The front page of today's Age Sport section shows a high-flying Jack Riewoldt with the ball tumbling through his arms and his eyes as good as closed. Former Bomber and current Tiger, Tom Hislop, in the same pack and also trying to mark, has his eyes closed too. It's not the first time that players attempting to mark appear to have their eyes closed in photographs.
In a painful confession, I must remind my loyal AussieRulesBlog audience that as a sportsman, I'm a good writer! Not that I've avoided physical activity altogether. I played a medium grade of pennant squash for fifteen years and have had the odd dabble with chasing a golf ball around the countryside.
One of the things I've learned about myself is my propensity to close my eyes at the moment of connection. It's just a momentary blink, a little like a micro-sleep on a long country drive.
I've discovered that when I can command my eyes to stay open to actually watch the ball impact the racquet/club, I hit a stunningly better shot.
Clearly, the process of hand-eye co-ordination falls down, sometimes rather spectacularly, when one half of the equation is absent.
The pictures of Riewoldt and Hislop with eyes seemingly firmly shut makes me wonder how much better they could accomplish their objective if they could see the ball at the moment of contact!
I also wonder whether players who have the 'yips' in front of goal might have a similar issue? Could it be that Richo closes his eyes as his foot connects with the ball? Cam Mooney? Tom Hawkins? Could be the same issue. . .
Monday, July 27, 2009
How do they do it?
In a painful confession, I must remind my loyal AussieRulesBlog audience that as a sportsman, I'm a good writer! Not that I've avoided physical activity altogether. I played a medium grade of pennant squash for fifteen years and have had the odd dabble with chasing a golf ball around the countryside.
One of the things I've learned about myself is my propensity to close my eyes at the moment of connection. It's just a momentary blink, a little like a micro-sleep on a long country drive.
I've discovered that when I can command my eyes to stay open to actually watch the ball impact the racquet/club, I hit a stunningly better shot.
Clearly, the process of hand-eye co-ordination falls down, sometimes rather spectacularly, when one half of the equation is absent.
The pictures of Riewoldt and Hislop with eyes seemingly firmly shut makes me wonder how much better they could accomplish their objective if they could see the ball at the moment of contact!
I also wonder whether players who have the 'yips' in front of goal might have a similar issue? Could it be that Richo closes his eyes as his foot connects with the ball? Cam Mooney? Tom Hawkins? Could be the same issue. . .
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2 comments:
closing your eyes is the reason why people miss kick at goals? Wow now that is an interesting idea! At first I will admit I thought you where being silly but I can see what your saying and how it can be the case for any number of sports including cricket etc.
Applies to any activity where eye-body co-ordination is required. Our brains process terabytes of information in an instant and can make microscopic adjustments in how our bodies work just as instantaneously.
In golf, coaches ask players to keep their heads down, and that's important, but open eyes allow the brain to make microscopic adjustments to the hands which can have a dramatic effect on the shot. I KNOW the same happened for me on the squash court (and as I got tired my capacity to concentrate to that extent diminished quite quickly!)
I'm convinced the same effect is likely in aussie rules skills.
Silly was the Chris Judd as Voldemort post!! This one's quite serious.
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