Tank McNamara by Bill Hinds for September 05, 2021

Interesting and true, even sadly true, but there also have to be some psychological requirements for competititors. But from another angle, you have to be at least a bit tetched in the head to be the so-called best in the world at anything…

Timely.

That’s a whole lot of weight for one guy.

Olympic gymnasts…

If you doubt this, check out the final moments of Naomi Osaka’s press interview. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9_g4izDqqwA

Big topic. Well done, Bill.

Get rid of the psychological weights. You want a real workout? Bring up the ego truck.

This is so true, and the weights are heavier for some of them

And to think, they’re paid very nicely to do something you can watch kids doing for free.

Self inflicted weight. Stop doing what hurts – lesson from about 2 years old.

You know what would be great? If they did their jobs. I might even watch again.

But somehow those millions of dollars seem to allow them to overcome it…

Sigh…the hateful comments on here dismissing real issues with “But they are paid a bunch of money!” How’d you like to have millions of people watch you give a critical presentation where the slightest mistake flubs everything up? I guarantee you’d have issues creep up too. Kids quit sports all the time because the pressure is too much for them, sometimes parental sometimes realizing how much work they’d have to do to match what Player X is doing, and nobody bats an eye. Too much of sports is "OMG! This player lost, went 0-4 or 5-for-20, or exited the tournament earlier than “experts” thought." You can play really well and lose, and that pretty much gets glossed over. The money makes it harder, not easier in most cases because that incentivizes them to keep going instead of getting help.

Wow—political-cartoon style! Metaphor! And a really sweet rendering of that machine. Nice job, Bill.

While some of those are self inflicted (nobody is making you spend time on social media or listening to pundits), others do come with the job. Part of the training / growing process is suppose to be learning to deal with things as an adult. If a player is being ‘handled’ and not taught how to deal with pressure or people, their staff should be fired or at least castigated for not doing their job.

That said, nobody should have to deal with trolls. Criticism? of course. that’s part of life. But trolling isn’t that – it’s just abuse. You should learn how to deal with them but they should also be dealt with by society.