Category: Training

So in Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: Part 17, I talked about basketball and finally wrapped up an altogether too long look at The Big Three sports in America and how they interact with our overall sports system, culture, etc. Primarily it was to show how those sports exist in a ‘system’ more or less identical to most of what’s come before. Massive numbers, huge traditions, access, coaching, incentives. The same story told again and again.

Mainly it was relevant to this overall series because, if they do nothing else, the presence of The Big Three in this country, along with their importance to American sport tends to dilute the talent pool for other sports. All three share certain characteristics in terms of strength, power, explosiveness, etc. to varying degrees and with so many athletes wanting to pursue those sports, that means less great athletes to go into other sports with the same requirements.… Keep Reading

And finally I want to look at the third of the ‘big three’ sports in America and that’s basketball.   Another American invention, basketball is unique in that it is played by many other countries and has been for quite some time.  More relevantly to the overall point of this article series, it has been part of the Olympic program since nearly the beginning.

This allows me to look at the US both in terms of basketball locally in terms of its impact on American sports as a whole as well as the whole sporting dominance thing.  And trust me, you’re going to see  a new definition of dominance in today’s piece.   It’s also, mercifully, shorter than the previous two parts on football and basketball.  Giving nitpickers time to read this.

And with that out of the way, let’s play some Basketball.

How the Game is Played

Basketball is played on a court, generally wooden at most competition levels although many courts are invariably concrete. … Keep Reading

Having looked at football yesterday in Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: Part 15, I want to get the taste of the idea of a French Football League out of my mouth by moving on to baseball which is often referred to as the American Pasttime. Americans invented the game in the early part of the 20th century and people are crazy for it in this country even if it is pretty much dull as dirt to watch.

We have more movies about baseball in this country than I can name and baseball scandals hurt Americans in a way that is hard to describe; as i mentioned we still haven’t gotten over the 80 year old Black Sox Scandal, Pete Rose (aka Charlie Hustle) is a still a pariah for gambling while he was playing and I’m not sure what will happen when the steroid issue is finally resolved.… Keep Reading

Finally, in Part 14 of this mess I finished with my excessive analysis of America and how it perceives sports, finishing with the facts that we dominate the Olympics, measured by the only metric that matters: medal count. Now, I want to look at the big three sports in the US: football, baseball and basketball.   All three are essentially purely American inventions/creations and in each we have systems of development worth discussing in the context of all of what’s gone before.

As well, for reasons I discussed yesterday, each has a tendency (due to massive incentives) to draw a large population of American athletes into them.  There’s a third reason they need to be discussed that applies to the Olympic lifting issue specifically but I’ll get to that shortly.

Of those three, football is an almost exclusively American sport although a handful of other countries do have leagues.  There is no international competition (i.e.… Keep Reading

I promise, no more endless bits about sociology and American sport.    In Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: Part 13 I gave the final necessary background to understand some of the screwiness of sports in this country including a look at gender issues along with the amateur professional issue.  Frankly, given how messed up the system is and given the nature of the Olympics and the requirement for amateur status, it’s amazing that America does anything at the Olympics.  Yet we do.  Quite a lot of something actually.  Let’s start with the American sports ‘system’.

The American No-System Sports  System

As I discussed at some point last week, the US is very decentralized.  The spread of our country, the local pockets of culture, the immigrant nature of our people keeps pretty much everything in this country from having much overall consistency except existing under the same flag.   Case in point, laws can vary drastically between different states. … Keep Reading