To become a master of any game, it is essential to be a keen observer of performance, technique, pace, balance and all the elements that go into the execution of any discipline. That’s the point Baron Pierre de Coubertin was making in “Our Students,” an essay in his book, “English Education in France,” which was published in 1889.  Basically, he was telling French youth how to improve their games: You learn from watching others, and from watching yourself, and you make the adjustments that enhance your competitive skills. He equated the need for observation in sport with the novelist's need to depict through keen observation the reality of life in their fiction.

“Indeed, this unusual inquiry (into education in France), which at first held no particular charm, became quite captivating in the end. Besides, one perfects one's skills as an observer by actually making observations. Details that go unseen at first soon draw one's attention, guiding one's way of thinking. One learns to identify groups, to perceive what is really there, and to form conclusions. This is how modern novelists work in their thirst for the depiction of reality. All they want in their novels are things that have been truly lived; as a result, they must document such things thoroughly before putting them into their writing.”