Judging Distance

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

Robert Carlyle

Bowlers at a village cricket team were baffled as to why their home form was so poor. They simply coudn't land the ball on a good length. In June their star bowler returned from holiday, took one look at the pitch and solved their problem. The wicket was a yard too long.

I was disheartened to realise that I was finding it far harder to swim lengths at the Bourn Golf and Leisure Club than at the DoubleTree Hotel where I was having lessons. Proof, I thought, of why it is important to train in a structured environment. The equivalent, I thought, of marathon running in front of a crowd of people and jogging on a deserted track. The power of sport's psychology can deceive in so many ways. The Bourn pool is 5 metres longer.