The very sight of World Class athletes, their joy and sorrow, their grit and determination is inspiring. Sometimes the learnings from it is carried forward to life. This is true of many other sports. I wrote a post on thinking from a different perspective 4 years back. I reproduce some excerpts,
It was cricket that taught me to think unconventionally to start with. Being a
reasonably active player in the Age group tournaments, I was a permanent fixture
in the summer coaching camps.
As batsmen, we were always told to look out for where the fielders are positioned to avoid hitting the ball in the air to them. Then one day our regular coach had a bereavement in the family and he was replaced by a new young coach who was considered to be a bit of a maverick. He scrapped the regular net session and replaced it with matches every day. While I was waiting for my turn to bat, he came sat with me and said, "Raja, try this out. When you go out to bat, don't look at where the fielders are, but concentrate on where the GAPS are. Since you are so obsessed with fielders, you tend to subconsciously hit straight to them. Think only gaps". Even as a youngster, despite my upbringing, I always had a rebel streak in me and was (and is) game to any scatter brained ideas. I went out, fixed in my mind only the gaps and the runs flowed. Anything and everything I stroked that day pierced the field beautifully. Score 1 for lateral thinking.
The next instance came in an inter zonal match. The pitch was turning square and the spinners were turning the ball a mile and beating the bat my the same margin. It was all 'oohs and aahs' but we just didn't pick any wickets as the ball was beating everything and the spinners, eyes lit at the sight of a square turner, putting more vicious spin into each ball. We came in for lunch and were quite animated. The coach didn't say anything at first. When we were about to go out, he said, "don't spin the ball, use your arm balls and top spinners more. success in a spinning track lies in not spinning the ball." I was leading the team. In the middle, I called my left arm spinner and leg spinner for a chat and asked them to try out the coach's advice for at least 4 overs. I changed the field accordingly. The slip was straightened, the short leg move a little squarer and left the mid wicket open. My spinners carried out the coach's advice superbly, they mixed up the odd turning ball with a majority of straighter ones and bamboozled the batsmen who were playing for the turn. We took the last 8 wickets in 41 balls after lunch for next to nothing. Score 2 for out of the box thinking.
As batsmen, we were always told to look out for where the fielders are positioned to avoid hitting the ball in the air to them. Then one day our regular coach had a bereavement in the family and he was replaced by a new young coach who was considered to be a bit of a maverick. He scrapped the regular net session and replaced it with matches every day. While I was waiting for my turn to bat, he came sat with me and said, "Raja, try this out. When you go out to bat, don't look at where the fielders are, but concentrate on where the GAPS are. Since you are so obsessed with fielders, you tend to subconsciously hit straight to them. Think only gaps". Even as a youngster, despite my upbringing, I always had a rebel streak in me and was (and is) game to any scatter brained ideas. I went out, fixed in my mind only the gaps and the runs flowed. Anything and everything I stroked that day pierced the field beautifully. Score 1 for lateral thinking.
The next instance came in an inter zonal match. The pitch was turning square and the spinners were turning the ball a mile and beating the bat my the same margin. It was all 'oohs and aahs' but we just didn't pick any wickets as the ball was beating everything and the spinners, eyes lit at the sight of a square turner, putting more vicious spin into each ball. We came in for lunch and were quite animated. The coach didn't say anything at first. When we were about to go out, he said, "don't spin the ball, use your arm balls and top spinners more. success in a spinning track lies in not spinning the ball." I was leading the team. In the middle, I called my left arm spinner and leg spinner for a chat and asked them to try out the coach's advice for at least 4 overs. I changed the field accordingly. The slip was straightened, the short leg move a little squarer and left the mid wicket open. My spinners carried out the coach's advice superbly, they mixed up the odd turning ball with a majority of straighter ones and bamboozled the batsmen who were playing for the turn. We took the last 8 wickets in 41 balls after lunch for next to nothing. Score 2 for out of the box thinking.
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The most critical thing in football is off the ball running and positioning, not the actual ball play. Always analyse the teams from this angle.
Back to cricket. The dictum in spin bowling is that "spin is in the air and break is off the wicket". The spin is all about how much revolutions you can give to a ball in the air. The more the better as it will allow the ball to drift and dip, bite the wicket and then turn(break). Good spinners always beat the batsmen in the air, not off the wicket.
I was amazed at another wonderful analysis in the TV this Olympics. I had just watch Usain Bolt, the Jamaican, virtually decimate his opponents in the 100 m Sprint Final, and win by a good margin - a rarity in 100 m event which finishes in less than 10s ( 9.63s was the winning time this time around). Heck! he got at least 2 strides lead in less than the time it takes to count upto 10!!!. I have seen some great sprinters in my time - Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson etc...........But Bolt is something amazing.
But what was revealing was Carl Lewis's analysis of the sprint. While everyone was talking about how Bolt accelarated towards the end, Carl Lewis refuted the stand and said that 'in 100 m, sprinters actually decelerate towards the finishing line, and it is actually the sprinter who decelerates slower than others who wins'. Take that for a different perspective
