Saturday, December 29, 2007

Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: Team USA's relative scorers again vs rest of the world 2006

What a difference a year makes: At the 2006 world championships, Team USA finished ninth in order behind Russia, Brazil, Serbia, Italy, China, Japan, Cuba, and the Netherlands. Below, I give the player scoring ranking for that event: Logan Tom's third place scoring this year would fit around the eleventh to twelfth spot in last year's ranking. And look who the leaders were last year. So, yes, the road ahead for Team USA to the Olympic podium in Beijing is yet steep. Incidentally, the source for the previous tables is the "Best Players" right-side tab here. The 2006 results are here. In terms of New Year's resolutions, I'd like to suggest recruiting Cheryl Weaver as numero uno goal for Team USA. She was Haneef Tayyiba-Park's teammate at Long Beach State and the disappointing runner-up to Logan Tom for player of the year in 2001. I was able to follow her career for a while (I lost her in the Amazon forest somewhere), but it sure would be nice to see her play for Team USA. (Searching through Long Beach State's records, it appears that Haneef and Cheryl played their freshman national championship year there with Misty May. And check this: Danielle Scott and former volleyball Olympian Tara Cross-Battle (I am assuming she has retired though I've seen nothing in print) are also Long Beach State alum's. Haneef and Cheryl lost to Logan and Stanford in the 2001 NCAA finals I do believe.

Rank Shirt Name Team Spike Block Serve Total
1 17 Darnel Neslihan TUR 190 21 14 225
2 15 Grün Angelina GER 176 31 13 220
3 1 Wang Yimei CHN 165 17 20 202
4 11 Gamova Ekaterina RUS 152 32 6 190
5 12 Metcalf Nancy USA 160 16 9 185
6 3 Yang Hao CHN 146 20 15 181
7 12 Flier Manon NED 149 17 14 180
8 4 Staelens Chaïne NED 151 22 2 175
5 Shashkova Lioubov RUS 150 21 4 175
10 12 Calderon Diaz Rosir CUB 148 21 3 172
11 3 Djerisilo Ivana SCG 136 24 7 167
12 5 Takahashi Miyuki JPN 154 3 9 166
13 3 Carrillo De La Paz Nancy CUB 126 29 6 161
14 11 Lin Ching I TPE 148 10 1 159
15 13 Castro Sheilla BRA 131 15 10 156
16 3 Haneef Tayyiba USA 135 10 3 148
7 Bown Heather USA 110 32 6 148
18 15 Spasojevic Anja SCG 123 8 12 143
19 1 Ruiz Luaces Yumilka CUB 123 13 4 140
12 Kimura Saori JPN 117 10 13 140
21 12 Carvalho Jaqueline BRA 128 6 4 138
22 6 Godina Elena RUS 96 13 28 137
23 7 Hanikoglu Natalia TUR 117 10 9 136
24 1 Nikolic Jelena SCG 112 8 4 124
25 11 Araki Erika JPN 86 29 8 123
14 Oyama Shuka JPN 107 10 6 123
27 3 Togut Elisa ITA 111 8 3 122
28 12 Piccinini Francesca ITA 103 13 5 121
29 9 Chen Shu Li TPE 104 11 3 118
30 5 Ozbek Aysun TUR 99 12 4 115
17 Thumm Birgit GER 96 8 11 115
32 17 Xu Yunli CHN 82 26 5 113
33 15 Visser Ingrid NED 74 29 2 105
34 1 Oliveira Walewska BRA 63 34 7 104
2 Rinieri-Dennis Simona ITA 93 8 3 104
9 Claudino Fabiana BRA 73 25 6 104
37 2 Scott Danielle USA 80 20 3 103
38 11 Fürst Christiane GER 59 35 8 102
39 2 Lin Chun Yi TPE 74 23 4 101
9 Sugiyama Sachiko JPN 73 25 3 101
11 Citakovic Vesna SCG 63 31 7 101
42 8 Wilkins Katherine USA 63 25 9 97
43 7 Kou Nai Han TPE 83 8 4 95
44 8 Dumler Cornelia GER 74 7 10 91
45 6 Chen Mei Ching TPE 58 21 10 89
46 4 Liu Yanan CHN 67 13 3 83
10 Gonzaga Welissa BRA 72 5 6 83
48 5 Krsmanovic Natasa SCG 48 28 5 81
49 16 Merkulova Yulia RUS 49 27 4 80
50 7 Zhou Suhong CHN 72 3 4 79
51 1 Borodakova Maria RUS 40 26 12 78
8 Blom Alice NED 74 3 1 78
53 11 Wensink Caroline NED 52 23 2 77
54 2 Santos Allegne Yanelis CUB 45 19 12 76
18 Ssuschke Corina GER 59 15 2 76
56 10 Paggi Paola ITA 53 17 5 75
12 Gumus Esra TUR 57 9 9 75
58 6 Ramirez Echevarria Daimi CUB 56 8 8 72
59 5 Anzanello Sara ITA 44 21 4 69
60 16 Stam Debby NED 51 9 6 66
61 4 Gonzalez Dias Yenisei CUB 27 28 8 63
62 3 Steinbrecher Marianne BRA 48 10 1 59
63 5 Gattaz Caroline BRA 34 12 1 47
64 2 Feng Kun CHN 23 17 2 42
65 4 Ozcelik Ozlem TUR 34 6 1 41
66 10 Ognjenovic Maja SCG 14 18 5 37
67 1 Bouagaa Atika GER 31 2 2 35
7 Guiggi Martina ITA 21 12 2 35
9 Centoni Nadia ITA 31 3 1 35
70 16 Kozuch Margareta GER 29 5 34
71 14 Fledderus Riëtte NED 15 7 8 30
72 1 Ortolani Serena ITA 24 1 4 29
2 Rankovic Aleksandra SCG 17 10 2 29
11 Mesa Luaces Liana CUB 21 5 3 29
75 3 Takeshita Yoshie JPN 9 7 12 28
76 6 Fiorin Valentina ITA 23 3 1 27
17 Colombo Renata BRA 26 1 27
78 15 Ochiai Mari JPN 22 3 1 26
79 7 Molnar Brizitka SCG 25 25
14 Lo Bianco Eleonora ITA 9 8 8 25
81 9 Joines Jennifer USA 18 6 24
18 Akulova Marina RUS 6 16 2 24
83 15 Erdem Eda TUR 19 3 1 23
84 7 Safronova Natalia RUS 17 2 19
7 Horai Makiko JPN 16 3 19
15 Wu Hsiao Li TPE 3 5 11 19
18 Zhang Ping CHN 16 3 19
88 6 Brakocevic Jovana SCG 17 1 18
11 Ah Mow-Santos Robyn USA 4 12 2 18
90 10 Crawford Therese USA 12 4 1 17
14 Agca Elif TUR 6 7 4 17
92 6 Orsel Mirjam NED 9 3 3 15
93 7 Souza Helia BRA 5 3 5 13
16 Tokatlioglu Seda TUR 10 2 1 13
95 6 Li Shan CHN 8 4 12
96 4 Pequeno Paula BRA 9 1 10
8 Ortiz Charro Yaima CUB 10 10
14 Carcases Opon Kenia CUB 8 2 10
99 1 Yeh Hui Hsuan TPE 8 8
6 Benecke Christina GER 8 8
101 2 Weiß Kathleen GER 3 3 1 7
9 Vesovic Jovana SCG 6 1 7
10 Kirdar Gozde TUR 6 1 7
104 17 Kulikova Natalia RUS 5 1 6
105 4 Bruntseva Maria RUS 4 1 5
106 12 Sheshenina Marina RUS 1 3 4
12 Song Nina CHN 1 3 4
13 Simanic Maja SCG 1 3 4
13 Tseng Hua Yu TPE 4 4
110 1 Staelens Kim NED 3 3
5 Chu Jinling CHN 1 2 3
9 Sanchez Perez Rachel CUB 2 1 3
9 Meijners Floortje NED 3 3
9 Hakyemez Deniz TUR 3 3
115 1 Mert Bahar TUR 1 1 2
2 Albuquerque Carolina BRA 2 2
10 Takahashi Midori JPN 1 1 2
16 Juan Pei Chi TPE 2 2
119 3 Hart Tanja GER 1 1
11 Li Juan CHN 1 1
12 Schlüter Cathrin GER 1 1
18 Busse Cassandra USA 1 1
Total Tournament 6639 1293 525 8457

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Female Athelete of the Year 2007: a segregated looks back on segregation circa 1957

There were still "colored only" signs here in Houston; the rigid delimiters of our designated place of entry and sitting. I was in elementary school. This was segregation remember. So, 1957 I was what first grade? Just learning to read, but priming for the next two years' . . . current events. Current events was where you went home, clipped newspaper articles, pasted them to mostly Big Chief tablets back then, and brought them to school. Lots of fun, so much so that I know of a certainty that by fourth grade there was no more current events (yes it ends in an "s", but it is singular in this use.)

Anyway, you soon got to current events (and even then this was like once a month or so, too much fun.) Now if we were lucky- and keep in mind this was segregation- if we were lucky, she would tell us the topic of the articles to clip. Okay, so we would clip the articles, (note the gramatical comma) and bring them to school. Fine and good. Swell. But then (and the devil made them do this) the teacher would ask: "But what does it mean?" And of course our first response (silently, oh so silently) was "You don't know?"

"But what does it mean?" "This is second grade, third grade, how am I supposed . . .?" Or, "What did it say?" Of course, if he had announced the topic of the articles, there you go.

Unacceptable, and, though Fifth Ward was tough, I went to school, especially elementary school, with good people, so the anguish was shared. But there was always the eager girls (two of them) whose parents had always evidently taken the time to discuss the articles with them, and they were ready.

Of a truth I can say nothing contrary to news articles about Lorena Ochoa, never heard of her, we're talking totally blank slate. This is the sentence that strikes in the article: "It was the fifth straight year a golfer has captured the Female Athlete award, the longest streak of any sport."

"But what does it mean?" Women have been making marked gains everywhere in everything. But the one place the good ol' boy could retreat was to "'da course", "'da links". (I don't play golf, I grew up in segregation remember. "Golf: you and what national army?") Still, despite the fact that 95% of network evening TV is geared to women, that there's a female announcer on Monday night football irritatingly describing . . . I'll leave that alone. Anyway, the good ol' boy could retreat to the bonding on the course 'cuz if they were also on the course somewhere they were over there in their place (and I have to leave that alone because we are talking out-of-experience for this body.) Anyway, these are the kind of girls "we" like: in their place.

"But what does it mean?" A female golfer has been female athlete of the year for the past five years. What does that mean? It means that the male athlete of the year for at least the past six years quiet's-its-been-kept has been in truth . . . Tiger Woods. Now that's too much for WASPing oinkism! Too much reality! Time to retreat into Rambo-boy fantasy.

That's what it means. Heck, next time . . . announce the topic, and we'll repeat what you tell us.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: USA's #3, Tayyiba Haneef-Park

Versus Cuba with the US winning 20-25 25-21 25-18 20-25 15-11 November 3, 2007

Spikes against Peru's Milagros Moy. The US won 25-23 25-14 25-19

Spikes against Peru's Mirtha Uribe (L) and Leyla Chihuan

With a little emphatic emphasis

This is how we address the recently Olympics qualifying Cubans, politely

dunking on Poland's Anna Podolec November 4, 2007 (okay, dunking would be carrying)

With Jennifer Joines jumpimg to block Team Dominican Republic

Spikes against Thailand's Ampom Hyapha November 10, 2007

lighting some sparks on the hommies, Japan's Yoshie Takeshita November 15, 2007

Spikes against Serbia's Vesna Citakovic November 14, 2007

Emphasizing with South Korea's Kim Yeon-Kuong (C) and Kim Se-Young November 11, 2007

Photo sources: Yahoo! News and fivb.com

Sunday, December 23, 2007

This is deflating: Golfer Lorena Ochoa of Mexico is the overwhelming choice as the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. Again.

Shows what I know (I have begun to follow the tour . . . some, but I an not a golfer, no): interesting story. For an AP vote and story, it was . . . like . . . difficult to dig this up even in the search engines. What's up with this? Might my gloss be that of audience of the mainline media? I have missed . . . play . . . this big! Oink. McLuhan reflection of too clear underlying (hiding) pork-bellyness. As a man, I am ashamed: this is 2007. The number of women voting for male athelete of the year should equal the number of men voting for female athelete of the year.

Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: Team USA's servers and diggers relative to the rest of the world

Servers
Rank Shirt Name Team Aces Faults Serve Hits Total Atts Avg. by set
14 10 Glass Kimberly USA 9 18 100 127 0.22
27 3 Haneef-Park Tayyiba USA 7 18 89 114 0.17
41 2 Scott-Arruda Danielle USA 5 6 134 145 0.12
42 11 Ah Mow-Santos Robyn USA 5 8 116 129 0.12
43 7 Brown Heather USA 5 12 64 81 0.12
56 6 Tom Logan USA 4 22 107 133 0.10
65 1 Nnamani Ogonna USA 3 5 49 57 0.07
71 4 Berg Lindsey USA 2 3 70 75 0.05
100 9 Joines Jennifer USA 1 1 53 55 0.02
105 18 Busse Cassandra USA 1 2 15 18 0.02
Total USA 42 95 797 934 n/a
Total Tournament 485 1044 8468 9997 2.06
Diggers
Rank Shirt Name Team Digs Faults Receptions Total Atts Avg. by set
4 15 Davis Nicole USA 109 63 78 250 2.66
13 6 Tom Logan USA 78 46 102 226 1.90
38 10 Glass Kimberly USA 35 25 54 114 0.85
56 3 Haneef-Park Tayyiba USA 23 42 54 119 0.56
62 11 Ah Mow-Santos Robyn USA 21 23 71 115 0.51
69 4 Berg Lindsey USA 19 23 39 81 0.46
80 2 Scott-Arruda Danielle USA 15 13 29 57 0.37
86 1 Nnamani Ogonna USA 12 13 19 44 0.29
87 7 Brown Heather 12 12 13 16 41 0.29
98 5 Sykora Stacy USA 9 9 4 22 0.22
104 18 Busse Cassandra USA 7 5 4 16 0.17
108 9 Joines Jennifer USA 6 5 7 18 0.15
Total USA 159 171 297 627 n/a
Total Tournament 3742 3015 5361 12118 15.92

Jelena again considered for a wildcard entry to the Australian Open as concern mounts about the safety of the new surface upon which she was injured

For years, Jelena Dokic's name has been considered among those to receive a wildcard entry to the Australian Open. As a result of recent injury, again serious consideration is being given to a wildcard grant. Jelena, however, believes, and reasonably so, that that may do her more harm than good, because she needs good, challenging matches at this point. Yahoo! News Friday December 21, 03:33 PM Dokic bids to play on despite injury FoxSports: Dokic wants no wildcard favours But, big but, there is now concern that Jelena's injury was due to the new court surface itself, and her injury portends harm to the entire tour during the Open. Yahoo! News Sunday December 23, 07:39 PM Concerns over new courts for the Australian Open

Photo source: Yahoo! News file photo January 16, 2006

Friday, December 21, 2007

Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: USA's #6, Logan Tom

Though partially hidden, no question that's Logan in front of #15

Again, an intensity matched perhaps only by Cynthia Cooper in women's team sports

Spikes a ball against Peru's Patricia Soto (L) and Mirtha Uribe

Versus Peru November 2, 2007

Peru's Leyla Chihuan spikes against Logan Tom

Logan Tom spikes the ball against Cuba's Yanelis Santos Allegne (R) and Nancy Carrillo De La Paz November 3, 2007

Logan Tom and Cuba's Yanelis Santos Allegne jump for the ball

Logan Tom attacks against South Korean double blockers November 11, 2007

Logan Tom spikes the ball against Poland's Anna Podolec (L) and Eleonora Dziekiewicz November 4, 2007

Poland's Katarzyna Skowronska-Dolata spikes; some of those have got to hurt

Dominican Republic's Sidarka Nunez spikes November 9, 2007

Logan Tom spikes the ball past Thailand's Saymai Paladsrichuay November 10, 2007; hey, can dish it, too

air Logan

La Rosa Zoyla (PER) sets v Logan November 2, 2007

Spikes the ball over Japanese defenders, Yoshie Takeshita(L) and Asako Tajimi November 15, 2007

More air Logan Tom

Blocks versus Peru

Spikes versus Peru

Photo sources: Yahoo! News and fivb.com

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: Team USA's relative scorers, strikers and blockers

I'd like to look at some stats from last month's Women's Volleyball World Cup 2007 in Japan. When I finish with the evaluation over several posts, I will point you to the site(s) for the full statistical smorgasbord (yeap, still thinking CA.)

I'd like to look at FIVB player rankings . . . excerpting and magnifying only Team USA as ranked against the rest of the world. Again, when I finish I'll point you to the listings for a full comparison. (The FIVB's reference to "shirt" I believe is the same as our "jersey number". )

First three categories: best scorers, best spikers and best blockers.

Scorers

Rank Shirt Name Team Spike Block Serve Total
3 6 Tom Logan USA 134 26 4 164
10 3 Haneef-Park Tayyiba USA 126 10 7 143
25 2 Scott-Arruda Danielle USA 74 31 5 110
41 7 Brown Heather USA 63 14 5 82
51 10 Glass Kimberly USA 52 10 9 71
66 1 Nnamani Ogonna USA 38 3 3 44
67 9 Joines Jennifer USA 28 11 1 40
82 18 Busse Cassandra USA 18 2 1 21
97 11 Ah Mow-Santos Robyn USA 4 5 5 14
113 4 Berg Lindsey USA 2 1 2 5
Total Tournament 5813 1153 485 7451

Spikers

Rank Shirt Name Team Spikes Faults Shots Total Atts Succ. %
3 3 Haneef-Park Tayyiba USA 126 31 102 259 48.65
13 6 Tom Logan USA 134 37 146 317 42.27
n/a 2 Scott-Arruda Danielle USA 74 9 57 140
n/a 10 Glass Kimberly USA 52 21 54 127
n/a 7 Brown Heather USA 63 12 37 112
n/a 1 Nnamani Ogonna USA 38 9 56 103
n/a 9 Joines Jennifer USA 28 6 23 57
n/a 18 Busse Cassandra USA 18 12 25 55
n/a 11 Ah Mow-Santos Robyn USA 4 5 9
n/a 4 Berg Lindsey USA 2 1 3 6
Total Tournament 5813 1987 6166 13966 41.62

Blockers

Rank Shirt Name Team Stuff Blocks Faults Rebounds Total Atts Avg. by set
3 2 Scott-Arruda Danielle USA 31 37 94 162 0.76
6 6 Tom Logan USA 26 16 36 78 0.63
34 7 Brown Heather USA 14 21 42 77 0.34
45 9 Joines Jennifer USA 11 16 37 64 0.27
47 10 Glass Kimberly USA 10 12 37 59 0.24
49 3 Haneef-Park Tayyiba USA 10 38 57 105 0.24
72 11 Ah Mow-Santos Robyn USA 5 16 18 39 0.12
92 1 Nnamani Ogonna USA 3 5 16 24 0.07
97 18 Busse Cassandra USA 2 5 11 18 0.05
114 4 Berg Lindsey USA 1 8 11 20 0.02
Total Tournament 1153 1987 3494 6634 4.91

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

"Where's my motivation?": Miki Ando finding that social "adulation" can be a give, give and give again proposition

And all too often that does not mean high society giving it a break, giving it some slack. Back in the day, with stereos, you had to get up to move the needle to hear a song over and over (no, no one ever put the bean bag next to the needle, you always had to get up.) Now you can put the cd player on "stuck": I can go days listening to Stevie Nicks ask "Who is the beauty, who is the beast"? There are, though as we see here, deeply diverse cultural responses to that question.

Photo sources: (in order) Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Issei Kato; Yahoo! News/AFP/Jiji Press; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Issei Kato; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Issei Kato

Saturday, December 8, 2007

CA represent'n in the NCAA Division I Womens volleyball Championship

With no. 2 Nebraska (27 and 1 during the regular season) surviving Michigan State (19-13) 3 sets to 2, the regional finals in the NCAA Division I Womens volleyball championship are set: in Palo Alto, CA, no. 1 Stanford (27-2) hosts no. 8 University of CA @ LA (20-10); in Gainesville, Florida, no. 4 Univeristy of Texas (24-3) will play no. 5 University of Southern CA (25-4); in the Wisconsin capital, University of Nebraska takes on no. 10 University of CA @ beserkley (I'm an alum', I have the right) (22-7); and at University Park, PA, no. 3 Penn State (28-2) takes on Brigham Young University (21-7). In the second round, USC took out another CA power house, Tayyiba Haneef-Park's alma mater Long Beach State, 3 sets to 2.

I know Logan Tom is a Stanford alum'; but, before just totally ranking to the n-th any totally sports-sheltered being who may not have known that, I thought I'd double check, again. Instead of doing like a "wikipedia.org" or something, I stuck her name in a search engine, and the photos that led the results . . .. I remember the discussion during the Athens Olympics about the oh so little cute Amanda Beard having ditched her '00 teddy bears for more mature revelations. but I was unaware that Logan Tom had joined her (precisely why I am not a Maxim, FHM, Playboy kind of . . . man: the issue of social responsibility, or credible lack thereof.). I think I am glad I am not fluent in Spanish for this: (I am not so sure even about the general suitability of the title here) Actually, I am enjoying exagerating: Logan plays beach volleyball, so it's all in the use of the word "posing" with that of "bikini".

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

FIVB Women's World Cup: final standings

Although the Italians won the gold medal at the 2007 FIVB Women’s World Cup after defeating Team USA in their both last match on the last day of the tournament, the format for the competition was a bit different: the winner was the team with the best won-lost record at tournament's end. Ties were determined by the Points Ratio (see the table below). So, at the end of play, Italy singularly remained undefeated: they were the overall winners.

There's more to be gleaned from tournament play, but I will start here: Being ignorant of the format, when I first saw "Italy defeated USA to win Cup", I was somewhat dismayed. Though I was not up on the fourth (final) round results, I was aware of what had happened in the previous rounds (though still ignorant of the tournament format.) I was dismayed because, if asked then if I though the US had a chance to stand on the podium in Beijing, my response would have been an unqualified absolutely "positutenally" not: somebody was playing us, trying to swell our heads.

The US has, let us call this, a "Cuba complex": in women's vball, they are constantly kicking our bucks. But so are the Russians and the Chinese and the Brazilians, to name just a few. But "we" can't stand the Cubans. Problem is the Cuban team is hugely Black, and the Team USA invectives must resonate in the inner woman when some USA Team members leave the locker room and look in the mirror in their homes. Thus my focusing the spotlight on Coach Ping: is there a constructive solution? Ranked at this moment in the third position and reflecting the whole lot of work that must now be done, I am more inclined toward a "Yes, there is a chance for a medal." And look at who's looking at who's looking: as host, the People's Republic receives an automatic bid in volleyball, so need not have participated in the world cup tournament. In fact, Russia was defeated by the Italians in the semis at European's with only the finalists going to the world cup, so Russia must qualify at a later event.

Rk Code Country Points Matches Points Sets
Won Lost Won Lost Ratio Won Lost Ratio
1 ITA Italy 22 11 858 604 1.421 33 2 16.500
2 BRA Brazil 20 9 2 891 671 1.328 29 9 3.222
3 USA U.S.A. 20 9 2 940 821 1.145 28 13 2.154
4 CUB Cuba 19 8 3 1'020 951 1.073 28 17 1.647
5 SRB Serbia 18 7 4 910 866 1.051 26 15 1.733
6 POL Poland 17 6 5 908 820 1.107 23 18 1.278
7 JPN Japan 17 6 5 885 866 1.022 21 19 1.105
8 KOR Korea 15 4 7 825 848 0.973 16 22 0.727
9 DOM Dominican Republic 14 3 8 797 911 0.875 12 28 0.429
10 THA Thailand 13 2 9 784 924 0.848 11 29 0.379
11 PER Peru 12 1 10 681 855 0.796 6 30 0.200
12 KEN Kenya 11 11 498 860 0.579 2 33 0.061

. . . Miki does fall

Perhaps others can bear to read this; I couldn't: The Japan Times: Mistakes cost Ando chance to qualify for GP Final

So, the table of my just previous post is complete: six finalist, three subs and those just not making the Grand Prix final. What I wondered from the numbers last post was whether I was seeing something of structure, something embedded, or something more transitory: a change in mental attitude here, an adjustment to technique there, a little more practice?