HOW TO IMPROVE MAJOR SPORTS FROM A SPECTATOR AND PLAYER'S POINT OF VIEW

 Dear Readers,

          Here are my ideas.

TENNIS:

          This is one of the most unfair sports there is. Somebody like Argentinean Diago Schwartzman at 1.7 m tall is expected to play on equal terms for the same prize money against somebody like that American giant John Isner at 2.8 m. It’s a game where the taller you are the more likely you are to be able to serve unplayable aces, which is something the little players are seldom able to do in what is the most important part of the game. In other individual sports like boxing and weight lifting competition is evened out by dividing competitors into weight categories, effectively making size nothing like the advantage it is in tennis.

          I believe only ONE SERVE should be allowed. Currently the serve is the only time in tennis when a player has two chances to get the ball in play and as this is the aspect of the game that is so much in favour of tall players restricting it to one shot would help to even the odds. The big servers would then have to be much more circumspect knowing that they can no longer just blast away as hard as they can to begin with as they would no longer have two chances to get it right.

          There should be no LETS (when a served ball hits the top of the net, goes over and still lands in). At the moment if a player hits a ball that clips the top of the net and it goes over and in during normal play they win the point if it is not returned successfully. So why should it be any different for the service.

          The number of times a server can bounce the ball before hitting it should be restricted to TWO. It really is a pain in the but watching the likes of Novak Djokovic bounce the ball seemingly forever before serving.

          Abolish ADVANTAGE. When the score reaches Deuce (40-40) the winner of the next point should take the game. At the moment games can become very tedious bouncing between Deuce and Ad and back again.

“Tennis is psychological sport you have to keep a clear head. That’s why I stopped playing”- Boris Becker.

(Jailed for bankruptcy offences)

GOLF:

          Golfers spend far too much time fiddling with their balls on the greens. Place marking and picking up of balls on the greens should be abolished. Here are some other changes that I believe would make the game more exciting and watchable.

          Players should have to play in the same order that they start a hole until they hole out. If they find they are snookered by another person’s ball when it’s their turn to put on the green they would have to either knock it out of they way with their put or go round it. It would make play on the greens a lot more interesting.

          Lifting of dents made by balls landing on the greens to smooth them out should no longer be allowed.

“Hockey is a sport for white men. Baseball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps.” – Tiger Woods

RUGBY:

          INTERNATIONAL RUGBY has become a game of aimless kicking away of possession, brawn and very little skill. Passing the ball beyond two players is an increasing rarity. As this win at all costs style of play appears to have been developed by the SPRINGBOKS when they won the last World Cup everybody else is doing much the same thing. A lot more should be done to promote a running, passing type of game.

          To encourage try scoring the points for a TRY should be increased to 7 with 3 for a conversion. Penalties should only count for 2 points. BOX KICKING should be banned completely and when the ball comes out of any kind of scrum it should have to be passed through the hands of at least two players before it can be kicked.

          There should be no more penalties or free kicks at set scrums unless foul play is involved. The ref should just let these go on even if they develop into a loose scrum until one side or the other gets the ball. At the moment they are so regulated they destroy the flow of the game and often result in penalties, which are the dreariest part of what is supposed to a running, try scoring sport.

          INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS of today have forgotten that RUGBY was started by William Webb Ellis when he picked up the ball during a football match at Britain’s Rugby School and RAN with it. This aspect of how the game should be played is a lot more evident in school boy rugby than it is at the top.

"You're not going to please everyone, but then, it's not about pleasing people -it's about winning rugby games."-Alun Wyn Jones, International lock forward for Wales and the British and Irish Lions.

This is exactly the attitude the Springboks seem to have adopted.

 SPORT IN GENERAL:

          How many males sporting codes have women as managers or coaches? My bet is there is a handful, if any. Wayde van Niekerk South Africa’s 400 m World Record holder did have a woman coach when he broke the record but now that she is almost 80 he has switched to a man.

          Men should be banned from being managers or coaches in any kind of women’s sport. I can’t understand why women have no yet campaigned for something like this. All kinds of female sports from hockey to tennis and a host of others have men as coaches. The South African women’s cricket team has had a man as a coach (appointed by men no doubt) for 10 years and he was far from being a major star in his playing days. It’s hardly surprising then that the team hasn’t exactly excelled under his leadership.

“The tennis ball doesn’t know how old I am. The ball doesn’t know if I’m man or a woman or if I come from a communist country or not. Sport has always broken down these barriers” – Martina Navratilova

         

          What to do think of my ideas?

          Regards,

          Jon, an Armchair Sportsman of note.