Sport and Space

Maybe this is a departure from our usual subjects. Maybe it's just part of a conversation we thought we'd finished many years ago...

A wise friend of mine once mentioned a wise friend of his who 'thought about football in a really interesting way'. From hazy memories of what may have been a hazy drunken conversation in a hazy pub in my hazy youth, the idea was to consider football in terms of space. We discussed how our thoughts on chess/ go/ othello were about controlling space, not about controlling the individual 'players' on the 'pitch'.

These thoughts came back to me whilst playing my recent purchase of the computer game "Pro Evolution Soccer 2008" for the Nintendo Wii. The way in which the gamer controls the game is totally different to all other football games I've ever played. Traditionally, playing a football computer game means controlling the individual players on the pitch, making them pass or dribble or shoot or tackle. You can pass in a particular direction, but can't control the space, only the players. In this new Wii game, the gamer controls the space. Say your midfielder has the ball: firstly you point somewhere that you want him to dribble to. At the same time, however, you tell your other players where to run (e.g. run into space on the wing, or run wide to draw the defender with you to create a new space for the midfielder to run into). When defending, you do not control one individual player, but rather allocate man-marking or zonal/ space marking by directing players. This may not sound it, but it's potentially revolutionary.

I will say that this way of controlling the space rather than the players. I've repeatedly said that you direct individual players where to go, and in taht way control the space. In this way, the game seems more like the chess/ go/ othello analogy I mentioned in the first paragraph: we are using the pieces to control and command the space.

Needless to say, I am crap at this new game.

This got me to thinking about other sports and space. Football (the real game, not computer game versions of the sport) is never discussed as being about space, but rather about how players find space/ pass into space/ run into space. which got me thinking about other sports and spaces.

How would a sport use space more than players? To return to the chess/ go/ othello idea, space needs to be understood in terms of hot/ cold spaces; or busy/ quiet; fast/ slow... This binary is the basis of what I mean. Then there's the tensions between these spaces, their independence and interdependence.

So which sports are more about space and less about players?
Hockey - Is all about the players and the speed of the connections between them. It's not spatial: it doesn't use cold spaces, although (as a team-formation sport, there is a certain degress of tension, independency and interdepency between areas and space across the pitch). On a scale of 1-10, this sport is a 3.
Rugby - I think may be more spatial than I first realised. Yes, it is the players who are the agents and who control the space, but it uses space in a weird way: thinking in terms of scrums, passing down the line, and line-outs/ throw-ins/ whatever they're called, the players all seek to create spaces that they can then command. Kicking into touch brings in to play ideas of using cold spaces to change pace and change attacking tactics. Plus, like Go, the game is about lines, control, and the gaps between the individual components. 8/10 (it would score more, but I'm not sure the players are self-aware enough to warrant more).
Cricket - Is entirely about space. Teams play areas as quiet spaces, busier spaces, faster spaces etc. The scoring system itself defines the game as spatial. 9/10
Tennis - This seems to be a spatial game (t's all about exploiting areas of weakness and capitalising on empty spaces) but I don't think it fits the criteria of using cold spaces (altlough it does change pace and rhythm, I'm not sure it uses space so much as speed to do this). 4/10
Curling - The sport of the gods. I love the way that, once the 'bowler' has released the stone, the two sweepers play the space, directing the stone as a devastating and destructive force, or using it to build the next bowl, or using it as a blocker. Some shots are played to keep the stone in the area, whilst others are intended to go out of the area. I can see this as highly spatial in every way - 10/10 (high score bolstered by coolness)

This is not a very insightful post, nor particuarly intellectual or academic. Plus our blog seems to have been established on topics around the digital. However, I wonder if this blog should extend to wider issues? Your thoughts, as ever, will be gratefully received.