Tag: Sports

How to unthink

April 9th, 2019

Knowledge can be a hindrance. The more we know, the more likely we’re to hesitate in times of execution.

So the overthinking basketball player misses a wide-open layup, the tennis player misses an easy return, or the painter or writer can’t seem to get their inspiration to convert on a blank canvas.

We trip over our best selves. Stalling is also a symptom of facing the resistance. When we try too hard to be perfect, we end up producing nothing at all.

So how can we stem the tide of excess contemplation?

One of the ways to think less is to do it poorly.

For the artist, that may mean making until we have something to play with. As Vincent Van Gogh put it: “Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile.”

Another way to readjust the psychological thermostat is by substituting perfection with joy. When we enjoy what we’re doing, everything else disappears. Execution doesn’t need thought.

We are ultimately our best when we’re relaxed and instinctive, free from the chaos of the monkey mind.

Unthinking is the ability to apply years of learning at the crucial moment by removing your thinking self from the equation. Its power is not confined to sport: actors and musicians know about it too, and are apt to say that their best work happens in a kind of trance.
Non cogito, ergo sum

So do the work and let go, let God. Once you get out of your head, you’ll get out of your own way.

art via giphy
A day of two halves

April 6th, 2019

Umberto Eco was right when he said “We make lists because we don’t want to die.”

We feel dead without a challenge. That’s why some of us split the day into two halves.

Morning is the first half. We try to prioritize the hardest work between the hours of 9-12 before lunch so the rest of the day is comparatively easy. But we have to be ruthless in following through.

“It’s more important you do work that’s important, than you do work that’s pretty.
Seth Godin

Alternatively, we could use those few hours at the start of the day to build up toward an industrious afternoon.

The hardest part of any structure is dealing with interruptions. All it takes is the presence of our phones to disrupt our thinking. Text messages add more petty things into our heads and onto our to-do list.

Getting to-done is a daily discipline. The imperative of movement makes us feel more alive, freer, and less regretful.
In the search of greatness

February 1st, 2019

Great athletes break the mold. They’re not just gifted. They get creative in the arena, using their intuition and imagination to do things never seen before on stage. The same genius can be said for select actors, musicians, scientists, thinkers and the like.

In the fortchoming documentary In Search of Greatness, director Gabe Polsky takes us through the athletic genius of athletes like Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, and Serena Williams to explain what sets them apart from the rest. Find out more on the documentary here.
Take The Ball, Pass The Ball: trailer for documentary on Barcelona’s Guardiola years

October 17th, 2018

Watching FC Barcelona from 2008 to 2012 was like watching a performance art piece. The way coach and former Barcelona player Josep “Pep” Guardiola had the Blaugrana pass and move, with the added dynamics of Lionel Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta was just extraordinary.

“I don’t like it when a player says, ‘I like freedom; I want to play for myself.’ Because the player has to understand he is part of a team with 10 other players. If everyone wants to be a jazz musician, it will be chaos. They will not be a team, and nothing will be possible.”
Pep Guardiola

The team collected 14 trophies in four years, including the Treble of a La Liga title, Spanish Cup, and Champions League title in the 2008 – 2009 season. Hear the story straight from the players who lived it: Thierry Henry, Eto’o, Xavi, Iniesta, and more. Take the Ball, Pass the Ball. This documentary looks monumental.
How to bowl a strike 🎳

August 23rd, 2018

Pro tip: No need to be a muscle man. Use the lighter ball to get down those extra pins.

By itself, bowling a strike isn’t all that hard. Most amateur bowlers end up doing it by accident at least once a game. What makes a great bowler is the ability to bowl a strike consistently, which comes from hours of practice, great technique, and a few insider tips to get you started.
First, don’t go for the heaviest ball imaginable. It’s uncomfortable and less effective. Heavy balls hit pins up and out of the way while lighter balls spend more of their time banging around, causing the type of havoc that results in a strike.

(via Art of Manliness)
‘Most runners run because they want to live life to the fullest’

June 24th, 2018

Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life—and for me, for writing as well. I believe many runners would agree.
Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir
Designing the official World Cup ball

June 21st, 2018

Every four years Adidas redesigns the official ball for the World Cup. This year’s ball is called The Telstar 18, a perfect sphere that designed to reduce wobbling.

The Telstar 18, the design for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, is as close to a perfect sphere as you can get. It has subtle pimples and six thermally bonded panels designed to avoid knuckling, which is the characteristic bobbing and weaving movement when a ball is kicked without spin. All 32 teams have been able to play with it since November in preparation for the tournament, which runs from June 14 to July 15. But despite its similarities to the old ball, players have grumbled about the Telstar 18. Compared to the last few World Cup balls, the Telstar 18 is very similar to the ball used for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. It won’t fly quite as far down the pitch, and will wobble in the air a little differently, but aerodynamic testing suggests it will be more stable in the air overall.

Adidas tested the balls using wind tunnels, trying to mimic the unpredictable nature of a Ronaldo or Messi kick. Some say past designs weren’t so sturdy and may have given some teams an advantage. The 2010 South Africa World Cup ball, known as the Jabulani, fit the short-passing style of the World Cup winners Spain.

Despite the ball’s aerodynamic optimization, one thing is certain: the goalies always hate it.

I kind of feel sympathy for the players and especially the goalkeepers that have to get used to a new ball,” Goff says. So far the Telstar 18 has received criticism from a few goalkeepers that played with it starting in November, unhappy with how it moves in the air and the way the surface feels. Goalkeepers, unlike every other player on the pitch, have to predict where the ball will go in order to block it, while also not having the freedom to run around the field to adjust as the ball flies. That means goalies often have the most complaints about a new design. “Every time there’s a World Cup and a new ball the goalkeepers complain, because they’ve been given a new ball,” says Goff.

Read How the new World Cup ball was designed to not influence the games
Mexico’s WWII anti-Nazi propaganda poster

June 19th, 2018

1 nil

(h/t @rabihalameddine)
The British Museum adds Mo Salah’s boots to its collection

May 23rd, 2018

Image via the British Museum

In preparation for the Champions League final this Saturday, the British Museum has decided to include the football boots of Mo Salah in the Egyptian collection.

The Egyptian star scored the most goals in a Premier League season with 32. The museum’s curator said the boots were “a modern Egyptian icon, performing in the UK, with a truly global impact.” However, others like Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass finds the opportunism inappropriate, saying “If the British Museum wanted to honor Salah, it should have built a museum for him or put the shoe in a special room.”

You be the judge.

Below are some of Salah’s top goals from the 2017 – 2018 season.
Why great athletes enjoy suffering pain

March 31st, 2018

Author Malcolm Gladwell sits down with Alex Hutchison, author of the new book Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance to discuss how great athletes come to enjoy suffering pain.

Says Hutchison, “Great athletes don’t necessarily feel pain differently. They reframe pain differently.” Hutchison calls the suffering a type of benign masochism.

“Some day we’ll be able to identify that some people are wired to enjoy pain.”
Alex Hutchison

Being uncomfortable is a ‘psychological coping mechanism’

The best performers also suffer more in training, says Hutchison. This reminded me of Michael Jordan who once said that he practiced so hard that the games were often easier. As the Marines like to say: ‘pain is weakness leaving the body.’

How much are you willing to suffer to be the greatest?

Tag: Sports

So how can we stem the tide of excess contemplation?

Being uncomfortable is a ‘psychological coping mechanism’