Relax and Slow the Game Down • 07.25.05
| Many important lessons in life can be learned through sports. One revelation of particular relevance presented itself as I neared the end of my not-so-illustrious basketball career. In high school, one of the biggest problems a team faces is dealing with the press. The problem is that when several men who seem to be at least three times as large as you come streaking in your direction (often frothing and yelling), a lot of things whirl around in your mind. “I hope I don’t make a turnover, coach will get mad, I’ll look stupid in front of the cheerleaders, etc.” These thoughts whirl around in your mind. The pressure crescendos until you break out into mild schizophrenia right there on the court. Wild screaming voices tell you forty different things to do with the ball, the most appealing of which is to get rid of it….fast. Confused, perplexed, and out of time, the inevitable would soon happen. Eventually we would freak out and pick a general direction to heave the ball, usually resulting in pretty lay-ups for the other team or souvenirs for a few lucky fans. This single problem probably accounted for 50% of the approximately 60 losses we all suffered through during four years of high school basketball. But, it occurred to me one game while watching from the bench, a position I was not unaccustomed to, that there was an answer to this problem. When I sat back, unattached to the action, there seemed to be a lot more time to react than I had ever realized while in the heat of battle. Another fact that presented itself was that there was an enormous amount of empty space on the court. It was not, as it had seemed, covered with an army of opponents. It all came down to point of view. When the ball hits your hands and those monsters are rushing toward you, it feels like you’ve got only a closet to move in, and like they arrive before the ball |
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even gets to you. In the frenzy of activity we were giving up our two greatest assets: time and space. I realized the secret to playing at a higher level, to controlling the game rather than being controlled, was to relax and slow the game down. When you relax and separate yourself from the anxiety, it’s easy to make the correct move. An important aspect of this is that it allows you the opportunity, if your eyes are open, to see the whole court. When you can see the situation in a context greater than your immediate point of view, it highlights all of your opportunities and enables you to evaluate more appropriately the correct action to take. You are making a decision that is truly informed, not running blind into a minefield. The only thing left to do is to trust in the accuracy of your decision and carry out your plan with conviction. This is important, because the second guess is often the first mistake. By relaxing and seeing the whole court in daily life, it becomes easy to handle the “press” whenever it arises. You enable yourself to transcend the current onslaught by seeing that the world is a huge expanse of land where opportunities abound, and that there is time enough for all of us. Celia Luce provides a brilliant example of the benefits of being of this mindset.
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