London 2012 Olympics Rolling Thread

[noam]

AUSTRALIA’S woeful Olympics medal tally is due to its residents’ disdain for any activity that emphasises the physical over the mental, it has been claimed.

The nation’s lack of concern for putting one over on other countries, particularly Britain, is another key factor.

Internationalist Nikki Hollis said: “Most nations would be smarting with humiliation at their resoundingly abysmal record in these games but not the Australians, an enigmatic people dedicated to the life of the mind who rarely travel outside their own shores.

“Until 1996, ‘rough sports’, a category which included rugby, surfing and cricket, were specifically banned in the Australian constitution as it was feared that they may distract young people from their studies of vers libre, dodecaphonic composition and ethnological art.

“Under protest from their own citizens, the government partly repealed these laws but only to introduce Australian Rules Football, a watered down version of the game which, according to those who have played it is ‘more like a mixture of chess and expressive dance’.

“Given how much the average young Australian male would far prefer to engage you in a discussion on the finer points of Mallarmé or Euripides than bandy remarks on uncouth ball games, it is hardy astonishing that they have won such a pitiful number of medals.”

Australian ex-pat Bill McKay said: “Being a sports fan in Australia is incredibly lonely. There’s more to life than the intellect but try telling that to the average bloke in New South Wales.

“Take swimming. We could be good at it but it’s impossible to swim and read at the same time – you just end up going in circles. And you can’t get an Aussie to put their book down, even in the water.”

Joanna Kramer, a self-confessed ‘Australophile’, said: “I think we British could learn a lot from Australia. What is sport, they say, compared with the arts and the crafts, macrame, ceramics, flower arranging?

“To them, physical competition and noisy collective celebration are as insignificant as the number of medals they have won in these Olympics.”

mint.

[particle-jim]

They might be but there are far more interesting martial arts to watch as a spectator sport

to the lay spectator yes it can be boring, to people who have more of an understanding of it I would say it can be far more entertaining. In MMA I'm often much more excited by a techical grappling display than a back and forth striking match. To me it's all the tiny intricacies of grappling that make it interesting to watch but to the uninitiated I can see how it would just look like to guys rolling around on the floor.

Not sure what the different fighting styles are called but the one where they grab at each others clothes then roll around together on the floor is proper boring

that could be either judo or bjj tbh

Boring or not, they're seriously fucking effective

Effective? That's a whole new perspective for me.

Removing the hurdles and just walking 100m would be effective.

In terms of martial arts BJJ is highly effective because it's so different to any other style, no amount of training in other martial arts (except other grappling arts like judo) prepares you for the realities of ground-fighting. In single style-on-style combat Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu destroys because people simply don't know how to counter it effectively if they haven't at least learnt some rudimentary ground fighting skills but even then the higher levels of BJJ are ridiculously advanced. I'm a whitebelt and I once sparred with a guy who was a bluebelt (one belt up from white) and he absolutely handled me time and time again, I felt ridiculously powerless, dude was just toying with me. He sparred with my brother too and submitted him in under 3 seconds!!!

Jiu-jitsu is effective as fuck against people who don't know it

[capo ultra]

major pro - sport grappling (whether BJJ or freestyle no-gi grappling) has points structures that make a transition to an olympic sport much more efficient than MMA, MMA has a dire scoring system.

major con - BJJ is rife with steroids, a lot of the BJJ guys that don't do MMA would fail olympic testing immediately.

[particle-jim]

major con - BJJ is rife with steroids, a lot of the BJJ guys that don't do MMA would fail olympic testing immediately.

Helio would be spinning in his grave, rampant steroid use completely defies the point of BJJ in the first place (the smaller guy can win using technique over strength etc) I suppose with more MMA meatheads being interested in BJJ the increased steroid use was inevitable

[kidshuffle]

major con - BJJ is rife with steroids, a lot of the BJJ guys that don't do MMA would fail olympic testing immediately.

Helio would be spinning in his grave, rampant steroid use completely defies the point of BJJ in the first place (the smaller guy can win using technique over strength etc) I suppose with more MMA meatheads being interested in BJJ the increased steroid use was inevitable

especially since even guys like royce have been caught using them.

AUSTRALIA’S woeful Olympics medal tally is due to its residents’ disdain for any activity that emphasises the physical over the mental, it has been claimed.

The nation’s lack of concern for putting one over on other countries, particularly Britain, is another key factor.

Internationalist Nikki Hollis said: “Most nations would be smarting with humiliation at their resoundingly abysmal record in these games but not the Australians, an enigmatic people dedicated to the life of the mind who rarely travel outside their own shores.

“Until 1996, ‘rough sports’, a category which included rugby, surfing and cricket, were specifically banned in the Australian constitution as it was feared that they may distract young people from their studies of vers libre, dodecaphonic composition and ethnological art.

“Under protest from their own citizens, the government partly repealed these laws but only to introduce Australian Rules Football, a watered down version of the game which, according to those who have played it is ‘more like a mixture of chess and expressive dance’.

“Given how much the average young Australian male would far prefer to engage you in a discussion on the finer points of Mallarmé or Euripides than bandy remarks on uncouth ball games, it is hardy astonishing that they have won such a pitiful number of medals.”

Australian ex-pat Bill McKay said: “Being a sports fan in Australia is incredibly lonely. There’s more to life than the intellect but try telling that to the average bloke in New South Wales.

“Take swimming. We could be good at it but it’s impossible to swim and read at the same time – you just end up going in circles. And you can’t get an Aussie to put their book down, even in the water.”

Joanna Kramer, a self-confessed ‘Australophile’, said: “I think we British could learn a lot from Australia. What is sport, they say, compared with the arts and the crafts, macrame, ceramics, flower arranging?

“To them, physical competition and noisy collective celebration are as insignificant as the number of medals they have won in these Olympics.”

this is prime

[particle-jim]

major con - BJJ is rife with steroids, a lot of the BJJ guys that don't do MMA would fail olympic testing immediately.

Helio would be spinning in his grave, rampant steroid use completely defies the point of BJJ in the first place (the smaller guy can win using technique over strength etc) I suppose with more MMA meatheads being interested in BJJ the increased steroid use was inevitable

especially since even guys like royce have been caught using them.

Yeah i heard about that, pretty sad state of affairs really, Royce used to be an absolute fucking hero

[Forum]

Looking at the medals table, if you take out swimming the US isn't actually that impressive

[kidshuffle]

They would still be in 4th, and just barely behind you

[Electric_Head]

They would still be in 4th, and just barely behind you

Typical British ignorance.

[kidshuffle]

bloody blokes

[ehbes]

bloody twit knicker trousser goat fuckers

[ehbes]

homeboy is pretty happy to win a medal i see...

[capo ultra]

major con - BJJ is rife with steroids, a lot of the BJJ guys that don't do MMA would fail olympic testing immediately.

Helio would be spinning in his grave, rampant steroid use completely defies the point of BJJ in the first place (the smaller guy can win using technique over strength etc) I suppose with more MMA meatheads being interested in BJJ the increased steroid use was inevitable

it's not really the MMA guys it's the pure sport BJJ guys. The idea of street BJJ is getting lost in the competition aspect of BJJ. Smaller guy beating bigger guy is now defunct when you have guys of equal size and technique competing together innit

[particle-jim]

major con - BJJ is rife with steroids, a lot of the BJJ guys that don't do MMA would fail olympic testing immediately.

Helio would be spinning in his grave, rampant steroid use completely defies the point of BJJ in the first place (the smaller guy can win using technique over strength etc) I suppose with more MMA meatheads being interested in BJJ the increased steroid use was inevitable

it's not really the MMA guys it's the pure sport BJJ guys. The idea of street BBJ is getting lost in the competition aspect of BBJ. Smaller guy beating bigger guy is now defunct when you have guys of equal size and technique competing together innit

Yeah of course, i feel there is far to much focus on competition in BJJ at the moment, obviously there is overlap between street-bjj and sport-bjj in terms of techniques but the sporting side of things should be secondary to the art itself. There are still a few guys whose technique is so crisp that they beast dudes much bigger than themselves but it's becoming increasingly rare and also lots of the techniques being developed are only really effective in competition, as if anyone is ever going to land a Berimbolo sweep in a streetfight.

Competetive BJJ should be an arena in which to test and sharpen your technique, it should not be the sole focus of your training but just one aspect of it.

[dickman69]

maybe u guys should just get better at swimming

[pkay]

Looking at the medals table, if you take out swimming the US isn't actually that impressive

Man on island mad at swimming

[Forum]

[jameshk]

[Forum]

Policeman at the front looks like he's trying to stop the fence with the force

[meanmrcustard]

Laura Trott just got another gold!