Each player when at their best has an essence to their shooting. SVB has a surgical precision. The stroke is deliberate and abbreviated. Even when he needs to let his stroke out it, the finish has a sense of finality. Jason Shaw has more of a laser like slicing action, while Filler is a sniper squeezing off round after round. Corey ranges from a delicate softness in his touch to dynamic power. Then Alex P’s stroke seems to join with what the balls needed to do. The stroke seems to emerge from the shot rather than the other way around. That essence has prompted many commentators to call him a pure striker of the ball. Each are descriptions of timing.
Years ago I read a book by Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time. The concept was that time travel might be possible if linear time could be folded. The idea was that the shortest distance between two points, in time, was not a straight line but a wrinkle. It’s a metaphor but has that element of truth.
When performers describe peak performances, a common thread is how time seems to expand or slow down. As we experience the passage of time our focus moves in and out. Pure experience is external, then thought gives us an interpretation moving our focus inward. When we emerge again to the external flow of life, the inward “folding” of attention meant we lost the intervening external time.
Joan Vickers introduced the world to “quiet eyes”. Good putters, free throw shooters and other targeting experts were shown to take a slightly longer quiet time to execute. They take time to smooth out the “wrinkles” in their experience and wait for a still point. Without wrinkles tine sense expands as pure experience is allowed to flow.
In his book, The Rhythm, Richard Lonetto talks about experience having more of a wave character. He describes a still point just before peak execution. Heart rate monitors on players at the Mosconi Cup showed us changing excitement levels. Planning a table crests the wave as decisions are made. Transitioning from choosing to action is best accomplished if a lull is experienced before execution. Without the trough of a quiet eye moment, rising anxiety, not the essence of the best self emerges.
Joe Davis talked about a pause at the back of the stroke while Del Hill said to pause before. Bottom line is all are describing a moment in which the purity of the stroke can be experienced.
What would that pure stroke look like? Line it up, feel it’s essence, let it happen, experience its purity. Smooth out the wrinkles, there is pure joy in the flow of balls on strings, connected as one. Then let it go and do it all again, like a child caught up in play’s undiluted embrace. The letting go is as important as the still point. Holding on is an internal wrinkling of experience. Relive the moment if you must but then move on. The true joy is in the doing, the journey.
Just like Debussy said that music is the space between the notes. These still points, quiet eyes and pauses are the unwrinkled spaces connecting us to the music of the spheres and the dance of the balls.
Jackie Stewart found those moments in each turn collapsing parts of seconds, wrinkling time in his own unique way. Paradoxically by experiencing the turn in so many segments he was expanding it at the same time.
Shots are so much sweeter when time is taken to find the sweet spots, the shot keys that are part of the essence of in stroke moments. As Vickers quiet eyes research showed, that interval might only be a half second but longer but contains purity and perfection when we take more time.
Getting “the wrinkles out of my performance” has taken on an updated version of the old analogy.
damn fine post, Imac007 (is it "eye" mac, or "el" mac?)
coincidentally, I just happened on that debussy quote a few days ago..I like it
and instantly, I recall this part from a magazine interview with a producer I'm a fan of:
"Eddie Van Halen once told me that there are only twelve notes in an octave and it’s all about how you play those notes.
But my other guitar player, Rob Bacon, said there are only twelve notes on a guitar but its how you play in between the notes that give you your character.
So these guys have two totally different ways of thinking.
My thing is to use the twelve notes and nail them like Eddie Van Halen but at the same time see if I can multiply that and get thirty-six notes because Bacon told me there is music in between notes. "
(source: http://halftimeonline.net/main-ingredient/)
what quik says at the end, is interesting
especially when observed alongside your comments
what are the notes in pool?
your pros prose is neat
alex p is my favorite, and that's a hall of fame compliment you gave him
and along with other things you wrote
I'm reminded of the concept "living in the moment"
being focused, in the zone, nothing else exists, etc.
what conversation there's been, and will be, about that
the wrinkle analogy is awesome
I have a lot of ideas about that
I'll just mention here that with a chisel
we are chipping away, and smoothing down
but ourselves
and while what's left might be tight and good
what was removed is still useful, and beautiful
because it's still us