neutrality

the same thing that makes you successful at one thing makes you successful at many things.


one of the biggest lessons i've learned lately is that "being there" is everything. i noticed this most recently while playing ultimate frisbee, tennis, playing piano, and doing yoga. 


In tennis there is a position called "ready position" which is basically knees bent,  racket held in front of you, relaxed, neutral body. The idea is that from here you can go anywhere depending on where the ball lands. you are at your most adaptable, most flexible, most neutral, most efficient, and most effective. What makes a tennis player good is how quickly (s)he can get into the position that allows him to hit the ball most effectively and efficiently and then how quickly he can return to neutral in order to anticipate the next play. This usually always involves backing up as much as possible. For me, someone who doesn't have a very strong backhand this also involves going to the back left so that the chances of me returning a play with my forehand rather than my backhand are greater.


Basically this is the same position you want to be in when you are playing ultimate frisbee; ready position. Except in frisbee you are moving a lot more. But if you are relaxed and ready to turn at a moments notice then you'll be a lot more successful.


Same thing in Bikram (hot) yoga. You do a pretty intense pose that requires a lot of concentration and heavy breathing (because it's hot), and then after the pose is over you immediately let it go and return back to "neutral" (standing still) in order to prepare yourself for the next pose.


In Wing Chun, which is a Japanese martial art, you are supposed to gaze directly into the "third eye" of your opponent, which is the space right in between your two eyes. This is so that while you are fighting you can "see" what's going on all around you because you aren't focused on any one body part. You are ready to defend an attack with the repertoire of moves that you have learned in the most efficient, effective way because you are in a "neutral" position; just like yoga, just like tennis, just like frisbee.


When you are playing the piano and you want to play a chord progression you can use inversions to make the progression easier to play so that you have to move your fingers as little as possible in order to hit the right notes. This is the same concept as ultimate frisbee as tennis as martial arts as yoga; right place, right time, so you can place whatever it is you are placing (the ball, your body, the frisbee, the notes) wherever you want them to go.


I suppose the questions to ask are: what is the quickest way to get into the most neutral position I can get myself into at any one point in time, what moves (throws, returns, defenses, etc. - sport/discipline specific) do I have in my "bag of tricks" and how do these determine where I should go (ie. limitations, strengths, weaknesses).


What's the point of it all? People always say "happiness." But I don't believe that.  Someone wise once told me that my goal should be "survival." Because if you're constantly happy then you have no depth. It's ok to go off the deep end sometimes, to be incredibly high on life and then incredibly low on life, as long as you understand how to get back to neutral. Life is a series of adventures that require you to constantly assess the situation and ultimately ask yourself what is neutral and how can i get back to it.