Watch, er, where the ball's going to be, lad

Where to keep your eyes

The advice has always been: 2keep your eyes on the ball” and “watch the ball”. But there’s now been a proper scientific study, you know, like they do into what toothpaste to use, why people are attracted to soaps (and other mysteries), the success of TV shows about two grannies doing cleaning (and other mysteries of the universe), the need for pot noodles. This proper scientific research has come up with an interesting finding.

Us rubbish cricketers (they used cricket because of the short reaction time the elite players have between bowlers’ releasing the ball and its arrival at the bat-face – I suppose baseball would yield similar results) have time to watch (or not, as the case may be) the ball, actually track its progress, only because, generally, we’re us against others of a similar ability, who are not actually (whatever we may think non the receiving end) bowling that quickly.

The elite guys, the most successful players, actually get an idea of where the ball is going to land, and divert their focus there, before the ball actually arrives there.

Their success is about being able to anticipate where the ball is going to be in a couple of microseconds, and getting their attention in the right area to then watch it pitch and go onto their bat. Quite how anyone can coach, or learn, this is beyond me, unless young kids have very, very fast bowling to face at an early age and react accordingly.

The big secret

We’re going to Venice in a couple of days, and BLISS does not know where we’re off to yet. The whole thing’s driving me mad.

There’s a million and one facts we need to know to have a reasonable time, and I’m trying to read up on the here and there, but I can’t exactly walk about the house with the guidebooks in my hand without giving the game away.

Even the transport system’s difficult.

Elsewhere you get off the plane, into a waiting taxi, and out at the other end.

In Venice you can get the public transport bus. Or a taxi. Or the public transport boat. Or share a water taxi. Or get a private water taxi. They’ve all got pros and cons to weigh up (speed, cost, wow-factor, etc.).

Even the public transport system has that British Rail over-complexity that has made me give up trying to second-guess the best idea and pre-book tickets on-line.

With the news that…

…Welsh prostitutes are taking advantage of cheap rail fares from Cardiff to the capital to spend days earning higher rates, [this was a letter in the Times the last bit reminded me about] will British Rail further complicate its already labyrinthine fares system with the introduction of the “Have-it-away Day”?