Couple Works to Restore Tierra Del Fuego

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Tierra del Fuego, the region that Doug and Kris Tompkins are working to preserve.

I recently came across an article about Doug and Kris Tompkins, two successful entrepreneurs, who last December donated more than 94,000 acres at the tip of South America, where they plan to form the base of a national park.  The land that they purchased some 15 years ago is part of the region Tierra Del Fuego, characterized by high mountains, rare forest and clear lakes and rivers.  The move comes as an intention to nationalize the area for nature and was part of an extraordinary endeavor that has made them the greatest private creators of protected landscapes in history.

At the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, the couple has so far purchased 2.2 million acres of Chile and Argentina, conserving and restoring it while sensitively providing access and other facilities, so that they can present it to the two countries for national parks.  To date, they have donated 600,000 acres to the government.  December’s addition catalyzed the Chilean government to add 276,000 adjoining acres of its own land.  The resulting Yendegaia National Park, which takes in both the Darwin Range and the Beagle Channel, protects the last frontier of sub-Antarctic beech forest and is the home of such critically endangered animals as the ruddy-headed goose.

Just seven months earlier, the couple donated 37,500 acres of the Andes to swell Argentina’s Perito Moreno national park.  They have also given two entire parks, one in Chile and one in Argentina, since 2000 and are close to handing over three more.  They have brought back tens of thousands of acres of degraded land, reintroduced locally extinct species, revived communities and built roads and trails, camp sites and visitor centers.

Rugby Players

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New Zealand’s rugby team is known for performing the “Haka”, a traditional Maori dance designed to intimidate foes, before games.

When I played rugby back in the day, one thing that struck me was the sense of debt that players had.  People who enjoy rugby usually feel that they need to pay back all that they’ve received throughout the game.  Rugby, beyond the technical and tactical teachings, is a sport of camaraderie and friendship.  It teaches players how to share, respect each other and work as a team.  This is one of the essential components to playing rugby.

In recent years, rugby has spiked in popularity, thanks to the former players who work tirelessly to teach younger generations the values of rugby.  There are many different roles and positions in rugby.  The best is, of course, a player.  Nothing beats the buzz that comes from playing, sharing a training session, game, tours or after-games.  The memories associated with such fleeting moments have lasted me a lifetime.  Even though I have since passed my rugby-playing prime, there are still ways to stay involved in what truly is a great sport.

A lot of former rugby players love to coach.  Their vision comes from many years of playing and learning tricks on and off of the field.  It’s the closest to playing that somebody like me can get.  But the game still evolves so quickly, and coaches need to work hard to stay up-to-date.  When this becomes too much of a challenge for a coach, the next logical step is to become a club official.  Clubs are units where the need to push together is clear, and where there is always a role to be played.  These clubs need to find representation at a higher level.  In such a case, they typically send their finest to either work at a provincial or national level.

Djokovic Beats Nadal

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Novak Djokovic, shown here, after a successful match.

Recently, I’ve been watching the Sony Open Tennis games, which have been wildly entertaining.  Just yesterday, Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in the final with 6-3, 6-3.  His game plan was focused on attacking Nadal where he was most vulnerable: returning serve and extremely wide in the Ad court.  Since he first had to navigate saving a break point in the opening game of the match and deal with Nadal’s legendary form, it took him a while to execute his strategy.  However, Nadal was unable to handle the Serb’s onslaught as he attacked his forehand return with both first and second serves.

Nadal’s backhand return motion is compact and easier to block the serve back, while the forehand backswing is larger and more likely to be pressured for time, particularly on hard courts.  Djokovic’s attack was a disruptive, surprise tactic to attack the strength and keep Nadal guessing.  It was also extremely effective to catch Nadal running around his backhand return.

Djokovic seemed to always be ahead in the rallies, and Nadal seemed to be a step slower than normal.  He committed 18 forehand groundstroke errors to Djokovic’s seven, and where these errors were made help understand the inner workings of the Serb’s plan.

A staggering 16 of the 18 of Nadal’s forehand errors occurred standing in the Ad court, where Djokovic attacked with his backhand cross court and forehand.  Of these 16, 10 occurred very wide around the Ad court alley (and sometimes outside it) as Djokovic kept grabbing Nadal out of his comfort zone.  Djokovic is well-known for his backhand down the line, but every one of his backhand winners were cross court in the direction of Nadal’s forehand.  Although both players won 14 points each in baseline rallies during the opening set, it was clearly Djokovic who took the honors during the second set, winning 65% from the back of the court.

Djokovic broke for the first time in the 2-3 opening set as Nadal served.  Djokovic finished at the net with a forehand volley winner on the first point after he crushed a second serve return down the line to Nadal’s forehand.  Djokovic went after the forehand again at 0-15, hitting a short angle backhand cross court winner.  Nadal won the following point with a good first serve that was unreturned, and at 15-30 Djokovic hit a huge forehand down the line, attacking Nadal’s forehand, then backed it up with a cross-court winner.  At 15-40, Djokovic used the secondary pattern of attacking Nadal’s backhand.

Djokovic then won seven of eight points to take command of all areas of the court.  Leading 3-2, 30-0 in the second set, he was feeling it so much that he nailed an old-school slice backhand approach deep to Nadal’s forehand, which the Spaniard in turn missed down the line.  After Djokovic’s primary concerns were humming, he occasionally mixed it up to Nadal’s backhand in an effort to confuse him.  Nadal’s serving was disappointing, as he only won 59% of the first serves and 46% of second serves.  Djokovic constantly began the point returning down the middle with a deep missile which pushed back Nadal and put him in control of both court position and the directional flow of the point.  In the first set, Djokovic averaged landing his return 11.4 feet from the baseline against first serves, which improved to only 5.8 feet from the baseline against second serves, pushing Nadal back.  In his post-match interview, Djokovic said everything went “perfectly” for him.