Originally uploaded by Tinashe
Zinedine Zidane, Slowdown London and my trip to snowdon all taught a new lesson recently which is sometimes to go faster, you have to slow down. i don’t know how it works exactly but its probably linked to clarity of thought and other stuff which people who did social science degrees would be happy to remind you of and impart abstract knowledge.
We’ll start with Zidane, despite the high tempo of the game and the bustling fans, this guy paid complete disregard, almost disrespect for all this and played like he was in his back garden. This was epitimised by his chp in a WORLD CUP FINAL to score a penalty when the world is watching. For those that don’t play football, a quick explanation as to why this is impressive. Chipping the ball requires a steady foot as you are using a measured stocatto motion to chip the ball with the top of your foot (which has very litte surface area to begin with) with just enough pace and angle to ensure that the ball goes up in a vertical loop. if you get any of this wrong, you either end up with too high a loop on your chip or alternatively and more commonplace for people like me, you end up stumping the ground, creating a divot and hurting your foot. If you want to take up chipping a football as a pastime then click here or you could not. Lets move on.
How Zidane did this is almost beyond me but i can only speculate that it was because he slowed himself down enough to know exactly what matters most. i.e putting the ball in the back of the net. In fact, he had slowed down so much that he managed to have the audacity/ skill to chip the ball into the back of the net rather than speed up and take in irrelevant factors such as the fans, his teammates, his nation, the world press, his legacy. If sped up to consider all this shit then he would have jaap staamed that ball into mars. That’s my theory and i’m sticking to it.
Next, slowdown London, well that’s self explanatory in context of this post. But I find it fascinating and would like to hear from anyone who takes part in this to find out how it benefitted them. There appears to be some sloow walk going on on the 24th April.
As for Snowdon, I found that when stripped of ‘urban distraction’ (i’m not going to define this term but leave it to your imagination. . . i’m thinking along the lines of people, technology, attitude e.t.c) all you have to focus on is you and your take on the world around you. This like I said is wicked for slowing down and taking in the minor but crucial things. For example where you are going to step or climb next when you are about 800m above ground with no support. In that moment, you don’t want to speed up and think about the opening scene of cliffhanger for example or listen to your body which is pain and aching. In that moment you want to slowdown so much that you observe the fabric of each stone/rock and know what type it is before you even lay your hands on it. Paradoxically before you know it, you are at the top of the mountain just thinking how on earth time could slow down during the event but the end result is just in time if not often
faster. I don’t know how it works but it’s a phenomenon that has left my head in the clouds and I can’t wait to do it again. (snowdon that it, not going into my back garden and chipping the ball.)
The photo is of the area we slept the day before the climb. Really dam good.
If anyone has any further knowledge on this self proclaimed ‘phenomenon’ then i’d like to know it. I’m sure like I said, some social anthropology person has done a thesis on this.
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