I have observed a phenomenon whenever I mention football playing or football practice in "mixed" company...the male half of the other couple will scrape his toe on the ground and say to me, "well, if you ever want to toss a football around...." I had no idea that this urge / need was nearly as universal as it appears to be. We can scarcely step outside, football in tow, without some guy drooling and asking us please, will we throw to him?
Okay I'm exaggerating just a tiny bit but not really that much. I had a moment of vague concern that the late-30-something guy who asked me to throw the ball to him today was going to try to run off with it and I'd have to perform an open-field tackle, a skill I'm still struggling with at practice. Maybe some guy stealing my football would be just the thing to send me over the edge into the kind of full-throttle hit I'm supposed to do. My coaches have astutely observed that I seem to have a little mental block about hitting. Or a medium-sized block.
We ate bison steaks for dinner tonight and my prayer on the food was that some spirit of the bison would be with me that I might charge fearlessly at my opponents with GREAT momentum. I don't know if a bison would typically be interested in doing this but I imagine once they get to runnin' they don't stop for nothing no how.
7 comments:
You should check out the movie Gridiron Gang with Dwayne "do you smell what the Rock is cookin'" Johnson. There is a nice Rudy-esque, "hit me" scene. Maybe you can hire The Rock to train you. : )
Funny you should mention it, Gridiron Gang is already in our queue. I bumped it up to the top though so I can get the benefit of The Rock's coaching sooner rather than later.
Heres a little advice. Breathe out when you hit. Dont close your eyes, and dont hold your breath. When you feel the urge to pause, take one more step and you are there. I advocate lamaze breathing...It has a multitude of uses..kinda like yoga....:)
I think you need rage. Hard to have that against your team mates, but you can in your mind focus on the opposition and know they will be dancing in the end zone (literally), if you miss your tackles, You must marginalize them, demonize them, reduce them to less than human beings. Feel the dark side Leia, but be careful lest you become too much of a Republican. Afterall didn't Reagan play football at Notre Dame?
Maybe you could meditate on Kali Ma, that way you could be rageful and wrathful, but in a productive way! See below (I especially like "hideously began to chew"):
She is called Camunda, the Slayer of Anger and Passion, who cuts down all the angry thoughts and impure passions along with their tremendous armies. When Canda and Munda, Anger and Passion, hurled thousands of discuses at Her, She merely opened wide Her mouth, and all of those terrible opposing weapons entered the gateway to infinity, absorbed into Her being without effect.
She took all the horses of the cavalry of thoughts, along with their chariots and charioteers; elephants along with their drivers, protectors and armor; and uncountable thousands of warriors of the army of thoughts; She put them into Her mouth and hideously began to chew. She took all the soldiers of the armies opposing divinity, the entire army of thoughts, projections, speculations, and immediately She digested them all.
Witnessing the destruction of confusion, the Gods experience extreme joy! See how many contemplations, prejudices and attitudes from which we have been freed! Having given up all the difficulties, all the thoughts, the very ego itself, to Kali, the mind experiences the utmost peace and delight!
Yea, M.A. that's like I said, feel the rage or they will be dancin' in the zone. That would be destructive.
I've heard rumors that someone matching Kali Ma's description is playing for Santa Rosa.
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