Freedom's Fury



Freedom's Fury is a great documentary about the most famous water polo game in history, Hungary vs. the Soviet Union in the semi-finals of the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. This game was played in the shadow of the Soviet crackdown of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. It is a great story of sport, politics and society. It is also a fascinating look at the history of water polo in Hungary, and why this small country has dominated the sport throughout the years. The first hour of the movie contains great footage and discussion of the innovative training methods pioneered by the Hungarian national team in the 1950's.

Mark Spitz narrates. And it just so happens that Spitz, as an age-group swimmer, was briefly coached by the most famous player on the 1956 team, Ervin Zador. The most talented Hungarian player, Zador defected to the US immediately following the '56 Olympics and never played water polo again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A System of the Absurd

Charge for wellness checkup blood tests @ St. Lukes Hospital: $1142.20. Amount written off by hospital as negotiated by Anthem BC/BS: $967.20. The insurance company pays NOTHING for this service. Amount patient required to pay: $175 Does any of this make sense? Does $1142.20 represent the true cost of doing the testing for the hospital? What if I had requested to pay cash for the whole thing? Same charge? BTW, my mom's hospital bill (Des Peres Hospital) for her same-day surgery (rotator cuff repair)--ready--$33,000. Not sure what her insurance is going to cover yet, but she was at the hospital from 8 am to 5 pm, and in actual surgery less than 2 hours. Never admitted to a room, just in and out burger style. The surgeon had 8 similar surgeries on the schedule that day. Bonus!
Read more

Form and Function

Image
Way back in 2002, I scanned these images by Howard Schatz from Sports Illustrated (October 14, 2002). A fascinating array of elite female athlete physiques, heights and weights, eh? These are some of the women featured in his book Athlete --a very cool pictorial essay that celebrates athletic form and function.
Read more

It's About Preparing People, not Preventing Injuries

ACL injuries do not happen in a void. People sustain injuries when their infrastructure is unable to manage a specific set of physical circumstances. To describe the mechanism of the injury without the context of the person and their level/type of sport, is to miss valuable insight. In sport, we prepare the person, to the best of our understanding, to meet the physical demands of that sport. We do not just work to prevent one particular injury; we prepare athletes to navigate the total sport physical environment. By "we" I mean the coaching and support staff -- specifically the athletic development staff.  Athletic development (AD) coaches prepare athletes through the development of physical literacy and movement competencies via movement progressions. It is more than strength, power, agility; it is the acquisition of knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors to manage themselves within the entire sporting environment. At the higher levels of sport, AD coaches coordinate wit
Read more