Advantages: Good practice, practicaly grounded
Disadvantages: Too much in the world of sport. Based on unreasonable expectations

...This is apparently something of a management best seller and is based on the authors experience of coaching sports using the teachings of an American, Timothy Galleway, which he then adapted to business. Perhaps because I am not an athlete, this didn’t make the book particularly tempting to me. In fact I have to admit that I found the authors relentlessly positive tone and perfect examples enormously frustrating. I agree with what I think are the core ideas of the book – that on the whole people know more than they think, and would rather do their job well than badly, that people are generally more motivated to do something that they have had a stake in choosing, that questioning and explaining are better management tools than shouting and demanding. And I’m all in favor to the coaching methodology, rather than... Read review

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Advantages: Versatility, Comfort
Disadvantages: Juicy, Parking

...of Geoff Capes circa 1980! After having it for a week I filled the thing with logs and it took tons of them. Took me an hour to hoover afterwards mind you. All this size and comfort comes at a price. At the moment I am getting 24 miles for every gallon of diesel which is very good compared to my previous 4x4 but still on the rich side for most. On the plus side it has permanent 4 wheel-drive and electric bits and bobs, although true to form the standard spec ain't great. There's no sunroof, no xenon lights, no satnav, no bluetooth. All of these will cost you an extra small fortune. Mine is the sport model which gets you some lovely 20" alloys (yes, that does say 20 inches) and a sort of sporty interior . But let's not kid ourselves, this thing is about as sport as an iceberg. That said, it does accelerate quite briskly for such a behemoth... Read review

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Advantages: Inspirational true life drama
Disadvantages: None

...The Storyline ----------------- Ken Carter, (Samuel L. Jackson), is a local business man in Richmond where he runs a shop selling sport equipment. He is given the opportunity to go back and coach his high school basketball team, the Richmond Oilers, a team with a lot of promise but a lot of attitude and selfishness to match it. He knows this is a huge job, as the lack of discipline amongst the players and the environment that they live in only works against making them the team he hopes they can be. He accepts the job and in doing so he sets himself the challenge of making the team winners, but also in instilling an attitude of discipline and hope. He sets about the job by demanding the respect of the players and starting to instil in them a respect for themselves. As he strives to mould his team into disciplined winners, he... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: A warm, touching story with adrenalin fuelled scenes that keep you watching !!
Disadvantages: You can kind of guess the storyline but its still just as great!!

...I first decided to watch this film as I knew it had Samuel L Jackson in it. I'm not a big sports fan so didn't particularly think it would interest me. However I soon realised that it wasn't really all about basketball but the underlying problems of todays youth and found the messages it sends to be heart warming and I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Ok, so what's it about ? The film is inspired by a true story about a man called Ken Carter (Samuel L jackson). He is offered a job as head coach of a struggling basketball team at his former school in Richmond. His job description is not as easy as it looks. As well as transforming a bunch of unruly teens from slacking players to state champions he also has to encourage them to improve their neglected studies and become head of class. As expected this does not go down well... Read review

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Advantages: unique - I don'tlike sports films but loved this one
Disadvantages: very easy to follow story line but

...I was not really interested in watching this film as would not normally appeal to me, however, was I bowled over or what. Completely different to any other sports film I have seen and with a great story line. The story is about an ex basketball player who is asked to go back and coach his old school team (yes I can hear you groan, see it, been done before). However he has very strict and you could say, old fashioned, ideas of how to do this. The story starts with the ususal good basketball team, appear to the the jocks with very little accemdemic achievements and not likely to achieve. Also the basketball team are portrayed as being from a poor background and being very street wise. Coach Carter arrives on the scene and lays down his ground rules of ' my way; or the high way. typuically you have the student... Read review

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Advantages: Samuel L Jackson, Feel good movie, uplifting
Disadvantages: bits can feel manufactured, clichéd

...The Movie The real life coach (Ken) Carter made the news in 1999 for closing the Gym and banning any basketball activities because several of the students in his team were not doing well in the classroom. The reason he took drastic action was because all the students on the team signed contracts that they would meet a minimum criteria which encompassed all of their education, not just the basketball side of it. Six years later in 2005 Samuel L Jackson steps into Carter's shoes for the movie where he transforms an unfit, uneducated, uncaring bunch of delinquent kids who won 4 basketball games the previous season into winners. Not only winners in terms of them being undefeated within their chosen sport, but also winners in that he instilled pride into what was until recently a mob of unruly kids. Of course the kids initially... Read review

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Advantages:
Disadvantages:

...Why would an athlete of Linford Christie's calibre take drugs to enhance his performance after he has retired? In all the time that Linford was winning medals for his country he was never suspended for taking banned substances to enhance his performance. So why would anyone believe that he deliberately took such a substance in order to compete in a club level event, in his home country, after he has retired? This just doesn't make sense. We say we want to promote sport in this country and so we should before we have a nation of very unfit, couch potatoes. We then humiliate one of the greatest ambassadors for sport we have ever had. We hinder the preparation of our current athletes in their quest to win gold in Sydney by making it difficult for them to be in contact with their coach and now we are going to degrade the stadium... Read review

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Advantages: Children are healthier and happier
Disadvantages: None

...It is important that children find the success that makes them feel valued and wanted and success should not be measured in terms of 'winning'. To some, simply achieving a new skill is success. In fact, until someone tells them otherwise, most children do not see 'winning' as the primary aim and are more concerned with achieving skill development than beating