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Covering a sport you know nothing about

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Cullen9, Jan 20, 2011.

  1. bydesign77

    bydesign77 Active Member

    If you watch enough diving it makes sense. You're looking for height distance (closer to the board the better). Also toes pointed. Full rotations (in half increments).

    This is my first year judging it. It's fun.
     
  2. budcrew08

    budcrew08 Active Member

    also, a T signal is a technical violation, usually resulting in a penalty point.
     
  3. Rhody31

    Rhody31 Well-Known Member

    Want to cover a sport you know nothing about?
    Tuesday night, I'm going to competitive cheerleading.
    Yeah, I know the argument. The RIIL made it a sport - mainly to profit off of it - so I try to cover one regular season meet, then the state team tournament and finally, the individual tournament.
    I know nothing about it, but we're the only paper who covers it - and a bunch of other "fringe sports" like wrestling and indoor track - on a semi-regular basis, so it will sell papers.
     
  4. Cullen9

    Cullen9 Member

    I guess "fringe" is all dependent on where you are. Wrestling, of course, is huge in some stats. Others, like New England, not so much. As far as indoor track is concerned, I always keep an eye on results because we have a local team that's legitimately one of the best in the state year after year. I've been to one meet in person, and the rest I've recapped with short writeups. We give the team "good ink," according to coach.
     
  5. BillyT

    BillyT Active Member

    It's easy.

    It is like ice skating. They get judged.

    Meet the head judge and get the rule book.

    Sounds like it could be a great story, and they are gonna love you.
     
  6. BillyT

    BillyT Active Member

    it could be a great story, and they are gonna love you.
    [/quote]

    Don't let the folks in Coventry here you say that. :0

    Or in Ledyard, Norwich or Danbury, Conn. Or Bennington, Vt, or Timberlane, NH or any of a dozen places in Massachusetts.

    I would definitely not classify wrestling as a "fringe" sport in many parts of New England.

    But then I am ther guy who started the Connecticut state poll in 1983, so I may be biased.
     
  7. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    Hey, they might even give out scores with you there!
     
  8. budcrew08

    budcrew08 Active Member

    Don't let the folks in Coventry here you say that. :0

    Or in Ledyard, Norwich or Danbury, Conn. Or Bennington, Vt, or Timberlane, NH or any of a dozen places in Massachusetts.

    I would definitely not classify wrestling as a "fringe" sport in many parts of New England.

    But then I am ther guy who started the Connecticut state poll in 1983, so I may be biased.
    [/quote]

    i'm biased too, as in I cover wrestling in one of those areas you mentioned. They get more fans and its louder for a wrestling match then is it for basketball sometimes. wrestling is not a fringe sport at all in
    New England, cullen.
     
  9. Cullen9

    Cullen9 Member

    i'm biased too, as in I cover wrestling in one of those areas you mentioned. They get more fans and its louder for a wrestling match then is it for basketball sometimes. wrestling is not a fringe sport at all in
    New England, cullen.
    [/quote]

    Apparently I stand corrected.
     
  10. KYSportsWriter

    KYSportsWriter Well-Known Member

    New England is a state? :-D
     
  11. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    No, it's a stat.
     
  12. joeggernaut

    joeggernaut Member

    Rodeo and field hockey were the toughest for me to catch up to. Field hockey was fine after I learned why they called fouls and when a team was awarded with a penalty circle.
    Rodeo, however, just never seems right to me. I'm a city kid who got a job out west and had to cover rodeo because it's bigger than baseball in most of these communities. Though I constantly talked it over with people who knew the sport, none of it seemed right. The lingo, the scoring, everything. I get it for the most part, but it still doesn't seem right when it's written up, even though technically it's all there.
     
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