Dear Patrick,
In the sentence, All football codes were converted by 1974. , Kevin
Wilks is referring to all of the football codes played in Australia:
Association football also known as soccer, Rugby League and Rugby
Union, but mostly he is referring to Australian Rules football that is
a different game from all of these.
You have to see Australian Rules to believe it. Here is a promotional
video that runs for 10 minutes. Listen for the word, metres, and watch
for the 50 metre line, which is a key part of the game.
By the way, Geelong is the only team with horizontal stripes in navy
blue and white. I particularly like the 70 metre series of goals
beginning at 4:48 especially Gary Ablett's 70 metre goal at 5:13.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
On 2009/10/13, at 23:11 , Patrick Moore wrote:
By football, he means soccer.
From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]>
Reply-To: <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:35:01 +1100
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:46005] Re: American football fields (was FIFA )
Dear John,
Here is an extract from the report, Metrication in Australia by
Kevin Wilks:
Sport And Recreation
The conversion of sport and recreation was planned by the Health and
Recreation Advisory Committee with individual members reporting on
progress in recreational activities such as shows, clubs, galleries
and studios, professional sport, amateur sport, youth activities and
safety.
Because of its expected impact on the ordinary citizen, conversion
of sporting activities was seen as an important factor in the
subconscious education of the public in metric units. For this
reason horse racing, a highly traditional sport, was converted, with
the support and cooperation of media commentators, in August 1972.
Greyhound racing converted in January 1973 and trotting converted in
August 1973. All football codes were converted by 1974. Conversion
consisted largely of "soft" conversion of distances in rules and
dimensions of playing fields and all commentaries were provided in
metric.
In most cases the dimensions of cricket pitches and tennis courts
could not be varied and were sensible conversions of previous
measurements.
All swimming and athletic events, including Olympic Games and
Commonwealth Games, had been metric for years although, strangely,
this did little to condition the public for metrication in other
sports.
Where the sports controlling body was in the United States of
America and conversion had not yet been considered, the rules
remained essentially imperial. These sports included ten pin
bowling, baseball, drag racing and quarter horse racing.
In certain sports in which a measurement was part of the title, such
as the 16 footer and 18 footer sailing clubs, the rules were
metricated but the names were retained. However, where practicable,
motor races like the "Bathurst 500" (miles) have been varied to
become the "Bathurst 1000" (km).
On occasions when international sporting events were held, the
commentaries were recorded in old measurements for the benefit of
the visitor countries.
By 1982, the various city and provincial Agricultural Shows had
almost completed their metrication programs with the notable
exception of the height of horses. Horse categories in hands and
quarters of a hand (a hand is exactly four inches) had been used in
British countries for many years and the practice was deeply
entrenched. Most show societies required the height to be stated in
centimetres in addition to hands but it was expected to be a long
time before this "unit' disappeared. Height categories in
centimetres were used in Europe but the hand was retained for
commercial transactions with Britain.
In sports fishing, line breaking strain in newtons replaced the
pound or pound force measurement. Conversion to the kilogram mass
was not appropriate as the breaking strain specified for a certain
kind of fish was not related to its mass. Kilogram force was no
longer a legal unit of force and breaking strain in newtons was
required under Standardised Packaging Regulations.
Despite the interest in sport in Australia and the very high degree
of support given by the media and sporting commentators, conversion
of sports did not appear to have been significant as an educational
aid for
##
I disagree, slightly, with Kevin Wilks' final point. I think that
the marking of the 50 metre lines and the 10 metre central squares
has had a significant effect on the way that commentators and
spectators discuss the game of Australian Rules football. As the
lines are there all the time, players use them to judge the way they
play; you might choose to shoot for goal rather than passing the
ball to a member of your team depending on whether you are inside or
outside the 50 metre line. See the beginning of this thread (below)
where the original title was: Geelong wins national football
championship – Whee!
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that
they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or
selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources
for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial,
industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and
in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google,
NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the
USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com <http://www.metricationmatters.com/
> for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
On 2009/10/13, at 01:39 , John M. Steele wrote:
Metricating American football should be WAY down the list of
priorities. Trying to do it early will just make folks mad. Once
the US is nearly completely metricated, people will wonder about
those yards and perhaps be willing to metricate football (its not
like the rest of the world loves it and is just dying for a metric
version).
However, a 90 m field and 9 m of forward progress probably make
more sense than blindly pretending yards are meters. The 90 m
field fits existing stadiums and represents less than 1.6% change
in total length, and progress for a 1st down. I am not convinced
that a small change of the magnitude invalidates all statistics, I
think they could be "adjusted." Certainly some other rules need to
be revisited. I would number to the 40 m line, leaving a 10 m zone
between 40's (Canadian football has two 50 yard lines). The meter
line for kickoff (30 yard line) and taking possession (20 yard
line) would have to be reconsidered, and the chainsmen would need a
9 m chain. Extra point attempts could be undertaken from the 2 m
line.
Pretending meters are yards is about a 9.4% change in total length,
and progress for a first down. Besides not fitting most stadiums,
I would argue that this would change the nature of the game and
invalidate statistics far more than a 1.6% change.
FIFA rounded the rules of the game in an apparently intelligent
way. Important measurements were rounded to the nearest
centimeter, and less important measurements were rounded further.
I think a thoughtful approach would allow any game to be
metricated, but not until the folks in charge of the rules or laws
of the game are ready to undertake it.
--- On Mon, 10/12/09, STANLEY DOORE <[email protected]> wrote:
From: STANLEY DOORE <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:46001] Re: FIFA Football Fields
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Cc: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Date: Monday, October 12, 2009, 8:35 AM
Most comments here on conversion of American football to
metric have addressed the problem from the rules and game playing
standpoint. However, only one addressed it to a new field length
(90 m) standpoint.
Changing field length to a full 100 m would require
reconstruction of stadiums to provide space for a 100 m field. A
90 m field would fit most current stadiums; however that would
require changing rules and void all previous statistics.
Leaving American football fields size as is (100 yards plus
end zones) and current rules would have the nostalgic but
practical advantage for Fred Flintstone Units (FFU) in this case.
Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: [email protected] <http://us.mc824.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]
>
To: U.S. Metric Association <http://us.mc824.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]
>
Cc: U.S. Metric Association <http://us.mc824.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]
>
Sent: Friday, October 09, 2009 12:31 PM
Subject: [USMA:45985] Re: FIFA Football Fields
Metricating US football would weaken the offense, particularly
the rush, and strengthen the defense - the offensive team would
have to go about 10% farther to get first down. However, since
teams have both an offense and defense, most would be equally
affected. The likely result would be somewhat lower scoring.
Carleton
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kimbrough Sherman" <[email protected] <http://us.mc824.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]
> >
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, October 9, 2009 10:50:01 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada
Eastern
Subject: [USMA:45982] FIFA Football Fields
I don't believe that the use of metric measures will at all alter
U.S. Soccer, but, incidentally, the fixed measures of the field
and goals Worldwide http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/lawsofthegame.html
are in former hard English Yards (Penalty and goal areas) and
feet (height of crossbar) and soft metric. The Penalty Area is
specified at 16.5 Meters to accommodate the original dimension of
18 Yards.
American Football, as Stanley Doore has mentioned does have a
real problem with conversion. The concept of "first downs" would
be altered by a ten-Meters requirement, and if the fields were
enlarged to 100 Meters, with two 10 Meter end zones, there are
almost no stadium floors that would accommocate these fields
(more than 11M longer).
In my opinion, American Football should keep the "Yard" as its
measure and children can be instructed that it is a football
measure, and left to die a slow and painless death as people get
tired of explaining it in the far future.
American Football is the only U.S. Sport I know that would suffer
(statistically, and logistically) from SI adoption.
From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On
Behalf Of STANLEY DOORE [[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, October 09, 2009 5:49 AM
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:45976] Re: Geelong wins national football
championship
Congratulations Pat.
It is my understanding that soccer fields do not have a
standard size. This makes it very easy to use metric dimensions
entirely. Great!
Not so with US football fields which have a standard size.
Performance statistics are therefore based on the yard. Stadiums
also are built with this in mind.
Soccer fields could be standardized on rigid metric
dimensions; however, wouldn't there be problems when trying to
fit a standardized metric field size into various sized stadiums?
Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin <http://us.mc824.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]
>
To: U.S. Metric Association <http://us.mc824.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]
>
Sent: Saturday, September 26, 2009 4:33 AM
Subject: [USMA:45897] Geelong wins national football championship
Geelong wins national football championship
So what, I hear you chorus. Who cares that Geelong has won the
title as the Australian Rules football championship? However,
this bragging is not the purpose of this email.
The ground that the football game is played on is slightly
variable in size but it has all of its markings in metres. Seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_Australian_football
This means that the sports commentators have continuously
available references that they use to describe each game. The
metric influence is continuous, especially the two arcs marked
50 metres from each goal. This has had the effect of making the
descriptions wholly metric.
I doubt that the transition to metric in Australian Rules
Football would have happened so quickly without the constant
metric reference lines on every ground built into the rules of
the game itself. Perhaps there are some thoughts here for other
metrication transitions!
The game, today went for 100 minutes, but if you would like to
get a flavor of the action there is a 10 minute sample athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIOvSv9Q1Gk&feature=fvw
Geelong are the only team to wear horizontal stripes of navy
blue and white – watch for the Gary Ablett goal at 5:15.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can
obtain from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to
the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically
that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing,
or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and
resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for
commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in
Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the
Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric
associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
<http://www.metricationmatters.com/> for more metrication
information, contact Pat at [email protected] <http://us.mc824.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]
> or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
