Friday,
July 14, 2006
Zidane: Listen
Up: The Art and Science of Trash-Talking
The ANNOTICO Report
Preface:
When one doesn't have the
Intellect or Verbal Skills to Respond to "put downs", and doesn't
have the Emotional Maturity or Control to Ignore them, then a lesser person will
react like Zidane, with "naked brute"
force!!!!!! But the most disappointing part is that Zidane
who takes pride in his "tough" background "whines" that he was subjected to "bad words".
Perhaps about his advanced years, his virility, his skinny legs....? :)
:) Poor Thing ;) ;)
Materazzi feels that words said on the field
are best left there, and if Zidane wishes to state them , then it is Zidane's
prerogative. But Zidane denying earlier claims of
"terrorist", so far has declined to reveal them, perhaps realizing
that the words weren't so terrible after all, and revealing them might make
Zidane seem a silly, petty weakling.
But in "Trash
Talking" there are NO Limits!!! The More Outrageous the "talk"
is, the LESS Truth it contains, and your opponent is
merely "goading" you, "verbally dueling". Respond or
Ignore. But if you Foul, or Complain,
...You Lose !!
Maybe the
"snooty" French, even an Algerian, thought that a "taunt"
in response to Zidane's sarcasm coming from a
"lesser" Italian was absolutely
intolerable. Maybe the Italians have "thicker" skins having been
subjected to
Trash Talk; the
Art and the Science
From David the who bested
Goliath, through Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb to Mohammed Ali, Reggie Jackson even Babe Zaharias,
James Toney, Bernard Hopkins, Floyd Mayweather,
Shannon Sharpe, Charles Barkley, Warren Sapp, Bob Knight, Fred Smoot, Michael
Jordan and Larry Bird are among All Time Best "Trash Talkers".
Trash talk: The
practice of boasting and insulting one's foes on court or afield,
may be one of our culture's most beloved, and most reviled, phenomena.The
act of using brash, clever, demeaning, and/or boastful verbal taunts in order
to weaken your opponents resolve, and to give yourself a psychological
edge over them.
Trash: The Art of
the Talk-- from
Tiger Boxing.com- - -James Toney is an all-time great Trash-talker. If there
were a Trash-talking Hall of Fame, Toney would get in on the first ballot.
Bernard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather are other great
nominations, with Cassius Clay/Mohammed Ali being the Champ.
The Art and
Science of Trash Talking - from Sporting News- - - NFL receivers voted Vikings
cornerback Fred Smoot the biggest trash talker, and - was the runaway choice,
receiving 25 of 47 votes. No other DB had more than four.
"He talks from the
opening kickoff until the final gun," an AFC wideout
says. "Even in warmups, he's talking. He picks
his battles, but he knows who to talk trash with. He can wear you down just
with his mouth."But Smoot doesn't talk
aimlessly--he has a plan. In fact, he provided a first-person primer on the
sweet science of verbal warfare.
Talking the Talk,
An Art All It's Own - In Psychology of Sports & Denver Post - Shannon Sharpe, The
Mouth from the South, the most prolific pass-catching tight end in NFL history,
can never resist an opportunity to exercise his jaw.
But before Sharpe, and
before Reggie Jackson, Charles Barkley, Warren Sapp and Bob Knight, or any of
the other prime-time sports figures who blended their enormous egos with a gift
for gab, there was the self-proclaimed "King of the World." Mohammed
Ali
Trash-talking always has
been a part of sports. Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb were
notorious baiters and braggarts on the diamond. Michael Jordan and Larry Bird's
on-court trash-talking could burn the ears of a longshoreman. But Ali and his
disciples went public with their verbal games. Their mouths roared on TV screen
and in print.
The Art of Trash Talk- Psychology
Today- - -Sports history is filled with famous trash talkers. One well-known
athlete, a young man named David, was able to use a verbal attack to his
benefit in a battle with a heavily favored foe. "I will strike you down
and cut off your head," David proclaims to his much larger enemy, Goliath,
in the first chapter of the biblical book of Samuel. And the rest! is trash-talking history.
All Four Articles are Below in their Entirety. The List of Dos and
Don'ts are included.
Trash: The Art of the Talk
TigerBoxing.com
05/18/2005 -
By Robert Potwin
Trash talk: The act of
using brash, clever, demeaning, and/or boastful verbal taunts in order to
weaken your opponent’s resolve, and to give yourself a psychological edge
over them. This phenomenon is becoming increasingly common in our society,
particularly in sports. Although opinions vary widely as to its relative
merits, there’s no denying that trash talk has been on the rise for a
number of years.
...Whatever its merits,
trash-talking is a part of boxing, and if recent events have called a brief
arrest to one of its leading practitioners, there is little doubt that they
will re-emerge in full force once again.
When James Toney outboxed WBA Heavyweight Championship John Ruiz on April
30, boxing almost entered a new era in trash talking. A major belt in boxing’s marquee division moved briefly from one of
the most bland champions in history, to one of the loudest, rudest, and most
brash in Lights Out Toney. Most fans of the sport seemed hopeful that the era of
“Lights Out” as Champion would have been a colorful one, and put
the sport back in the mainstream...
Nonetheless, drugs or no,
James Toney is an all-time great Trash-talker. If there were a Trash-talking
Hall of Fame, Toney would get in on the first ballot. In fact, he would be
sitting in the lead car at the induction parade, waving a blow-horn, and loudly
shouting venomous but highly amusing insults at the people lining the streets.
If it seemed sure that James Toney was going to spice things up in the
Heavyweight division, his skills in the verbal art of trash-talk are surely
going to be tested again when he emerges from his 90-day suspension.
With his credo to fight “anyone,
anywhere, anytime,” Toney’s antics as contender - however brief
they may wind up being given his age and tendency toward injury could still be a fun ride: Toney versus Vitali Klitschko? Id pay
$39.99 just to listen to Toney insult the lumbering Ukrainian at a press
conferenceHasim Rahman? He’s
no slouch in the verbal-sparring department himself, and the run up to that
fight could wind up being the trash-talk equivalent of Barrera-Morales.
Toney’s relentless
verbal assault might even drive even the pious Chris Byrd to
foam-at-the-mouth-madness: Imagine a press conference at which Toney uses the
spoken equivalent of Chinese water torture to continually goad the IBF Champ;
pushing his buttons until the squeaky clean Byrd completely loses his cool and
unleashes a string of F-bombs, or worse; takes a swing at his smirking nemesis!
Not necessarily a pretty picture, but it would certainly a lot more
entertaining than watching Byrd and Holyfield or McCline compliment each other to death.
Some fighters are just as
skilled in the art of verbal warfare as they are at boxing itself, and they
instinctively know how to gain a psychological edge over their opponent using
words and implications. Toney is perhaps the best of this breed of fighters,
who use trash-talk as an effective weapon in their arsenal: He shows absolutely
no fear or respect to his opponents when he speaks, and his barbs often seem to
have had an actual effect on his opponents confidence level, or at least
to have caused them to come into the ring angry and therefore “out of
their game.”
His fight against John
Ruiz was, in my opinion, a perfect example: Toney taunted Ruiz endlessly prior
to the fight. He insulted his style, and said that Ruiz who takes great pride in his heritage,
and the fact that he is the first Heavyweight belt-holder of Latin descent -
was not a true “Latin fighter” because he “fought scared”,
and as someone purely trying to avoid being knocked out. The
result? I know that Ruiz would never be mistaken for Erik Morales, but
the fighter I saw in the ring against Toney seemed tentative and utterly
lacking in any sort of “fire.” I thought he surrendered his title
rather meekly, and I would argue this was due in part to the psychological beatdown that Toney laid on him in the run up to the fight.
Ruiz, to me, wore the body language, and fought the fight, of a psychologically
beaten man.
Like James Toney,
long-reigning Middleweight Champion Bernard Hopkins has used his own brand of
trash-talk often and to good effect. “The Executioner” has backed
it up and then some by putting his money where his mouth is
in the ring, over and over again. People still talk about the day, when, prior
to fighting an undefeated and larger-than-life Felix Trinidad,
Was it perhaps reminiscent
of Sonny Liston’s reaction to a young Cassius
Clay, whereby the scary-tough Champion in fact grew to fear his trash-talking
opponent, thinking that he was, in effect, completely crazy, and therefore
unpredictable? Certainly, the unparalleled skills that
There is, however a
definite flip side to the trash-talking coin:...
fighters come across as cocky, mean-spirited, and insecure.
I would argue that “Pretty
Boy” Floyd Mayweather is currently the best
example of this breed of fighter: Bluntly put, he cuts a thoroughly unlikable
figure, and leaves one hoping that his next opponent will find a way to shut
his mouth and wipe that smug look off his face. Will Arturo Gatti,
Mayweather’s next opponent, be this fighter?
Perhaps he will, perhaps he wont, but you can be assured of one thing:
Virtually every fan watching this fight, whether on TV or in the arena, will be
cheering for Gatti to do so, particularly if they’ve
heard Mayweather spew his particular breed of
ugliness towards his brave and dignified warrior-opponent.
Another very “mainstream”
example of a cocky and arrogant trash-talking fighter could be seen on
"The Contender," in the form of the twice-beaten - but
never-at-a-loss-for-words - Ahmed Kaddour: He never
passed up an opportunity to spout off about how great he was, but unlike
Bernard Hopkins (and, admittedly Floyd Mayweather up
to this point) he could not back up his trash-talk in the ring, and was
summarily thrashed twice by the men he had dissed.
If you believe in karma,
perhaps you can take comfort in the idea that fighters like Kaddour
and Mayweather flout the rule of karma, and that in
doing so they run the risk of suffering a particularly spectacular one-punch
knockout at some in their respective careers. Perhaps they even realize this on
some level, and perhaps thats the point: Some people need to feel fear, or
feel that everyone is against them, in order to be motivated. In this sense,
trash-talk certainly serves a useful purpose for this type of fighter as well.
Whatever one’s
opinion is of trash-talking and its place in boxing, there is no denying that
it seems to be on the rise. Despite Toney’s prompt departure from the
Championship scene, the build-up to Bernard Hopkins’ imminent retirement,
and the fact that Floyd Mayweather will be engaging
in the biggest fight of his career this summer will undoubtedly be a fertile
ground for some more colorful talk. .... when it’s
done well, by practitioners who intuitively grasp its potential to entertain
and energize, it can add ever-more interesting dynamics to an
already-compelling situation.
I would argue that the
fact that it can at least prompt people to care who wins is merit
enough, given that complete and utter indifference is arguably the only “sin”
that this great sport must seek to avoid at all costs.
articles/index.php?aid=1001245075
The Art and Science of
Trash-Talking
Sporting News
Katie Koss
Dec 23, 2005
Earlier this season, we
asked wide receivers which defensive back was the biggest trash-talker. Vikings
cornerback Fred Smoot was the runaway choice, receiving 25 of the 47 votes. No
other DB had more than four.
"He talks from the
opening kickoff until the final gun," an AFC wideout
says. "Even in warmups, he's talking. He picks
his battles, but he knows who to talk trash with. He can wear you down just
with his mouth."
But Smoot doesn't talk
aimlessly--he has a plan. In fact, he provided a first-person primer on the
sweet science of verbal warfare.
DO'S
1. Always study your
opponent. Find out their weaknesses and their strengths. Then you need to find
out some dirt. And when I say dirt, it's dirt.
The NFL is like a big
fraternity. I might be here (in
2. Work on delivery. Watch
a lot of BET's Comic View and a lot of Dave Chappelle. You've got to have a delivery, and it's got to
be natural. If that's not your personality, you can't trash-talk.
I've always been a talker.
When I was real young, playing pee-wee ball, that's the way I used to get
comfortable in the game. I haven't worn a mouthpiece since I was in junior high
school because I couldn't talk with it in.
3. Press the advantage. I
can tell by small things that I've gotten inside a guy's head. That's when I
start really spitting in your face, so you might need a towel to wipe it. Now I
start to go to your sideline and tell your coaches, "You better put
somebody else in the game--I've got him."
DON'TS
1. Avoid making it too
personal. Don't do anything that ever truly hits home. Something that's true to
the heart ... you don't go there. You don't want to be a heathen. It's all in fun, you know, love and war.
2. Silence is not an
option. If you give up a play, you can not stop talking trash. You can't let
him shut you up because he made one play on you. It's going to happen. II
you're going to be a talker, you must be a talker at all times.
3. Stop the noise--if you
suck. You've got to be able to go out there and handle your business. If you
cannot play the game, you cannot really talk. There's nothing for you to talk
about, actually.
In Psycology of Sports
In keeping with his nature, the loquacious one had plenty to say, including explaining why he talks so loud and proud.
"I remember when I was at school, they said, 'Be quiet and talk when you get home,'" Sharpe said. "And my grandmother would tell me, 'Shut up and talk when you get to school.' So my grandma won out. I talked at school. I would come home with As and Bs -- and an F in conduct."
Sharpe undoubtedly is the
greatest talker in
But before Sharpe, and before Reggie Jackson, Charles Barkley, Warren Sapp and Bob Knight, or any of the other prime-time sports figures who blended their enormous egos with a gift for gab, there was the self-proclaimed "King of the World."
On Thanksgiving Day 1996, Muhammad Ali was chilling out with Thomas Hauser, his friend and biographer.
The Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions were on television. A Chiefs player scored a touchdown and performed the obligatory end zone dance.
"You started that," Hauser recalls telling Ali. "All that dancing and celebrating and showing off started with you."
A smile crossed the champ's face.
"He was quite pleased with the observation," Hauser said. "And he said, 'I started the big salaries, too. Big salaries started when me and Joe Frazier got $2.5 million each the first time we fought.'"
Ali, the heavyweight champion who transcended sports as no other athlete has, talked the talk not just inside the ring, but outside of it, too. For better or worse, he set athlete's mouths in motion.
"I think Muhammad has an edge on all of us, because he was the first," Sharpe said. "He's the gold standard to which everyone else who comes after him will be compared."
Hauser, author of the bestseller "Muhammad Ali, His Life and Times," said that, for the most part, Ali's lip service was all in good fun.
"First, the biggest difference between Ali and all of the other talkers that came after him is that Ali did it with a wink," Hauser said. "A lot of guys today don't understand that. Obviously, when Ali was in the ring punishing Ernie Terrell and Floyd Patterson, he didn't do it with a wink. And there were other times, when he was speaking about the Vietnam War, he was speaking in a very serious way.
"But most of his trash-talking, the stuff we remember him for -- 'I'm going to whip that big, ugly bear (Sonny Liston)' -- he said it with a wink."
Ali was funny and lively and many media members fell under his spell.
"When he was younger and at his peak, he was as good as (comedian) Robin Williams," Hauser said. "If you look at the tapes of his old press conferences, they were amazing. Just think about his mummy imitation of George Foreman."
Trash-talking always has been a part of sports. Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb were notorious baiters and braggarts on the diamond. Michael Jordan and Larry Bird's on-court trash-talking could burn the ears of a longshoreman. But Ali and his disciples went public with their verbal games. Their mouths roared on TV screen and in print.
Ali, ever the showman,
recognized the entertainment value of his braggadocio. So did Jackson, the Hall
of Fame slugger who came to
"I loved talking to
Reggie because he always had something to say,"
It was Jackson, after all, who uttered the following: "The only reason I don't like playing in the World Series is I can't watch myself play."
Male athletes don't hold a monopoly on outspokenness. Even before Ali, there was Babe Didrikson Zaharias. The Babe won two Olympic gold medals at the 1932 Summer Games, in the javelin and the 80-meter hurdles. A year later, at age 21, she took up golf and dominated the sport. In 1945, she competed with the men in the Los Angeles Open. The Babe was Ali-like in her boastfulness.
"I'll never forget a
time Babe really got into a drive, knocking it way down the middle of the
fairway," longtime
There were plenty of linebackers who tried, and failed, to catch up with Sharpe on the football field. He said he knows he could still play if he wanted to. But last month when he was offered the chance to become an NFL analyst for CBS Sports, he grabbed it. Sharpe said his next goal is to win an Emmy -- and he just might pull it off.
"Shannon Sharpe is a great mouth because there is a brain behind it," ESPN broadcaster Chris Berman said.
But Sharpe will have to go some to best Barkley, who has followed up his boisterous hoop days with a career as a colorful, outspoken NBA analyst for TNT. During this year's playoffs, Barkley unloaded on just about everything and everybody. Commenting on two Los Angeles Lakers veterans, Barkley spewed this: "Karl Malone and Gary Payton were great in their day, but they're not in their day."
Dr. Alexander Robinson, the physician for the Miami Boxing Commission announced that Ali (Cassius Clay at the time) was "emotionally unbalanced, scared to death and liable to crack up before he enters the ring."
But it was all a show. During his supposed meltdown, Ali winked at boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson. Then Ali went on to whip Liston, who had called Ali "crazy." It wasn't the first time Ali used words as a weapon.
"When he was 12 years old and started fighting as an amateur, Ali would stick his head inside his opponent's locker room and say, 'Which one of you is the guy I'm beating up tonight?'" Hauser said. "He did it all along in his career and he did it to boost his confidence."
When Sharpe was a skinny
little kid growing up in
On June 3, he was the center of attention. When he begins talking for CBS this fall, his words will matter more than his deeds. Though he tips his hat to the Ali legend, Sharpe figures his mouth and wit are a match for anyone on the scene today.
"I
think me and Charles Barkley are running neck and neck," Sharpe said.
"I mean, my mom talks all the time. My grandma
talks all the time. So it's inherent for me to talk. I can't help it, it's who
I am. But it also helps to know what you're talking about."
http://www.psychologyofsports.com/
The Art of Trash
Talk
Deals
with the trash talk in sports events and its cultural implication. Decline of sportsmanship in relation to loss of civility; Comments
from sociologist Joe Lapchick; Example of trash
talker in sports.
Pyscology
Today
By: Jason Silverman
COMPETITION
As the NBA
season starts, the sound of basketballs bouncing--and players mouthing
off--fills the air.
Trash talk, the
practice of boasting and insulting one's foes on court or afield,
may be one of our culture's most beloved, and most reviled, phenomena.
Commercials from athletic companies such as Nike often glorify trash talking,
suggesting that bad manners are essential to good basketball. But cultural
critics see in trash talk the decline of sportsmanship and consider it yet
another sign of society's general loss of civility.
...Far from
trashing trash talk, however, Richard Lapchick,
Ph.D., contends that it actually serves a good purpose.
Founder of the
the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at
Northeastern University and son of NBA player and coach Joe Lapchick,
the sociologist points out that while "the language has changed, and the
form is different," trash talk has historically given players a mental
edge over their opponents.
"Those
who are older know that trash talking has been part of basketball and football
for a long time," Lapchick notes.
But does it
work? Jonathan Katz, Ph.D., a Manhattan-based clinical sports psychologist : "Players feel they can intimidate other
players by getting into their heads,"...
Still, sports
history is filled with famous trash talkers. One well-known athlete, a young
man named David, was able to use a verbal attack to his benefit in a battle
with a heavily favored foe. "I will strike you down and cut off your
head," David proclaims to his much larger enemy, Goliath, in the first
chapter of the biblical book of Samuel. And the rest! is
trash-talking history.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/
articles/index.php?term=pto-19990901-000001&print=1
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