Jan
10
Competitiveness
Filed Under Sport | 3 Comments
Virtually every day, I play the Oriental game of Go on the Internet. Truly wonderful that I can find an opponent at any time of the day or night. And I also get to play different styles from around the World. All for free.
On the Go Server I use, you can opt to play a ‘rated’ game, or a ‘free’ one. The result of only the former has an effect on your player rating.
Having protected an artificially high rating for a number of months, I decided to play all games as rated, and to focus on my game play, not on my ranking. This allowed me to develop aspects of my game without worrying unduly about losing. My ranking settled to a more realsitic level, where it has stayed since. But try as I might, I cannot shake free from a concern about my ranking. My ego hangs onto this status symbol with concerted dilligance, opposing my long term desires.
The more I watched this status obsession, the more I realised how stubborn it is. A deep rooted need to find a good or elavated level compared to others. Or at least not to slip so as to lose credibility regardless of the quality of my actual games. (It is easy in Go to play a solid game that you lead for most of the game only to slip up at the very end and see a position collapse and the gameslip away from your grasp).
So far, I cannot play without at least some concern for my ranking. My status. Maybe this indicates that I need to liberate the grip of my ego, and can use this simple status scenario as a gauge. I’ll update here if the situation changes.
On the matter of mental and emotional training, the excellent ‘The Plastic mind’ book covers this matter. They investigated the effect of decades of meditation on then non-meditative state of the meditator brains. They found that the influence of the right frontal cortex was small. During compassionate meditation, the left frontal cortex was the highest they had ever seen. Left means compassio, loce, harmony and the right ishome to jealousy, hatred, anger etc.
When questioned on hatred, it appears that the Dalai Lama not so much deeply suppresses this very negative emotion, but simple never feels it. His day to day life is free from the grip of a status obsessed ego, with all that entails.
Of course, these meditators are also liberated from the daily grind that afflicts the rest of us. They would barely have any time to themselves if parenting a bunch of children, let alone daily time to meditate for hours. But a small amount of mental and emotional training for the rest of us would probably be of parallel good as physical exercise is for us. It is just that we have not been edcuated in any way to see the value of such training. Or even how to go about it.
Jan
7
OK, here goes. 7th January 2010, I make the rash prediction that Laura Robson, World number 404 at present, will eventually get to World number 1. She has been playing in the Hopman Cup - singles and then doubles with Andy Murry, World number 4. In the game last night, many of her strokes looked the most natural and effective of all four players on the court. Technically, she was out of her depth, but her natural composure and skills made a mockery of theory.
I’ll act with my wallet and place a bet on this prediction.
William Hills would not give me odds for World #1. And they only gave me 5:1 for her to win Wimbledon before she is 25.
Apr
21
Football
Filed Under Psychology, Sport | 1 Comment
Phew, that was tiring, but oh so exciting! For a second consecutive game, Liverpool drew 4-4 with their opponents. Last week it was Chelsea, this time Arsenal.
I seriously cannot remember Liverpool playing with such electric pace and crispness of passing and ball control. To have done so in 2 consecutive games is amazing.
But the point of this entry is not the football per se. More that even in the midst of such breathtaking football, we really do not live in that moment, savouring the game, nearly as much as we should. Not, if it is your team playing. We are so focussed on progression that we fail to live in the moment. I want Liverpool to win the league, but if I spend every match yearning only for victory, biting my nails even when they are 3-0 up, then I am missing so much!
For the impartial spectator, sure, the games were great. But without a vested interest in the result, not really so good. So sad that the vested interest needed to really enjoy the game is blighted by the ever present focus on future success rather than the game in hand.
So I noticed this tonight and just laughed. The game was played at a staggering speed and I actually sat back and in breathless awe and absorbed the brilliance of the team I have supported since 1971. Fab!
You see, living in the moment is a precious thing - you are generally happiest when doing this - but we so often fail to do this.
Jan
3
At around the time that Andy Murray was prone to leg collapse on a tennis court, even this bizarre behaviour could not obscure his stunning array of talents. My prediction then, to much derisory comment, was that Andy would eventually make it to number 1 in the World of tennis.
I stand behind that conviction, but of course it is a lot easier now that he has reached the top 20. He has a technical understanding of the game, and the canny determination of a Scot, that frequently baffles opponents who physically really should overpower him.
He is probably as unpredictable to play against as he is to watch. This week alone, he started appallingly in the 2nd round of the Qatar open, dropping the first set 1-6 in a fog of lethargy. After an extraordinary turnaround, he won the final 2 sets 6-0, 6-1, making me suspect that he might have had a bet with a friend that he could win 6-0, 6-0 (a double bagel) from an apparently hopeless situation. I’m probably wrong, but this all adds to his mystery.