Europe en train

Who coaches the coaches? The question is critical to the future of any sport. By the reckoning of Jamie Taylor, who has worked across a vast array of disciplines from football to skateboarding, rugby union’s very nature makes that especially important. “I think rugby union is one of the most difficult places to coach,” he says. ”If you think about cricket, for example, you have individuals who work in a team but are not that interdependent. “In rugby union, you have a massive variety of different people with different needs. And they are very interdependent.” With that rather daunting thought in mind, fans of the 15-a-side code should be encouraged by one of Taylor’s recent pursuits with Mike Ashford and Dave Collins, his colleagues at Grey Matters, the performance consultancy. He is supporting coaches as they sharpen their tools together. Figures from elite teams around Europe are part of his programme, which comprises regular sessions. He visits clubs to observe these … [Read more...] about Inside the network helping Premiership coaches hone their craft and break down rugby’s fads

Amir Khan hangs up his gloves safe in the knowledge he is one of the best boxers the UK has produced, bringing excitement and drama to the global stage and inspiring countless British Asians along the way. Khan won Olympic silver as a teenager, was world champion at 22 and unified the light-welterweight division before his 25th birthday as his lightning reflexes and blurring hand speed overwhelmed many formidable opponents. He might have achieved more – it seems peculiar his talents did not transcend to winning world titles in more than one division – but a suspect chin and a waning enthusiasm meant he spent the last decade of his career in purgatory. Yet the legacy he leaves is more than the belts won or the millions banked, having been one of the few fighters from these isles to truly ‘crack’ the United States. At his zenith he split opinion like few others but he juggled boxing with several philanthropic endeavours and did not shirk speaking about difficult … [Read more...] about A closer look at Amir Khan as one of Britain’s most entertaining boxers retires

I would like to take you back to a certain time in the young life of our republic—a time that was filled with a deep sense of foreboding, a grim expectation that our national life was about to change radically, and a giddy appreciation nonetheless of the possibilities held out by the rapid advance of human knowledge. It was a time that has perhaps more than a little in common with the times we inhabit now. The year was 1857. Railroads did not yet cross the North American continent, but everyone knew that one day soon they would. The publication of Darwin's Origin of Species was two years away, but loud rumblings in the halls of science had already warned the keepers of religious faith that serious challenges lay ahead. The largest wave of immigration in the nation's history was pouring through the cities of the eastern seaboard. Though he would become President in four years, Abraham Lincoln in 1857 was no more widely known nationally than any former one-term Congressman is today. … [Read more...] about The Atlantic: A History