Zen and the Art of Flying

[Repost]

date posted: 2008-09-22 12:00:56
By AR Samson

Clearly, the strategy of the Green Archers and their mentor is simplicity itself. It can be stated plainly as: “plant the seed of doubt”. More aggressively, this can be restated as: rattle their cage; push them out of their comfort zone; give them a taste of shock and awe. This strategy entails a swarming press (we already know that one) resulting in introducing the niggling thought that the Blue Team just cannot safely bring the ball across the center line, causing turnovers from panic passing and having the ball land in the wrong hands.

This seed of uncertainty starts with the players and seeps up into the galleries to provoke the “Oh no” moment of self-doubt—will I again suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune? The other side has seen this “aha” moment before—it’s crumbling time again, folks.

Even the TV commentators, of course seen in the replay as I naturally do not hear them in the coliseum when the live game is going on, are counting the number of turnovers with as much zest as stock investors watch their paper losses get trimmed by a market recovery. I think the two gleeful announcers stopped counting Ateneo turnovers when it crossed 20 because it didn’t seem to be helping the pressing team close the gap. So, why were the Blue Eagles doing so well with all their turnovers?

Here, we go back to definitions and in a short while I’ll also be explaining the mesmerizing title of this piece. A turnover is a loss of possession. A defensive stop is also a loss of possession. So if you only count turnovers and not the number of unproductive possessions of the other side, your analysis will be incomplete and flawed as well. If this is a mathematical equation (for those of us who are quantitatively inclined and did not fail Algebra even if in real life, there is no such creature) it will be thus: TO=DS. Thus if you start counting turnovers (TO), you should also count defensive stops (DS) because the two have identical results, loss of possession and in the second wasting of time for the rallying team. This analysis, the commentators finally undertake indirectly by mentioning in passing that because of the defensive success of Ateneo, the shooting percentage of the Archers is somewhere under the “I” letter of a Bingo card.

Did the Archers aim to plant the seed of doubt that the Blue Eagles can actually beat them four times in a row to get the championship? With only one more win on Thursday, this thesis can be laid to rest. The antithesis of this proposition is: The Archers will win two games in a row to again prove Pumaren’s Math that “two is greater than three”.

The problem with a strategy of eroding the faith of the enemy, a sports version of apostasy, is that it can be a two-edged sword. Failure to shake the self-esteem of the adversary, as in a case of losing by 8 points; can shake your own conviction that you can deal successfully with this scoring beast?

Whose confidence then is battered, beaten up, and shredded like the yellow pages in a people power parade?

Can there be a more devastating poster of helplessness than Nonoy standing over his nemesis sent sprawling on the floor due to a clutched ball up to that time intended for the basket but instead pushed by a determined hand connected to a brain whose single thought is humiliation and reinforcing the lesson that a shot cannot possibly be made when the shadow of Number 7 falls on a green shirt in the shaded area?

And now, it is time to explain the title of this piece. Aside from its attention-grabbing possibilities, this is paraphrased from the title of a favorite 1990 book by Robert Pirsig, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. This is a book on the search for values using traveling and the motorcycle as metaphors.

The art of flying involves deciding when to swoop down and when to ride the wind to cruise to a destination. It requires dealing with head winds and mastering their power. Flying involves constant adjustments to stay in the air because a miscalculation can send the flier hurtling to the ground where that speck of green keeps getting bigger inducing perhaps the beginning of panic—is that an arrow pointed at the flier’s heart?

Then it’s time to assess the situation and drift up again to stick to the flight plan.

This business of attacking faith can be a nasty weapon. If it doesn’t work, it is like a boomerang that comes back to the thrower with even greater force.

The articles of faith in the team are intact. Rabeh will continue his monster moments. (Sometimes, he even smiles.) Nonoy has this sixth sense of waiting for the right trajectory of ball leaving hand, sometimes not even waiting for that separation. Cris and Eric are on cruise control but when needed, they give the big spurts of points they are capable of. Their leadership is not caught by statistics. The ability to keep the team in its flight path is an intangible force. Jai is homing in nicely on the goal. Ryan is rebounding and stacking up points. And of course, Coach Stormin’ Norman (24) is unfazed by first quarter wavering, shuffling the rotation at the right moment to stave a rally or mount a 16-0 run (from the second quarter to third) after a pesky 3-point second quarter lead by the Archers.

I like the half-time cheer with the kids and their elders leading. When we want to display unity, we opt for going deep through generations of Ateneans. La Salle instead taps their other campuses. (Wait a minute—isn’t Benilde in the other league?) And that notching of that imaginary bow with an imaginary arrow facing us is getting a bit…well, corny. One of their banners up in the stands is puzzling too—we are one. Does it refer to their many campuses? Or is this perhaps another case of a typo error? Shouldn’t there be a word between “one” like “the” or “number”?

The art of flying comes naturally to birds of prey. It’s the equanimity amid turbulence of Zen that needs constant affirmation. Maybe, we should abandon boring and go for meditative calm.

The weather forecast for Thursday is fine for flying—blue skies and unlimited visibility. I am an eagle. I can hear the calming wind as I watch the verdant spread below. Verdant is just another shade of green and below is where such a color belongs and thrives.

Fly high.