Field Theory by Hadyn Green

Timing issues

If Beijing showcased the most amazing sports technology available, London has been shown up as error ridden. This was shown best in the women's epee when Shin of South Korea was left inconsolable and crying at the end of her semi-final bout against Heidemann of Germany.

The official clock stuck at one seconds at the end of sudden death time. In this time there were two doubles hit (both fencers hit at the same time) Heidemann scored to win. Three points scored and at the end of the bout one second still showed on the clock. Later it would be revealed that Shin had incurred a penalty on the second double which reset the clock to one second.

75 minutes later, after a long argument between judges and coaches, Shin was escorted from the piste, still in tears. She then had to come back to battle the world number one in the bronze medal match.

A clock that only has one second increments means that as soon as it starts then one second should be taken off and the game ends. Of course the clocks go to smaller decimals than one tenth, but we don't see it. And so I can understand the Koreans arguing for as long as they did as three points(or technically two) in one second does seem very wrong.

If this was the only issue then it might be acceptable, but it wasn't.

During the swimming the start sound went off early. During the boxing a fighter lost a bout, as his opponent knocked him down a full five seconds after the bell should have sounded and ref called the fight off (he would've lost on points otherwise). There have been numerous delays as judges struggle with the scoring systems. Then of course the starting system breaking down in the rowing.

Just as accurate as the London trains I suppose.

More media stuff

After giving the media a hard time the other day I need to give them some kudos. As someone who had to learn a complex new sport (roller derby) I understand that you can't just step in and be a genius. Though some of them could tone down the enthusiasm a tad.

But recently all of the commentators glowed like microphoned Gods:

• John McBeth suggested we start a eugenics programme in order to breed ourselves some amazing swimmers. He was so into it his co-commentator finally agreed to the plan.
• This genius tweet from Scotty Stevenson.
• Speaking of Sumo, he is easily the funniest commentator on the crew. His deadpan reaction to a random shot of a horse during the gymnastics was hilarious.
• Both the equestrian and rowing commentators complained about the footage that they (and we) were being shown. The cameras will follow British competitors completely or in the case of the rowing, focus closely on the leader with no shots of battles further back in the pack.

And finally, don't worry about Prime cutting off the Olympics to show stupid, vitally important, rugby or league. That'll be on Maori TV now.

Ps. Sorry this was meant to go up yesterday, so obviously a bunch of stuff happened last night (like the equestrian bronze, yay!), feel free to go at it in below.

What are we watching now?

It was the men's qualifying round for the gymnastics. The Chinese team were out there as were Team GB. However, we were being shown the mixed group. I know everyone needs coverage, but the Chinese are the best in the world and the British were having a fantastic time. So what was going on?

We were told later by the BBC commentary team (I'll get to that in a minute) that there was a "technical glitch". A similar "glitch" happened during the women's qualifying when we were shown a Belgian competitor standing around waiting for her score. As the competition progressed the coverage got better.

I say "got better" to mean no more camera glitches. No more long shots of athletes who were not doing anything. Other parts of the coverage were less than good.

Prime, as I noted last time, advertised that they would have the best free-to-air Olympic coverage. 23.5 hours per day of Olympics. Oh and like 2.5 hours of rugby and league on Sunday morning. Olympic viewers were pissed and, like many angry people, told Twitter and Facebook how angry they were (yes, I was one of them).

These are, after all, "the social games".

I was using iSky, Sky TV's online service, to watch Prime on my laptop. It was a little sketchy but not bad at all, until the rugby came on. So I turned on Tunnelbear and watched the BBC instead. On the BBC site there are a number of live streams as well as on-demand replays of many events.

I figured Sky would have the same. I mean, they have nine dedicated channels, so nine streaming channels would make sense. But when my girlfriend's parents logged in with their Sky sports account they found they could only see Sky Sport 1, 2 and 3. Channels that were showing non-Olympic sport (Sky Sport 1 showed some of the games, like the hockey, but not complete coverage).

At the last games, TVNZ had four streaming channels of just Olympic coverage. It had issues, but right now, we had better online coverage of the games four years ago and from a free-to-air broadcaster.

If you have the Sky Sports package though, then your TV coverage is amazing. I sat watching the Mosaic for a long time, just changing the audio on to whatever sport took my fancy. I watched fencing and swimming and badminton and table tennis and all of the smaller sports that we don't always see.

So, television coverage in New Zealand = amazing. Online coverage in New Zealand = poor at best.

The sport

• Goddamn I love weightlifting. The lifters are some of the most amazing athletes at the games. Om Yun Chol's 168kg record lift in the B-Group of the men's 56kg class was astounding.
• I get more and more bored with the swimming. Mainly because of the constant races over slightly different distances.
• I don't think I've ever seen a full fencing bout (are they called bouts?). I managed to catch the women's foil and was stunned at the speed and technical brilliance of it all. Moreover, the helmets light up with LEDs. It's like Daft Punk are fighting each other with swords!
• A bit more on those helmets. Some countries have customised versions, which is very cool.

• The usual arguments for which sports are "real Olympic sports" and which ones are not, have been fairly quiet so far. Let me quickly remind you of all the sports you would lose if "it needs a judge" is your criteria: badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, diving (single and synchronised), equestrian, fencing, gymnastics (artistic and rhythmic), handball, judo, soccer, synchronised swimming, taekwondo, tennis, trampoline, volleyball, water polo, weightlifting, wrestling and yachting.
• Give 'em a taste of kiwi?
• The medal count after two days is looking good for the Chinese and pretty damn good for both Koreas.

Not quite four years ago I wrote my first post here. The opening line was "I am a huge Olympic fan." This is still true. Even more true now as late-onset Olympic Fever has gripped me like a mystery disease that will keep me at home for two weeks.

This year the Olympics are on Sky. Whereas last time around I was able to construct a "headquarters" with multiple screens ruining simultaneous TVNZ feeds, this time I will have to be a little more fiendish.

Prime will be showing the games free to air:

Prime’s Olympic broadcast will be the most coverage ever seen on free-to-air television in New Zealand with 23.5 hours per day, taking a half hour break for Prime News First at 5.30 each evening.

Prime will broadcast a myriad of events including swimming, hockey, athletics, rowing, equestrian, cycling, boxing, weightlifting, diving, sailing, wrestling, gymnastics and football as well as the official Opening and Closing ceremonies.

There are rumours that you can watch Prime's coverage for free through the iSky website too. Though obviously I can't try that until it starts rolling.

There's still some things you can do if you want more than Prime offers. According to PC World "Sixty-four territories have access to the YouTube livestream of the London 2012 Olympics", but not New Zealand. But what say you have an Aunt or Uncle who live overseas and don't mind if you watch their computer. But don't that because it might be less than legal.

On an unrelated note, Tunnelbear's unlimited service costs US$4.99/month. But like I say that's probably not helpful.

So what to watch?

Well tomorrow the games open, but you've probably already been watching the football, the tl:dr is that New Zealand aren't doing so great right now. By the way, if a sport can't be played within the two week time frame of the Olympics, don't include it.

• Personally I'd avoid the badminton unless you know someone in it and the basketball for now unless the US team are playing because it's always fun to see them flummoxed by international teams who shouldn't be allowed to beat them.
• The boxing will be interesting as women's boxing makes its debut. Unless you aren't into bloodsport.
• But the best thing to watch on the first day will be the cycling road race. It's great to have running in the background and occasionally check up on.
• Equestrian dressage will let you watch the best-dressed athletes muck about on horses, while Nike figure out how to add a swoosh to a top hat.
• The team gymnastics are also starting on day one. Watch as people do things that we really should've stopped doing three evolutionary-steps ago. Amazing.
• The rowing will most likely be dull until the finals (a bit like athletics). And we can expect a few medals for NZ so that'll be a bit good.
• And swimming, yeah swimming will still be at the Olympics. You perverts.
• But my personal favourite is Weightlifting. Goddamn, GODDAMN that's an amazing sport! Watch out for some crazy strong people, and huge personalities like Holley Mangold.

It's going to be awesome (I keep repeating in my head).

Oh and then there's this:

It will also feature yours truly at some point. It will be funny but not offensive, not shit like other late-to-the–party commentaries, and totally free. Follow the twitter feed for broadcast times.

Four years ago I sat in a room with a group of friends collectively known as "The Dropkicks" and recorded a podcast. The actual opening ceremony wouldn't start for a few hours but we had everything we needed to predict what would happen: two bottles of rum, beers and assorted wine. A young Russell Brown showed up as well and we all had a grand old time.

During this podcast we postulated an elaborate, politicised and, frankly, insane opening ceremony filled with actual dragons and tanks and billions of small children running with ribbons and then tanks jumping the small children. None of what we came up with under the influence of alcohol compares to this:

Before 40-foot-Voldemort appears, "about 100" children will be wheeled out on hospital beds to perform "a choreographed 'bed dance,'" which sounds quite sexy but probably is not. To these one hundredish beds will be added a dozen more "giant" ones, on which will dance/frolic/be such beloved storybook characters as The One Hundred and One Dalmatians' dog-skinning villain Cruella de Vil. Then and only then will 40-foot-Voldemort himself arrive, rising up from yet another giant bed in the middle of the stadium. To recap: All the action to this point has taken place in some sort of bed.

About 30 actors each depicting Mary Poppins, the magical English nanny played by Julie Andrews in the 1964 Disney film, will descend from the roof of the stadium on wires and “float” to the ground with their opened umbrellas. The nightmare will be banished and happiness restored. “It’s a jaw-dropping sequence,” said one source.

Before every Olympics there is controversy reported. I assume because when the games actually kicks off all the news is depressingly positive that there needs to be a long build-up of stories describing just how awful the games will be.

Before Sydney it was Aborginal rights, transport and accommodation. Before Athens it was the slow speed of venue construction. Before Beijing it was human rights abuses. And before London it's inept public officials.

The bitching is endless. Cabbies are angry they can't use official Olympic lanes. You can eat chips if they come with fish otherwise they must come from McDonalds. There won't be enough security guards and the ones they do have might not speak English all that well. But don't worry because we're putting missiles on your roof.

I'm not sure how much of the complaints are the usual anglo-saxon whinging and self-deprecation and how much are legitimate complaints (like the recent job seekers forced to work the Jubilee story).

Much like last year's World Cup, there seems to have been the looming threat that good hard- working individuals will be set upon by security in order to protect sponsors. Paul Lukas from the Uniwatch blog and ESPN said:

“The biggest issue, to me, isn’t the branding crackdown. It’s the endlessly repeated rationale for the branding crackdown. Official after official keeps saying, ‘[Sponsor X] paid millions of pounds, so of course we’re going to protect their interests,’ and these statements keep going unchallenged, as if it’s acceptable to put a price on boorish behavior. It’s like a Congressman saying, ‘Of course I created a regulatory loophole for so-and-so’s business. After all, he bribed me.’”

These are the issues facing the Olympics right now. In a week it'll be drugs and medals and how everyone is secretly terrified that China is the new USSR and will dominate the games.

I am hoping to see some of those amazing super-human moments where you just can't turn away and maybe have a wee tear in your eye because it's all just so nice. Because that's what I like to think the Olympics are about.

Yes there are politics and money and awful back room deals but sometimes there are nice things too and I'd like to think it was actually all about that. Oh, and gathering together a bunch of gorgeous super-humans so they can screw each other's brains out.

John Kirwan is the new coach of the Blues and I think it's a good choice. JK is what we want all of our retired sporting heroes to be: a gentle giant with a booming voice and heart of gold.

I was able to interview JK in 2010 when I was in Japan. We met at a cafe in central Tokyo, he was already there when I arrived and as he stood up I was suddenly turned into an excited 10 year old again. (Before reverting to a semi-professional journalist).

A few days earlier I had interviewed Eddie Jones, who was coaching a local Japanese team. The two coaches couldn't be more different. Eddie was fast, sharp and constantly thinking; JK was slower more thoughtful and slightly nervous, which I found weird considering he was the legend.

The site I wrote the story for folded (annoyingly before they could pay me) so here it is:

Eddie Jones is a brilliant world-renowned rugby coach. You know this. What you might not realise is that his brain is fast and never stops working. When we met he asks where in New Zealand I'm from. I answer "Wellington via Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty" he thinks for a second and then says "Ah! Taronga Bay". His initial mispronunciation makes me think he's got the wrong place but then he says "Glen Jackson's from there". We spend the next ten minutes talking about the skills of the Bay of Plenty legend.

I've come to Fuchu (half an hour from central Tokyo) to talk to Jones about the state of Japanese rugby. It's a topic that he knows quite well, especially as the current coach of the Suntory Sungoliaths.

"One of [the Japanese players] biggest strengths is following a gameplan. You set them up before hand and they will follow it to the death." The problem sadly, as Jones sees it, is the training the players receive at high school and even university.

The university level games are very popular, and like in American Football, can draw much larger and enthusiastic crowds than the professional game. Generally though, rugby is much less popular in Japan than baseball and football (soccer). So coaching is an issue, and Jones explained why.

"Here's what every team does: Inside their own 22 they kick; between the 22s it's a running game with little passing; inside the opposition 22 it's pick and go. And that's it, every team." But Jones is trying to change that.

"I put in place a new gameplan this year and made the boys use it during our pre-season games. Part of it was we were going to run it out of the 22. So what happens after the kick-off of the first regular season game? We catch it inside the 22 and we kick it. So it's going to take some time to get rid of those ingrained thought processes.

"We've got a halfback who's a really talented player, but when he came to us he could only benchpress 60kgs! He'd never done weights as part of his training. Now we've got him up to 160kg and I think he could make the Japanese team."

Jones has real plans to change Japanese rugby and he believes that the Japanese can be a real threat on the international scene. They have the talent they just need the right training.

Another man looking to make Japanese rugby better is John Kirwan. He's quite different to Jones in many ways. Still physically very big, he's also quiet and reserved. But like Jones he has clear goals for Japanese rugby; and not small goals either.

"We want Japan to be in the top ten nations of the world by the end of this World Cup. We also want to automatically qualify for the next World Cup by getting two wins. Then in 2015 we want to make the play-offs and when it's here [Japan] in 2019 we want to be in the final." Japan are currently 13^th, with Samoa, Italy and Fiji in their way to the 10^th spot (up from 19^th when Kirwan took over). But also Scotland is at 7^th and that's one of the teams Kirwan is targeting, because you can't reach the top ten without knocking off a European team. And the new test windows where Japan will tour against the northern teams can only help.

Kirwan thinks that the Super 15 isn't the way to go either; preferring New Zealand and Australia keep local competitions like the ITM cup and then break into a Heineken Cup style of competition with Japan and the Pacific Islands.

"Everyone talks about a Super 15 franchise [in Japan] but that means having one team from the 20 we have, so we'll piss off 19 of the biggest sponsors in the world and we'd have the focus on just one team."

Kirwan is focussed on one team though, and really one tournament: the 2011 World Cup. He wants the Japanese team to have the time of their lives. By that he means he wants the team to achieve their goals. And moreover keep the guys heads level in the "mecca of rugby" when playing the All Blacks ("how we can stop the defence leaking while they stand around watching the All Blacks play").

Next year's World Cup will make rugby a focus in Japan again and both coaches are looking to use that to their advantage. It will also be Kirwan's last year in Japan ("I've got a surfing trip lined up"), and I wouldn't be surprised if Jones took over, simply because their goals for the team are aligned. These are two rugby greats determined to see rugby's minnows succeed.

Some notes that didn't make the story:

• Eddie Jones bought me lunch. I bought JK coffee.
• During the interview JK pointed to a nearby apartment building (in Aoyama) and said he lived near the top. He then said, with the voice of an amazed kiwi in the big city: "it costs $8,000 a month!"
• As we left JK asked where I was heading, then gave exact instructions on how to get there. He even told me to walk down the platform so that when I got out of the train at the other end I'd be near the exit. 
• On the subject of Japanese beer we laughed about the amount of foam served on the top. "I used to pour my old man's beers and if it had that much head I'd get a clip around the ears".

• In the email back and forth before the interview, JK sent me three emails using a total of 13 words. Now that's efficient.
• This article was written in 2010 and I totally nailed that Eddie was going to be the new Japanese coach (I guessed because he explicitly said "no").

The last time I saw JK was during the World Cup in Napier. Japan had just ended a disappointing campaign with a draw against Canada. He was sitting quietly taking the brunt of the Japanese reporters harsh questioning, while joking with the softballs from the New Zealanders.

I think he'll do fine, though by his own admission he'll be coming into an environment where everyone knows rugby, compared to one where it was the third or fourth sport. But I'm sure he'll handle the pressure.