It’s funny how a sport defines what things are acceptable, and what things are not, and how every athlete pushes the limits. Rackets in tennis, weird golf clubs, special shoes, special swim suits and oils, entirely new techniques of performing the sport.
It was interesting watching water polo from under the water, and realizing that the entire sport is cheaters. Everybody was always grabbing people, which is against the rules. The ones who were best at it would not get caught, and would win.
Or the best offensive linesmen, who are the best at hiding holding from the referees. Or the best wide receivers who know how to push off and get the defenders called for pass interference.
Or the point guards who every day work on their techniques for palming the ball, and taking that extra step, without getting caught.
Or the best catchers, who know how to drag the ball back into the strike zone.
Or the athlete who finds the new natural enhancements, before the sport gets wise and tries to ban them. Hypobaric chambers, steroids, protein, carb loading, training at high altitudes, blood “doping”.
Every serious professional athlete is looking for any edge they can find. Look at how the wheels have changed in cycling. Some poor guy couldn’t even afford to try to break into the sport anymore, the bikes cost so much.
Want to know who the best cyclist really is? Lock the 50 best guys up in prison, feed them all the same food for 6 months, then hand them all identical off-the-shelf bikes, and send them out without any team support, as individuals.
Of course, they’ll still form a peleton and choose who gets to win. They’ll still try to cheat drafting the TV crews. They’ll still cut each other off when people aren’t looking.
I don’t want to watch athletes who are just doped up, cutting years off their lives. But I also thought it was unfair when the first guy won a tennis championship with a hugely oversized racket, while Jimmy Conners was still playing with that old wooden stick of his.
Very thoughtful post. Gets me thinking about the nature of evil in the human heart and the rare examples of good sportsmanship ... right now I can't think of one.
Jimmy Connors was a huge fan of the T-2000/T-3000 rackets (if rumors are to be believed). Tubular steel frames with a cross brace on the shaft, and able to string to a much higher tension than any of the wood available at the time.
Good point though, equipment and training “techniques” will always be pushed to the edge of the grey zone by the top level professionals.