the sports that I enjoy watching it became clear that there is a certain rhythm and cadence to each activity. The roughly 270 degree arc of a golf club as it swings and connects to a tiny ball sent hurtling down a fairway with a backdrop of trees and vegetation.

Snooker, like mini golf that I enjoyed as a kid, requires an elementary knowledge trigonometry. It’s almost intuitive that the angle as the snooker ball makes when striking the edge will determine it’s exit angle. Players need to accommodate for other things too, such as balls already in play, and how those balls may ricochet other balls to set up your next turn (and potentially disrupt the other player). There are also some very snazzy tricks that players can use to great effect that are a real wow to the audience.

Tennis similarly is a mesmerizing sport to watch. Watching players trying to force the ball into the competitors weak spot, perhaps they’re not good with backhand. Making adjustments for the type of surface, be it clay, grass etc. The tricky lob shots etc.

Now coming back to Football. It’s a game which is very stilted and disjointed. For a majority of the game I’m watching players ram into each other. Stop. Start. Players re-engage and try to make up some ground, before the next tackle brings it back to square one. Exciting play is the exception rather than the norm. A player passes successively to the next and breaks through the guards with tricky maneuvering. This may be good to watch but it takes it’s sweet time to get there. There’s no underlying rhythm to the sport.

Imagine a piece of classical music piece that went through a series of passages only to be met with dissonant chords (e.g. all keys slammed) throughout. Not enjoyable!

Back to the tennis….