my shoulders woke up all snap crackle and pop!
one of the cool things about pursuing lots of different sports is that of course that you get unique style and perspective from doing different things simultaneously.
I always start to understand new things in life, surfing and tennis. everything is one beautiful game.
tennis has really made me listen to myself. it’s a really interesting game, because when I started, I could feel myself recoil, stiffen up, wince and shout SORRY! every time I missed a shot. it’s good to be polite, but I know how I feel when I have that reflex, and I know that reinforcement isn’t it! So when I miss, I try to laugh at myself at least to relax, or think about what happened, and now I have a new thing that I say that I think really helps, CLOSER! As in, IT’S GETTING CLOSER! Maybe on one shot my backhand didn’t go over the net, but I was in the right place to hit it, I did hit it, it would have been in the court if it had gone over the net, and I did something good like use two hands and put power on it, which is, much closer than where I started! There are other hard shots I miss too, but if I was there, if I hit it at all, if I know WHY and WHAT happened after I hit the ball, I consider it getting CLOSER! so if I feel compelled to say anything I say that.
And I picture myself hitting the ball perfectly before I hit it! I train my eye with the overheads, I really like it, it reminds me of watching the planes on the beach as they land at JFK and I paddle out at Rockaway. There’s something weirdly thrilling about when they fall and you make contact with your racket. It feels kind of magic, an overhead is my best shot.
And I understand with every shot I am training my eye, the same way that one needs to train their eye to catch the best wave or be at the best section of the wave. there’s something about framing it this way that just frees up your mind to let it happen faster. it has nothing to do with YOU- so to speak, it’s a natural process of seeing distances that you are directing to develop and is developing perfectly with every ball in the net and wipe out. among other lessons about life.
oh yeah, I’m sure i’ve kind of thought this before, cause it seems to obvious, but maybe one of the best things you learn surfing is about the timing of life!
I think when I started surfing it radically changed the way I approached life. To learn how to surf, I had to learn how to have fun paddling out, waiting for waves, watching other people in the line up, going to he beach, taking the A train for two hours, waxing my board, scraping the wax off later, literally everything that goes into making a 10-second ride on a little wave happen. But I never really doubted that those 10 seconds were worth it.