Category Archives: Sport and Leisure

Time for a quick advert: Phelia boost to Music for Christian Aid

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Marshalswick Baptist Free Church, in Sherwood Avenue, St Albans, is – once again – the venue for St Albans Music Club’s annual concert to raise funds for the charity, Christian Aid. The concert takes place at the church from 7.30pm on Saturday 11th May.

 

St Albans’ recent singing sensation, Phelia – also known as The Singing Mums – make their Music Club debut in this concert, singing alongside Angharad Little (mezzo soprano), Roy Butlin (bass-baritone) and the tenor, Robert Little. Other performers include Valerie Harden (trumpet), Rachel Flint (cello), John Falk, Mark Smith and Mark Slater (piano).

 

The concert’s wide-ranging programme of popular pieces includes items by Giuseppe Verdi and Benjamin Britten — to commemorate the 200th and 100th anniversaries of the birth of these composers respectively.

 

Admission to the concert is free but there will be a retiring collection for the work of Christian Aid. Please come along if you can.

Let the games begin

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Plato once said that: ‘you can learn more about a man in an hour of play than in a year of conversation’. If that’s true, we’re going to learn a great deal during the forthcoming Olympic Games in London.

 

Educators (including L&D professionals) should be interested in using games – especially those known as ‘serious games’ – because they can improve learners’ performance and their awareness of their role. They can also help in competency testing, assessing the return on investment in learning, assessing would-be recruits and so on. There’s more to games based learning than having fun – but that’s not a bad start.

 

Learners, too, should be interested in using games to give them shortcuts to acquiring knowledge and skills – and, in the case of simulations, vicarious experience. Many years after Plato, when Isaac Newton was asked why he was so clever, he replied that it was because he ‘stood on the shoulders of giants’. In other words, he claimed to be merely building on the discoveries of those clever individuals who had lived in earlier times. Discovery through playing serious games offers learners similar benefits.

 

Although most games have something to do with power (and to learn more about this aspect of gaming, you could read James Paul Gee’s book, ‘What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy’, which sets out these lessons in 36 principles) people tend to play games for fun – as a source of enjoyment and to experience the release of endorphins at the moment of triumph, when we learn something or master a task.

 

This is intrinsic to our DNA. Humans have always had to learn in order to survive – and experiencing the release of endorphins is a reward for this. That’s why we like to have games to play and puzzles to solve. Exploring possibilities leads to a learning process. Games are pre-defined ‘problem spaces’ – and solving problems gives us satisfaction.

 

Game based learning problems need to be authentic and relevant. What you do – or don’t do – in one of these games should have an obvious and meaningful effect on the game. One of the key characteristics of games based learning in a ‘corporate context’ is that it should be highly experiential, relevant, meaningful and authentic. These games should give learners virtual experience which can be transferred to the real workplace.

 

Making the case for using games and simulations is no different from the L&D professional’s standard dilemma: how do you ensure that the learners learn what they need to learn? Just because 50 per cent of people play games, it doesn’t follow that 50 per cent of your organisation’s staff will want to play the game you make available for them to play. Moreover, just because you put ‘learning’ into a game doesn’t mean that people will learn more effectively through playing it. And, although playing a game teaches you how to play the game, maybe teamworking is its only transferable skill – and that might be taught more cost-effectively through attending one of the many teamwork training events fronted by, for example, former Olympians.

 

The theories of Kolb and Fry (1975) on how learners learn outline a four stage cyclical process comprising concrete experience, observation and reflection, forming abstract concepts and testing new situations. In today’s technology-enhanced learning world, we need to take additional account of the interplay of:

  • The impact of online learning and
  • Reflection and conceptualisation – in the ‘internal’ world,
  • The virtual world,
  • The external world and
  • The real world

 

Maybe having the chance to ponder these and other games-related learning issues will justify all those hours we’ll be spending watching the Olympics.

Waste King helps football club to achieve its goals

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St Margaretsbury FC first team with one of their goals, partly funded by Waste King.

The specialist collections, clearance and recycling company, Waste King, has contributed funds towards goals and other equipment at St Margaretsbury Football Club. Its donation – part of the company’s on-going corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitment – was prompted by a request from John Waites, of London-based City Interiors, who is connected with St Margaretsbury Football Club and whose company regularly uses Waste King’s services.

 

Waste King’s managing director, Glenn Currie, commented: “We spend much of our working lives collecting and recycling things and preventing them going to waste. In a way, our support for St Margaretsbury FC is based on a similar premise because, after 118 years of providing opportunities in its locality for people to play football, it would be disappointing to see such a valuable local resource go to waste because of a lack of up-to-date resources.”

 

The football club, based in Stanstead Abbotts – and originally called ‘Stanstead Abbotts’ when it was formed in 1894 – moved to its current headquarters and changed its name in 1962. The club’s Chairman, Gary Stock, commented: “The club couldn’t enjoy its level of facilities without help from such people as Waste King.”

Comment: In these challenging economic times, it’s encouraging to see any example of CSR – especially when the support or sponsorship is not reciprocal but altruistic. It’s just another example of ‘The Big Society’ – but one for which the Government can take no particular credit.

Book Review (number 3)

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This book review has been prepared for the Baptist Minister’s Journal.

 

Dynamics of a Journey to Conflict Prevention and Peace in Israel and Palestine through an Olympic Sport

By Geoffrey Victor Whitfield

Published by: Emeth Press

ISBN: 978-1-60947-025-8

The ‘Baptist minister and therapist’, the Rev Geoffrey Whitfield MBE is no stranger to writing about the Israel/ Palestinian conflict. His previous books include: “Amity in the Middle East” (2006), “Roots of Terrorism in Israel and Palestine” (2007) and “Israeli And Palestinian Terrorism: The ‘Unintentional’ Agents” (2009). This time, he’s eschewed a pithy title for something more all-encompassingly descriptive.

 

The book chronicles a ‘conflict prevention scheme’ which emerged over nine years from a casual conversation and has grown – as these things can do – into an on-going international cross-community annual event. Eventually entitled ‘World Sports Peace Project’ (WSPP), its foundation was set in the village of Ibillin, in northern Israel, and in Bethlehem, in the West Bank.

 

The World Sports Peace Project.

The key ingredients in this scheme are young people and football. In setting out this case study in successful cross-cultural relations, the book outlines a model to enable the development and management of similar initiatives, so that they become embedded in the community and ‘owned’ by those involved.

 

There would have been no point in writing the book if everything about the scheme had been straightforward. Bringing together a complex assortment of cultures, value systems, organisations, individual and corporate interests involves a high degree of diplomacy – and acceptance when things don’t turn out exactly as had been hoped.

 

All this adds both spice and pace to the narrative which is a welcome addition to the growing wealth of literature on practical approaches to conflict resolution.

 

Whitfield’s idea was to create a football project where young Arabs and Jews in Israel and Palestine could play together in mixed teams against mixed teams. So, to win, team members must put aside previous prejudices, combining skills and energies to achieve their common objective. The political implications of this sporting maxim are obvious – as are the longer term potential benefits for both the Arab and Jewish communities.

 

Carefully combining idealism and realism, Whitfield’s account is inspirational as a story of developing positive relationships in a conflict-ridden area. It’s also instructive because it outlines how to develop an organisation from modest beginnings into being a significant player on the international stage.

 

Few of the book’s readers will be working in as culturally sensitive a situation as Whitfield describes but they can take heart in the knowledge that, if it can be done successfully in the Middle East, it should be able to be done successfully anywhere.

 

By Bob Little

Shostakovich’s favourite tenor

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Edgar Evans, as Hermann in Tchaikovsky's opera, The Queen of Spades.

Who was Shostakovich’s favourite tenor in the role of Zinovy, in his opera, Katerina Ismailova? Which world famous tenor urinated – unintentionally – on his dresser? And who did the world famous soprano, Marilyn Horne, ask to play with her breasts one day on the Covent Garden stage?

 

The answers – along with a great many other things – are revealed in ‘Edgar Evans – Extempore’, an e-book version of which has just been published (price £4.97) by The Endless Bookcase. The book is the biography of one of the founder principal singers of the Royal Opera, at Covent Garden, after the War. The book reveals what national and international artistic life was like in the 25 or so years after the War and contains a number of fascinating anecdotes about famous people of the day set against a colourful local historic background. At least, that’s what the publishers say and, as the book’s author, I couldn’t possibly begin to disagree.

 

For more details of the e-book, visit: http://www.theendlessbookcase.com/shop/products-page/ebooklet/edgar-evans-extempore/

Secrets of singing revealed by e-book

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A cartoon of Bob Little drawn by the celebrated US cartoonist, Mark Penta.

All football or rugby supporters appear to have strong views on who should ‘manage’ and who should ‘captain’ their team. Evidence, over time, from these sporting worlds suggests that very few ‘great players’ go on to make ‘great managers’. Instead, most of the successful managers weren’t outstanding players.

The good player, or performer, needs the skills to read a game or a situation and make the right tactical and technical choices. The good manager needs the skills to engage and motivate the team – and lead it to success. To be a good – let alone great – manager means being able to build a team and earn their respect by knowing the tactics and technicalities even if you don’t have to use them in practical situations.

The same is true, not just in team sport and business but also in the arts – notably singing in the classical/romantic bel canto style.

Some of the greatest singing teachers have not been great performers. One such was the Italian teacher, Luigi Ricci, who taught – among others – the world famous bass-baritone, Tito Gobbi, and the Welsh tenor, Edgar Evans, who sang for some 30 years as a principal tenor at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

Over the years, Edgar passed on the technique that he had learnt. As one of his pupils, I have now encapsulated that technique into an e-book, which is available from The Endless Bookcase (http://bit.ly/tFnis7) and the Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sofa-Professional-Opera-Singer-ebook/dp/B006N9LCSG/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_2) websites.

The book has already attracted some highly positive reviews – from people who should know what they’re talking about – and, at £3.68, it won’t break the bank for any aspiring singer. However, if you think it might, then write to me – at bob.little@boblittlepr.com – and I’ll send you a code which will allow you 20 per cent off the purchase price of the book via The Endless Bookcase. The code is valid until midnight on 31st December 2011.

Comments (by others):

‘This book is both practical and wonderfully inspirational.’ Professor Frank Banks, of The Open University.

‘This book will surely be a source of encouragement and a useful guide for the aspiring singer.’ John Falk, retired but, formerly, Assistant Director of Studies and Head of Student Services at Trinity College of Music in London.

‘Read this book and you are likely to catch the singing fever! I heartily recommend it.’ Margaret Johnson, vocal coach and musical director of the Putteridge Bury Gilbert & Sullivan Society including being musical director for the Society’s production at the 2011 International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, in Buxton, Derbyshire.

‘Bob Little delivers a comprehensive yet accessible work for the interested observer as well as the aspirant performer.’ Stuart Nurse, professional actor.

Secrets of singing revealed by e-book

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A cartoon of Bob Little, drawn by the celebrated US cartoonist, Mark Penta.

All football or rugby supporters appear to have strong views on who should ‘manage’ and who should ‘captain’ their team. Evidence, over time, from these sporting worlds suggests that very few ‘great players’ go on to make ‘great managers’. Instead, most of the successful managers weren’t outstanding players.

The good player, or performer, needs the skills to read a game or a situation and make the right tactical and technical choices. The good manager needs the skills to engage and motivate the team – and lead it to success. To be a good – let alone great – manager means being able to build a team and earn their respect by knowing the tactics and technicalities even if you don’t have to use them in practical situations.

The same is true, not just in team sport and business but also in the arts – notably singing in the classical/romantic bel canto style.

Some of the greatest singing teachers have not been great performers. One such was the Italian teacher, Luigi Ricci, who taught – among others – the world famous bass-baritone, Tito Gobbi, and the Welsh tenor, Edgar Evans, who sang for some 30 years as a principal tenor at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

Over the years, Edgar passed on the technique that he had learnt. As one of his pupils, I have now encapsulated that technique into an e-book, which is available from The Endless Bookcase (http://bit.ly/tFnis7) and the Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sofa-Professional-Opera-Singer-ebook/dp/B006N9LCSG/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_2) websites.

The book has already attracted some highly positive reviews – from people who should know what they’re talking about – and, at £3.68, it won’t break the bank for any aspiring singer. However, if you think it might, then write to me – at bob.little@boblittlepr.com – and I’ll send you a code which will allow you 20 per cent off the purchase price of the book via The Endless Bookcase. The code is valid until midnight on 31st December 2011.

Comments (by others):

‘This book is both practical and wonderfully inspirational.’ Professor Frank Banks, of The Open University.

‘This book will surely be a source of encouragement and a useful guide for the aspiring singer.’ John Falk, retired but, formerly, Assistant Director of Studies and Head of Student Services at Trinity College of Music in London.

‘Read this book and you are likely to catch the singing fever! I heartily recommend it.’ Margaret Johnson, vocal coach and musical director of the Putteridge Bury Gilbert & Sullivan Society including being musical director for the Society’s production at the 2011 International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, in Buxton, Derbyshire.

‘Bob Little delivers a comprehensive yet accessible work for the interested observer as well as the aspirant performer.’ Stuart Nurse, professional actor.

A sense of perspective

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To continue the financial comparison between football and e-learning in this country (see

‘E-learning versus football’ below), Sky has revealed that English Premier League clubs spent £485m during the recent summer transfer window. Spending by the 20 English top-flight clubs was up £120m, or 33%, on last summer’s outlay. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United each topped £50m of transfer spending this summer. Moreover, Manchester United reported a record annual operating profit of £110.9m on revenues of £334.1m.

 

Oddly enough, Learning Light’s report on the UK e-learning industry, published at the end of last year, reported that, at most, the UK e-learning industry was turning over some £472m a year. Moreover, the sector had only grown by eight per cent over the previous year.

 

So the Premier League clubs – by themselves – have spent slightly more money in buying and selling players this summer than the whole of the UK e-learning sector is turning over in a year. It sort of ‘puts it all into perspective’, doesn’t it?

E-learning versus football

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To coincide with the start of the (association) football season in Europe, Forbes – a leading source for business news and financial information – has revealed that the sport’s ten highest paid players are, currently: David Beckham ($40m a year), Christiano Ronaldo ($38m), Lional Messai ($32m), Ricardo Kaka ($25m), Ronaldinho ($24m), Theirry Henry ($24m), Wayne Rooney ($20m), Frank Lampard ($17m), Zlatan Ibrahimovic ($17m) and Samuel Eto’o ($15m).

 

Of course, these figures include the player’s salary, bonuses and endorsements.

 

Comment: About this time last year IT Training magazine published its annual ‘top ten’ tables – in terms of annual revenue – for UK bespoke e-learning content developers and off-the-shelf generic content providers (globally), along with the top five authoring tool providers and the top five LMS/LCMS providers. As far as the bespoke content producers were concerned, Line (£7.05m), Kineo (£5.20m) and Epic (£5.15m) occupied the top three places. They were all some way ahead of the rest.

 

In terms of off-the-shelf e-learning content providers, SkillSoft, with global revenues of £207.25m, was by far the world’s leading producer. Its nearest rival – Element K – generated a mere £42.76m. Element K also featured in the LMS/LCMS providers table, with revenue of some £10.53m. However, Saba – like SkillSoft in the generic content table – was in the lead, with revenues of £72.06m.

 

So, assuming that there has been no dramatic changes in turnover among e-learning (and related) companies in the past year:

  • The largest of the UK’s bespoke content developers (Line) generates about as much income in a year as Samuel Eto’o does by himself.
  • SkillSoft, alone of all the off-the-shelf content providers, is the only organisation in the e-learning sector which is worth more than the top ten footballers put together. So, if it ever wanted to change industries and own a football team, it stands a fair chance of success.
  • Saba – if it so chose – could just about ‘buy’ Ronaldinho, Theirry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Samuel Eto’o (but a team of six, as Arsene Wenger’s ten-man Arsenal proved recently while losing 8 – 2 to Manchester United, is unlikely to be competitive).

 

All in all, it might seem that it’s more lucrative to be a top footballer than an e-learning professional – even if lifetime earnings are taken into account.

 

Might that also mean that football is not just a more popular but also a more important activity than corporate learning and development? That’s an altogether more sobering thought. Were it to be debated in the Oxford Union (which has held some high profile debates on e-learning during the past two years), the outcome may well not be in favour of e-learning.

The religion of sport

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Among the key indicators of an economic downturn is that people become more obsessed than ever with sport. The Depression Years in the late 1920s and into the 1930s saw baseball’s popularity soar in America, as did cricket’s within the British Empire – while boxing grew a worldwide following, along with other sports.

 

While sport – especially football – has never quite lost that ‘special’ place in civilisation’s heart, the last year or so has seen sport’s influence and importance grow again. It’s not just the sporting action of the recent Ashes series, or the World Athletics Championships, the Formula One world, Wimbledon, golf, rugby and, of course, the ever-present football that captures our hearts and minds. There’s the politics and intrigues that go on behind the scenes. As with the Depression Years, sport is now attracting its share of fraudsters: the Allen Stanford saga in England and West Indies cricket, and the recent Harlequins’ ‘fake blood injury’ incident for example.

 

As cross-cultural communications expert Richard D Lewis has asked: ’Is sport becoming the dominant human activity? Does it involve and influence human life more than religion, commerce, politics or even war?’

 

Along with travel, sport is the world’s fastest growing industry, claims Lewis. That we are obsessed with sport is undeniable. One game – football – has more adherents worldwide than all of the world’s religions put together. Indeed, says Lewis, we could say that football has assumed the mantle of a global religion, complete with credos, codes of conduct, sins (fouls), saints (Ronaldo, Cantona and so on), gods (Pele, Beckenbauer and Maradona) – and millions of disciples. There is even a Church of Maradona in South America – created by fans of the retired Argentine football player Diego Maradona whom they believe to be the best player of all time. It was founded on 30th October 1998 (Maradona’s 38th birthday) in the city of Rosario. They now, reportedly, claim to have over 100,000 members from more than 60 countries around the world.
Other sports have ‘gods’ too. Golf has its Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Tennis has Roger Federer and Rod Laver. Cricket claims Don Bradman, W G Grace and, in India especially, Sachin Tendulkar. In cycling, there’s Lance Armstrong and Eddie Merckx. Baseball has Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio. Boxing celebrates Mohammed Ali and Joe Louis, and so on.

 

If sport is a world culture in itself, it is also affected by national cultures, which have their own preferences and quirks. This raises such questions as:

  • Why has football a wider appeal than any other game?
  • Why do the English see cricket as a way of life and how is it that disparate nations such as India, Pakistan, Australia and the Caribbean countries agree with them?
  • Why are Americans obsessed with cricket’s watered-down version (baseball) while New Zealand and Australia are rugby-crazy?
  • Why does bull-fighting still appeal to some Spaniards, cock-fighting to the Cubans and tossing the caber to the Scots?
  • How is it that the Tour de France mesmerizes the French and the Italians for three long weeks?
  • Why is Portugal the strongest country in roller hockey?
  • Why do Japanese soccer players want to pass the ball to older players?
  • Why do the Finns (a reticent people) excel in long distance running and skiing, rally driving and Formula One?
  • Why do they top the Olympic medal count per capita while the USA is only 19th?

What is it about sport – compared with other value systems such as religion – that makes it so appealing? Maybe it’s the thrill of winning – and, so, feeling valued for your knowledge and skill. Maybe it’s the comfort of knowing that you are part of a much larger like-minded group of people.

Organised religion would want to claim to value people and provide them with similar comfort. However, some people argue that organised religion has fostered discord and conflict rather than harmony and peace. Yet it is sport that does exactly that – teaching its participants about controlled aggression towards opponents and even, in the case of some football supporters (well, supporters of Millwall and West Ham anyway), prompting unreasoning violence.

These sentiments, meant as a criticism of organised religion, are encouraged in the name of sport. Of course, people are prepared to mould any value system – be it religion or sport – to their own ends. We have to embrace a value system if we are to make any sense of our lives but we must be careful which value system we choose to embrace. Moreover, we must be careful how we let ourselves be manipulated by it – and, indeed, how we manipulate it.

In the end, then, it comes down to selfishness – and both organised religion and sport have some things to say about that.