Field Theory by Hadyn Green

Somethings I noted about the recording:

1. I recycled my skeleton jokes

2. This is the downhill skating I was referring to

Useful Summer Olympic team sports: rowing.
Useful Winter Olympic team sports: bobsled. Also curling.

'Useful' in what sense?

cure insomnia? :)

whether snowboarding, slope style and other “judged” sports should be in the Olympics

Haven't listened to the recording, but my own view is that any event, summer or winter or anything else, where the judges aren't just there to enforce the rules, is not a sport.

One or two controversies in this games illustrate the point, the most notable being the women's figure skating. There's also been a couple of controversial rule enfocement incidents where the judges have disqualified competitors without explaining why (they don't have to, but it does end up being confusing and causing a lot of heartache and speculation).

Curling maybe. Bobsled is a bit too hairy.

Although curling is the type of sport that would appear in the sort of dream I have when I eat too much cheese before bed: 'it was really weird darling. These people were torturing a roomba by throwing it down an ice rink and then making sure it couldn't do it's job by sweeping everything out of it's path'.

‘Useful’ in what sense?

In the sense of add to the occasion of the Olympics in a way that Hadyn suggested team sports do not.

Ah, ok. Yes, fair point.

Best description of curling, ever.

There's a difference between bobsled, rowing, relay et al. and basketball, soccer and other Olympic team sports. In the former the group are working as a single unit, whereas the latter is a group of individuals.

For example it would be possible for a team to win gold in the soccer even if they were reduced to ten players. This would not be the case for the rowers if they were to lose a crewman. This is not the specific reason we're against them, just an example of why I think there's a difference.

I concur with the Chiefs comment. We were travelling over the Desert Road at night and trying to listen to the commentary on old steam radio--which faded away at the most exciting bits. An excellent victory--but so many injuries!

Ice hockey, I’m told, looks much faster in real life. I’m not sure how. On my large HDTV I was only just able to track the puck and the changes of direction in play were astonihsingly fast, not to mention the shots and (usually) saves. I still have no idea what is going on at most times, but damn it’s a fun sport to watch.

No just me, then. I too have an HDTV and I too was struggling to see where the puck was and and, consequently, what on earth was going on. Obviously, you get better at watching a sport the more you do it, but ice hockey remains a puzzle to me.

Just in case there's anyone who hasn't seen the cat curling video ...

My TV right now is 65" and 4K... I see EVERYTHING O_O

but ice hockey remains a puzzle to me.

...then all one can do is follow Tom Waits' sage advice and '...make like a hockey player and get the puck outta there...'

whereas the latter is a group of individuals.

If all you've got is a group of individuals, you don't have much of a team and you're unlikely to win much of any significance. The Chinese men's basketball team in the 2004 Olympics, for example - largely reliant on Yao Ming. Didn't win gold.

That is a sweet TV for watching ice hockey. Watched the Finland/USA bronze medal game and marvelled at how much better it was than last time I watched hockey - which was on a 32" CRT.

Probably needs Peter Jackson to shoot it at 48 fps before the puck is truly easy to follow, but the secret (imho) is to watch the game not the puck. It is what the players do ahead of the play, anticipating the puck, which defines the action, and despite the apparent swirling chaos it is a pretty structured game.

Watching hockey takes a sort of muscle memory. You learn what to watch for - body postures, passes, awareness of lines, etc - so that you're not frantically scanning for the puck. But even then, I had to watch a bunch of replays of the mens' gold medal game in Vancouver to see what actually happened when Crosby ended it.

have they tried brightly-coloured telly-friendly pucks?

They'e tried a few different things to try and crack the tv market:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FoxTrax

but

http://ictvictor.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/foxtrax-puck-tracking-failure/

and

but most fans say it hasn't worked.

and there were a few to choose from

Looking at those faces it occurs to me that you could not do that sport if you'd had botox on the forehead.

My TV right now is 65” and 4K… I see EVERYTHING O_O

pfffft 2.8m screen with projector.

It's so big even my partner enjoys* sport on it.

*tolerates

The Russians would go on to lose in any case (far more entertaining was the bronze medal match between the US and Finland: Suomi voitti).

You're nuts. The game went into overtime and then umpteen rounds in the shootout after teams were tied after 3 shooters. The Americans kept on putting TJ Oshie out there to take their shots and he scored four times on the shootout and made himself a national hero. Best game of the tournament apart from the USA-Canada womens final.

The whole game had an undertone because it was a replay of The Miracle game from the 1980 Olympics when US college amateurs beat the Russian team and went on to win gold.

You don't follow ice hockey by trying to see the puck, it's too small. Watch where the players skate and you'll soon figure out what's happening with 3 inches of rubber.

It's even faster when you're on the ice.

You can watch the NZ league livestream here: http://new.livestream.com/nzihl.