Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Can Special Athletes Really Defy Physics?

I shouldn't highlight this, but I'm pissed at the title. The title of this article has no relevance whatsoever with the content. So why even bother making such a mockery?

Sometimes, when you're talking about "willing" something to happen, you don't mean defying the laws of physics.

It's not like a great place-kicker can make a poorly struck field goal hook back against the wind.

Nor do I believe Tiger can physically cause a putt to change directions.

But great athletes can mix talent with desire -- plus an incredible confidence -- to create the result they need.


Nothing in the article comes even close to "defying physics", whatever that means. If Tiger Woods actually putted a golf ball downhill past a hole, and then the ball decide to act against gravity and comes back to go into the hole, now THAT is what I would call 'defying physics', thankyouverymuch! If that happened, it will be an even bigger news than his painful win at the US Open, I can tell you that!

Furthermore, these people seem to have forgotten that Tiger has LOST {gasp!} before. I'm guessing that he had tried to "will" many putts into the hole during those losses that didn't happen. Thus, some of the claims being made in that "news" piece seem to be based on only on sports highlights on TV that selects favorable "data", rather than examines the whole body of evidence.

I don't expect a thorough scientific analysis of the data for something like this, but at the same time, the inability for people to do some simple analytical evaluation is utterly shocking. This is why there are people who believe in various mumbo-jumbo such as The Secret.

Zz.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If we could all "will" things to happen, we'd all be lottery winners. Someone tried to get me to watch The Secret once. The only "secret" to The Secret is how to make money from idiots.