Professionals register now to create your own content and profile, and gain other potential financial, networking and marketing benefits.
Consumers (athletes, enthusiasts) use our quick registration to enhance your experience of the site
Rob Robson's Blog: Sport and.. ..stuff.
My blog is mostly comment on what's going on in sport, but with other things thrown in...
Spanish Star Etxeberria Signs a New Contract - To Play for Free
For a sport better noted for its greed than its good, it was wonderfully refreshing today to read about Spanish international midfielder Joseba Etxeberria who has signed up for one final season (his 15th) with Athletic Bilbao - and will play for free!Exteberria (31), who joined as a 17 year old, has represented Spain at three major championships, and should play his 500th game for the club, wanted to give something back to the fans. Athletic's president Fernando Garcia Macua said of the gesture: "From the club's standpoint there are not words enough to thank such a gesture."
Here's the full story from the BBC.
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
18106 views (and counting) for a blog post on iStadia? How?
What did I do to get 18106 views for my post on Michael Phelps, when most only get into the hundreds?1) I chose a topic that was guaranteed to be a popular search term
2) I wrote about it early (in the run up to the Olympics) - you can't always predict hot topics but you can get in on the act early on
3) I made sure that keywords were in the title, text and tags
4) I started with an introductory sentence, and not with a link or image.
5) I included a photo with a description and title (this seems to help - it may be that the post shows up for google images searches).
6) I bookmarked my post extensively - I use socialmarker.com
7) Forgot to mention this firs time round - as a Premium Plus* member my latest blogs appear on my profile, which keeps my profile more 'current', brings the search engine spiders back more often, and in turn means my blogs get crawled more quickly. (*This is also true of Premium members)
You don't always have to blog about your area of expertise - just something that captures your interest, and might serve as a 'bridge' to help members of the public to find YOU. Include a link in your signature to your own website, or to your profile and you will find that your blog posts generate traffic.
This post won't get many hits. Why?
1) The title doesn't have popular keywords in it.
2) I've not bookmarked it.
3) The tags and keywords I have used are very competitive and generic
and probably many other reasons.
But what's important is that you've read it, and I hope you found it useful.
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Director of Football: The end of Football Management as we know it?
This week has seen two managers from the English Premier League, Alan Curbishley and Kevin Keegan, leave their clubs (West Ham and Newcastle United, respectively) quit their posts. In both cases the issue appears to be their loss of control over transfers, and perhaps other aspects of the club management.
This has caused a great deal of debate about management, and the role of the Director of Football in particular. Both Curbishley and Keegan had been working in a structure that included a Director of Football. Both are very experienced managers. Importantly both were in position when Directors were appointed 'above' them.
Both men were used to running the football side of the club.
They reported into the board. They had a backroom team, including an assistant manager, that reported to them. Then, they found that their powers were diminished by the appointment of another man, a Director of Football, who took some of their resonsibilities from them.So what is a Director of Football? Dave Bassett, a long-time football manager, described the role as
" ..... a buffer. The director of football is answerable to the board but there to assist the manager. He's experienced in football and there to help the board members who don't have that experience." (Source: Wikipedia)
This description, for me, captures one of the key problems that occurs when a Director of Football is introduced into a British club, particularly when there is an incumbent manager. Fundamentally, the Director of Football should not be there to "assist" the manager, but to manage the football division or function of the club (including "the manager"). Because of changes in the game, professional football clubs are now complex organisations, with huge commercial and match-day operations. One might argue, therefore, that there is a need to create an executive team, like any large corporate, that works together to create and deliver the whole organisation's strategy, who manager their function "down the line". In this respect, the Director of Football should be the equal of, say, the Finance Director, or the Operations Director and creates the Football Strategy. This should include such things as setting the strategic direction for coaching, talent identification, recruitment (transfers) and youth development (the academy).
Different clubs will define the role of the Director of Football and the head coach, or manager, differently, and I would argue that it doesn't matter what titles you use. But one thing should be clear, the manager reports to the DoF. You simply cannot have any confusion, as there seems to have been at both West Ham and Newcastle.
What this says is that the role of manager is also different. They no longerr report straight to the chairman. They don't set the overall strategy, necessarily. They don't oversee the academy, the scouts, and they may not negotiate contracts.
But they might. They might have the final say on who is recruited. They should have some say. After all, they have to manage the team's performance. Just like when I was recruited I was interviewed by my prosective manager, and by her line manager - but my line manager ultimately has to manage me and probably, therfore, made the ultimate decision.
What absolutely must be clear, however, is where the accountabilities and responsibilities lie. Someone has to make the decisions. In my experience, the person that will "get it in the neck" if the decision is wrong, must be allowed to make it.
The relationship must also work to the advantage of the club, too. This is why it ultimately needs to be a manager-report relationship. That does not mean that it should not be collaborative, open and even friendly. It simply means that ultimately, someone is in charge. I would imagine that both Curbishley and Keegan would have a problem with this, and understandably so with their experience, especially given the retrospective nature of the changes made at their clubs.
So, is there a place in the modern game for the likes of Curbishley or Keegan? The manager that does it all?
I'm going to stick my neck out and say no. Not in a top professional cub. I don't think that a senior football manager, whatever you call them, can do everything from strategy setting to coaching the team and leading them out on matchday.
In every career path you have to make a choice. Are you a manager or a doer? To take the step to the strategic level, every manager has to put behind them - at some point - the hands-on skills that got them where they are. In management, it is often the things that mark you out as sucessful at the start of your career that can get in the way of success as you progress. In a large, complex footballing operation I believe that's a choice that has to be made. You can be a coach (maybe the equivalent to a middle manager, as you also have reports - the coaches and players, maybe support staff), or you can truly become a senior manager.
Indeed, that's what Alex Ferguson is. When Carlos Quieroz was assistant manager, Sir Alex left first team training to him. Yes, he took charge on match day, but he'll have made decisions using the input from his "operational" assistant manager. Call them Director of Football and Head Coach, if you like. Sir Alex manages transfers, and built the struture that has become one of the most productive football factories in modern times. But he doesn't do anything.
At lower levels, even in the professional game, I don't think the complexity is there to necessitate having a Director of Football. In many ways the lower tiers of professional games are the SMEs to the corporates that top the Premier League.
So, the football manager isn't dead. Every club needs someone to manage the football operation. Different clubs will use different models. Director of Football and Head Coach, Manager and Assistant Manager, Director of Football and Manager. It isn't the model that ultimately matters, so much as the implementation. And that's what Newcastle and West Ham got wrong.
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Steve McLaren's fake Dutch accent :)
I know that this is a fairly serious website, and we tend to talk in earnest about sport and exercise, but let us savour for a moment, the joy of Steve McLaren's fake Dutch accent.For those who don't know, Steve McLaren was the England football manager after Sven Goran Eriksson, and was dubbed "The Wally with the Brolly" ater failing to reach Euro 2008. He returned to football management this summer with dutch side FC Twente.
In a matter of weeks, he appears to have picked up a comedy Dutch accent and started speakign in broken English.
This really is fantastic.
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Does a race get any closer than this?
You know who..Here's the finish from the 100m butterfly in Beijing (Michael Phelps vs Milorad Cavic). That's a horrible finish from the Serb. Threw it away.
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Michael Phelps: The Debate
Today, the world's media reported Michael Phelps as the "Greatest Ever Olympian'. The debate that exploded on message boards all over the web meant that by the evening the words were toned down somewhat, at least in some courts, so that he was simply "statistically, the most successful Olympian" or "the most medalled Olympian".
It's been really odd guaging people's responses to this great achievement. Part awe, part incredulity. To some, he's the greatest athlete to have lived. To others, simply evidence that there are too many medals to be won in swimming.
Some of the arguments, on both sides, have been ridiculous. I've read that if in athletics, they created more ways of running inefficiently over the same distances (referring to the different strokes) the likes of Carl Lewis (a controversial choice anyway) would have won more medals. I've read that the fact that track athletes specialise in one or two events means that swimming is just swimming - there's no real specialism involved.
I've heard that (and a lot of the debate has focused on swiming versus athletics or rowing) because rowers race over 2000m, that it must be harder (surely that's dependent on the intensity over time, not distance).
On the other hand, I've heard that athletes and rowers are soft for not doing more events. That their specialisation is down to their limitations, or perhaps the belief system within their sport.
What is apparent is that Michael Phelps' achievements seem to have devalued the sport of swimming in some people's eyes. He makes it look too easy, therefore everyone else must be rubbish. Someone can't stand out like that unless there's a weakness in the competition, can they?
That's what gets me. Yes, Phelps has more opportunities to win gold than most other athletes at the games. That's partly down to the structure of the sport, with different strokes and distances. But it is also down to the man. He's been blessed with physical attributes that suggest that he was born to swim, but he's also a 365-day-a-year trainer. He's focused his attention on events where the competition is greatest (choosing the 200m freestyle when Thorpe was stil dominant). He's ironed out the weaknesses in his repertoire - such as his breakstroke.
We've seen some remarkable swimming this week. From Kosuke Katijima in the 100m breastroke, to Stephanie Rice in the 400 IM, there have been a number of barrier-breaking swims. I'm not talking about the suits, either, which haven't helped by taking the focus off the quality of the swimming. I think that in part Phelps has helped to raise the bar, not just in his own events, but for all. I think people's beliefs about what is possible have been shifted, in part because of his performances. The fact is that, new suits or not, just when he looks like he must have reached his peak (or his competitors think they are closing the gap), he keeps pushing on.
It's ironic. Before the games I was talking about how swimming has so much depth. It is a sport that is really competitive on a global level. There are no weak finalists. I'm not going to compare apples with pears, and as tempting as it is to suggest that that the eighth placed performer in many events will be way off the pace, that would be unfair and maybe inaccurate.
However, we are in the ironic position that people are suggesting that it is too easy to win medals in swimming. Try telling that to the many swimmers who have come away with national, even continental and world records (or at least have beaten the old mark) and no medal....
So who is the greatest ever Olympian?
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Team GB's Olympic Games By The Numbers
Over the next 16 days, 312 British athletes will run, swim, fight, ride, jump, row, paddle, sail, dive, shoot, throw, serve, tumble, play and lift their all in the name of Team GB.Here we bring you a selection of statistics from the upcoming festival of sport …
70,000 is the amount in pounds that it costs to transport Team GB’s sailing boats to Beijing and back.
6,519 athletes have represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games before the start of
Beijing 2008.
2008 At eight minutes past eight o’clock on the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of the new millennium, the Opening Ceremony for the Beijing Olympic Games began. It may not surprise you to learn that eight is considered a lucky number in China.
313 members named in Team GB for the Games in China.
312 athletes in the GB squad once the Olympic flame was lit on Friday evening (August 8). Boxer Frankie Gavin left the team after failing to make the weight for the lightweight competition.
110 kilogrammes of weight for Britain’s heaviest competitor, boxer David Price. Perhaps unsurprisingly he will contest the super heavyweight category.
92 items of Team GB kit were provided by adidas for each British athlete.
75 per cent of gold medallists over the last five Olympic Games failed to win a medal in their first Games. Experience counts.
60 millimetres in diameter is the minimum that an Olympic medal can be.
54 years and three days is the age of John Whitaker on the day of the Opening Ceremony for Beijing 2008 (August 8). He is Britain's oldest competitor.
37.5 kilogrammes is how much gymnast Hannah Whelan weighs. She is the lightest athlete in Team GB.
20 of the 28 sports represented at Beijing 2008 will be contested by British athletes. The sports Team GB will not compete in are: table tennis, wrestling, football, basketball, volleyball, handball, softball and baseball.
14 years and 82 days. The age Britain’s youngest competitor, Tom Daley, will be when he dives for the first time in the Olympic Games on Monday 11 August.
10 metres is the height of the platform from which Daley and his British diving team-mates Blake Aldridge, Tonia Couch, Stacie Powell and Pete Waterfield will plunge during competition, hitting the water at around 35 miles per hour on each occasion.
9 gold medals, and nine silvers, for Great Britain in the last Olympic Games, in Athens in 2004. Team GB also picked up 12 bronze medals.
8 British boxers qualified for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, compared to two in Sydney 2000 and one in Athens four years ago. Only seven will compete following Frankie Gavin’s withdrawal.
7 point 26 kilogrammes is the weight of the shot and the hammer in men’s field events. Team GB do not have an athlete entered in either event.
6 storeys of an apartment block at the Olympic Village have been taken over by Team GB for the duration of the Olympic Games.
5 British athletes will be competing in their fifth Olympic Games in Beijing. They are: Mark Foster (swimming), Mary King (equestrian), John Whitaker (equestrian), Michael Whitaker (equestrian), Alison Williamson (archery).
4 Team GB has four athletes in the canoe flatwater/sprint event. They are: Tim Brabants, Anna Hemmings, Lucy Wainwright and Jessica Walker.
3 Sets of brothers are competing for Team GB in China – Richard & Simon Mantell (hockey), Andy & Jamie Murray (tennis) and John & Michael Whitaker (equestrian). There are no sisters in the squad.
3 medals for GB’s most decorated Olympian competing in China. Sailor Ben Ainslie has previously won two golds (at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004) and one silver (Atlanta 1996).
2 metres, seven centimetres is the height of rower Josh West, the tallest athlete in the British team.
1 athlete of each sex representing Team GB in the new Olympic discipline of BMX. Liam Phillips and double World Champion Shanaze Reade will be pedalling for the medals.
0 Olympic Games – summer and winter – that have not been attended by Team GB since the modern Games began in 1896.
0 Olympic Games will take place between the end of Beijing 2008 on August 24, and the start of London 2012 on July 27, 2012.
Source: British Oympic Association
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
When home advantage goes bad (or "The curse of expectation")
Du Li, the defending champion in the women's 10m air rifle shooting fled the arena in tears, after only manging 5th place (in an event won by Katerina Emmons of the Czech republic.Li blamed the pressure of competing at home for her failure in the competition saying, "she wasn't fully prepared for the pressure of competing at home". Expectations can be very tough to deal with.
I wonder how many Chinese athletes will be affected like this and, importantly, how many non-Chinese athletes will be free by the lack of expectation in many events?
(On a different note, I read the story this week of how Katerina met her husband Matt Emmons of the US, by consoling him after he missed out on his second gold in Athens - by hitting someone else's target when all he needed to do was make any kind of a hit on his own. D'oh!)
--
Discuss this in the Olympic forum, or why not start your own blog by signing up?
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Should the Olympic Team have medal targets?
The UK's Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, has helpfully pointed out in the week before the Olympics, that "it is vital" that Team GB hits its target of 41 medals.But wait a minute, who's target is this? Team GB is selected by the British Olympic Association. I don't believe that the government has any mandate to set targets for them. Certainly the BOA's chef de mission, Simon Clegg, wasn't going to put a number on their target for the games.
UK Sport is the government body responsible for creating high performance in British Sport. They are funded almost exactly 50/50 by the exchequer and the lottery. So, fair enough, they should have targets. They've stated a target of 35 medals. Then again UK Sport don't manage the Olympic Team.
But the problem with putting a target on medals is that, ultimately, no-one can be responsible for hitting it. Neither Simon Clegg nor Liz Nicholl (Uk Sport Director of Performance) can get out on the track and win the medals. Neither can their staff. This isn't like a 'normal' organisation, where the organisation's targets can be cascaded and broken down into smart goals for all employees. Nope, no matter what the rest of the organisation does, on the day it is down to who goes fastest, jumps furthest, scores the most points...
None of the athletes will need any additional motivation to succeed. Those that have the slimmest chance of a medal will be absolutely determined to take whatever chance they get. After all, this is what the last four years has been about. And every one of them will want Team GB to do its absolute best too. No doubt about that. But none of them can control the outcome of their event. They can only control the level of their own performance
So really, Sutcliffe's target is utterly irrelevant, except to himself and his fellow ministers. All it really says is "we know nothing about sport" and "we know even less about motivation". Just like they are killing schools, councils and NHS trusts with targets, given the opportunity they would do the same with elite sport. Pump a load of money in and tie everyone up in targets. What a waste.
Luckily most of the athletes and coaches will be strong enough to treat Sutcliffe's comments with the indifference that they deserve, and if they aren't they'll probably be too busy preparing to notice.
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Google Knol
I always advocate publishing content (articles, blogs) on multiple web platforms, to really put it work as a marketing tool, so when I heard about Google Knol I was immediately interested.A 'Knol' is, according to Google, a unit of knowledge. Essentially Google Knol is a collection of articles, but the twist is that is that you can allow other users to edit your own 'Knols', either moderated or unmoderated.
One would imagine that Google are unlikely to let their own content-driven product fall down its search rankings, so it is worth having a go, even though there are a few problems to be ironed out (e.g. people not finding their knols). Of course, you can embed links to your own site/blog, which may prove to be the biggest point of value.
I've created a profile and a few knols, using my content from iStadia (listed below). It will be interesting to see how they perform.
Professional Networking and CPD
IReversal Theory
Goal Setting
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
